F.E.A.R.

"Excellent Game, Good Replay Value"

First Encounter Assault Recon, or F.E.A.R. for short. A SWAT-type task force trained especially to deal with dangerous paranormal phenomena. What a great idea. And the game delivers.

You play as an unnamed operative. The others on your team seem to think you're a rookie and shouldn't be on your own, but circumstances dictate otherwise. Something strange is going on at the facilities of a company called Armacham, and your job is to find out what it is, neutralize it if necessary and possible, and hopefully rescue any innocents who are in danger. But as you go along, you discover that pretty much nobody associated with Armacham and their clandestine "Origin" project is innocent. In fact, when you find out what they have actually done, you want to help wipe out the whole miserable bunch.

Your primary enemies are replica soldiers. Basically, these guys are clones. One reviewer complained about how the AI enemies all look alike. Hello? They're clones, dude! They're SUPPOSED to look alike. And they're extremely good fighters, well armored, and apparently being led telepathically by a commander named Paxton Fettel. Paxton, it turns out, was genetically engineered to be a telepathic commander for these clone soldiers, but he was, um, mentally unstable, to put it mildly. To put it bluntly, he's a psychopathic cannibal. Now you have to try and stop him, but you have to fight your way through his replica armies to do it.

Along the way you learn about the Origin project in bits and pieces. Most of this info comes from checking telephone messages and pulling data off computers. I won't tell what the project was, or just how big a jerk Harlan Wade was, but suffice to say you'll find yourself hoping he rots in hell forever. The good news: there's a fair chance of that happening.

The gameplay is intense. You never know where or when these clones are going to appear; they're scouring all the areas you're scouring, apparently looking for you. In addition, you keep getting these psychic/telepathic flashes of a tortured little girl that obviously have something to do with the whole Armacham mess. Along the way you'll encounter "ordinary" clone soldiers, heavily armored ones, and even some in massive battle suits. But don't fret too much, because the weapons you'll need to defeat them can always be found. You can also find plenty of medical kits to keep your health up, health boosters that increase your health capacity (my record so far is 175%), and reflex boosters. When you use your reflexes, time slows down and you can maneuver, aim and fire more effectively to take out especially nasty enemies. Each reflex booster lengthens how long your reflex-heightened state lasts. This slo-mo is frequently your very best friend. Use it a lot. Items like medical kits, health boosters and reflex boosters and body armor tend to be tucked away in corners, nooks and crannies and side rooms, so as you progress through a level (or "interval," as this game calls them), look EVERYWHERE. You never know what you'll find, and it adds a fun little "scavenger hunt" feel to the basic FPS action. Choose your weapons carefully, as well; as you take out replica soldiers you can gather plenty of ammo off them if you have the right weapons. If you run out of ammo, you're doing something wrong because the game gives you every opportunity to stock up, even on the more difficult settings. I saw a review that said the person couldn't figure out how to melee. Read the booklet, dude. It's the frigging B button. Sheesh. the controls are intuitive to the max if you've played any of the "standard" FPS games for the 360. In my not-so-humble opinion, F.E.A.R. and its sequel should join the ranks of those "standard" games. It's that good.

The visuals and sounds are what you expect from a top quality 360 game, and don't require much comment. The fancier weapons are outstanding; the particle beam weapon is especially fun to use, but use it sparingly because ammo for that one is fairly rare. Another handy weapon is the Penetrator. This gun fires huge, high-velocity depleted-uranium spikes that can pin a fully armed replicant to the wall. It's an absolute blast.

I only have one gripe about this game, and it's the reason I gave it a 9 instead of a 10: the blasted DUST! When your enemies are shooting at you, regardless of what kind of cover you're behind or what it's made of, huge clouds of dust billow up and obscure your vision. It takes a good 10 seconds for it to settle so you can see the enemies again, but in the meantime they're still blasting the crap out of you. This got much better in the second game, but in this one it's a royal pain in the butt. Again, that is my ONLY complaint about F.E.A.R., and it shouldn't prevent anyone from trying the game and enjoying it to the max.

With four levels of difficulty, the game has excellent replay value, too. I just finished it for the second time; I have now done the first two difficulties, and will probably move on to the higher ones in a month or so. They story never gets dull, the action, while necessarily a little repetitive, is varied enough to keep things interesting, and the climax, when you find out what really happened in the Armacham vault, will raise your adrenalin to unheard-of levels. Buy it and have fun!!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/09

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