F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon

I am not the biggest shooter fan in the world. Normally, if I do play a shooter there has to be some sort of twist for it to be fun for me. In this one you have a supernatural presence throughout the game that appears here and there, usually in interludes between chapters. The story, a special missions force is sent to capture the leader of a mysterious army, an army that does whatever the leader says, a sort of clone army. Well there is more than there seems, as this little girl starts appearing here and there and really causing havoc. You spend the game trying to learn her secret and the connection between her and the military commander and even yourself. As far as shooters this one is pretty cool, I loved the shotgun weapon the best as everything else ran out of ammo a bit fast. The fighting is fast, and it is rather hard to be stealthy as the enemy soldiers lock on you rather quickly. Still, you get your shots in...there is a lot of tension too as you never know what will be thrown your way next. A few enemies are a pain even on easy level, but for the most part it was not that hard navigating through this game to the somewhat bizarre ending.

The first thing I will say is the PC I played this on:

CPU: And Athlon X2 4400+ RAM: 2X 512MB OCZ PC-3200 Graphics Card: 2x BFG 7900GT 256MB Hard Drive: 200GB SATAII Hard Drive Monitor: 20.1" Widescreen Monitor

I run F.E.A.R. with all of the details at maximum, soft shadows on, 4x AA, 16x AF, and at a resolution of 1280*960. I tell you this so you understand my interpretation of the graphics may be different than some.

F.E.A.R. has some of the best graphics I have seen yet. The best part in my opinion being the blood. I take time to look at some poor guy I just massacred on F.E.A.R. because it is that pretty. Also the shadows are very well done to. I like being able to see enemies advancing towards me on walls depending on the circumstances. Another nice touch is when I shoot at a wall pieces come off depending on the gun, and there is dust depending on the surface. One last thing, when you blow enemies up with explosives, you can sever limbs, and the stumps you leave him with trickle out blood, very good touch.

The story to F.E.A.R. is also top notch. It sucked me in and made me want to know more about the main players. I liked how you are given little tidbits of what's going on currently by overhearing radio reports, as well as getting back story by listening to answering machines. I won't spoil the end except to say it was very satisfying.

The game play is net to perfect. The enemy AI is very good. They flank you and work together, retreat if necessary. I would say they are second best to the AI on Far Cry. The slow mo effect worked really well. I was worried going into the game because slow mo effects in first person seemed liked a bad idea, but Monolith pulled it off. In fact it saved my ass countless times. One of my biggest praises of F.E.A.R. is that if you set the difficulty higher the enemies get smarter and better, they didn't simply crank up their health.

F.E.A.R. has a lengthy single player campaign, and multi-player. The single player campaign, on extreme difficulty, took me about 15-20 hours to finish. The multi-player is pretty good as well. I don't play it as often as I thought I would, but it's still decent.

I don't have many gripes with F.E.A.R. but there are some slight things I disliked. For instance you have a flashlight, but it's mounted on your head and only lasts about 1 minute before it has to recharge. I'm sure special forces can come up with a better solution. Secondly the multi-player seems to lack the tactical feel the single player had. It seems like a slightly better version of Counter-Strike.

These things aside, F.E.A.R. rocks. I can't praise it enough. If you have a good enough PC to appreciate the graphics, and you like a game that is fun and also can scare the crap out of you, F.E.A.R. is for you.

Since i bought this game, i am playing it over and over, because it's a very special game. Why? Because the effects...the horror this game has...it's almost as a combination of "The Ring" and a John Woo film. The Slow-Mo and the bullets flying through the air is almost as in The Matrix films, and the psychopath killing, and the weird story which is getting cleared minute by minute. I liked Fettel's crazy character...the one that slaughters people. And the so surprising story is making me jump off my chair. The game is so scary your fingers will start to twitch. Once you play it, you can't get your hands off it. Recommended.

This is certainly the best First Person Shooter (FPS) that I've ever played. The AI is amazing. They do things you would never expect an AI to do. They do things like having one guy shoot suppressive fire over your head while another comes around behind you. There are very few places in the game where you can count on the fact that no one can come up behind you. As I've basically said, the game play alone makes this game worth playing. And, though I haven't yet beaten the game, the story seems to be entertaining also. There are some drawbacks, however. Because the majority of the game is so well put together, the flaws are fairly noticeable (but they are all very small and definitely don't detract from the the enjoyment). One of the flaws I've noticed is that vases don't seem to break. I've shot them and while they're not just scenery and they do fall to the floor, they still don't break. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a vase in real life that could take a shell full of buckshot and fall to the floor intact. The other major drawback is also one of the good things. The game looks amazing. Unfortuantly, this means that it takes a very powerful computer to play well. I know no one else who has a computer that can play the game. All in all, if you have a computer that can play the game, it is well worth the price (that is, I paid the $50 that most computer games are when they are first released).

Edit: I was wrong about the vases. The vases in single player do break. The vases in multiplayer do not. They are objects to be avoided otherwise you will kick them and give away your position more readily

Absolutely. This game originally came out in 2005, but I didn't start playing it until Christmas of 2015. And honestly, it's probably one of the most realistic, creepy, and decently challenging shooters I think I've ever played.

Pros:

-Smart AI

-Dripping in atmosphere

-Fantastic level design

-Gunplay still really holds up

Cons:

-Story is a bit tough to follow

-Graphics haven't aged that well, but it's not too bad

-Does suffer from its fair share of glitches.

But most of those cons are just nitpicks. FEAR is a fantastic game and I highly recommend it.