"Never F.E.A.R Player 1 is here"

FEAR is the latest First Person Shooter from developer Monolith. Monolith made a huge name for them selves when they came out with No One Lives Forever. This game, obviously, has a much different atmosphere. As the title would suggest, this game is meant to be scary. Well, to a degree anyway. The game isn't a fright fest like Doom 3; it seems to concentrate more on tension throughout the game than actual monsters. Unfortunately, the story and general game play hold this game back.

Graphics
The engine used in this game is the Jupiter EX engine. Unlike the Doom 3 or Source engine, this game has some pretty strict hardware requirements. If you have the minimum system requirements, you won't have a problem playing, but you might want to leave AA off. There was a few times in the game where I wanted to turn AA on to 2x, but then the huge battles had some lag. I did not get any lag with AA off, and 4x AA made the game noticeably slower.

Other than quite a few places where you notice some jagged edges, the graphics are very realistic. What is a very nice, and long overdue, touch is how dust and debris goes all over the place when there is a firefight. You can actually see bullet holes on walls and desks. This is nothing compared to the Geo-Mod engine we saw in Red Faction, but it's a nice addition.

The engine attempts to make a “best of both worlds” in regards to the Doom 3 and Source engines. Unfortunately, it did not turn out that way. The models, at first glance, look as good as Half Life 2's, but you will later notice that most of the models facial expressions are very bland. Other than their pre-defined features to make them look different from each other, there isn't much else. As for Doom 3, this engine does a pretty good job with light effects. The textures are also nice, but the whole game has about 20 different textures, there is not much variety. After playing for 5 hours or so, you will start to notice that all the textures are repeated.

Sound
Unlike the graphics, the sounds of this game are great, hands down. The explosions, the gunfights, and the voices are all near movie quality. The music is also great, and adds to the tension. Great job on all aspects of sound, even though it does not use the 5.1 speakers as well as Doom 3 does.

Controls
The controls are basic controls for all First Person Shooters. The C key is used to toggle crouching. The shift key is for aiming, or scope if your weapon has it. The right-mouse is a melee attack. You can also perform kicks but jumping and pressing right-mouse button. These are good for silent kills and to save ammo. You can carry med-kits, and press Z to use them. Also, X is used to toggle your flashlight. Then there is the Crtl key, which toggles your Slow-mo ability. Sometimes it's a little difficult to reach, especially in the heat of battle, but it's really a good a key as any, seeing as how the other nearby keys are used up.

Game play
The game play has a lot of ups and downs. First, the ability to use bullet-time from a first person perspective is quite cool. It's not really the first game to do bullet-time from first person, but it's very well polished. Not to mention you actually see the bullets. The only complaint about this is that the whole bullet-time theme is getting old really fast. We have all done bullet-time before, its time to think up a new “special ability”. Either that or add some new challenges to using it.

Second, the AI is so realistic, I compare it to Half-life. I might even say it's a little better. The enemy's will find cover positions to shoot at you from, they “slice-the-pie” around corners, and they flank in all possible directions using very smart “squad” techniques. They also use grenades more than I've ever seen in a game. If you back into a corner, or try to hide in a nook, they won't forget that you are there, and neither will they stroll right into your ambush. They will chuck a grenade in your general direction, and most of them have pretty good aim.

Third, while this game isn't exactly scary, it does keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't get me wrong, this game has some scary moments, but the majority of the game is just you verses these solders, in an office environment. You are constantly wondering what is around the next corner. Plus, unlike most shooter games where you can predict when an enemy will show up, this game will keep you guessing at when and where you will encounter an enemy.

On the down side, the game does have some issues. One, there really isn't anything new brought into this game. Except for the tense atmosphere and the first person bullet time, this game is just another generic shooter with great AI. Even the latter of the two above reasons is debatable. You might think that the ability to carry med kits is new, but alas, its not. This was first seen way back in Duke Nukem 3d where you were able to carry multiple items for use later; a portable medic was one of them. Not to mention that the level design isn't all that creative. There are a few bright spots, but for the most part, the whole game is about 4 different levels.

Next, you do the whole game on your own, no teammates or anything except for two minuets are the beginning of the game. All of the members of your initial squad, if any, get killed within 30 seconds of the level. This does a good job of creating a tense atmosphere, but it there is very little player interaction during the game. The exception to this is when you meet one of three NPC's which you can give a COM link to in order for them to talk to you commander.

Finally, there are a grand total of 6 different enemies. You have your basic grunts, these mech looking armored dudes, an armored walker that shoots missiles, demons, a flying armor unit that shoots lasers, and these want-a-be primate looking things that I believe are in fact, humans of some kind. Now considering 4 of the 6 enemies are uncommon, and 3 of those 4 are rare, there just isn't any enemy variety at all. You basically just keep fighting the same soldiers with different guns.

Story
The story starts out great. You are part of a group called FEAR, which is an acronym for First Encounter Assault Recon. The bullet-time is explained as you having unusually fast reflexes. You are sent in to subdue this vampire-like guy who can psychically control clone solders. He seems to have an alter-ego though, this little girl who is modeled after the girl from The Ring. She seems to be the seed of evil, however, as the game progresses, you realize she is not. The story ends up having a lot of lose ends to tie up, and it does tie most of them up at the end.

Whether the ending is good or bad is open for debate. It really depends on how deep you got into the story. There are laptops lying around where you can download new info that relates to the story of the game, and you can also listen to voice-mail. You can choose not to do this and just play the game of course, but you get much more out of the story if you listen to it all. The last level is where all the questions get answered. I personally did not find the ending all too satisfying. I'm all for leaving some things open, like Half-life, but FEAR left a little too much open at the end of the game.

Overall, while this game kept me on the edge of my seat; it was not nearly as scary as I though it was going to be. The ending could have had a little more closure on some sections of the plot. The graphics are nice, but the textures don't have much variety, and neither do the enemies. The one thing this game does completely right is the AI. I was very disappointed that since I was part of a small team, I would have some help some of the levels, but it never happened. This game is pretty much all you, the player. And where is the creative level design that we see in No One lives Forever and Tron? It's not present in this game as the levels are rather bland, except for one or two creative spots.

In conclusion, this is a very solid shooter, and an all around decent game. It will give you about 10-12 hours or so of solid fun. Just don't expect anything revolutionary. As for being scared, the game does have its frightening moments, but System Shock 2 still reigns supreme.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/05