rogue paramilitary force infiltrates a multibillion-dollar aerospace compound, takes hostages but issues no demands. The U.S. government applies special forces, but they're inexplicably wiped out, and security cams in the building show only formless waves of destruction violently gutting soldier after soldier. The last line of defense, a special elite ops unit known as F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is assembled to evaluate the threat and neutralize the paramilitary elements with extreme prejudice.
F.E.A.R. is an action game from the developers of No One Lives Forever (a much-lauded 007-styled first-person shooter) that integrates survival horror elements with first-person-shooter gameplay, depositing players in the role of a freshman F.E.A.R. operative who begins on his team's periphery and eventually becomes the flashpoint for the narrative's many enigmas. Following traditional FPS guidelines, players take control of a nameless (faceless, voiceless) gun-toting soldier and follow a linear path through a dozen-plus levels, using F.E.A.R.'s many ballistic or incendiary weapons to pick off (or pulverize) hundreds of moving targets.
In F.E.A.R. those targets employ advanced A.I., allowing them to "adapt" dynamically to combat variables, such that replaying a given situation 10 times will typically result in 10 different behavioral outcomes. To kill them, the F.E.A.R. team uses pistols (one- or two-handed), submachine guns and several types of grenade. Unlike other FPSs, F.E.A.R. allows just three weapons to be carried at a time, forcing players to juggle statistics like rate of fire, effective range, armor penetration, etc. Special powerups like reflex and health packs will permanently boost stats, and replenishing supplies such as body armor and medkits are distributed around each level.
Hand-to-hand is also built into the interface: punching, bludgeoning (with a weapon), roundhouse kicks, side kicks and forward jump kicks are executed using keyboard-mouse combinations. When things get tough, players have a superhuman talent unique to their character, a "slow motion" mode referred to by the game as "your special ability": Hitting left-Ctrl decelerates the game to a crawl for a select period of time, leaving you free to move at regular speed. Multiplayer supports up to 16 players online with several game modes, including standbys like Capture the Flag, Team and standard Deathmatch or Elimination, but also "slomo" variants that require players to find and hold onto the "reflex booster" powerup (and use it to move twice as fast as everyone else) for as long as possible.
A smart one-trick thriller
If anyone says, "The only thing to fear is F.E.A.R. itself," the stuffed animal gets it with one of these N6A3 frag pineapples. OK, calm down, I'm putting Mr. Fluffy back on the shelf. The phrase is (however embarrassingly) apt, after all—this is one of the scariest shooters I've played in a long time. But let's real quick define scary (hint: I'm not thinking Doom 3).
There's "turn out the lights and go BOO!" or "Oh look, it's a bunch of flesh-ravaging cacodemons from hell!" scary. Then there's fingernails on the blackboard in a darkened classroom (not from a hand) ... with something tapping on the window outside (not a tree branch) ... and something whispering just behind your ear (not a person). F.E.A.R. is of the latter stripe, a psycho-thriller whose tale—though hardly inventive in the final telling—is downright creepy fun while playing out. The ending is predictable, but after decades of this stuff, is it even necessary to point that out?
First-person shooters are just tactical situation simulators broken into hundreds of micro-events. You walk into an area and something happens—usually something designed to harm (decapitate/possess/eviscerate) you. How you react to it tactically with the tools you've been given determines whether you move on to the next situation or try again. F.E.A.R. employs one thing that helps it beat formula: a visibly bright tactical AI. Your opponents are crack paramilitary cookies. They will communicate with each other (you can hear all of this, which is simultaneously cool and too "brain-on-sleeve"), advance in formation, retreat, call for reinforcements, and then they'll do really gonzo stuff, like shove shelving around to use as cover or dive through glass into a side office to get out of your line of fire. A few times I even spotted one going belly-flat and crawling under boxes to get to safety. Multiplayer smart? No, and to maintain reason, a lot of this turns out to be show and not tell. The AI spends so much time doing its "look, I'm brainy!" tap dance that it often gets caught "over-thinking," making it easy headshot prey (one-bullet kill).
Otherwise the game looks and handles like a Ferrari, and at highest settings trumps even Doom 3's unattainable "high quality" mode (the performance penalty is smaller here, but you'll still need God's own dream machine to run it). It's also easy to confuse the stunning "slo-mo" mode's special effects with the rest of the game's drab, uninspired and maddeningly repetitive interiors when considering the visuals. F.E.A.R. is full of style and tactical excellence, but (hey, surprise) comes up a little short on variety and substance. Still, it has enough "holy (bleep)" moments to justify a buy. Turn out the lights, kick up the surround sound, and keep an extra pair of Hanes handy.
If F.E.A.R. had included a little more Deus Ex or System Shock, it might have been extraordinary. As it stands, it should please fans of disturbing movies like The Ring just fine.
—Matt
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