"Its intense, creppy, and overall a excellent FPS."

It's hard these days to find a first person shooter with a soul of its own. In today's Halo craze, a lot of smaller companies have ripped this off, instead of building on the new bar set by Halo. While there are many who think Halo wasn't anything special, lets keep that for another day, because F.E.A.R. is here, and it truly is a excellent shooter, with a good story, amazing graphics and sounds, and game play which for the most part is unmatched.

Story - 9/10

What makes the story great is more than the truck load of insane plot twist, or Japanese horror movie style, it's the way it's told. Other than the introduction, the story unfolds before your very eyes. While this was done in Half-Life, it has a soul of its own. The plot in unveiled through messages from voicemail inboxes, and laptops. You can also over hear what your opponents are saying, and hear the news on the radio to get a clue on what's the amount of damage you have caused.

But for the actual story, it follows the newest member on the First Encounter Assault Recon, a division of the US army that deals with paranormal activities. Your main mission is to eliminate Paxton Fettel, who is controlling a battalion of cloned super soldier. And it's up to you and your squad to neutralize the threat. But of course, your character is different from the bunch. It may sound simple, but the plot goes on these crazy plot twists in the end, which is impossible to explain without spoiling anything. And this game is best served unspoiled.

Graphics - 8/10

Now some may say right off the bat "8/10 ARE YOU CRAZY?!", but let me speak before cursing my name and questioning my sexuality. The game looks pretty sweet, and has all sorts of nice touches such as soft shadows and is shaded fully in real time. The character and weapons model have highly detailed textures. But again on the plus side, the effects are just simply awesome. Bullets create deep gashes in the walls, and leave a great amount of dust and debris behind. But there are a few problems, such as a choppy physics engine, mainly the rag doll physics. Enemies while they are dying do some pretty cool things, such as cringe and lose body parts. But after they die is when the issues kick in. They tend to be twitchy, and that counts big time with this games atmosphere, because you'd think they were depressed. And if an enemy hits a wall hard enough, they clip with the wall, and it looks really bad, and when they are clipped to the walls, the twitching issue rises to a higher extent. Another problem is your flash light, while it at times effectively lights your path, the objects it touches don't cast a show, but everything else does. Another little flaw is the power of bullets, you can shoot the walls and all they do is pretty much cave in, but if you shoot a box or a crate all they do is move a little. This is a bit disappointing for a game that focuses so much on the power of holding a gun. And the gun models while they are nice only look good in the dark, when the artificial light hits them, and there are games with shiner and realistic looking guns.

Sound/Music - 10/10

Now this is where the game makes up for its above mentioned shortcomings. This game sounds awesome. Each gun has its own unique sound, and they all are loud as all hell. The bullets hit the wall and have different sounds for each surface it penetrates. You can hear the bullets whiz by your head and they sound VERY realistic as well as powerful. Another in the sound department is the voice acting, which is decent for the most part. The actors get the lines done, but don't expect anything you'd hear in a Metal Gear Solid title, it gets the job done. Now for the music, I actually really love it. It happens to capture the moment well. Whether you're in a heated gunfight or you're in an office poking around files waiting for the next thing to happen, the music (if any) captures the scenes so well. For example, while you are walking, waiting for something to pop out at you, you'll hear a sharp tone of music that sends chills down your spine.

Game play- 10/10

The game play is the heart of any game. And it will always be that way. And how does F.E.A.R. size up? It's hard to stand out game play wise when first person shooters today have such high standards. F.E.A.R. hits the mark and beyond. Control wise, you have total control of your character. And the controls are made to be very effective. For example, you can peak around corners using the 'Q' and 'E' keys. So you can spray on your opponents from behind cover, and take minimal damage. And also you can use grenades on the fly by pressing the 'G' key. So you can be reloading and in a jam, all you have to do is just toss a grenade and you can turn the tables on your opponent. And also, you have the right click so you can use your weapon as a bludgeon. But of course that's been done to death since Halo. But there is a twist, if you are moving or crouching, you can do a few martial arts moves. You can baseball slide, round house kick, and bicycle kick. And also if you hit 'H' at anytime, you'll put away your gun and be able to perform a few boxing moves. Which of course can get you out of a jam similar to the one mentioned above. And also, during the multiplayer, you can laugh at someone who's been trying to blow your head off with a shotgun, and you drop kick them. Its may also leads to some very funny moments. And with all this kicking and peeking around corners, you can't shake the feeling that this was inspired by like Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Control wise only that is.

But of course, since you have such control over your character, you should have an opponent to make sure you put your skills to the test. This game hands down has the best AI to date. While you opponents may be easy to pick off alone, when in large numbers, you can have quite a few problems taking the opposition down. They take cover, communicate with each other, take formations and do all sorts of insane things to make sure you're dead. Each enemy has a memory of each area. So there can be an instance when you shoot at an enemy and he takes cover, and as you wait for him to get out of his cover, he'll pop right out behind you. And the enemy adapts to your tactics, so if you hide behind cover too often, they will box you in. If you happen to get to close to the enemy, they will also gun butt you. You can also hear them communicate over the radio, they read your moves and they will also yell all sorts of colorful language. Each time you get out of these firefights, you'll have that feeling of relief and triumph.

Another feature in F.E.A.R. is the use of bullet time. While it may be nothing new, F.E.A.R. manages to use it to good use. With the over whelming enemy AI, it can really get you out of tight spots. Your enemies slow down considerably and your aim improves considerably. But of course it is limited and can only be used briefly. But you can find power ups to increase your reflexes and health later on in the game when the enemy begins to start getting stronger and packing better weapons.

Now on the topic of weapons, if the game play is the heart of the game, then the weapons are the aorta. You can't have one without the other. There is a good variety to the weapons you can use. Your weapons range from your standard pistol to machines guns and multi-rocket launcher even to a weapon that turns your foes into a bloody and charred skeleton. With the incredibly sounds, each weapon looks and sounds devastating as you expect them to be.

Of course, another thing I must mention is the atmosphere. The name of the game is F.E.A.R., and it does a great job of invoking fear into you. While of course, others have stated that the game is not scary as Doom 3 or Resident Evil 2, this game is named F.E.A.R. not S.C.A.R.E. Fear is a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger. It's going to send chills down your spine and make you check twice before proceeding. And there are moments where you hear something and clear the current area, only to find out it's your footsteps or you knocked over a box or something. Also, there are scenes where your character hallucinates, and sees some paranormal things. You'll see something at the corner of your eye, or swiftly cross your screen. Things like this add to the creepy factor, and will make you go on alert, and peek around corners before moving on.

Multiplayer - 7/10

This is probably the game's weakest point. There are a handful of maps, and modes. But of course, this can be fun, but it just feels very standard. Its has all the modes you'd expect from multiplayer modes in a first person shooter; capture the flag, death match, team death match, and all these modes have SloMo modes to them. This can be interesting, but not enough to break out of the box.

Value - 9/10

The single player component of F.E.A.R. is about a good 15 hours the first time through. And from start to end, it's an intense ride. But there is the multiplayer mode that can kill a few hours and be entertaining once in awhile.

FINAL - 9/10

Despite its minor short comings, F.E.A.R. is a compelling first person shooter that stands out above the rest of the pack, and defiantly is not one to be missed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/06