F.E.A.R.

NOTE: This game has been re-reviewed due to a malfunction of my video card during the original review. The answer is simple: It was not the game, it was the video card drivers. ATI's latest Catalyst drivers at the time had a serious issue where they read overheating when the system was just fine, and it seriously affected game performance as well as general gameplay. This is a re-review to be completely fair.
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When we think of shooter games, typically, the normal gamer thinks of three categories: Zombies, Aliens, or Historical Shooters. Those three sub genres are standard in the shooter market, and there seems to be no sign of stopping. However, clever companies have started to figure out that not every gamer wants to recreate Pearl Harbor or kill green aliens, some like innovation in their games. So, a score of new innovative games have come out trying to latch onto this new discovery- and now we enter F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon).

In F.E.A.R., you play as a member of the First Encounter Assault Recon as you essentially fight paranormal discoveries in areas. The story shoots off into orbit as you slowly discover that you're not a normal soldier, and you may not be exactly what you think you are. Without ruining any key elements, it's needless to say that this game has one of the more interesting stories of any shooter I have ever played.

The game, being a shooter, still defaults back into the first person standard gunfest. Pick up weapons, shoot weapons, kill things. Suprisingly, though, F.E.A.R. has taken some elements that may surprise Shooter gamers as not as typical as you may think. For one, F.E.A.R. contains a slow-down "Reflex" system, which many may recognize as being a lot like the Matrix's "Bullet Time". By doing this, you can quickly destroy mass amounts of enemies before they dispatch you.



As well, the game takes some serious conceptual design from the Silent Hill series. Feeling like a distinct cross between Half Life and Silent Hill 3, the game presents disturbing scenes and odd displays along with a grunge-tech look that many may consider directly inspired by Half Life 2. Various zombified looking things will jump out at you as well as flash on your screen, weird halo-ish effects appear randomly, and some serious lighting effects all add to what really is the equivalent of a scary Half Life 2, or a less-than-scary first person Silent Hill. Either way, it sufficiently had me jumping more than a few times.

The game obviously had some serious work put into it, and it benefits the game immensely. Now, for the first time in a big time First Person shooter, walls actually can break apart with repeated fire against them. They only break up so much, but it adds a lot to the realism of the game. Bottles falling, radios making noise, and just general sound effects around you led me to believe this game was real. Add this with some seriously scary moments and you've got one pants-wetting experience.

The graphics in F.E.A.R. are phenomenal, but sometimes fall short in key moments. While the human graphics are outstanding, sometimes smaller generally overlooked features (Like the skeleton models used in a certain scene) look like they were taken directly from an older shooter game. Because this accounts for such a small percentage of the game's graphics, I barely noticed this, and I had a hard enough time coming up with the skeleton example, so this is definitely not an issue. I would consider F.E.A.R. to be on level with Half Life 2 in a heartbeat.

F.E.A.R.'s gameplay is great, but sometimes left me feeling like Monolith worked too much on the ambiance and too little on the gunplay. When I found the SMG more accurate than a "Rifle" I picked up, it generally shows a irritating lack of attention to a fact as this. The game also limits your weapon count at 3- a cheap trick taken by many a shooter that personally annoys the hell out of me, but it all works itself out because most of the guns turn out to be either useless or plain annoying. At the end of the day, I found the good old SMG to be a good weapon to carry, regardless of the situation. Such stacking of weapons is irritating, to say the least.

The Sound Effects in F.E.A.R. are also something that needs to be mentioned. F.E.A.R. is one of the few games in which I have actually found myself impressed by the sound effects. The clever way in which Monolith tied the sound effects to the game really felt realistic and intriguing, and I never felt like I was overwhelmed by music or annoying gunshot sounds.



F.E.A.R. plays out like one of those generic Hollywood SWAT movies- Cool Team + Bad Leader and his Minions + Bad a** Attitude + Good Harda** government = generic SWAT movie. And yes, F.E.A.R. feels a little bit like this at times. However, this doesn't take much from the game, considering the rest of the game has such good points to it I really couldn't complain in the least bit.

One last note: While this game has been re-reviewed due to a faulty system, you will still notice lag no matter what. Just like how Doom 3 worked, F.E.A.R.'s highest graphics level tends to tax any computer regardless of setup, for some odd reason. However, there are no real bonuses from this "MAXIMUM" graphics setting, being as the step below it looks exactly the same, so high tech computer junkies shouldn't worry if your PC can't handle the pressure.

F.E.A.R. is a game that any true shooter fan should play at least once. A crossover between two winning franchises (Silent Hill and Half Life) plus some interesting twists to game play really lead this game to be a great shooter. There are some minor flaws with F.E.A.R., but even those flaws still let it be a great shooter. Hopefully, the gaming industry will see more games like F.E.A.R. in the future.

4 star(s) out of 5

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