A 2 Steam

F.E.A.R.

Oh the PC first person shooters (FPS) of the early 2000's! They are not quite old enough to hold nostalgia for the genre but in a time before developers had the hardware to really master them. 

F.E.A.R. (or First Encounter Assault Recon) diverges slightly from the standard FPS genre by introducing a horror element. Well sorta. A lot of the game takes its cues from stock FPS games and then sprinkled in are some effective (though sometimes a little ham-handed) horror sequences. They are well done, both visually and story wise. Quite a few made me jump - and they were not jump scares - just genuinely frightening. FEAR was quickly know as the FPS with the spooky little girl (maybe taking a page out of The Ring?).

Being an first person shooter most of your activity in the game involves exactly that - shooting. The guns, while few in number, all feel good to use. Satisfying sounds and meaty effects. Most of the game you will be using some variation of a SMG or assault rifle - lots of bullets - tearing apart enemies, walls, glass, tables, small objects. Firefights are a lot of fun - which is good because you fight a LOT of enemies. Through out the game you are introduced to a small number of powerful exotic weapons - but never really enough ammunition for them to really get to use them well. I assume this is a balancing mechanics but it sure would have been nice to find a few more rounds for the particle-sniper-rifle that turns opponents into charred skeletons when you kill them. Also the grenades are awesome.

Combat tactics in FEAR actually remind me of the more recent release of DOOM. Unlike a lot of FPS games around the time (which set a trend forwards) you don't spend a ton of time hiding behind cover - FEAR is not a cover shooter. Rushing forwards from Enemy to enemy - getting in tight shots, grabbing more ammo (which is in short supply), engaging you reflex mode, performing a melee take down...it's all very dynamic and exciting. Enemies even stagger when hit giving you openings to advantage of. Vertical elements and a variety of environment setups require different approaches to each engagement. 

One of the real highlights to the the game's action is the ability to use a bullet-time-esque slow-mo ability. Made famous by the fantastic Max Payne games it is super gratifying to use in FEAR as well. It allows you to pull off precision head shots and get in hit on the otherwise quite fast moving enemies you battle. Even the sound drops into slow-mo and hearing the soldiers shout "oh shiiiiiiiiiiiii...." as you take them out before the can even react. Your ability is measured with a meter at the bottom of your screen that recharges over time and you can increase the total amount available by finding pickups in hidden away areas.

You spend a lot of time in this game engaging with enemy soldiers in combat - and this is the one area I with their was more variety. Other than switching up the weapons they are equipped with they are all more of less the same. There are a couple of unique troops sprinkled around, an armoured big shoulder soldier that take WAY to many bullets to bring down (seems to exist to keep your ammo hording in check) and a super-fast semi-invisible teleporting guy that can only be seen/attacked when you are in the slow-mo mode. More concepts like the latter would have cool - the first time I encountered these guys I had no idea what was going on and it took me a bit to figure out how to deal with them. Unfortunately they only appear twice in the entire game.

I can give FEAR the big thumbs up for avoiding the cliche of boss fights. There are a couple of encounters with large power armour "boss" style enemies - but they are not to be engaged in combat - either defeated by a puzzle or exist to make you run - get out out of the area and on to the next bit. I like the idea of a boss level threat that is there to push the player along - not hold them up in a extended slug fest.

Graphically FEAR was caught between the new growth of graphic engines and the hiccup in computer hardware that seemed to be happening around the time. It has great textures and some very good lighting/shadows (which I'm sure brought all but the best CPU's to a stutter at the time) but detail and polygon wise it suffers. Character models are just a little too blocky. And forget anything "round" - you can still count the sides on the vehicle tires. Looking out the window of a building into the street is just bad (well they worked with what they had). Explosions and other effects didn't look that much better than a lot of it's predecessors, it would be a few more years before those would start to look good.

But regardless the development team at Monolith did a good job of
putting it together. The environments are well constructed and feel complete. Details are where they need to be and anything you can inspect close up tends to fit well. The overall world construction has a good feel to it. This was not a huge budget title (nor was it a "budget" title) - they did well implementing their resources.

The world layout is made up of both inside and outside areas - but as I mentioned under graphics the outside areas really show the limits of the engine. The level design is very reminiscent of Half-Life facilities - looping corridors and rooms, where you revisit them from other directions. Breakable vents and crawlspaces allow you to stealth bypass some groups of enemies, or can be used to get the drop on them. Hidden areas and alternate routes are worth exploring for additional ammo, armour and pickups. The level design is strong from a game play perspective - just don't think to hard about how it would all fit together in real life.

The play through of FEAR is largely a solo affair - much like the FPS of old. Other than brief encounters with your support team who just end us saying thing like "We'll stay here you go on ahead." a lot there are only two NPCs of note that you interact with. One is a very lackluster character who is in the game for story purposes but other than being poorly animated is not remarkable. 

The second character is Norton Mapes who sticks out from the rest of the game like a sore thumb. He seems to be modeled somewhere between Dennis Nedry from Jurassic Park and Cartman from South Park. He is 100% annoying and does not fit with the rest of the style of the game at all. I did not feel bad at all when he gets gut shot.

Graphics, combat and level design are important - but how is the story? It's not bad. Not amazing but not bad. Much like the horror aspects it's dribbled out to you in small doses and is a little cliche, you will guess where it's going with a good degree of accuracy. The presentation keeps it more interesting than the content of the story itself. You spend most of the game chasing a psychic military commander who is mind controlling a whole load of soldiers (the ones you end up fighting). He pops in from time to time to taunt and/or comment on you in cryptic ways. As you find out more about what it going on the story guides you through the environments towards a satisfying ending.

The game takes about 10 hours to get through and for $10 is a good deal for how much fun can be had. It's often on same for even less (pretty sure I picked it up for $5). There are a couple of small expansions to the core game that I will probably get around to playing - the both are highly rated and run a couple of hours each. The game also spawned two sequels, neither of which I have played, with mixed reviews.

If you like older style FPS's and aren't turned off by the slightly aged look, there is quite a lot of fun to be had by playing FEAR.