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

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

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.

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.