F.E.A.R.

"F.E.A.R. review"

Back during the Fall of 2005, a First Person Shooter called F.E.A.R. was released for the PC. It combined scary moments, fast-action, great visuals, and the best AI ever to be fought against in any game. It was definitely one of the best FPS's to come out that year...and ever. Now a year later, F.E.A.R. comes to the Xbox 360. How did it turn out?

Keep in mind I bought and own F.E.A.R. for the PC as well as the Xbox 360 version. I got the PC version when it came out a year ago. Visually, the game looks great. It's not lacking anywhere, compared to the PC version, from what I can tell. It's the PC version with everything turned up on high. And it shows. Textures are nice and guns have all the needed detail. As your in the thick of battle, you see sparks fly off walls and floors, shells falling, and enemies falling. It looks great and battles are frantic...the attention to detail, like sparks flying across the wall and having sparks spin on the floor really add. I love it. The graphics also look nice when you turn on the bullet time, slow-mo ability you have. Everything slows down and it looks cool.

The sounds are done nicely as well. You hear whispering from a girl...someone you will see often...in the scary moments. I won't give away the story or anything, you can find that out for yourself. But anyways, you hear whispering, soldiers talk to each other before and during battles. The sounds of guns are sweet and it's always cool to hear your spent cases hitting the floor when you go from slow-mo back to regular speed. I also noticed that when a phone is off the hook, if you walk up next to it, you can hear the phone operator ask to "please hang up and try again"...sweet.

The story is really good. I enjoyed it a lot. Of course questions will raise after you see things going on. Most of the story will be acquired from listening to messages left on phones or downloading files back to your commander and he tell you bits and pieces of what's going on...what he can find out. But it's not just given in front of you. You also have visions where you see things going on..and it makes sense at the end. But of course, a sequel is needed to explain what the hell happened next.

It will go from scary to action parts. For a little bit you'll have a vision, or see the creepy girl walk by, or only get freaked by some sound. Its cool and changes the game up a bit. Then you'll have the fighting parts. Fun as hell. The AI is so good that you'll never know exactly what they'll do. Knock over stuff for cover, jump through windows when need be, retreat, patrol, check out a noise, see your flashlight, throw grenades to flush you out, flank you...and so on. One time I was in a battle and was behind some cover, and I heard one soldier say he was out of ammo and then I heard the other soldier say "here you go" ...handing him ammo. How sweet is that? I loved that. Good stuff.

All in all, I love the game. I had a lot of fun with it when it came out on the PC, and now that I don't have to worry about my PC freezing up in certain areas, and with the detail up, I enjoy it on the Xbox 360 a year later. The game runs very nicely and never slowed down once. It looks great as well, like I've said. The bullet time, slow - mo ability you have is a nice move you can execute and you'll enjoy it.

There's nothing like blowing an enemy away with a well placed shotgun blast from close range. I love it.

I recommend getting this game.
9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/06