745th played so far
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Monolith Productions
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Universal Games/Warner Bros. Games
Supernatural elements to the extent that F.E.A.R. seems to have, based on the reading I have done so far, are normally the domain of the survival horror. Resident Evil has some of it together with its zombies and it sounds like Eternal Darkness revolves around it.
Here, though, it’s a clearer shooter, with no survival elements. It feels like a different way of dealing with horror and I’m wondering how it will all fit together.
Our Thoughts
Looking at F.E.A.R., the story is what stands out. In a world where you seem to have a psychic connection to something, the game has a bunch of small cutscenes where the shooting gets interrupted by weird occurences – encounters, destruction, just things that feel weird. It’s a neat way to keep the world unsettling, allowing for some in level storytelling, without interrupting the flow.
Unfortunately, in between those story bits, the game feels like a bog standard military shooter – limited weapons, loads of enemies and long, endless, samey levels that seem to go on forever – the water plant really started boring me after a while. There’s little new that seems to be introduced, and while there’s a part of bullet time included, it didn’t feel like it made much of a difference to me.
But it’s a real shame, because the nuggets of story rewards are few and there’s a lot in between, with what’s in between feeling uninspiring and unnecessary.