"A horror themed FPS worth checking out"

F.E.A.R, or First Encounter Assault Recon, is a FPS horror themed game released on October 18 of '05. It was made by Monolith Productions and produced by Vivendi Universal. This game features a SlowMo feature, which is also known as Bullet Time. This game is also known for having highly advanced A.I.

Graphics - 8/10
The graphics are great...almost to great. You have to have a very powerful computer to run this badboy flawlessly. The character models and guns are very nicely done. The levels are a little plain and a bit repetitive but the atmosphere helps to balance things out. The lighting and shadows are another thing that helps make the atmosphere so great. Shadows and lighting are done in real time, so if you kick a lamp, the lights will flicker and shake violently all over the place. A nice little touch that will add some tension to the game.

Sound - 9/10
Insanely awesome, that describes the sound in this game. The weaponry sounds very realistic, as does the helicopters, grenades, screaming and pretty much everything else. The music fits the atmosphere very well and is often chilling to the bone most of the time. Voice acting is also impressive. Nothing sounds forced and comes out very naturally. Unfortunately you wont hear a lot of it. Because the game is seen through the eyes of the Point Man, what you see is what you see. Theres only 1 cutscene but it's very short and only shows why Fettel does what he does.

Gameplay - 6/10
The gameplay is just like any other first person shooter you've played. You can use the default controls or change them to suit your needs. You use the mouse to point the gun and left click to fire. However this wont be enough for the later levels. Like I said in the beginning of this review, this game has very good A.I. The grunts are very good shooters, love to take cover and like to predict where you're running and toss a grenade there. There is a way to counter this though, and thats your SlowMo (bullet time) feature. Activate that and you can wipe out at least 6 soldiers in the 10 seconds of SlowMo you have.

This feature, while badass, makes the game almost to easy. Plus having armor and heath packs (and the ability to carry up to 10 heath packs) makes this game very easy. Now if you want a challenge then I dare you to try this game without SlowMo. It's nearly impossible. Your SlowMo bar slowly charges back so you'll often find yourself using it, taking cover till it charges back up, then running out and using it again. Then to make things ever easier, you can find heath boosters that obviously raise your heath by a small amount at a time, increasing it to a total of 200. You can also find reaction boosters that raise your SlowMo bar.

Story - 6/10
The story in this game is nothing special. Paxton Fettel has taken control of the Armacham Technology Corporation, where they make a bunch of super soldiers clones that are telepathically linked with him. F.E.A.R. is called in to end the crisis by killing Fettel. If he dies then his super soldiers should shut down because of a lack of an objective. F.E.A.R. tracks him down from a tracking device that was implanted in his head at some point. Fettel predictably gets away and Delta Force is slaughtered. You (aka The Point Man) then, and for much of the game, has sudden hallucinations with ghosts and a little girl that appears to be Samara's (The Ring) sister. The rest of the game revolves around you trying to kill Fettel and learning the truth about your past and why you are haunted by all these spirits.

Replay Value - 7/10
While the first play through is a very fun experience, I don't really see a reason to replay the single player campaign anytime after. Unless of course you want a quick scare I guess. As luck would have it, this game has multiplayer and can be played online in a number of different modes, such as deathmatch, capture the flag and last man standing. I'd like to point out that if you do not plan on buying this game, you can download the multiplayer portion of the game for free. Its called F.E.A.R. Combat so google if you want.

Final Thought - 6/10
This is a mighty fine game. It has some damn freaky moments, great shooting, awesome graphics and to top it all off, bullet time. If you're a FPS fan then I urge you to get this game. Hell, even if you're not much of a FPS fan but love horror type games, I'd also recommend it. On medium difficultly it takes a good 13-15 hours to beat which is pretty impressive for a FPS game. Theres a grand total of 12 levels, which seems small, but are broken down in parts so it evens it out. Again, I highly recommend this game for any FPS or Horror fan. I believe the game is going for 40 bucks at normal stores like Best Buy.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/06