âF.E.A.R.â is a game thatâs upfront with you. Look at the cover: it tells you everything. No, not that part â THAT part. âF.E.A.Râ was primarily advertised as a horror game, and it is, but not as much as youâd think. You wouldnât know that from the marketing, since about 80% of it was based on showing you the girl from âThe Ringâ. Or âThe Grudgeâ. Or whatever⌠So, then what IS âF.E.A.R.â about? [music from "The Matrix" playing over gunfire] Itâs about this. [music from "The Matrix" playing] Hey, wait, thereâs also a spooky little girl. Sheâs pretty scary! RightâŚ? I was pretty intrigued when I first saw the opening of âF.E.A.R.â. Itâs very moody, itâs dark, and I have no idea of whatâs going on. (whisper): "Kill them all..."
I was pretty intrigued when I first saw the opening of âF.E.A.R.â. Itâs very moody, itâs dark, and I have no idea of whatâs going on. [the man lets out a distorted cry]
I was pretty intrigued when I first saw the opening of âF.E.A.R.â. Itâs very moody, itâs dark, and I have no idea of whatâs going on. At least they explain whatâs happening pretty quickly. There is a company called Armacham (basically, the Kmart to Umbrellaâs Walmart), [the man's distorted cry fades in from a distance]
and theyâve made an army of clone super-soldiers, but theyâve recently lost control of them. This is because the army gets its commands telepathically from a psychic, and for reasons unknown, heâs gone nuts, and the replicants are slaughtering all the staff of the company. Maybe this wasnât such a good idea. So, the commander, named Paxton Fettel, is eating bodies in the lobby, and the mall cops are unable to stop him. So, like most big companies, calling the police is their last resort. JANKOWSKI: âYou gotta be fucking kidding me⌠This is why nobody takes us seriously. Military clones?â The first responders are a group called F.E.A.R. They are a Special Forces branch that protects America from the supernatural and paranormal. Because they were founded by Kent Mansley, or because being a federal Ghostbuster is silly, no one takes them seriously. DELTA LEADER: âIâd send one of my boys, but I think we need a specialist for this oneâŚâ Your mission is to find and kill Fettel. When you do, the Replicas should shut down. It starts simple, but weâll get back to the story later. Letâs stick to talking about the visuals for now. This game is about to be 12 years old, but I still think it looks pretty good. This is because of a combination of a few things. For the time, the textures and objects were top of the line. People used this to benchmark their systems before âCrysisâ came out. But it was at the top 12 years ago, so how does it hold up? Itâs because the game shines (or sometimes doesnât) at lighting. Itâs kind of amazing how just having dynamic lights makes it look so much better. When you see the game without them â like when weâll talk about âPerseus Mandateâ soon â it looks terrible. For the most part, the art direction is pretty simple, but the lighting is what gives it that edge. It makes even a simple, blocky room have some atmosphere. Itâs also a gameplay element. The game doesnât have any trick shadows. If you see an enemy shadow, it means thereâs one there. Seeing how âF.E.A.R.â is a game of cat and mouse, this can be pretty helpful. But besides being helpful for the combat part, itâs also essential for the horror element. If you see a shadow, somethingâs there. Itâs such a little thing to have that adds so much. If youâre quick enough, you could even see whatâs making the shadow. Check this out: [quiet giggle] [heart starts pounding] I thought I saw something there. Let me try it again and slow down the footage. [quiet giggle] Creepy⌠Lighting and reflections help this game not age, but thereâs something else. Thatâs when you bring in the particle effects. The lead designer mentioned that the visuals were inspired by John Wooâs âHard-Boiledâ and John Woo films in general. Letâs look at a shootout from âHard-Boiledâ. [non-stop gunshots and bullets whizzing past] This teahouse is getting trashed. Thereâs papers flying everywhere, thereâs smoke, bloodstains all over the floor. I think theyâre all clones, too. Letâs compare that to shooting only one guy in âF.E.A.R.â. [continuous gunfire] Unlike a lot of shooters, you can tell when thereâs been a fight. Thereâs no âjust leaving bullet holesâ. Itâs not possible. But they didnât stop there either. The designer thought watching âThe Matrixâ was a good idea too. [shotgun blasts and ringing of expelled shells settling on the floor] [sounds of breaking glass and dying cries] Slow-mo is pretty. Letâs talk about the game. This game is a First Person Shooter that teaches a very valuable lesson right when you meet the first enemy. [pop] REPLICA: âWhat was that?â They are never alone. You have the ability to slow down time, but this is countered by exceptional AI. Itâs basically a legend at this point. And like all legends, thereâs truth and some lies. âCome on, son!â If âDragonâs Dogmaâ taught me anything, itâs that âwolves hunt in packsâ. And itâs no different here. Replicas always fight you in a squad, and they seem to use teamwork. REPLICA 1: âFlashlight!â REPLICA 2: âCheck it!â REPLICA 1: âRoger that!â Despite being clones, they actually have a lot of character. You can listen to gauge how theyâre doing. REPLICA 1: "Do you see him?" REPLICA 2: "Shut your fucking mouth!" These guys move as a team, so if youâre focusing all your efforts on one, another one can pop you pretty quickly. [pop] Thereâs also the fact they use the environment to their advantage. They might break through windows, rappel in, bust through doors â anything. [door breaks loudly] Instead of doing that one-handed swing over a barrier that a lot of cover-based shooters do, he might dive out of the way. They might throw furniture and boxes over for cover. This guy throws an entire shelf over, and all this stuff goes flying off of it. When they think Iâm not looking, one of their buddies even tries crawling under it. Thatâs pretty impressive. The highest difficulty says itâs only for veterans of the series, but thatâs a lie. To really appreciate these enemies, you NEED to be playing on it. Your mistakes will get punished, but it feels like youâre fighting a worthy enemy. REPLICA: "Target spotted!" [rapid gunfire]
REPLICA: "Target spotted!" REPLICA: "Grenade out!" [boom, boy] Before I get too far into why I love these enemies, I should talk about what you can do. Well, they give you an arsenal to fight these guys. Plus, you know⌠the slow-mo. Besides your standard military weapons, âF.E.A.R.â gives you some pretty neat stuff, but sadly you wonât be getting most of them until past the half way point. When I first played it, and even now, I was really impressed by the particle lance. They could have had them just get burned. They could have had them just disintegrate into a little ash pile. But not Monolith. All their flesh is burnt off into blood mist that goes all over the walls and floor, and all that remains is a black, burnt skeleton. [zap, boy] And the skeletonâs being electrocuted. This is why I record in 60 FPS. [Marv scream] You can also get explosive weapons, like grenades, remote bombs and land mines, and their effects are pretty good, but thatâs really the secret. Thereâs naught really a weapon in the base game thatâs super unique, that youâve never seen in a game before. Itâs how they present them. [*bang*] If youâve played other shooters, youâve probably used an SMG before, but hereâs how âF.E.A.R.â makes killing an enemy look. REPLICA: "Oh, shit!" But youâre not limited to guns. They donât let you see your feet just to be immersed. Not only can you slow down time and use experimental weapons â youâre also a martial arts master. Whatâs even funnier is that they fly like youâre on the Moon when you hit them. REPLICA 1: (dying scream)
REPLICA 2: "Oh, shit!" Your attacks are based on whether youâre moving, crouching, jumping, sprinting â itâs all there. Itâs ridiculous. And I love it. Of course, this is only my second favorite First Person Kicker, because âDark Messiahâ exists. Now THATâs on the list. So what makes people say that this game has the best enemy AI even 10 years later? Well, the truth is: itâs good, but there is a lot of tricks. (whispering) Itâs not the most advanced AI ever â thatâs a lie! Despite internet urban legends, the AI isnât really that advanced. The genius behind âF.E.A.R.â is that the level designer and the AI designer were probably holding hands the whole time they were making it. Most of the game takes place indoors: in offices, abandoned warehouses, factories â that kind of thing. But for the most part, theyâre never enclosed. Rooms will usually have multiple entrances, with railings, cover, furniture â all sorts of things filling the room. But next door could be empty. This is where that âcat and mouseâ thing I talked about earlier comes into play. [*bang*] Because most of these complexes might circle back around on each other, the enemy has a lot of routes to take. It could view a window as a doorway and just break through that, instead of taking a door far away. The main excitement from these fights doesnât come from the enemies themselves, but more about the environments theyâre in. Whatâs in the current space, along with the neighboring spaces, decides how the fight will flow. Verticality can be important here, and the game knows that just shoving more men out of a doorway wonât surprise you. Changing the environment will. See, them breaching that door just changed everything. There is a reason people think this though, and itâs not because the bad guys use Alienware computers. REPLICA 1: "In here!" REPLICA 2: "Check the upper floor." REPLICA 1: "Yes, sir." There it is. âF.E.A.R.â uses a ton of audio callouts. In another game, where someone would say: âheâs behind itâ, they were specific. Hereâs some examples: REPLICA: "Behind the sofa!" REPLICA: "Behind the kiosk!" REPLICA: "Behind the shelf!" REPLICA: "Behind the couch!" REPLICA: "Behind the table!" REPLICA: "Behind the wall!" REPLICA: "Behind the column!" REPLICA: "Behind the planter!" REPLICA: "Behind the pillar!" REPLICA: "Behind the door!" REPLICA: "Behind the vending machine!" REPLICA: "In the cubicle!" REPLICA: "By the desk!" REPLICA: "Behind the chair!" The AI didnât always react to you situation, but the game at least called out what youâre doing. This trick made the AI go from âgoodâ to âgodlikeâ in the eyes of players. REPLICA: "Search this area!" But this is a game review, not an AI analysis video, which there are plenty of, by the way. So, the enemies feel intelligent, and I like that. Letâs move on. Speaking of moving, youâll be doing a lot of walking around. [weird static and steam erupting] Oh, right, I should talk about the horror part. As far as visuals go, âF.E.A.R.â has some pretty mind-bending segments here. But for every one thatâs pretty good, they also have some really cheap stuff. [*snicker*] But the stuff that is good is REALLY good. And it can come out of nowhere. The game might also set you up with long hallways, where it looks like a jump-scare will happen, but it doesnât come. This makes the scares unpredictable, as what you might see as a classic setup doesnât pay off. That was weird. Hey, this body here looks pretty messed up. When is it gonna jump out at me? JANKOWSKI: âJin, we need you up here!â Oh... JIN SUN-KWON: âOn my way.â I guess it was nothing. Even though there are some times where you know youâre in a horror segment, it can start at any time. Between firefights, when youâre just walking around, looking for supplies â any time. This means that besides worrying about Jango Fett and his friends showing up, you also have to be worried about ghosts. Or something. [sharp music sting] You could see where I jumped there. From a story standpoint, itâs not clear just how much of whatâs going on is really paranormal. Did I just see a ghost, or weird corporate Kamino technology? This is a concern, because Replicas donât just have rifles. So, instead of just seeing something odd and moving on from it, you have to wonder if itâs something thatâs gonna come and kill you a few seconds later. [glass breaking] [*pow*] [*pow*] [*pow*] It makes you always concerned that something is out to get you. And this lasts the whole game, as the Replicas bring out more of their weapons, and you see more strange things. This is top-notch tension-building, but it adds something else to the gameplay. See, you can find upgrades to increase your maximum health and bullet time. But theyâre scattered around. Sometimes you might just find them in a closet, other times it looks like theyâre sitting in hell. You want that upgrade, right? Look, thereâs another one! Just go down that hallway and get it! You wanna beat those bad men, donât you? If someone likes the combat of this game, but it scares them â they have to face their FEAR to get the upgrade. I think itâs a pretty interesting way of doing things. You already donât know when shit will go down â going off the path just makes it even more likely to happen. "Oh-h-h!" You would think this would mess up the tone, but it doesnât. It all works great together. So, is âF.E.A.R.â the perfect shooter? Well, before I go into the full story details, Iâm gonna talk about some problems it has. Like I said before, I love the Replica enemies. I like the fact that they roll around in armored cars and also Hinds. Like the company went and bought some surplus stuff from Eastern Europe to move them around. Not overt sci-fi stuff that would draw attention, like the sequel. Theyâre just neat enemies and I like fighting them. But thereâs some problems with repetition and pacing here. Every area youâre in feels like youâre there a bit too long. Because of how the AI works, youâre almost always gonna be indoors. The offices in the middle especially drag on forever. The firefights remain interesting, but thereâs also a lot of walking around, just investigating or avoiding turrets. They tried to make it less mundane with side objectives and little set pieces, but itâs not enough. Or it could be enough if the section was just shorter. The only break you get is the nightmare sequences. They also try to mix things up a bit by having you fight some corporate security, but⌠why? These guys are terrible! They donât have the character of the Replicas. I think this is an attempt to make the clones not feel too repetitive. But they have a lot of variations â they just space them out like crazy through this level. Iâll explain in a bit how some of these problems make âExtraction Pointâ stronger. When you get past the offices, thereâs good fights to be had again, because things are being shifted around, but thereâs only so much you could do with cubicles. Even with all the good level design, thereâs a lot of fights that feel the same. Different layouts arenât the best if things still feel the same way. You can have an amazing fight with something as bland as a stairwell in this game. So keeping themselves locked up was a mistake. Thereâs a lot of neat stuff and enemies to be found, but they just pile it behind this big office section. It would be a lot better if it was shorter and paced out with more efficiency. The story can also get a bit muddled here due to the phone messages and data being recovered. You have the option of recovering data and listening to voice mails, but theyâre in different times and from different office workers. It was a bit confusing, trying to understand who was becoming a character through these messages, or was just some random person leaving a message. And I do get what theyâre trying to do, having you find messages out of order, but thereâs already a lot to figure out, and it seems like unnecessary filler. Good news is that all the horror sections do mean something, and arenât just random gibberish to be spooky. If you donât want spoilers, go to here: Good to go? Okay. The spooky little girl is named Alma, and she was Weyland Yutaniâs last project. After not doing too well against the Viet Cong, America realized that it needed to communicate with its soldiers better in the field. So it contracted Armacham to make psychic soldiers. Well, theyâre not psychic â they get their orders telepathically. No spoon-bending. And so a scientist named Harlan Wade started experimenting on his daughter for the project, who had abilities. But after she started psychically attacking staff, they decided to change the plan. They put her in the coma, artificially impregnated her and had her bear children that would be the new experiments. Paxton Fettel was one of these kids. It went well until he was 10, when Alma used her David Blaine bullshit to connect to him. When their minds were linked, Paxton killed about 7 people. This being the final straw, they unplugged Almaâs life support, buried her deep in a vault and hoped she will die. And she did, 6 days later. Whatâs happening in âF.E.A.R.â is that her ghost or spirit or whatever is reconnecting with Paxton, even though her body is dead. So itâs just like the first synchronization event. Except, this time Paxton has an army of super soldiers. So, the army is being controlled by Paxton, and directly through Alma, to take revenge on the corporation that tortured her. Itâs actually a pretty typical ghost story. Except, the ghost doesnât make you trip â it sends the GSG 9 to come kill you. So she just wants to take revenge and⌠Oh yeah, one more thing: youâre the other kid. Wut? HOW? Why would they do that? JANKOWSKI: âAre you crazy? He just transferred in a week ago!â ROWDY: âYouâve seen his training results. His reflexes are totally off the charts.â To explain your slow-mo powers? You didnât really need to do that⌠Just saying he has really good reflexes would have been good enough. All it does is raise weird questions, like why is Pointman even in F.E.A.R? Or how did he get away from the corporation? Then there is this black screen phone call after the credits. ARISTIDE: âThere is some good news however. The first prototype was a complete success.â Is this the S3 plan from âMetal Gear Solid 2â, but different? Is it called âThe Pointman Protocolâ, or âPPâ? Well, I hope not, because Peepee is that disgusting Asari from the new âMass Effectâ. I think. It does explain the weird hallucinations, since youâre reliving your birth and Alma is trying to make a connection with you. Itâs also good for creating a personal connection with the villain, but itâs done last minute and itâs done so sloppily⌠But this is where good horror movies at the time all needed a big twist or reveal, so they probably wanted to do the same thing here. Itâs not terrible â it just feels vague and last second. Okay, now Iâm gonna trick anyone who skipped spoilers. Shhh⌠How could I know the Replicas were all supposed to be female? Were they bulking? So thatâs it. Thatâs all of âF.E.A.R.â. The main game. We still have two expansions to cover. But first let me tell you about timelines. Monolith made the main game, but the two expansions were made by a company called Timegate Studios, so the expansions âExtraction Pointâ and âPerseus Mandateâ were made by them, but arenât considered canon anymore. But the games and DLC Monolith made are considered the REAL timeline. If you want to sort the games by which character you play as, it gets really confusing. Itâs supposedly went this way because of story contradictions, but I donât remember any, really⌠Iâm pretty sure âPerseus Mandateâ is to blame, and weâll get to that soon. Weâll start off with âExtraction Pointâ, because that was the first one, and itâs my favorite one. Not that garbage. Yeah, here we go! The game starts right where the last one ended. Itâs basically just the next level. But whatâs that? Is that a church? Yeah! Thereâs barely any offices in âExtraction Pointâ. So, right off the bat, itâs not as repetitive as the main game. And because weâre riding off the climax of âF.E.A.R.â, weâre seeing all the good stuff now. The first game built all the subtle tension â this is just more payoff. But itâs more than just a level pack, because thereâs new stuff here, and itâs great. Door-bashing is in, and it makes moving around a lot more fun. They added a sticky turret to your equipment, which is good for hordes of enemies. Like I said, this is all an escalation of the first game, so thereâs way more enemies to fight. A few segments are basically warzones. That might not sound that impressive, but after youâve been fighting around one squad at a time, itâs something new. But when you do return to something like an office, they change things around. REPLICA: "Oh, sh..." [rat-tat-tat, boy] The new weapons are amazing. Now, thereâs only three, including the turret, but the ones they did add were what the game needed. Anyone who played the game and didnât wish for minigun, doesnât know how to have fun. If youâre a weirdo and donât like that, thereâs also a laser. Now, they could have just added these new weapons and been done with it, and people probably would have been happy. But they didnât. The weapons all come from new enemies, so if you want them, you have to beat them. Itâs a pretty cool way of introducing the stuff, since you have to fight against them first. But there are some other new enemies, too. Thereâs a great amount of new variation here, and itâs why I like it more than the main campaign. On top of that, Timegate made some improvements to the AI, the technical graphics and some other aspects. This is âF.E.A.R. Crusader Extremeâ. It amped up everything good about âF.E.A.R.â, while taking away most of what was bad. You can still get similar fights to the first game, but theyâre just improved. The best fights in the series are in this game. Even against the regular enemies. ⪠Think of me ⪠⪠I'll never break your heart ⪠⪠Think of me ⪠⪠You're always in the dark ⪠⪠I am your light ⪠Itâs rougher though⌠If that wasnât enough, not only the action is better than ever, but the horror is also there, too. We have a special guest here to tell us more. [blood-curdling scream breaks the windows] Oh⌠HOLIDAY: "Yeah..." They pull out a lot of new stuff, compared to the first game. Even when they pull a trick youâve seen before, they do a pretty good job at subverting your expectation. The visuals are wilder than ever, and thereâs more and more paranormal stuff thatâs out to kill you. It does lack subtlety, compared to the predecessor, but itâs still a blast to go through. So, âExtraction Pointâ is better in almost every way, except for the story. REPLICA: "What the fuck is that?" Itâs hard to tell whatâs happening. Your mission is to escape, but the background paranormal stuff isnât really explained. It at least built up to something in the first game. That doesnât happen here â it just stays vague. Whatever it is that made Monolith mad... This manâs not canon! Itâs only about 5 hours long, but itâs time well-spent. [punchy shots and car alarms going off] I really, really wish I could end it here. But I canât. I have to talk about this garbage now. U-UGH-H-H-H! ROWDY: âAlright, it looks like thereâs more to this Armacham situation than we thought.â RAYNES: âIsnât there already a F.E.A.R. team on the ground?â Thatâs right, Steve Blum! We donât need to be here! But we will⌠So you and your⌠squad⌠are sent into the city to investigate. The story takes place during the events of âF.E.A.R. 1â, so you know what will be happening. But you are playing as a brand new character, who⌠also has slow-mo? That makes me think⌠The first thing youâll notice is how awful this looks. âF.E.A.R. 1â wasnât exactly throwing up Skittles on Power Ranger dolls, but my God is this grey! Thereâs barely any lighting either, so they really look bad. The previous games used dramatic lighting to hide the shortcomings, but here itâs all over the place. Hereâs a street from the first game. Look at all the lighting. Look at all the stuff around. It looks like a city. Compare that to âPerseus Mandateâ. This looks like a mod. I donât think that building has a texture on it. The game has never looked this bad. And itâs the most recent entry! Everything just has this really cheap feel to it. The buildings outside are already pretty bad, but look at the helicopter itself. Weâve been in nicely lit helicopters before. But not here. Besides looking terrible, itâs making more mistakes right off the bat. The AI was designed to fight against one person very well in very certain environments. Here you find them in more open areas, with two squad mates. Moov! So, everything is the worst until you get separated from them. The first new weapon you find is the grenade launcher, but youâll never want to use it. They have an explosion radius that goes outside the visual effect of the explosion. And the grenades bounce all over the place, so youâll just end up killing yourself most of the time. Itâs not just because I play on the hardest setting. These are one hit kills on any difficulty. The beginning is a slog through cheap assets and those mall cop enemies. Itâs not until you go into a corporate building that things change a bit. CHEN: âGot all your fingers and toes.â RAYNES: âYou did good, sergeant.â Yeah, but theyâre back⌠Itâs amazing how cheap it all is, considering they could have recycled stuff from the first game. But then you fight something new. Theyâre hi-tech mercenaries. They're called the Nightcrawlers? They look like something AMD would put on their graphics card box! Their gun is really disappointing, too. Itâs not a real night vision scope â it just tints your screen red. What a waste! I could forgive all of this, if they at least brought some character. NIGHTCRAWLER: "Ohh..." ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ They donât even scream. It sounds like they bumped their arm on something. NIGHTCRAWLER: "Roger." ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ NIGHTCRAWLER: "Take cover." ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ They donât give a shit. You can call clones a lazy enemy all you want, but at least they have some enthusiasm. Yeah, lab-grown clones are more hyped up about the battle than these guys! The bad guys donât even have Alienwares anymore â they have regular Dell computers! ROWDY: âThe other team has confirmed that the point of Perseus was to train telepathic commanders to work with clone soldiers, soâŚâ The other team confirmed that? I thought we learned that in the intro? I found the final new weapon early on. Maybe this will have some character, or something cool. [zippity-zappity, get off my prahperty] Are you shitting me? Thatâs it? Is this a parody? Aw, fuck⌠So the story is: the mercenaries were paid to break in to the bad guys, to steal some stuff, and⌠we need to stop them. 95% of the game is trudging through boring environments. âF.E.A.R.â had an issue of some boring areas, but at least the story was pushing you forward. Here, itâs nothing, since the intro showed you the answers to all of the mysteries. Some later environments got a lot better out of nowhere, and I was wondering what happened. And then I realized they were levels from âExtraction Pointâ backwards. And on a later level I got an error that I was⌠disconnected from the server. This game doesnât even check if youâre online! I wanted to just stop playing and call it a day, but I saw there was a fix, so Iâd feel guilty if I didnât do it. It really wasnât even worth it. After exploring an underground lab and getting the samples, the ending is just them saying: âGood job, you did it!â RAYNES: âYou did real good, son. Teamâs gonna need a new lieutenant after this.â This was so phoned in. The new enemies Iâve found didnât have good designs, and they broke the âF.E.A.R.â rule of âif you shoot it point blank in the head with the shotgun â it diesâ. These guys donât. So, after four hours of gameplay, was there anything worthwhile? Just a little bit⌠There is a segment when youâre in an underground area. Everything feels like the series again. [the door slams shut] [unexplained racket] Itâs like they remembered how the lighting in this game works. It looks good again. And thereâs creepy stuff down here, too. [ghastly wheezing] Itâs pretty clear where all the effort went. That said, they rely a lot on screamers. [loud, distorted cry] [wailing shatters glass] [loud, distorted screaming] Okay, I get it, hell is loud. They did add an unusual enemy that hides in the floor, but you can see where it hides. [demonic growling] So, for the times you canât just walk around his house, you just pull out your shotgun and dive in. [demonic growling] [*pow*] [*pow*] [*pow*] Come on⌠So, is the playthrough worth it to experience the creative segments? Absolutely not! I canât stand looking at this game anymore, so letâs wrap this up. This game did come with multiplayer, but it died with GameSpy. Itâs called âF.E.A.R. Combatâ, and you can find a standalone version online for free. Itâs competent, but I didnât see anything special in it, like the single-player, so Iâm just gonna leave it at that. One of the things âPerseus Mandateâ did do was bring some updates to the multiplayer, so that might be all it's worth. It was shoved out the door, since the sequel came out 2 years later. But still, that was the same group that made âExtraction Pointâ. Something went wrong. Iâm pretty sure itâs the sole reason the expansions arenât canon, (sadly, this is no longer the case)
but it doesnât matter too much, because if you buy the main game on Steam, you get the expansions for free. Pretty nice! This is an absolute steal for $10, and you should get it. Thereâs never been a better time to play, really. A decade ago, all the fancy effects made systems crawl, but today you can run it really smoothly. It looks great. Do you know any other games where a guyâs dead hand grip can set off a fire extinguisher? I donât. But if you do â please let me know. So thatâs âF.E.A.R.â. By popular demand, âEndless Legendâ is up next. Or âPlanetside 2â, if their game update comes out. Iâm kinda working on both, so weâll see what works out first. Thanks for watching! SERGEANT ZIM: âThe enemy cannot push a button, if you disable his hand.â
FEAR holds up extremely well. The combat is incredibly fun, and its still among the best of its genre. The meaty guns, the gore, the slowmo, the tight spaces create an incredibly fun combination.
I just wish the levels were more interesting, they're really really dull to look at, and they tend to get so repetative that you lose your sense of direction simply because everything looks the same. The actual level design itself is absolutely fine, but I wish the developers came up with more and more creative locations. That being said, it's still up there with the classics, despite that flaw.
I occasionally wonder if we'll ever see a proper sequel to the first game. Hell, I'd settle for a visually upgraded re-release.
Also another highly recommended video about FEAR's level design
Man I really enjoyed the combat in FEAR 1. FEAR 2 was nice, but it felt like a generic shooter. Felt bored. Abandoned it mid-way.
Are there more games like FEAR 1, where you combat with enemy squads, slow careful movement, flanking, and where you don't run and gun?
Is it just me or does it feel like there hasn't been a single game when it comes to an FPS that captures the "gun fight" feeling of FEAR? Recent BF games maybe, but not really...