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.

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.

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.

F.E.A.R. is an absolute amazing game that perfectly mixes both First Person shooter action and Horror better than any other game like it during its year. What makes the slo-mo/bullet-time feature so good, is that it's not just an added feature to improve gameplay. The slo-motion feature is a vital part to the game and is very much a landmark for the franchise. The story is also well made, through its use of giving the player bits of the story as they move along. It works very well with dynamics, cutting back and forth from quiet nerve-racking moments to andrenaline-inducing action. Very good game

I don't often play videogames these days, but I felt compelled to test out my new PC with this game after reading rave reviews. When it came out in 2005 it seemed to be an underdog - it received glowing comments from critics but didn't make a huge splash like Halo or Half-Life. Now, with its debut on XBox 360, it seems to be making more of a fuss; but this game is almost a year old (in its PC form) and I hadn't heard a thing about it until a few weeks ago.

I found it at Circuit City and brought it home. The packaging didn't look too promising because I'm not really into tactical shooters or Army combat games, but after installing the five discs (!) onto my hard drive and running the game I immediately realized it wasn't anything like what I had expected.

The storyline is effective even if it's a rip-off of the whole Asian horror cinema influence of recent years. It's basically just "The Grudge" with combat action as far as the story is concerned (although the actual gameplay differs from most combat shooters). You're a member of an elite squadron of marines known as "F.E.A.R." (it stands for something like First Encounter Action Recon, which is kind of contradictory since recon doesn't usually involve much action, but oh well).

FEAR traces supernatural occurrences and your first mission is to assassinate a man who has become possessed by the spirit of a young girl who is causing him to kill and cannibalize people.

The game moves through different terrain but I was surprised by how well it sets everything up. If this were a film no doubt its plot line would be sabotaged by critics but as an interactive game it works very well. It's a cinematic experience and the cut-scenes and dramatic action sequences work well - you can tell many of the high-profile action set-ups were developed extensively for the player to experience the full benefit of the "cinematic gameplay" advertised on the back of the box. This is the first time I've played a game and felt like almost every single level had been designed to flow in a very specific, cinematic way - Half-Life 2 was similar but a bit also enabled more free-range. FEAR kind of manipulates you into following a specific path to complete levels, but it works to this game's benefit because there are some spectacular sequences. When there's an explosion you don't just get the same effects used over and over. When you shoot someone they don't fall down the same way as every other person who falls does.

It's also the creepiest game I've ever played. "Doom 3" wasn't scary because there were too many monsters and it became too repetitive. But FEAR works well because you never know what to expect and they don't over-do the occurrences of the supernatural. One part of the game in particular that freaked me out was when I was crouching in a ventilation shaft, and as a pipe burst and steam hissed in front of the character, the ghost-girl appears out of nowhere scurrying towards you through the dark like the creatures at the end of "Aliens" (I think it was a purposeful reference to the film). Very nicely done.

The shift between action and supernatural works most of the time, although I think sometimes the balance is thrown off a bit. On one level in particular you spend about thirty minutes walking around an office building shooting at enemies, and suddenly the last ten minutes of the level turn into a supernatural thriller and suddenly it seems like all the "regular" villains have completely disappeared. And just as soon as the supernatural stuff vanishes the bad guys are back again. I think in the next game they should develop a better mix of action with supernatural in regards to integrating the enemies into the supernatural sequences as well; otherwise, it feels a bit wishy-washy.

This is a small complaint. The game kept me riveted. It also features some of the best gameplay and special effects I've ever seen in a game. It takes the cinematic integration of Half-Life 2 and takes it up a notch. The cut-scenes make it feel more like an actual movie at times and the enemy AI is the best I've seen in a game since Half-Life 2 - they react realistically to what you do in the game, and interact with each other over their radios.

Overall this is one of the most memorable games I've ever played and certainly following suit of Half-Life 2 as being one of the most revolutionary FPS games of the new millennium. These new game engines are changing the face of their genre and integrating cinema into the game universe in a way unlike ever before.