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

This review is of the Director's Cut(!) DVD version. I'll start with going over the bonus material. There is a well-made behind-the-scenes making-of documentary, a one hour commentary track(no, I swear, this isn't a movie) by a handful of the most important crew members, a short and excellent(though they overdid the lighting) live-action prequel, and what may only be episode 1(?) or something of the Machinima series, which is pretty funny. This FPS title has aspects of survival horror, and its marvelous atmosphere is the best part of it. The sound is especially vital to this; it is extremely carefully crafted to evoke pure psychological terror. It is not noisy, and it does not grate on the nerves. The unnerving audio, the well-composed music, not to mention the portions of this that are nearly silent all make this thoroughly creepy. Whether or not it ultimately pays off is depends on each individuals expectations. The voice acting is also immensely good, with no exceptions. Every now and then, apparitions and such show up before your eyes. This mood is frankly so effective that it successfully distracts you from the entirely linear(if well-designed and purty) levels. The replay value lies solely in the four difficulty(you can change it at any time) settings, and trying multi-player. It has a dozen maps and nine modes. A couple of them employ Reflex Time, the feature that allows you to slow down time. Now, I am compelled to point out... you are not Neo. In fact, you're not even Mouse. You can not dodge bullets. It can be useful to you, and in certain situations, necessary. And it definitely is pretty cool. I like it enables you to fire at a grenade after tossing it and, I kid you not, it will explode in mid-air. You also get to play with proximity mines and remote bombs, that you can pick up if you don't, you know, blow 'em up. Every weapon in this is unique, and has pros and cons to it. Apart from a pistol(that can be dual-wielded), an SMG, a shotgun and an assault rifle, the arsenal has stuff that is fairly sci-fi, such as the triple-barrel rocket launcher, and the particle-based thing, that either has enemies exploding in blood, or instantly burning off their skin, leaving their body as a charred skeleton. You can carry three at a time, so you have to be selective. Melee combat is an option, if it, in spite of being powerful, doesn't seem viable that often(I kinda wonder why they put that much effort into it as they clearly did... there's a nice assortment of moves). You can affect the environment to a reasonable extent. The physics engine is expertly done, you can really see the impact that you have on your surroundings. The graphics are impeccable; animations are smooth, and FX(water, reflection, etc.) are astonishing. The puffs of smoke and such if you hit other stuff than the foes can make it impossible to tell what's going on beyond the cloud; was this intentional? It is the only negative to the visual side of this. Well, apart from those red edges during RT that blur out whether or not you get attacked. And it is a tad awkward that you can activate some of the monitors you find, but not all of them, because you can't properly tell unless you point straight at them, and it'll either give the message that you can activate it or not. You may already know that this is similar to Half-Life. You always control the camera, and it remains bound to the first person perspective(that does mean that you have to look in the right directions to not miss anything). Cut-scenes often allow you to move around. Heck, you can see your arms, hands, legs and feet, if you're climbing, swimming or otherwise in a position to spot them in real life. And the AI is rather well-done. It is adaptive, and they will jump over railings to get to you, take cover, lay down suppressing fire, etc. They can hear you, see you, as well as spot you by the beam of your trusty flashlight(with batteries that die annoyingly fast... well, they recharge swiftly, too). It would be nice with a wider spectrum(gotta love that the majority of them let out a blood-curdling scream upon their demise), and for seeming imposing, this lacks one that stands out, in the "I don't wanna be fighting *that* guy!" way. Finally, this feels like you're in a film. Specifically, like The Ring meets Universal Soldier, as directed by John Woo. Yeah, let's be honest; this is not exactly original. It takes elements already done masterfully elsewhere, and puts them together. I'm not claiming it does a poor job of that, and it would be a shame if anyone reading this thought that I did not enjoy this, as, in both cases, nothing would be further from the truth. With that said, Max Payne did Bullet-Time, and it was better(and infinitely more helpful) there. And we've seen young, terrifying girls before. However, this might be the first VG to hold one(not to mention the adding of mind-controlled troopers to the mix, that's new), and again, it is done oh so well. The plot and the mystery are interesting(if one twist is *way* too excessively hinted at, and immediately figured out). I gotta admit, for a while, after it initially grabbed my attention(in a stranglehold), I wasn't sure why I was getting tired of it. Then I realized it: It's so repetitive. For as nifty the haunted kind of thing and the isolation is, the game-play usually consists of searching and battles against the handful of types of opposition. It grows stale. The ending isn't half bad. Not everyone will like it. The humor varies, it can make you laugh sometimes. There is disturbing content, violence(a bit of it brutal/gory), and gratuitous swearing in this. I recommend this to any fan of the concept. 8/10

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.

I have recently completed F.E.A.R. on the xbox 360 and wanted to write a review for people who might be interested in this game.

F.E.A.R. reminds me of movies like The Grudge and The Ring. You are a member of the F.E.A.R.(First Encounter Assault Recon) team which handles paranormal threats.

The story is pretty cool and brings you to all kinds of places. The environments are big, dark and creepy. It reminded me of Doom 3, where you would walk through a corridor or room and suddenly you hear something behind you, you turn around and there is nothing there only to turn around again and being attacked by a horrible monster. There are lots of scary moments in the game like that.

The A.I. was very challenging. They try to work out tactics, trying to flank you, smoke you out or get up behind you. They are really good team players.

The graphics are really awesome, the fire and explosions effects are top notch and so are the lighting and gore effects. Your enemies can be totally obliterated, losing arms, legs, heads and other horrible ways to die. The level design is pretty good as well, although sometimes you lose your way it never gets frustrating since there are more ways to get from A to B. But I encourage to check out every corner and every inch of the environment for weapons and med kits and boosters for your health and reflex abilities.

The reflex system(slow motion mode) works very well and was designed to help you out in the harder parts of the game so don't waste it on the wrong time.

The sounds are very good as well, you hear voices and other creepy sounds all around you every now and then. There isn't much music it's more sounds that make you feel uncomfortable. The sound that all your guns make is also really satisfying.

The weapons in this game start out like your average shooter but further on in the game you will find some new toys to play with.

The multiplayer part is pretty cool as well, you have teambased games like capture the flag or team deathmatch but also normal deathmatch and other types of online or network play. The thing I would really had loved was playing the campaign in coorperative mode like in Perfect Dark Zero, Doom 3, Halo 1 and 2 and so on.

There are also some bad things about F.E.A.R. like the flashlight, it doesn't last long and has to reload its batteries. I also had some problems with the melee attacks, when you carry a weapon and hit the melee button and try hit something my gun was replaced for hand to hand combat, but it didn't happen very often though. The game isn't extremely long, I completed it under 8 hours playing the normal difficulty.

Overall this is an awesome game with great visuals and great action. I would recommend this game to anyone who loves first person shooters and horror.