F.E.A.R. (X360)

 

F.E.A.R., short for “First Encounter Assault Recon”, is a mix between the classic First Person Shooter genre and Horror, both psychologically and physically. It succeeded where many have failed: Bringing those two, quite different genres, blended together for a perfect fit. We will look at this into more details as we go on, trying to pin point the reasons behind this successful merge.

 

When the game is first seen, it comes presented in a rather unusual, yet interesting art cover. You can see the FPS part, with what seems like elite soldiers escaping the fire and danger, which we will assume for the time being coming from enemy troops. Yet, over these individuals, a faint image of a small girl can be seen, standing there in the dark. Both of these images represent each of the styles the game has to bring and makes for a good first impression. We can't hide it: We are attracted to well done art covers, whether we have heard of the game or not. F.E.A.R. brings that mysterious feeling, the curiosity, just from looking at it. Upon booting the title, strange electronic like sounds can be heard, the kind of sounds leaving an uncomfortable feeling while being in a rather very simple front end menu. Basically, the game is letting you know that you are in for something quite different than what you could expect.

“You are an elite soldier trained to deal with unusual situations others can't even imagine. Called in to confront a murderous force with paranormal abilities, you must contain a crisis spiraling quickly out of control. Discover the true meaning of F.E.A.R. in this unique fusion of stylized FPS combat and supernatural suspense.”

Looking back at the resume will only confirm everything you can feel: Different, unusual and uncomfortable. The supernatural force in question is named Alma and takes the form of an 8 year old girl. At first, you are sent in as the point man for this special unit called First Encounter Assault Recon. Despite being a rookie, you are considered the elite member of the team. The mission for the protagonist and his team is to find and eliminate one being known as Fettel, who is controlling the Replica soldiers using psychic means and took the ATC headquarters under control (security agents), As the team gets closer to Fettel, they realize another supernatural, more powerful force hides beyond all the murders and the destruction from within the Origin Facility...

But it does not stop there. There is much more depth and complexity to it, which unfortunately, is hard to get a grasp of while playing. Most of the story itself is to be kept secret by the agency in relation to the incident and the only way to learn of it is by listening to the messages left by employees on colleagues phones found throughout the game as well as on specific laptops scattered around. Some of them are obvious, while others are more challenging to find, well hidden in dark places and in strange pathways that are at the complete opposite of your direction. Although searching for them adds to the actual gameplay value, one can miss an important conversation developing the plot of what Project Origin is, how it was conceived, and what truly happened. Due to this and the fact that the story is a lot more complex than could be perceived the first time around, several playthroughs might be required for the casual gamer to fully understand everything plot wise. From a general point of view, despite it's excellent storyline, this small issue could prevent people from enjoying the story, leaving them with a moderate opinion on the game, as a story is an important key feature for success.

The gameplay and controls of the game are pretty much what you could expect from a First Person Shooter. You wander around different buildings, inside and outside, firing at the enemies, human or not. F.E.A.R. brings one feature though that could be considered the unique to the title: Slowing time. From the beginning of the action, Slow-mo is made available to you, which allows you to slow down time temporarily for better precision, whether you are in long or close ranged. This specific ability is useful when being surrounded by enemies, in front of large groups of soldiers or when encountering very large and powerful enemies, as you will get hit less often and will have more time to place your shots accurately. As to not feel a urge of power over them, Slow-mo also works on yourself and the character you control will not gain any major speed advantage over the Replica soldiers. The player is given the chance to augment the slow motion function length by finding one of the two types of boosters scattered throughout the levels, for which the second type is to permanently raise the maximum health.

F.E.A.R. brings little evolution when compared to previous games in the same genre, but it is a type of gameplay that still works flawlessly to this day. The addition of Slow-mo, mixed with a good array of weapons such as machine guns, rocket launchers, handguns and different types of grenades, are enough to make it feel unique while proceeding through the madness that is presented before the player. Fear not though, as you are limited to carrying only 3 firearms at a time to keep the game balanced and challenging. It does, however, makes it's little evolution over other similar games felt in one category: The Artificial Intelligence. The AI in F.E.A.R. is incredibly smart, even when compared to today's games. The Replica Soldiers will take cover, will move around and separate the groups to be more difficult targets and communicate with each other (though their vocabulary is rather limited), will charge you in the good opportunities, flank you out of cover and your hiding places with well placed grenades, and most of all, they can and will ambush you whenever possible. The ambush is the key to their intelligence. When several paths are available to the player to reach a destination, a part of the enemies will remain upfront in cover, firing at the player to distract him and keep him under cover, while other small groups of these enemies quickly wander through the other paths for a good hit from the back, and depending on the difficulty setting, an absolute death before you even realize what has happened. This, by itself, makes every new playthrough different, as the AI will often act a different way depending on your placement of choice and plans of how to take on them.

Once you are through with this, and if you need a bigger challenge, F.E.A.R. gives you the instant action maps. With the same difficulties selectable as the main game, these put you in different areas of the game instantly, already fully equipped with weapons and grenades, with a nice little timer added at the top of the screen and soldiers hiding everywhere. The goal of the instant action maps is to go through the map, killing every soldier you can find as fast as possible and without dying within the 15 minutes mark. There are 4 instant action maps offered to you, each in different areas and each as challenging as the one another. It literally gives you what it is called and is a nice little feature for when you have visited the rest of the game, which you should have done since they require accumulated skills from playing the game in order to be beaten. They even come complete with leaderboards and well detailed statistics, allowing you to battle for the best rank against friends and brag about it afterwards.

F.E.A.R. did not have the best graphics out there, it still isn't a bad looking game. The models used for the characters and the textures used for the several objects to be found are far from amazing, even when going back to 2005 when the game was first released. It pretty much just looks as if they slapped together some texture, applied it on the object and the job is done. Although it lacks in the graphical beauty department, the game offers you a visual of great effects, details and sounds to cover up for it, which will pretty much obscure your view on the graphics themselves. It literally draws you into the defined mood that the title offers, giving you the appearance of a good looking game, on par with the best looking ones. Graphics aren't the strength of the game, but let's face it: It is still, in people's souvenirs, one of the best looking games out there from its time, simply because of all the other effects combined together which makes the majority of the game what it is.

The game supports 5.1 Dolby Digital sound, as with every other XBOX 360 games to date. The sound effects used are pretty well executed, though some annoying glitches will sometimes make their way into your ear as some of them seem to be repeated for no logical reason, such as when stepping on a large object on the ground causing a loud sound to be heard several times in succession. The foot steps made by the main character can also sound strange, as the steps always seem to come out from behind, a bit to the left of the actual character. Other than these issues with the sound effects, the rest can hardly be complained about.

On the other hand, the music fits the ambiance perfectly. F.E.A.R. mixes eery, upbeat electronic sounds with more intense, orchestral sound like music. Whether you are gun fighting a few or several enemies or simply being scared by the lights flickering and the ghostly figures, the music will remain part of the experience, keeping you on your toes ready for an eventual ambush, even if absolutely nothing is awaiting you. This adds a lot to what is felt throughout the game. Whenever the music is heard, you can start associating what kind of event will happen, but the tension will keep rising in your mind as it will never let you predict what can be expected further down the line. It is pretty well done and helps give life to the world around the character and feeling part of this world, as if you lived in it. They have definitely created a great soundtrack for the title to drive you in through your mission as a F.E.A.R. operative.

When you are done with the single player, some enjoyment can be found in the fast paced, action packed online multiplayer that F.E.A.R. provides. Unfortunately, the title does not really bring much new cards on the table in comparison to other games. It has the classic modes everybody knows of: Deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag. It does, however, bring something new, which is the ability to slow down time in the previously mentioned modes, almost the same way you can during the main campaign. The difference is that only one player is allowed to control time, but if you manage to shoot down that person, the ability becomes yours. While being a good ability to defeat the members of the opposing team, when using it, you become marked and every players can know your position while you are using slow-mo. It keeps the online experience balance and it can be used in a variety of ways, such as creating well planned ambushes. You are also given the melee attacks from the single player, so while being surrounded by bullets, you can take out your enemies with the usual punches, jumping kick and sliding kicks, adding some more brutality to the experience. While the multiplayer is generally excellent, well done and fast paced, it does not offer anything special enough to keep you coming for countless hours, unfortunately, but it will at least keep you coming back for a few hours until you find another game to tackle.

On a before to last note, I'd like to say that the game has a lot of customizable options, which is often overseen in most reviews of any game. While it has the usual display, audio and general settings of the game, you can also set your weapons priority during the single and multiplayer modes. The priority is used when you turn on the auto-switch weapons, which is used to automatically select the most recently picked up weapon. This feature can be turned off, but with the option, you can select which weapon in the game will be in priority in your inventory, which is, in my opinion, quite a nice feature for anyone who likes having things done their way. Other notable options would be how you can decide your main weapon for multiplayer, as well as your character skin for both deathmatch and team deathmatch. It doesn't add much, but it's always nice seeing that you can choose your character and starting gear.

Overall, F.E.A.R. is one of the best single player experience a gamer could be provided with in terms of first person shooters. Although the game does not hold much in the multiplayer aspect, reducing the replayability for online gamers, it will surely make you want to play the game at least twice, if not more. With the well timed horror events, the scare effect will remain around no matter how many times you play through it, as the chances of missing a couple of these events the first time through are pretty high, keeping you a few surprise moments the second time through. With the higher difficulties requiring a lot of patience and well thought out strategies to take out groups of Replica soldiers, it can and will provide the challenge demanded by the most hardcore of players, all while offering easier difficulties for those who might only want a small, simple game to enjoy.

This is a must have for any fans of the FPS or horror genres, and others should rent it first. I would not, however, recommend it to Online gamers who are looking for the best online experience, as F.E.A.R.'s true potential stands in the single player experience.