F.E.A.R. Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 October, 2005

Frighteningly good.

Version tested: PC

There's a quote I've got stuck to the outside of my monitor, which, while borderline fruity, is something I always enjoy reading. It goes, "The art of punctuation is of infinite consequence in writing; as it contributes to the perspicuity, and consequently to the beauty, of every composition." Glancing at it again this morning, it struck me that that's precisely how FEAR behaves. It's a game that seeks to embolden action sequences through the lucidity of slow motion, and with help from technology that taps deep wells of environmental detail consequently beautifies the composition in ways that nothing else can. Nothing. Not even Half-Life 2. Good quote, that - I'm glad I stuck it over the top of the "I OWN YOU!" sticker.

FEAR's biggest trick is its first-person, slow motion gunplay, which, while the game at least attempts to justify it, is basically there to make things more fun. And it does. It fuels relentlessly explosive gunfights that always end messily. Whenever you hear the telltale comms chatter of Replica forces, you're alert, and as soon as the first enemy bullet leaves its barrel you react by jamming on the Shift and Ctrl keys with your little finger to peer down the sights and activate your "Reflex" slow motion, sliding the game under visual and audio filters that sharpen edges and dampen sounds, and you dispatch bullets thud by thud into the groooaning ragdoll shock troops that lie ahead of you. Escalation of this core combat is relatively minimal, with only a few enemy types that exceed the basic military clone class (the most damaging of which you only encounter a couple of times anyway). New weapons uniformly excite (particularly the nail-people-to-the-walls Penetrator, but also the MP-50 heavy cannon, the machine sniper rifle and railgun-esque incinerator effort, and the satisfyingly meaty shotgun), but the hook here is the slow motion gunplay itself, not the circumstances. You'll have much less fun trying to win without it.

Clarity is a very difficult thing to achieve in an interactive action sequence - particularly in a traditional first-person shooter, where the player stands the greatest chance of looking the wrong way. Here the slow motion accentuates every little disintegration and shard of glass in a way that exceeds Max Payne's achievements in gifting games a noticeably filmic quality with its concert of doubly high definition. On harder difficulty levels, you'll have to replay key encounters several times over until you've written the perfect script in slow motion, watching bodies twist and buckle as bullets thud-thud-thud into their torsos, loving the way funnels of glass erupt as bullets pierce windows, marvelling at the bubble of blood-mist and shrapnel that grows from the impact of a well-aimed grenade or bullet loosed into an explosive barrel. The definition of the visuals is laudable in itself, but when played out on high-end hardware - which is a pre-requisite - they play an even more vital role in your enjoyment. It's so detailed that you really do have to wait for the dust to settle.

'F.E.A.R.' Screenshot sharpen

Reflex that sharpens. Giggle.

Mind you, the engine's artistic impact is less than you might expect. Really the function of the graphics is to lessen the burden that traditionally rests on your imagination during commonplace FPS encounters, and its use outside of that is often functional at best. You could argue that that's disappointing; that such an industrious engine, capable of running your GPU like a scouring pad across the lining of the frying pan you've just peppered with an assault rifle, ought to be put to more exotic use than it has been in the largely dark and grey industrial settings that make up FEAR, but in truth as long as the core action doesn't outstay its welcome it's reasonable enough; and it doesn't. Every step of the way this is about the same sort of combat and its incidental impact. It's got helicopters and dust clouds, sure, but don't expect to sit on a sand dune and watch the morning sun ease a rippling course over the hazy horizon and you're fine. That said, if there's a criticism here, it's that outside the combat the environmental detail too often boils over into inconsequential detail - with countless office cubicles to explore for nought but the occasional quirky in-joke.

FEAR's horror influences have been billed as its other defining facet. The story itself concerns a paranormal assault team - the paradoxically monikered First Encounter Assault Recon - set on the trail of a rogue psychic commander of military clones, and your pursuit of him as he directs his force against its maker. That objective persists for more or less the entire game, but over the course of it your shared psychic characteristics contribute to occasionally startling and confounding events. The use of sharp pangs and unsettling overtures, flashbacks and other psychological teasing is most prevalent, as is the game's bent, with Doom III-style "BOO!"s kept to a relative minimum. When they do occur, they're often unexpected, which heightens the excitement. Doom, incidentally, may be directly comparable in terms of the uniform setting, the game's tendency toward hunting in the dark (with a flashlight you can bloody well hold at the same time as your gun), and its love of the paranormal, but FEAR's direction and action sequences conquer id Software's effort in close to wholesale fashion.

'F.E.A.R.' Screenshot backup

When they call for backup, it means you're winning. Calls to mind Half-Life's special forces

That said, the story itself, while it knots itself together at the end in a manner that's been suitably prescribed by events up to that point, is only compelling for those prepared to overlook its shortfalls. The climactic events are enjoyable - and distinctly memorable - but the use of horrible sights and sounds is far better than the actual plot, which ultimately rings a little hollow, and the storytelling itself. FEAR gradually explains itself through company voicemails stored on phones in offices, and information gleaned from the occasional distinctive laptop that your squad coordinator then relates to you over comms. The secondary cast and things they do never really escape cliché (there's not an Alyx or a Carla Valenti among them), but they do nudge things along sufficiently, while your silence is occasionally frustrating but generally appreciated. In the end, for all its professed Asian horror influences, FEAR's is a very Western exposition, more reliant on spooks than actual narrative quality - the finest bits being the blurry, leaden-footed flashbacks that gradually become more articulate as you near the end, climaxing in a kind of cross-over between the real and psychosomatic.

Which pretty much sums up the game, truth told. Exploration is light, and puzzles are rare and forced (often obviously manufactured too. Why can't I just climb through this broken window to reach that valve? Why can't I just move this wooden crate myself instead of having to float it clear of the exit?); the real guts of the game is creeping around heavily patrolled office and industrial environments with a torch, getting into slow motion gunfights, and occasionally having your brain invaded. Ultimately the combat and horror licks are absorbing, but it's very contrived in places - when you see that the game's checkpointed your progress, you'll worry about that little side room you didn't check for bonuses; environmental interaction is really very limited; and there are so many barred doors and staple FPS rails running along the side. It's a testament to the action that you won't care - you're probably having to fill in as many imaginative blanks as you do in any other solid FPS game, but here the distinctive, measured combat dynamic means it feels fresh and compelling by comparison.

'F.E.A.R.' Screenshot bodies

The bodies stay where they are. Until you club them with your rifle butt, obviously.

It's worth pointing out that multiplayer does feature with deathmatch, capture the flag and so on - and its most notable achievement is the addition of a slow-motion power-up, which lets one player take on crowds of others who move as if stuck in treacle - but in the absence of anything genuinely innovative its meaty weapons and claustrophobic level design will probably only satisfy briefly, since we have well-developed playgrounds for this kind of thing already. Better to take on the Replicas.

Played on one of the higher band of skill settings, your AI opposition are really given the chance to shine. If you pitch in at a difficulty level where you feel relatively superhuman over the first half an hour or so, you might want to start again on a harder one. FEAR's at its most intense and satisfying when you can't wipe the enemy out in one runthrough of your Reflex bar, forcing you to regroup. When you run out of Reflex, the sheer velocity of rifle rounds is shocking and unmanageable, so you spend more time trying for that Bruckheimery finesse through judicious use of quick-saving and -loading. Your Reflex recharges relatively slowly, but armour and healthpacks in particular are abundant (and you can store up to ten of the latter, effectively boosting your health capacity - which is boosted in itself by little syringe guns stashed behind grates and through crawlspaces), while enemies are smart enough not to chase you through chokepoints, so you tend to be quite comfortable. Unthreatened you're... well, Word suggests "without fear" as a synonym. Pretty apt. Forced to make the most of your assets against opposition that can tear environmental obstacles out of their paths, vault low walls and flank you through little side-passages and chase you down, it's brilliant. Otherwise, it's merely very enjoyable.

'F.E.A.R.' Screenshot mother

Mother of!

FEAR's certainly capable of some memorable moments. Escorting a key character upstairs in an elevator and realising that Replica elites are hitting the Call buttons to stop you on the way; searching for a ringing phone in the hope of revelation and discovering a tragicomic truth; being chased down narrow alleyways by armoured trucks; your first encounter with the heavier opposition; the way the game handles the inevitable endgame confrontations and denouement so unusually... But ultimately this isn't a game of specific set-pieces, it's a game about making your own.

Right now, doing that is glorious fun. Slow motion gun battles tied to an engine that articulates carnage with the furious eloquence of a caffeinated linguist, bound together by people who've seen a lot of Asian horror, uniting to spread memorable moments over a bed of visceral excitement. Were it not for its time manipulation though, it would suffer - and certainly can't compare to Half-Life 2's timelessness on that basis. Buy it because it's a glorious novelty that won't wear off for its duration, but do expect things to move past it in the coming years. For now, it's worth celebrating because it's put the fun back into FPS punctuation.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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 (91) Latest comment 6 years ago

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

  • rodpad #1 6 years ago

    7 days...

  • Zerimski #2 6 years ago

    Jesus, that good? Might have to give it a try after all.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/05 @ 15:28

  • myiagros #3 6 years ago

    if only i had a half reasonable PC, this sounds well worth a look.

  • drumbaby #4 6 years ago

    I've never liked anything Monolith have done. The demo for this didn't change that.

    Purveyors of contrived, stodgily scripted shite, with piss poor netcode.

    The fact that EG say it can't even compare to the woeful HL2 is the kiss of death tbh!

  • kangarootoo #5 6 years ago

    "Purveyors of contrived, stodgily scripted shite, with piss poor netcode"

    Care to expand a little (on the stogily scripted stuff, I'm not too interested in their netcode)? Not picking on your comment BTW, just genuinely interested in your take on the demo.

    I quite liked the demo. Old school shooting fun with an excellent spear gun variant (a shiny apple for the person who can remind me of which game first implemented the "pin people to walls" gun mechanic). Thanks heavens one of my housemates upgraded their PC circa HL2 into a costly behemoth games machine.

  • Bitkari #6 6 years ago

    i'm enjoying it, but i don't rate it that highly...

    while the effects are pretty, and the gunfights entertaining, it does get very repetitive and tedious as you plough further through the game.

    i guess this is aimed more at the 'hardcore' fps fan who wants something to test their expensive computer on, and have lots of things to kill - which is all fine and dandy, but I have a feeling that I probably should have waited and bought Prey instead...

  • Eraser #7 6 years ago

    Purveyors of contrived, stodgily scripted shite, with piss poor netcode.

    Blasphemy! No One Lives Forever, and to a lesser extent it's sequel, was a masterpiece in storytelling and comedy with very solid gameplay to boot.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/05 @ 15:40

  • statix101 #8 6 years ago

    9/10 for spending 10hrs walking down boring repetative corridors...please, been there,done that got the t-shirt.......

    9/10 for graphics,sound,atmosphere...i agree, but for gameplay its a 6 or 7/10, its no different to that other borefest Doom 3

  • PearOfAnguish #9 6 years ago

    Rating does seem excessive. 9/10 for a corridor shooter that does nothing particuarly special except for some pretty graphics and bullet-time?
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/05 @ 15:45

  • Xerx3s #10 6 years ago

    pc games 4 the win then?

  • djchump #11 6 years ago

    I bought it today.

    TBH - I wasn't convinced after playing the single-player demo... I thought it was a fairly average FPS with some blatant scripting... akin to the old "Boo" style of scary film where a sudden loud noise is supposed to be frightening... :-/

    But all that changed when I played the multi-player demo - absolutely great fun! Nice meaty weapons, very nice level design (factory mp map) and fun game mechanics convinced me. Even if I still don't like the single-player game, I think the multi-player blasting will be worth the money for me.

  • Furbs #12 6 years ago

    Tom/Kieren/Ellie/raups - from an EG perspective, which do you find lamer?

    "Better/Worse/As good as Halo then?"
    or
    "This review/score is wrong/sucks cos I liked/didnt like the game"

  • Dizzy #13 6 years ago

    Doesn't run well on my PC.... but it did look good.

    /waits for 360 version

  • PearOfAnguish #14 6 years ago

    How terrible that people are using the comments section to comment on reviews. What is the world coming to?

  • Cloudane #15 6 years ago

    Better than Halo?

    Surely not...

  • Blerk #16 6 years ago

    This one sounds very interesting indeed. Shame it's a PC game, really. :-)

  • Zero Beat #17 6 years ago

    First game where I pinned people to walls was Messiah but that's probably not THE first.

  • kangarootoo #18 6 years ago

    "Blasphemy! No One Lives Forever, and to a lesser extent it's sequel, was a masterpiece in storytelling and comedy with very solid gameplay to boot."

    I second that. Just played through NOLF2 again recently. That tricyle chase never gets old. And the fight inside the trailer inside the typhoon (although showing its age graphically a little now) is still one of my favourite FPS set pieces ever. Some of the best ingame dialogue I've seen (actually NOLF 1 was quite a bit better) bested only by the Thief series off the top of my head.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #19 6 years ago

    I preferred a different game

  • BradlayLaw #20 6 years ago

    Have they added a widescreen function since the demo? It really is unacceptable that you need to go hurting round config files and have to put up with stretched HUD/UI elements in this day and age.

  • Bezzy #21 6 years ago

    Funny. I normally agree with Tom.

  • kangarootoo #22 6 years ago

    @BradlayLaw

    Widescreen isn't quite as standard on PC games as consoles now though is it? I'm a little out of touch with the PC games market these days, but I would have thought most PC games don't support widescreen. Do they? I still get annoyed with console games that don't I'll admit.

  • BradlayLaw #23 6 years ago

    @kangarootoo
    I know quite a few people with widescreen monitors. I think the Dell 2005fpw/2405fpw have become quite popular of late - probably more so than people who have 7800 or X1000 graphics cards to run the game at full wack (and which are obviosuly supported). If you can hack a config file to make it work then surely it wouldn't be that much more work to add it as an ingame option. WoW and HL2 manage it very well.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/05 @ 17:18

  • kangarootoo #24 6 years ago

    Sounds like something they coded up but then didn't have time to test sufficiently to be confident of making it a user option. Its a pity I agree, but better the option is there for those inclined to tinker than it simply be absent.

  • tannerd #25 6 years ago

    Widescreen isn't an option on the Retail version :(

    In fact the max res is only 1178, which seems a little low.

  • PearOfAnguish #26 6 years ago

    Do many console games support widescreen, is it some hidden option? I've found more PC games that work with widescreen res than console stuff. Actually, I don't think one of my console games runs in widescreen.

    You don't need a 7800GTX to drive widescreen games, btw, I've had HL2 running beautifully at 1680x1050 on a widescreen notebook with an ATi Mobility 9700.

  • Feanor #27 6 years ago

    "The fact that EG say it can't even compare to the woeful HL2 is the kiss of death tbh!"

    Not a big FPS fan, eh?

  • kangarootoo #28 6 years ago

    @PearOfAnguish

    I wouldn't say most, but a fair few do. Not sure what consoles you have. My main one is currently an XB and if the XB is set to widescreen in its system prefs any game that supports it will pick it up (but not always tell the TV to switch modes, which was damn annoying when I lost the remote for a while).

    Off the top of my head games that support WS in my collection are.

    Burnout 2 onwards (I think, could just be 3 onwards).
    Ghost Recon 2.
    Farcry Insticts.
    Farenheit.
    Halo 2.
    Band of Brothers.

    Thats all I can think of offhand, but I would say the vast majority of the games I am playing currently. As I recall the PS2 has some setting in the system browser regarding screen size, but that might be a big fat lie.

  • GuiltySpark #29 6 years ago

    "(a shiny apple for the person who can remind me of which game first implemented the "pin people to walls" gun mechanic)."

    painkiller??

    (and sorry if someones already said it)

  • Salvia #30 6 years ago

    "(a shiny apple for the person who can remind me of which game first implemented the "pin people to walls" gun mechanic)."

    Didn't Mortyr do it? Maybe not the first but before Painkiller.

  • Errol #31 6 years ago

    What system was this tested on (spec) ?

  • Mr_Sleep #32 6 years ago

    /Notices very large FEAR banner
    /cynic

    I'll probably pick it up when it goes down in price a little, I've started again on Far Cry and I'm enjoying how I'm already doing things differently to last time without really thinking about it. Shame FEAR doesn't seem to contain such sandbox methodology.

  • Scimarad #33 6 years ago

    Release it on the 360, you know it makes sense...
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/05 @ 18:13

  • PearOfAnguish #34 6 years ago

    Cheers Kanga, I hadn't actually looked in the Dashboard settings at all. Probably where I was going wrong.

  • urban #35 6 years ago

    i'm running it frighteningly well. on a rather shit pc..the settings it suggest work great.

  • PearOfAnguish #36 6 years ago

    Oh my, Xbox games look much nicer in widescreen, and there was a setting for 480p in there, too. Halo 2 is almost playable now.

  • UncleLou #37 6 years ago

    I've never liked anything Monolith have done. The demo for this didn't change that.

    Purveyors of contrived, stodgily scripted shite, with piss poor netcode.

    The fact that EG say it can't even compare to the woeful HL2 is the kiss of death tbh!

    You're becoming a troll lately, drumbaby. Go play some Devil May Cry.

  • Inquisitor #38 6 years ago

    The first game I ever played where you could pin people to walls was Messiah aswell, surely it must be the first?

  • GitSomE_UK #39 6 years ago

    Dammit EG do you have to put plot spoilers in your summary... I want to be surprised by the game not play expecting such and such an event.

  • Pike #40 6 years ago

    You think he's become a troll recently, UncleLou?

    I don't think I've ever´read a non-trollish, non-fanboyish post by drumababy.

  • UncleLou #41 6 years ago

    Were it not for its time manipulation though, it would suffer - and certainly can't compare to Half-Life 2's timelessness on that basis.

    I can't quite agree with that sentence in the review. To be honest, I think the game works best without using slow-motion too much (though it's a bit too tough on the two harder difficulty levels). It then offers the by far best (and that includes the best AI) gunbattles I have yet seen in any shooter, in real time, so to speak. Playing it on a harder difficulty level with lots of slow motion almost turns it into a different game.

  • UncleLou #42 6 years ago

    @ Pike - yes, he's often dangerously close to trolling, but when he has a good day he's able to make really good posts, and I like his enthusiasm for certain types of games, misguided as it is. :p

  • illuminated_523 #43 6 years ago

    Mildly amusingly, the punctuation quotation has a misused semicolon.

  • PearOfAnguish #44 6 years ago

    Mildly amusingly, the punctuation quotation has a misused semicolon.

    Indeed, I can barely contain my laughter.

  • Zond3 #45 6 years ago

    "The art of punctuation is of infinite consequence in writing; as it contributes to the perspicuity, and consequently to the beauty, of every composition."

    He must have a big monitor!

  • Merefield #46 6 years ago

    Purveyors of contrived, stodgily scripted shite, with piss poor netcode.

    Blasphemy! No One Lives Forever, and to a lesser extent it's sequel, was a masterpiece in storytelling and comedy with very solid gameplay to boot.

    Eraser, ur not wrong! Classics in every way.

    Imagine a NOLF sequel with a graphics engine of this capability! If only they would port the originals!!

  • Kronos #47 6 years ago

    NOLF obviously had speargun impalings...

    didnt the original avp have somekind of head impalation in predator mode..

    I cant see what the problem is with scripted ai, if its done well. As long as the result is entertaining.

    shogo was entirely scripted. Didnt stop it being fun.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/05 @ 23:59

  • Talha #48 6 years ago

    I am being guilty of reveiwing the review here, but here goes: I think a 9 from EG it is disappointing. I agree that the game is great, and gets the effects and the atmosphere right. Many other things - level design, story, variety, some semblance of actually CARING what's going on - are sorely missing. On top of that it is a tad short. None of these things are fatal of course, but they sure cast a doubt over whether it's really worth a 9.

    Call me a troll or whatever, but I can't get over the fact that Far Cry got an 8 from EG (one allegation against it being - it lacked style! loL!) while both Doom 3 and FEAR get 9s. And I am no technical person, but like Doom 3, I don't think the overall look of this game REALLY justifies the steep hardware requirements, being set solidly in samey corridors. No matter how many polygons those tables are pushing, or whether there are 35 different light sources at work, or there are ultra-high-res textures on the crates, it all adds up to very little, sorry.

    Don't get me wrong, it is, all in all, a great game though, especially for us PC FPS-starved souls. It is not fair in my opinion to criticize a game because it is not revolutionary. It seems certainly better than Doom3 or its upcoming younger (twin) brother, Quake 4.
    Edited by 3 at 19/10/05 @ 04:55

  • jlaakso #49 6 years ago

    A very well written review, thanks guys. Also in due time (first one I read).

    This is the one game I want a games PC for. Although the next-gen consoles might still be more tempting. There's an unforeseen bonus to playing console games: PC gaming is solitary, while I can play console games side by side with my wife (Box, Cube, PS).

  • Talha #50 6 years ago

    @jlaakso: you have just invited a horde of PC gamers telling you that it IS possible for several people to play on a PC, if you install software Nutcase 1.2, connect two controllers via three wires through a hub into four USB ports, reconfigure the game's controls though its options and if they aren't there, its a small matter of either hacking the registry or installing the latest version of Horsedung 4.5, along with a 75 MB patch just released by the game dev..

    And that is, if you remember to buy the two controllers first!!! You can even play foursome if two of you can use different areas of the keyboard without touching hands!!

    EDIT: Note: This is not a 'PC gaming sucks' rant since I am a PC gamer myself - it is just a shield against possible replies to jlaakso's post!!!
    Edited by 1 at 19/10/05 @ 07:41

  • space_ace #51 6 years ago

    i'm afraid of tom's sentences

  • blicko #52 6 years ago

    "The art of punctuation is of infinite consequence in writing"

    I thought it was the art of hyperbole :-)

  • Moonprince #53 6 years ago

    Or you could just get a internet connection and play co-op...
    But that sounds stupid, better to give the impression its impossible.

  • Talha #54 6 years ago

    Do I have to translate 'side by side' for you? And my intention was not to give the impression of impossibility, just difficulty. The guy meant the ability to play co-op without hooking up to the internet. There is something to be said for playing with a human opponent right besides you - beats the internet for me at least.

  • Furbs #55 6 years ago

    Most people would say NOT having the missus sat at your side was a plus point for PC gaming...

  • Moonprince #56 6 years ago

    Yeah good one.

    Perhaps you could get two pc's. Hook them both up to a internet connection. Sit your wife in front of one, you in front of other and then.. and then. Nah this is sounding stupid again... I'll shutup.

  • Talha #57 6 years ago

    Most people would say NOT having the missus AT ALL was a plus point for PC gaming... at least it frees up the money ;-)

  • Furbs #58 6 years ago

    Hehehe hadnt thought of that
    /changes locks

  • Teeth #59 6 years ago

    I'm not sure I like the semi-colon in that sentence. I'd either get rid of it or get rid of 'as'.

  • MrAtheist #60 6 years ago

    Talha - I agree with you on the issue of the scores (Far Cry 8, Doom3 and this 9s) as making no sense. They are marking it on the graphics.

    Krudster reviewed Far Cry on a crap PC (GF4Ti) and had to play at low settings - he slated it. Krudster plays Doom3 on a much better PC and its revolutionary 'monster-in-the-closet' gameplay gets a stella review!

  • Furbs #61 6 years ago

    You guys really worry about numbers too much. If its 8 or higher, its really good, so who gives a Jack Thompson if its 8, 9 or 10?

  • MrAtheist #62 6 years ago

    Well Furbs, may as well do away with the scores altogether if they are that pointless...

  • Furbs #63 6 years ago

    Wouldnt worry me in the slightest. Alot of people who only worry about an arbitary number and cant consider anything else would whine though.

  • BremXJones #64 6 years ago

    Furbs: "This review/score is wrong/sucks cos I liked/didnt like the game"

    The Halo thing, at least, has the saving distinction of being a running joke. We can hope that they don't actually mean it.

    Re: Pinning people to walls. First time I remember doing it was with AvP1, which I believe was considerably before Messiah.

    KG

  • kangarootoo #65 6 years ago

    A shiny apple is in the post to the usual address.

    For the record, I like the review scores as they give me a ballpark idea of the game (I'm one of those idiots that scrolls to the end, checks the score, then reads the review), but I mentally apply a +/-2 to most review scores when comparing games side by side. And even then I read the text, AND probanly rent the game before buying.

    Everyone has slightly different tastes and when I see one game with 9/10 and another with 7/10 I tend to think they are both worth looking at.

    Furbs initial point about the scores not being the be all and end all was reasonable I think. MrAtheist you should know better than to dig out some old school "create an artificial extreme to undermine the original comment" debating technique ;)

  • MrAtheist #66 6 years ago

    Consistency Kanga, consistency. ;-)

  • Mashum #67 6 years ago

    Hooray for lunchbreaks! I have the game in my clammy paws & my costly behemoth games machine will be crunching on it come 6pm :)
    Edited by 2 at 19/10/05 @ 14:12

  • HarryB #68 6 years ago

    dont get excited or you'll only be bored when you get home and get lost because all the scenery is the same

    it is fun though .. just not in your face WOW OMG fun

  • kangarootoo #69 6 years ago

    "when you get home and get lost because all the scenery is the same"

    Thats happens to me whilst I am ON my way home aaaall too frequently.

  • space_ace #70 6 years ago

    again, is hl2 coming for xbox on schedule? or at all?

    qu4ke (the quake 2 remake) is fun on pc, they should have made it xbox1 too

  • kangarootoo #71 6 years ago

    Its still tagged as Nov 18th in most places. No word on any delays, but then not much publicity either. Maybe Valve/EA don't feel the need.

  • deepmenace #72 6 years ago

    i like this simply cause it give me the heebie-jeebies.

    films dont put the fear in me anymore, games do. All the blackness and and little hints of movement and the chilling sound design and little girls with long black face-obscuring hair.

    give me more.

  • kangarootoo #73 6 years ago

    Any of those playing this seen any stuttering issues? One of my housemate's bought it and it runs smooth as you like on his bonkers fast PC. But he gets stuttering every so often.

    My first thought was some delay in loading textures on and off the GFX card. The frame rate in between is around 40-60fps at 1024x768 with pretty much everything cranked up. Anyone experienced this in FEAR or other games? Any suggestions on fixes (besides turning down texture detail, which seems to help a bit)?

  • JonFE #74 6 years ago

    Is anyone having problems with the copy protection of FEAR ? The first time I started the game I had to actually try three times in order for the bloody thing to recognize / authenticate the DVD, and for my second go it took another two.

    On a second note I probably have to upgrade my VGA to actually enjoy this :\

  • tiddles #75 6 years ago

    kangarootoo - I have some stuttering problems on a high-ish end system too... I was wondering if it might be slow HDD access? Might be worth defragging the hard drive if your friend hasn't done that recently.

    I'm also currently running with most of the pure graphics options set to medium, but the effects set to max. Seems to preserve the overall look of the game pretty well while keeping the frame-rate high, even in the gunfights.

    The game does pause for about a second when it saves a Checkpoint.

  • banjo21 #76 6 years ago

    A really nice game actually that runs well in 800x600 on my AMD 3K XP, and ATI 9800 PRO. Yes a bit old school shooterish but its good to play with just two hands needed on the keyboard at one time :)
    As good if not better than HL2 imho, and fgs it is miles better than that tosh called Halo2 (did no one actually see that was an incredibly poor expansion pack to a good game?. Halo2 rant over).
    FEAR is v.good and well worth £30. PS not seen any mention of it for 360.

  • tiddles #77 6 years ago

    My inital feeling on this was that, while the combat was great fun, the setting and story seemed pretty soul-less. But I did almost exactly what the review suggested and went back to play it from the start on a higher difficulty. And yes, once you're not so bothered about the story, it is rather superb...

    I'm really liking the balance of the weapons at the moment. With the three slots I'm experimenting with combinations of long, medium and short range weapons, switching between them to pick off the hordes as they get closer and closer... It's great to save the slo-mo for the last few guys so you can take them out with the shotgun or the dual pistols - or even a kick. Slo-mo also works really well with jumping - had an excellent moment yesterday when I was on a balcony up above two guys, jumped over in slow motion with the pistols and basically landed on them firing, taking them out before I hit the ground... Can't argue with that :)

    To the people who say these kinds of games are the same old same old with flashier graphics... well, yes. Maybe they're not too different from what we've played before, but perhaps some of us actually really LIKE flashy graphics?

  • UncleLou #78 6 years ago

    Weird, it's pretty much the first game where the AI is much better than what was announced before. In fact, it's by far the best AI I've ever seen in an FPS. Pity that you're not having fun with it, though, you're missing a clear 9/10 game. ;)

  • UncleLou #79 6 years ago

    Now wait a second, weren't you really underwhelmed by the demo? Why on earth did you buy the full game?

  • tiddles #80 6 years ago

    and with all that it gets a 9/10 because it is "fun"....?

    never a good criteria for judging a game, that... ;)

  • demiurg #81 6 years ago

    kudos to the reviewer, Tom Bramwell. not only do i agree wholeheartedly with the review, but it's also something very rare in the plethora of game reviews on the net - intelligent and well-written. respect. in fact, i registered here based solely on this review and will keep a track on reviews by him.
    oh, and fear is the first fps in a long time i've actually been impressed by.
    Edited by 1 at 20/10/05 @ 17:51

  • #82 6 years ago

    The AI is impressive.

    I look forward to the mod community producing some good single-player levels.

  • Mashum #83 6 years ago

    The AI is better than HL2 but the gunfights are still basically about seeing and shooting them before they see and shoot you.
    After getting a copy of Halo for PC and feeling like I'm trying to out think my AI opponents rather than just outgun them the close quarters combat in FEAR seems a bit of a step back.
    Maybe I need to up the difficulty settings a little bit.
    Edited by 1 at 21/10/05 @ 10:23

  • tiddles #84 6 years ago

    So, who's up for remaking Deus Ex with this engine? Now THAT I'd like to see :)

  • Ryuken #85 6 years ago

    Weapons still feel b0rked if you ask me. What a difference with the feeling of those of HL2 (one of the couple of things that game did right after all). The click-and-shoot outcome is a tiny bit too slow in FEAR.

    AI is superb idd, feels like Far Cry in close quarters but with more effects.

  • dryden555 #86 6 years ago

    ultra boring level design kills the mood. No actual storyline to hold the loevels together.

    Great AI but that's it.

    This game is officially Over-hyped.

  • Mashum #87 6 years ago

    Playing it (FEAR) through a second time at a harder difficulty setting and without using the slo-mo it's a very different and better game - I see what all the fuss is about now.

    IMHO the slo-mo kind of gets in the way of the flow of play - I found myself hanging around waiting for it to charge up quite a bit and relying on it most of the time. The time taken in making the game look nice in slow motion isn't lost in full speed either - it feels very kinetc, exciting and brutal.

    The most fun I've had since the Master Chief :)
    Edited by 4 at 01/11/05 @ 01:01

  • dr_swin #88 6 years ago

    kangaratoo - i experienced some stuttering issues with the game pausing to catch up when just looking around. my system is athlon 64 4000+, x800xt, 1gb ram. turning the settings down helped but made me feel like a loser, so i defragged the hard drive and installed another 2gb of ram. it is a lot better now but still not perfect. nowhere near as smooth as HL2.

  • Lummox #89 6 years ago

    Having completed the game a couple of hours ago, I thought I'd add some observations. Firstly, for their next game, could Monolith please look up the word "variety" in the dictionary. This problem applies to both scenery and enemies throughout the game (ok, the soldiers are clones, but that's no excuse for coming up with only around five different types of enemy - some of whom are only differentiated by the type of mask they wear). I got to the point where if I saw yet another office with one desk, a cabinet and a phone in it, I'd blow it up just to create some of said variety. Secondly, I'm amazed that the directors of "The Ring" haven't sued yet given the main character's obvious rip off of Samara (and the ending, but I'll say no more about that so as not to spoil it). That said, I thought the enemy AI and weapons, particularly the later ones, were well implemented and the game was atmospheric in a way that I've not experienced since HL2. Anyway, I'll keep an eye out for F.E.A.R. 2 and maybe try this one on a higher difficulty level as suggested above.

  • Ibrin #90 6 years ago

    For those that asked, widescreen support is available in F.E.A.R.

    http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewt opic.php?p=11720

  • WhyMeeeeee #91 6 years ago

    well i decided to buy this today, and i like it.
    scary? well i have jumped quite a bit so far lol.

    one thing i have noticed.
    when you do have a firefight there are exits the guards use to sneak up behind you so the AI is good.

    maybe thats why i'm jumping, getting my *ss pumped with lead.

    i'm very impressed with it.