F.E.A.R.

"Are you ready to experience F.E.A.R."

Introduction:

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) was first released for the PC in 2005 and was met with critical acclaim as one of the best shooter's of the year. It became highly regarded for it's fantastic enemy A.I., intense gameplay, and it's many unique horror elements. Day 1 Studios helped with porting F.E.A.R. from PC to Xbox 360 and on November 1st, 2006 it was released.

Gameplay:

F.E.A.R. isn't your typical FPS, you have a feature in it which lets your character go into slo-mo and gives you the advantage over your enemies. It really helps out but it isn't unlimited so you'll have to use it wisely. The enemy A.I. is what really makes this game fun and challenging, they'll use intelligent tactics to bring you down. If you hide behind cover they'll toss a grenade at you, if you kill most them they'll radio for backup, they'll flank you, curse you, and do just about anything to kill you.

One important aspect of any FPS is it's weapons, I'm glad to report that this game has plenty of weapon variety and a handful of different melee moves. Your weapons range from an assault rifle, shotgun, duel pistols, duel smg's and also some unique weapons in this game which are a Particle Gun (acts as a sniper rifle and turns your enemies to skeletons), HV Penetrator (sticks enemies to walls), etc.. All the weapons are fun to use, you'll have to decide which to keep as your only allowed to carry 3 weapons at a time though. This game is pretty difficult even on Moderate setting, enemy A.I. is the most impressive I've ever seen in a game. The controls are very familiar for anyone who's played the Halo games, but if you don't like the default controls go into the options section to select one of the many control schemes that fits your style.

Story:

This game takes place in the near future and has you play an elite soldier just recruited by the F.E.A.R. team. As F.E.A.R.'s point man your job is to investigate paranormal threats to national security. The game begins with you having to eliminate a man named Paxton Fettel (a powerful psychic in control of a battalion of supersoldiers) but all is not what it seems as you begin your search for him. What happens next is a series of unusual and frightening events.

Graphics/Sound:

As a port of a 1 year old game, it's much better looking than you'd expect. Day 1 studios promised the game would look just as good as it's PC counter-part on max settings but with added HDR lighting. It is a great looking game considering all the action that can happen at once, there is no frame rate issues or hiccups that detract from your experience. Weapon effects are amazing, enemies react to where they get hit and you can even blow off their limbs. Just by spraying your assualt rifle into a wall you'll see all the bullet-holes, sparks, and dust fill the area.

The sounds whether it be a little girl laughing, or the game's spooky music really unnerves you and helps immerse you much more into the game. Weapon sounds are realistic too, each gun sounds loud and powerful as it should.

Play Time/Replayability:

It took me about 9 hours to complete the game on Moderate setting my first time through, so the average gamer could complete it in about 8-10 hours. Tough single-player achievements makes room to dive back into it again and again. If you have Xbox Live then this game is a must-buy, it supports up to 16 players and is virtually lag free. The graphics look just as good as in the single-player and it's really addicting to play. There are many different game-modes such as, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Elimination (last person alive wins), and even variations of some of these types which let you use the slo-mo. One problem with multi however is that there's no splitscreen, 1 player per console. There's also a mode exclusive to the 360/PS3 versions that weren't on PC called Instant Action. This mode lets you take on F.E.A.R.'s enemies from the single-player and scores you on how much ammo and medkits you use, the final score can be posted on the Xbox Live leaderboards for comparison against other gamers worldwide. This new mode is very fun and could easily keep you entertained for hours on end.

Final Recommendation: Rent or Buy?

Buy and here's why...

It has outstanding A.I., excellent live multiplayer, looks fantastic, cool weapon effects and sounds, and has a cool storyline with lots of scares and a twist. It's one of the best FPS's I've played and I would highly reccomend it to fans of the genre.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/06