F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon
Rating:  -
FEAR is a good, not great, game. It suffers from a kind of triage - it seems that the developers did not have the resources to make every aspect of the game great, so rather than making everything just ok, they decided to allocate all of their resources to certain parts of the game. That manifests itself in a few ways, but the basic breakdown is this: the AI and gameplay are excellent, but they are also repetitive, and the game actually gets easier as it goes on. By the end, you have so much "slo-mo" (ala Max Payne Matrix-esque bullet time), such powerful weapons, and so much health, it is unlikely you will have to load any given area more than once or twice. With the exception of the last two brief levels, the enemies at the end of the game are virtually the same as at the beginning - only now you have massive firepower and practically unlimited slo-mo to combat their basic machineguns. If you enjoy Far Cry/Crysis type games, odds are you are going to have an adjustment period to FEAR. The entire game basically takes place in narrow corridors that lead to larger rooms - sure, there are three slightly different buildings, you go out onto a roof a couple of times, and you might go through an air duct, climb a ladder, or solve a simple puzzle, but basically it's a game with little in the way of variety. The thing is, though, that given all this, FEAR still manages to be a fun, well-made game. No two firefights are completely identical, and the AI is so absurdly good (strategically), that you'll probably find yourself hooked. There is a decent mix of sniping, stealth, and all-out running and gunning, and the enemies do keep you on your toes, even if there are only six basic types, four of which barely appear: soldiers, bots, flying bots, turrets, chameleons (fast moving melee attacks that blend into their environment) and ghosts. Of those six, soldiers make up about 85% of the enemies you'll face. But like I mentioned, those soldiers coordinate their attacks well and keep you on your toes.
FEAR does try to add a horror aspect, but it does it in the vein of Max Payne interactive cutscenes. Unlike Doom 3, for instance, when FEAR gets spooky, you can just run forward for awhile and be reasonably assured of nothing happening to you. You'll fight a couple of battles, then the lights will flicker and you'll see some apparitions, but if you keep progressing, everything will be back to normal without any real frights. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but just don't expect to jump out of your seat often. It's more the creepy variety of horror. The last couple of levels are legitimately scary, and will keep you on the edge of your seat, but I won't spoil those.
In terms of FEAR's fundamentals, it's a solid game. The controls are straightforward (though I found some jerkiness in the first few levels for some reason), and by now you don't need a top of the line computer to run the game. The graphics are still relatively current, but given the simplicity of the environments, that's not hard to do. The weapons are decent and fairly realistic; they aren't very interesting and they become overpowered, though. As I've mentioned, by the middle of the game, you can carry the three most powerful weapons (particle weapon, repeating cannon, and rocket launcher) and kill most soldiers with only one shot. Grenades are mixed in well, which I like, since they add variety to otherwise repetitive battles. There aren't any bosses - the game is actually really realistic despite the paranormal absurdity of its plot.
Overall, this game is definitely worth playing. It does several things extremely well, and will at the very least entertain. If you enjoy its strengths, then you'll love it. If you are more into an open-ended, expansive shooter than FEAR might not be for you.
Rating:  -
It's a fun game, but the violence is quite gratuitous, and there is far too much swearing. It's entirely unnecessary to hear the worst swears in the English language every other time you start shooting at an enemy. Also, the ending requires you to kill a helpless, unarmed person. Even if he has done evil things, there should be another option to continue the game other than shooting or hitting someone who is not offering resistance.
Basically, it's fun, but check your moral compass.
Rating:  -
F.E.A.R. is an FPS, and it does a fine job at that. Next, it's a scary/horror kind of psychological thriller. And the storyline, well, who plays FPS for story line? Although yes, the story line is decent or better.
PROS:
Visuals: Mind you, this game was made in 2005, but even now, 2,3,4 years later, the game still looks good. The slow-mo Max Payne kind of thing, looks absolutely great. The environment is well made and detailed. Almost nearly everything is tangible and can fall, and what-not.
Gameplay:
Well, it's an FPS. The recoil and everything is just like it's supposed to be. Not too much of a variety of weapons. But then again, it isn't Counter-Strike, and being realistic and all, you wouldn't have that much of a variety in an abandoned aerospace building. Don't worry, you won't need that many for this game.
The A.I. is absolutely wonderful. They will try to flank you, take cover, hide in spots waiting for you to come out or waiting for an opening. There was an instance where one went all the way around the building, crouched underneath the garage door, to shoot me from behind. If you're trapped in a single location, they might even nade you, right where you're at.
Storyline:
It keeps you on the edge of your heavily-padded gaming chair with wheels.
Your eyes will be so far into your monitor that by the time you're done, you'll be blind. It intrigues you from the start, and the story unfolds as you go along. The story unfolds in a perfect, subtle, smooth transition way. Not only relying on cut scenes, but through narration, and through blurred vision moments, as well as cut scenes, and more.
The Horror:
Yes there's gore, it's a mature game. It's creepy too. Random boxes will fall, or paint buckets will fall near you. Or you'll hear crying, or you'll see flashes of the evil guy through the corner of your screen walking pass a door. Lots of other things are happening. The main evil guy is a cannibal after all. The evil ghost girl Alma will freak you out, indeed. Prepare yourself.
I highly recommend this game. It leaves your nerves, mind, body, everything just tingling with adrenaline. It will keep you on the edge of your seat, while looking beautiful doing it. Great FPS, with awesome A.I. Great storyline being unfolded in a variety of ways. Great creepy/horror feeling to it. The environment is well-detailed and is very interactable. The slow-mo is well used in this game, and serves a great purpose and it looks great.
Overall: A
Rating:  -
I thought the gameplay was great, but the story was awful. Play Half-Life 2 for five minutes and you quickly have an interest in the story and the characters, but after finishing this game I didn't care at all what happened to the story or the characters. I thought when they brought in some npc's that they would start to develop those things, but I was to be disappointed. The environments aren't anything interesting either.
If you don't care anything about having a good story and are only interested in a decent fps, then go ahead and try this. Otherwise, skip it.
Rating: -
F.E.A.R in my opinion a great game overall. This game has amazing graphics that can blow away any game that was made when this game came out.
The sound is great. I was blown away by the AI at times.
It is very fun to play and the levels are well designed.
I am trying to think of a con for this game....Oh yea, I found one. Just trying to wait till Project Origin, comes out.
waiting and waiting and waiting. You get my point.
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