Reviews » F.E.A.R. [PC]
Reviewed by qwertyasherF.E.A.R. is the most clichéd game ever made.
In the not too distant future, A sky rise is attacked (Die Hard) by an army of genetically engineered super soldiers (Metal Gear Solid, Half-life 2), led by a psychic commander (Red Alert 2), who is searching for a creepy little girl who kills people for no apparent reason (The Ring). You play the role of an unnamed (Doom) super-soldier (Metal Gear Solid, HALO, Metroid), the new recruit to the US Governments Elite Counterterrorist Team (Every Video Game ever), which has been sent in to stop him.
Let's face it, this game's plot was conceived at a drunk game of "Sci-Fi Mad Libs", all it needs is some equally scientific and supernatural sounding Top Secret Project to- OH WAIT, we have three.
The game's story is weak and contrived at best, and gets downright painful in some points (Imagine the most stereotypical use of "You Can't Play God" one liner ever). What is well done about the story is the way it's told. As you go through the game, you find laptops and phones, the phones may have messages on them, which you can play back to learn about the happenings at Armacham, and the laptops can be uploaded to the FEAR team tech guy, who will relay to you what was on the laptop.
The gameplay itself is magnificent, with one glaring problem that I will address later. Monolith proudly trumpeted the AI in FEAR, which doesn't fail to amaze. Your enemies will attack in squads, blind-fire over obstacles (This is more of a gimmick, many times they would do this behind a railing, getting effectively no cover as I shot through the flimsy glass protecting them), they perform flanking maneuvers, they'll retreat to cover after you take out a large portion of them. Sadly, it seems that whatever super-soldier training they went through made them incapable of not shouting their intentions as loud as they can. You are fantastically aware that you are being flanked because you hear an enemy soldier shout "FLANK HIM" at volumes that would make a Hair Metal Rocker hit the ceiling of his apartment with a broom. This is not the glaring problem, this is a qualm.
The largest problem that the game faces is that there is a switch in the game, one end is label SCARE, and the other is ACTION. Only at the very end do they try to intermingle, and it comes out forced and uninspired when they do it. It's a shame, really, what could have easily creating a genre-bending atmosphere ends up jarring the game apart. In Idealtown, where I plan to retire to after a long career of writing videogame reviews for free, You face enemies who are cloaked in hallucination and illusion, making the player question what is real and unreal; Enemies psychically attack you, forcing the player to somehow puncture the hallucination to fight their assailant; Illusory soldiers accompany real ones, making you waste ammo, making you think you've been attacked, while the real people with real guns have moved behind you and are leveling a gun at your back. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. NOT ONCE. THIS IS INEXCUSABLE IN SUCH AN AWESOME CONCEPT.
SloMo, or slow motion, is your character's 'superpower'. Bullet Time Rip Off #9382, is done incredibly well, visually. Bullet effects, the environment, and explosions all look amazing in bullet time, this can't be stressed enough; Barrels were MADE so you can explode them in slow motion. The sad part about slow motion is how fantastically easy the game is in slow motion. You can turn slow motion on, burst around a corner and shotgun half the room to death before they can breathe, and then hide behind a box while waiting for slomo to recharge, lather, rinse, repeat until end of game.
Multiplayer is pretty lackluster, featuring generic gametypes and weapons that lack variety. Of the Ten or so weapons, three are one hit kills and must be picked up on the level, you can choose which of the remaining seven to start each life with, but only one of the weapons is worth it's salt. The Slomo is fairly well implemented in Multiplayer, slowing down time for all players, while allowing you to move faster than the rest of the players, but it still might as well put up a huge "IT IS TIME TO FIGHT SO GET READY" beacon across the entire server.
In closing, FEAR is an entirely generic FPS that's a step above the rest of the crowd, but nothing so fantastically groundbreaking that people will be singing it's praises for years to come, and the multiplayer community seems doomed to fall apart. Better than Doom3? Yes. As Good as Half-Life 2? No.
F.E.A.R. - PC
Presentation
Bleeding-edge graphics and and an immense amount of visible polish make FEAR one of the best-looking games out there right now.
Gameplay
Enemy AI will keep you pumped and on your toes, but your mind will go back to the opportunities that the game missed.
Replayability
Lackluster multiplayer and no real changes through difficulties make more than one playthrough pretty unlikely.
Value
An excellent game for the first playthrough, FEAR is definitely worth the $30-40 pricetag.
Overall
FEAR is definitely a game worth buying, even though it squandered its potential to be one of the greatest FPSs ever made. (Begrudgingly) Recommended.
