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F.E.A.R.
Released On: Oct 17, 2005
88
8.5
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 57 Critic Reviews
88
96% Positive
55 Reviews
55 Reviews
4% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 57 Critic Reviews
88
96% Positive
55 Reviews
55 Reviews
4% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
F.E.A.R. is just polished, period. If you have the system to handle the game, it is a must have for all gamers.
A true thriller in that it makes use of corner-of-the-eye imagery, unsettling voices, and effects to send chills down your spine which leads to a healthy dose of dread.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 1,023 User Ratings
8.5
83% Positive
846 Ratings
846 Ratings
15% Mixed
158 Ratings
158 Ratings
2% Negative
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 1,023 User Ratings
8.5
83% Positive
846 Ratings
846 Ratings
15% Mixed
158 Ratings
158 Ratings
2% Negative
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
Truly amazing. The feeling of shooting in slow-motion with the shotgun is just superb. It's a shame we don't get games like this anymore. True, the story is obviously a b-movie plot, but the way they have carried it forward with the cinematics, you just have a keen interest on what's going to happen next. The A.I. of the enemies are also outstanding. Definitely a must try!!
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PC
Take realistic physics, gorgeous visuals, plenty of immersing sound, psychological mind games, a pinch of horror and mix that with a storyline to rival any big budget movie and there you have it, something completely new.
Like no other game I've played, F.E.A.R. grabbed me by the throat, punched me in the gut, and made me pay attention and become my onscreen character. [Nov 2005, p.170]
An extremely well done shooter as far as the action goes, and only suffers from a few flaws such as the lack of level and enemy variety. If you can overlook those flaws, you will have a lot of fun battling a very elusive AI, which makes each and every firefight a unique and exciting experience.
Due to the fact that both elements of F.E.A.R., the horror and the action, are crafted so thoughtfully they seamlessly merge together to create a, if not unique, then at least very polished experience.
There's the requisite little Goth girl with long black hair to 'creep you out.' Thanks to its overuse, it's become the lens flare of horror. [Jan 2006, p.48]
F.E.A.R. was an absolute classic that, at least within its own genre and series, has yet to be dethroned, but is it quite as remarkable as people remember it? I played F.E.A.R. or "First Encounter Assault Recon," -which doesn't really roll off the tongue as well as the accronym, but I digress- way back in 2006 and you can for sure bet I barely had a computer that could run it at the time. Of course over the years that issue has been made null and void, but coincedentally what was once difficult to run on older hardware has become even more difficult to run on modern hardware for various reasons.
Let me just rip off the bandaid here for anyone who's still too hardheaded to admit it: F.E.A.R. is not as good as we all remember. The first hour? Pretty great, but even after multiple playthroughs the entire Armacham office is a total blur and I don't care how many times someone reminds me what the last few levels were, because I could not recall them from memory without watching a video or reading a synopsis. F.E.A.R. as a game is weak in areas that at the time we weren't too upset about. Doom 3 had come out the year before, as well as Half-life 2, the latter remaining probably the best (but not perfect) shooter from that decade, though F.E.A.R.'s first foray still collects accolades for its particular blend of combat. For one, its like May Payne, SHOGO and Half-life had a baby, but this baby also inherited every trope, cliche, and stereotype from whatever pop culture thing was relevant when it came out. Creepy ghost girls? Check. Nerdy fat slob who secretly betrays you? Check. Generic black uniformed enemies with very little variation? Check-a-roo, and lets not forget the slowmotion "effect" that was slapped onto the game because hit-scan guns from enemies were the go-to method back then and are what probably gave people the impression that the A.I. in this game was mildly intelligent.
The game was always a hodge-podge of very marketable generic FPS trends and features a very lackluster line-up of weapons that feel good to shoot, but lack the inventiveness of even the heavily criticized Half-life 2 or Halo series. The levels are very linear, featuring barely any twists or turns, though they have slightly different routes, but those are just hallways that happen to meet at some other junction. As far as the game play is concerned, its great fun, or was really enjoyable at the time, but now it can be absolutely blown right through when you realize how bad the A.I. actually is and how much they CHEAT to locate you in most instances. The enemies always know where the pointman is, but they pretend they don't due to the way they're programmed to engage you. Now remember, this game occasionally gets huge compliments in the AI department and this was even after the original Halo made large maps accomplishing the very same thing years before F.E.A.R. saw the light of day.
The list of dumb advantages that make the game moderately unenjoyable later are mostly just the few beefcake enemies that have huge health pools and the big robot mechs you find later. The shooty-shooty-bang-bang was always entertaining and players will often reload quicksaves just to try things a little differently or maybe optimize gunfights or even experiment, but that is the experience people enjoyed about the game. Not the story, not the "characters," not the voicemails, and certainly NOT the final boss fight (if you can even call it that). The sequels were so bad, I often wonder if they even had a good concept to begin with for any sort of overarching plot, and I'd go as far to say that the backdrop for the first game really only worked in the first game. Visually and aurally speaking, those were all knockout features in the game that really helped sell the atmosphere, though the jump scares are extremely archaic by today's standards and wore out their welcome after the first few times you happen to encounter them. The original F.E.A.R. game has a whole host of problems on newer machines, you have some graphical glitches, problems at higher frame rates, problems without V-sync on, mouse input issues that require a dinput fix, and the original EAX effects are somewhat broken even with Creative Alchemy's software "restoration" and it just kind of **** that the engine itself was so miserably proprietary (thanks Monolith- that's like every one of your titles). I know in my head how F.E.A.R. played, what it looked like, and sounded like way back when, so obviously it **** that I can't even play that version of it without weird issues.
I know this comes down to subjectivity, but I think F.E.A.R. was kind of a one-off. It was a really remarkable game, not brilliant, but certainly had some of more memorable gunfights, though in my experience even the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series had more depth and more options in terms of how you could approach its combat scenarios.
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PC
First some good things, really good Ai even for today. The Graphics are also good for 2005 and the controls aren't bad, nothing special. I really don't know what is happening in the story, you follow one guy and more I don't know. The game feels like a mix between Doom 3, a new guy have to fight against some randomn enemys on his own. The other part of the mix is a generic shooter. This game is nothing special,if I have to discribe it in on sentence I would say: It is like Doom 3, but Enemys have guns and they are smarter.
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PC
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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PC
Summary F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault and Recon), is an intense first person close-quarters combat experience with rich atmosphere and an engaging storyline. The story begins as an unidentified paramilitary force infiltrates a multi-billion dollar aerospace compound. The government responds by sending in Special Forces, but loses contact as ...
Rated M
for Mature
Platforms:
- PlayStation 3
- PC
- Xbox 360
Initial Release Date: Oct 17, 2005
Developer:
- Monolith Productions
Publisher: VU Games
Genres:
