F.E.A.R.

"Counter Strike With Ghosts"

If games are going to be ported from the PC to the console, they need to bring something console worthy to the table. Counter Strike was an incredible PC hit and I doubt that most of you are aware that it was also ported to the Xbox. Now enter F.E.A.R. As if anything else could only scream I am a Counter Strike clone F.E.A.R. was developed by none other than Vivendi Universal who thought it would be an outstanding ripoff to make a horror game by using the same technological advancements of 1999. This is nothing against the PC fans of these games, but a game needs some next generation qualities if it is going to be a great game for the console. F.E.A.R disappoints on many levels except for the concept that it was based on, which is a horror firster person shooter.

Story

F.E.A.R. first of all grants you the disappointment of not even giving the main character (the one you play) a freaking name. You are granted the fact that you will be the rookie point man of all things (because we know the rookies are the most prepared in dealing with the unforeseen paranormal enemies) in an obviously pork added or Senatorial joke created special forces team that was set up to defend the homeland against threats by supernatural forces. I guess God is not on America's side any longer after all. Anyway, your team is sent in to investigate this wacko organization accused of playing God with humans and an apparition known as Alma will lead you to uncover what is going on. The story, having been preheated, baked, and then left to smolder in the oven when the family of Original Ideas left the house and forgot to turn the oven off, is not memorable and after playing through a couple of other games I had to pop this back in to remember what it was about. The concept of the chick from the horror movie The Ring is all that remains in memory after you play this game as the story unfolds during the game and is not even centered on the F.E.A.R. forces team itself.

Game Play

Counter Strike.

Okay, maybe I should give a little more detail. You will engage not supernatural forces, but regular old unfortunates who took a security job with the organization you are investigating. A special reflex ability allows you to slow time down and get some shots off before the enemies have a chance, which helps out a lot for the harder difficulty modes. You also have a flashlight to attack the darkness of haunted corporate offices and cubicles, which have a way of producing a very eery mood. The name of the game fits very well with the mood that F.E.A.R. sets and you are in for some weird and scary events throughout the game. So you can at least expect to be scared while following Alma's blood trail.

Sound/Graphics

The sound is great. The graphics are poor. Very poor. The audio of your enemies and dialogue will be what drives most of the game and the only graphics appraisal I can give are the supernatural interferences that do their job well. The problem of the graphics however, is that if you are going to be porting a game that features characters who can only communicate by telekinesis and are doomed to be able to communicate by bland facial expressions and no ability to speak then port the game to the console which featured such graphics. I am not singling F.E.A.R. out on this as there are many ports from the PC which seemed to be copy and pasted games (without the ability to mod these things of course) and they do not compare to PC port games that were tweaked to appeal to us console gamers.

Replay Value

There are some factors that help F.E.A.R. like the online multiplayer. Unfortunately it has not held up as well since I last played this game. It did enjoy a large community devoted to it online and the multiplayer was very fun once you got into it. So now you are lucky enough to find somebody to unlock the online achievements for the game. F.E.A.R. is not a great game to get for the achievements. Almost all of them are geared towards multiplayer rewards so there is no reason to play this game for that.

Some bonus modes are packed into F.E.A.R. so that you can enjoy an extra mission (escorting some bloodied face dude) and Instant Action mode which is a time trial game where you have to clear different stages. The timer is not really all that necessary for this mode.

Final Recommendation 5/10

The concept of F.E.A.R. would seem quite original and in many ways it is. It does scares and it does make for a great first person horror experience. But while other games have ventured into and done better in this area of FPS gaming, the scare tactics of F.E.A.R. do not hold up to the many flaws of this game that crash on the story, game play, and graphics. So do you remember Counter Strike came out for the Xbox? Well if this review does one thing, it will at least serve as a reminder to a game that was very successful on the PC, but failed to meet the standards of console gaming. Unless you are a PC fan who loves to play ports on their console then I do not recommend F.E.A.R. for anything.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/09

Game Release: F.E.A.R. (US, 10/31/06)