F.E.A.R. Combat

"Good game with some serious lag issues"

F.E.A.R. Combat is the free multiplayer portion of the hit game, "F.E.A.R." Since I liked F.E.A.R., when I upgraded my computer, this was one of the first games I tried. Overall, it is a great game, but it is not perfect due to rather horrendous lag and technical issues.

Graphics- 10/10

The graphics vary depending on the computer. If you have a very powerful gaming PC, it should run fine and it will look beautiful. However, if the settings are toned down (recommended for most non-gaming computers), then the graphics look rather bland in comparison. Regardless, at low settings, the game still looks pretty darn good and would be worth an 8/10 in itself. At the bare minimum though, the game looks horrendous though due to ridiculously low resolutions (think "Doom"). The environments themselves look stunning on high settings,and still show a good amount of detail when turned down.

Audio- 10/10

There is little music in the game, just creepy-sounding themes. This allows hearing to once again be an integral part of this online multiplayer game. Sound effects such as gunshots and radio messages also sound good.

Controls- 10/10

You should be able to find a workable control scheme with the game. It is not overly complicated. The game itself feels very natural in my opinion.

Game Play: 4/10

Before I go in to the major issue of the game, I will first praise the game play. It runs very smoothly with few issues. You pick one of six weapons and go to town killing other players in a death match. There are also several very powerful weapons such as a rocket launcher that fires 3 rounds at a time scattered around the map. It is a very good game in this respect and only suffers from a couple of issues.

The only major issue with this game that probably is not my computer's fault is the fact that there is a lot of lag in online play. The lag in this game is horrendous. Since this game's community is tiny and most of it appears to be located in Europe, players often need to play against people on different continents. This can lead to a lot of lag in itself. Moreover, the net code in this game is horrible and can make players ping like 500 on a server where they should only ping 100. I have seen peoples' ping go as high as 3000. The only games that are really worse lag-wise in my experience are the Halo demo and War Rock. Even Soldier Front is less laggy lately. The lag can sometimes also work for or against people in a game-breaking way. For example, sometimes players get ridiculously good scores not because they are good (although they may be skilled to begin with), but because the game's lag is making them practically unstoppable. Seriously, you can shoot an entire clip in someone's face and they will not die. The bullets will just bounce off of the player harmlessly. On the other hand, some players cannot get a kill if their life depended on it and the people who are practically invincible just destroy these players. This has nothing to do with skill here and it is also not anyone's fault. Sometimes the net code just makes people invincible while others are huge targets. It is honestly game breaking. One bright side to this is that sometimes the roles change. One day a player may be invincible, but the next day he may be a big target.

My computer also has technical issues where this game causes my computer to crash due to the infamous blue screen of death, but this problem is probably related to my PC, since other games do it as well. Moreover, at least with F.E.A.R., the issue could be resolved by lowering the resolution and graphical settings and turning up my fans in my computer.

Fun Factor - 6.5/10 (at best: 10/10, at worst: 3/10).

F.E.A.R. Combat is very fun for a free game. When the servers are stable and the lag is not bad, this is an extremely fun game and can honestly be one of the best online experiences out there. However, the lag seriously breaks the game and can ruin the fun.

Replay Value - 8/10

The game has a lot of replay value. It comes with around 20 levels and there are more available for download. Moreover, many of the levels are played often, which is a welcome change of pace from other games where a certain select map or maps are played to death while the others go untouched. I have not noticed many modifications, which is a good thing in my opinion, since many modifications seem to diminish the experience rather then enhance it. Moreover, most modifications that do exist merely seem to tweak the game in order to create a new weapon balance. There are also a number of different game modes that keep the game fun.

The only down side is that the choice of servers is limited. When I first started playing this, there were a lot of servers, but that number has decreased dramatically since the release of F.E.A.R. 2 a few months ago.

Learning Curve - 10/10

The game is not too difficult to pick up. Some games are rather ridiculous to play if you are new. While you likely will not be very good at first, you can learn rather quickly, since the game dynamics are not difficult to get used to.

Overall - 7/10

Overall, F.E.A.R. Combat is a game that is worth the download. While the lag may a major issue in terms of game play, it is definitely a worthwhile game to pick up and play. Aside from this one major issue, the game is not that buggy and is very fun.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09, Updated 06/26/09

Game Release: F.E.A.R. Combat (US, 08/17/06)