F.E.A.R. demo released

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 August, 2005

The mind-killer? Maybe.

Japanese horror is a scary thing. Example: a friend of ours went shopping on Sunday and found a three-foot-high little-girl doll with face-covering jet-black hair. Inevitably, said doll was then positioned at the top of a flight of stairs.

Not just "the flight of stairs", either. The house in question is one of those big student-type houses (though, for the sake of our as-yet untanned hides, we should stipulate that the present occupants are all gainfully employed) split over five floors. The doll was positioned second-from-top. Nobody else was informed.

That evening, a friend-of-a-friend returned home with a young lady. Bounding up the stairs, his focus split between her and the passage ahead of him, he lurched round the final banister and made it two steps up before he caught sight of the doll, screamed in mortal terror and fell backwards on his arse. "White as a sheet" would fit, but the pungent aroma suggested a word that shares the phonetic characteristics of "sheet", but generally involves a quite different colour.

Much embarrassment later, a little girl crawled out of the TV and sued them all for copyright infringement.

In other news: the Japanese horror-influenced F.E.A.R. is now available in single-player demo form. You'll need a hefty PC to run it, but it's worth the trouble, and soon we'll be explaining why in some detail.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kingbaggot #1 7 years ago

    underwhelming ! too many buttons to press in a tight spot make me go loco. Totally boring enviroment too. I'll give it another shot, but this has 'dampened' me for the final version.

  • penhalion #2 7 years ago

    I really liked the demo. Have to agree with KingBaggot about the buttons though. I had to re-configure them as I am used to crouch being on the control key. I swapped them slowmo and crouch in the end.

    This has some real potential. The environments are detailed and the gameplay is good. I especially liked the climb down ladders rather than guessing if you are simply going to fall off while trying to go backwards down then *cough HL2 cough*

    Yep looking forward to this one although the demo was somewhat short and I'm not sure why it ends with you facing that thing (don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't played yet)

  • Tomo #3 7 years ago

    Bramwell, you are a funny fucker.

  • deaner #4 7 years ago

    Bejesus!


    MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIRED
    · Windows XP or 2000
    · Pentium4 1.7 GHz or equivalent
    · 512 MB of RAM
    · 64 MB GeForce 4 Ti or ATI Radeon 9600
    · 5 GB Hard Drive Space
    · 4x CD-ROM drive (DVD-ROM for Director's Edition)
    · 16-bit DirectX 9.0 compliant sound card with EAX 2.0 support
    · Mouse
    · Keyboard
    · Internet Connection Required


    RECOMMENDED HARDWARE
    · Pentium4 3.0 GHz or equivalent
    · 1 GB RAM
    · A 256 MB Radeon 9800 Pro


    SUPPORTED CHIPSETS
    · Nvidia GeForce 4Ti, FX5900, FX5900 Ultra, 6800, 6800GT, 6800 Ultra
    · ATI Radeon 9600, 9600 Pro, 9600XT, 9700, 9700 Pro, 9800 Pro, x700XT, x800XT, x850XT

  • Bezzy #5 7 years ago

    "Much embarrassment later, a little girl crawled out of the TV and sued them all for copyright infringement."

    Haha. Well exactly. I'm surprised this "inspiration" from asian horror isn't causing as much uproar as Duke's chainsaw fist did.
    Edited by 1 at 08/08/05 @ 11:29

  • Talha #6 7 years ago

    The most F.E.A.R.ful thing about this demo is its size. Over 600 MB!!! Are you guys out of your minds? Is this supposed to be a demo? 26 hours to download? How the hell will I take it home on my 512 MB flash?

    The graphics requirements are insane and in spite of the technical ballyhoo, the screenshots don't look that different from Doom III. Am I wrong, guys? Please tell me cos somehow I don't feel inclined to spend a dollop ona 1GB flash and upgrade my PC just for a demo.

  • RedboX #7 7 years ago

    The mind-killer?

    MIND-TAKER...

    MENTOK THE MIND TAKER COMANDS IT SO!

    OOOOOOOOOWWWWEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOO!!
    Edited by 2 at 08/08/05 @ 11:43

  • brokenkey #8 7 years ago

    Those system requirements aren't much worse then BF2 though?

  • penhalion #9 7 years ago

    Relax guys. This ran like a dream on my aging 9700 pro (though it ran like a ninja master on my new 7800!)

    My point is....er well I don't really have one....but, it runs just fine on todays kit so don't worry about the aleged specs

  • Shinji #10 7 years ago

    That's a true story, by the way. I should take a picture of the doll later, it's bloody freaky :)

  • therev #11 7 years ago

    Runs fine on my 128MB 9800 Pro. Really liked the demo, too. Want full game now, please. Also want one of those dolls. Where are they from?

  • TedBaker #12 7 years ago

    Runs fine on a GF4 Ti4200! Okay, so I dropped the res to 1024, but that really didn't impact on the environments - talk about E-M-P-T-Y! Oh, it's a crate, a table, a newspaper. Definitely NOT worth the 662MB download.

    Personally I found the gameplay to be pedestrian. Sure, there were the odd neat touches, like the slo-mo and the panting from yourself (Oh no... It's a ermm.. girl. A scary girl who isn't... there. *YAWN*), but other than that it was very run-of-the-mill FPS action. FYI, I disliked DOOM3, and this is very much the same to me - floaty controls and too many buttons make for a frustrating gaming experience. In fact, I have disliked all of Monolith's games thus far because of that fact - shame they didn't try something that works this time :-/

    /prepares to urinate on F.E.A.R sales stand when it gets erected at the local games store

  • Talha #13 7 years ago

    I smell a rat here. When I hear from 10 different people that the game ran well on their 10 different cards with 10 different memory configurations, I know that the game will require a 7800 GTX SLi to be playable! At least that happened with Doom III.

    TedBaker, you wind your reslution DOWN to 1024. How cute. We ordinary mortals wind it way, way UP to 1024! However, I take heart from your cdomments regarding the game being similar to DOom III and empty environments, as well as your future excretion plans. I won't have to upgrade my PC after all.

  • Darren #14 7 years ago

    I thought the demo was great. The A.I. was quite impressive with soldiers diving through windows and over railings and taking cover. The graphics were good but not jaw-droppingly so and it ran fine (~20-30fps) on my computer once I turned off soft-shadows (3GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 256MB GeForce 6800 GT graphics) although, like Battlefield 2, it's seems a little unoptimised and sluggish in places.

    Considering the high system requirements, it's a game I'd love to see on the Xbox 360 as the more powerful hardware would mean the engine would run better.
    Edited by 1 at 08/08/05 @ 12:32

  • deaner #15 7 years ago

    I think for the visuals, you just need a video card with hardware transform and lighting, and pixel shader 2.0 support, as well as a good chunk (64 MB+) of memory.

    1024x768 is surely the standard nowadays!

    But a recommended Gigabyte of RAM?!?

  • Moonprince #16 7 years ago

    Settings on low medium - game looks like the average fps.
    Put them on max and it's something else.

    AI was impressive even if scripted, its better then any other game Ive played so far.
    To many buttons to press? What?

  • TedBaker #17 7 years ago

    @Moonprince

    Medium settings = average FPS? I had medium settings on HL2 and that far surpassed FEAR graphically. I guess it's a case of apples and oranges here, though I can't see how a dingy/sparsely lit and decorated corridor can be made to look better with FSAA and all the bells and whistles the game engine could offer.

    With regards to the buttons, I generally like to have my mouse's thumb button do something - I couldn't map it on FEAR at all, so everything was left to my free hand - strafe, reload, flashlight and now a freaking slo-mo! I tells ya, the control system is a joke!
    Edited by 1 at 08/08/05 @ 13:24

  • Dr_Fripp #18 7 years ago

    I don't get it. Why do people call the AI impressive if it does *exactly* the same thing for *all* 10 times I play a particular section: jump through the window, find cover behind the box, then run straight at me after being owned. Doom 3, HL2, and this...all the same to me. Now Far Cry, that's a different thing (but it has a different environment too, so I shouldn't compare it).

    Edit: The control system is horrible, I agree. The next person suggesting a RPG or RTS-type of control complexity for an action-FPS should be shot. Yesterday. Really, it boggles my mind how you can be a true FPS fan and then come to this kind of idiocy.
    Edited by 1 at 08/08/05 @ 13:27

  • lemonfist #19 7 years ago

    Doesn't work for me unless I turn sound off. And even then, there's a bug that puts me behind the car in the beginning of the level when I'm sure I should be in front of it, leaving me to fall through a wall and die :/

  • Macross #20 7 years ago

    well i thought this demo was good (but too short) the empty enviroment just served to build suspense as i was constantly expecting somthing to happen. And the little girl, well when she appears right infront of you with flies swarming round her, she can be friggin scary!!

  • Moonprince #21 7 years ago

    Have to agree. Average on HL2 does look better then same settings in FEAR. Those recently released css maps are very impressive. Been playing HL2 again since getting a few new bits in the pc (x800pci etc) so been able to put all the settings up etc. I personally feel that when maxed, FEAR looks better. Perhaps its the gun fights with all the dust from bullet holes and the rest of it going off.

    Not being able to map keys to the mouse must be annoying, i can imagine. Though I had no problems here.

    Fripp. My mouse has two thumb buttons. One assigned to 'nades, another slow mo. Right mouse - zoom, left shoot. shift walk, space jump. F opens doors, r reloads, control crouch. This is all pretty simple and easy for me. Perhaps its our gaming backgrounds, I’ve been playing PC FPS's for many years now so this all seems pretty straight forward for me.

    On AI. I've played it a couple times now. While the majority of the time they do the same thing, there has been instances where they have done different things. I think when people refer to AI they are referring to the enemies jumping through a window to escape a 'nade/the interacting between themselves (even though this may be scripting, the average person will refer to it as AI) Basically the game gives a decent impression of the enemy thinking and planning, whether this be AI or scripting.

    Edited by 1 at 08/08/05 @ 13:48

  • Ryuken #22 7 years ago

    I think Fripp doesn't mean he can't customize the controls. No, it's the way your character runs and shoots that is simply horrible. Some things are nice, like that you can see your own feet/legs but it seems that Monolith also implemented a small fire-delay, shaky running and an extremely underwhelming weapon feel (combined with unimpressive weapon sounds). Compare the punch/excitement of the F.E.A.R. shotgun with that one of HL2 and you know enough imo. Slow mo and melee combat don't compensate for this.

    AI ain't scripted at all, if you play through the levels with the same approach it's no surprise that the clone soldiers break the same window, toss over the same table etc. every time. They are as dynamic as the mercs in Far Cry, with that difference that it's way harder to recognize that in such a linear and small level like in this demo. Atmosphere is great, too bad about the whole control feel.
    Edited by 1 at 08/08/05 @ 14:20

  • Dr_Fripp #23 7 years ago

    Moonprince:

    Especially the jumping through windows parts cannot be referred to as AI. It is scripted, and has as such nothing to do with any dynamic thinking routine whatsoever.
    I'm not saying the AI is bad tho, I quite like it. However, there's this misunderstanding that these scripted events contribute greatly to the quality of the AI and therefore make it stand out. I disagree.

    On the topic of controls, I (and many other fps players) use about the same control settings as you do. I can work with it after some time, but the problem to me lies in the amount of them compared to their necessity. A button for using your medipacks? You mean that you are going to use them halfway through a fight? When I screw up a fight, I start again, I don't rely on medipacks to fix me up, it's totally unrealistic. Especially this game lends itself perfectly for good placement of medipacks, because you have distinct "fighting sequences" that are pretty much seperated. I don't even WANT to be busy with health management all the time, so if you want to do something different, make it *automatic*.

    And why would I need a walk button? The player already walks while zooming! It's something you don't immediately recognise, and every button I don't need is a candidate to be omitted from the button configuration sheet. All these things just confuse me early on in the game, just like the exact graphical settings I need for my rig (however, graphically it's inevitable, especially considering my horrible configuration. I can live with it :p)

  • Dr_Fripp #24 7 years ago

    Ryuken: I agree with you on the feel of the player movement, it's horrible. But as a "veteran" of monolith-engine fueled games I must say it wasn't a big surprise for me anymore. I don't know why all those games lack so much solidity, but they should really take a look at how id's engines did it. I suspect id's engines to be more basic in this regard, in a "less is more" kind of way.
    Edited by 3 at 08/08/05 @ 14:32

  • Moonprince #25 7 years ago

    Well I have no arguments with either of those comments. The feel of movement escaped my mind but reading your comments brings back my inital feeling. And I agree. Same with the weapon sounds. Just to add to that, Im assuming the guns will burst and have a single shot function in the final release...

  • Bezzy #26 7 years ago

    Could even do without a melee button.

    There's no double jump, so air kicks could just be done by pressing jump while in the air.

    Slides could be done when crouching out of a moving jump/running fast. punches could be done by tapping forward/left/right while close to, and facing an enemy.

    Matrix Quake 2 already did this. Not that it was any good. But yeah, less redundant keys = win.

  • Dr_Fripp #27 7 years ago

    Good point, Bezzy. I mean, if melee attacks are ideal for closeup situations, why not do a melee attack automatically when pressing the primary attack button when you're in range of the enemy. Surely you don't want that rocket launcher to go off in such a situation, do you?

  • Creedy #28 7 years ago

    Theres alot of F.E.A.R haters on this website.
    I can't understand why as I love this demo, quite a good challenge. I find nothing wrong with the controls or how your character movies (and I'm a one handed gamer). I had no troubles using bullet time and my mouse for aiming or performing melee attacks and healing myself.
    I've come to the conclusion that your all whingers.

    Everyone whinges about getting better AI in games. Yet when F.E.A.R offers better AI (more so then Half Life 2 in my oppinion) everyone whinges about the game being to hard and they die to much.
    Another think, Half Life 2 on low to medium detail doesnt look much better then Half Life 1, I was appalled when I first saw the game on low detail.
    F.E.A.R is a beauttiful looking game, very atmospheric. Even if the final retail game doesn't have much interactivity happening, I'll still love it, its not a game they needs great physics to work.

    Anyway, I love it.

  • RandolphScott #29 7 years ago

    Crashed my machine before even showing me a loading screen?

    Shame...looked nice.

  • Helios #30 7 years ago

    It appears as though I have developed a phobia of ladders.

  • Xerx3s #31 7 years ago

    So. Is it any good? Say compared to SS2?

    "Over 600 MB!!! Are you guys out of your minds? Is this supposed to be a demo? 26 hours to download?" - Meh, more like 1-4 hours tops.

  • caboosemoose #32 7 years ago

    Don't listen to the poo-pooers that say HL2 looks better, that's ludcrous. I imagine they haven't tried FEAR with every one of the graphics options at maximum on a high end card. I've given it a spin on an X850 XT PE and 7800 GTX and it's comfortably the best looking shooter ever (well, for indoor scenes at least). Most of the surfaces are a dripping with extremely detailed shaders and in places it has a very impressive "prerendered" look (though we're talking mid-90s prerendered graphics, not contemporary stuff). With the settings at maximum it brings even a 7800 GTX - backed up by an FX-57 - to its knees. I found that will the options maxxed out and with 4x AA and 8x aniso is was pretty stuttery. Runs much better with the AA off, needlesss to say.

    Overall, the look of the rendered surfaces, effects and shaders (and the relatively low underlying poly count) is very Doom 3-esque, but with a fair bit more detail. The only real weakness is the lighting engine. It's not as feeble as HL2 (which has very little dynamic lighting). But it's not a patch on Doom 3 in that respect. Perhaps on a par with Far Cry for lighting.

    As for the the game, I agree with the E.M.P.T.Y sentiments. OK, the AI seems better than average. And the bullet time and other combat tweaks are nice enough. But the environement is very static. It's the usual spawning enemies, trigger points and endless shooting. Like Doom 3, the gameplay in this demo is ultimately a load of bollocks, really.