F.E.A.R. (FIRST ENCOUNTER ASSAULT RECON)

I played this game ages ago around the time it came out and had forgot about it until I picked up a second hand copy recently. F.E.A.R. is an exceptionally fun and simple game that is peppered with horror elements but plays as a First Person Shooter. Now I know what many of you are thinking, how is it possible to have a FPS horror game? Doom 3 was presented with similar questions one year prior back in 2004. Surely a run and gun game just can't be scary, well it depends how it's executed. If I'm going to be brutally honest, Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. just weren't scary for me, sure the atmosphere may have been there in some instances and there were a few jump scares but you can't merit a survival horror game on jump scares alone. Plus if there's one thing I can never get my head around in horror games and most games it's mute protagonists! Doom 3 was a fun game and the incorporation of darkness added a thin veil of horror but ultimately failed and now I only play it for the fun and gunning down demons. F.E.A.R. again works with the darkness element and the paranormal idea and executes it well at times but still doesn't hit that button that I'm looking for. Touching on the mute protagonist aspect again, it frustrates me to no end when your support character is wondering what's going on and you know but can't tell them simply because of your fear of public speaking! This happens more than it should throughout the game and always seems to throw up a barrier between me and the game making me never fully immersed in the world.

Now don't get me wrong, F.E.A.R. is a fun game with some interesting ideas, the gameplay and bullet time mechanic is surprisingly awesome and never gets old. Your player has the super human ability to slow down time briefly allowing you to run and gun down your enemies with a flurry of bullets or grenades if you prefer. Since picking up the shotgun I never use any other gun in the whole game simply because it's the best weapon for bullet time kills. At times I'll shoot so many people that all the blood spray actually inhibits me from seeing what I'm doing! There's a handful of firearms ranging from pistols to machine guns but I'll always come back to old faithful. Most of the game you will spend pursuing you supernatural target Paxton Fettel who using a hive-mind like control has taken control of a small army and is wreaking havoc on the city. As a F.E.A.R. operative it's your job to find and eliminate Fettel and uncover the truth behind any sinister supernatural plots you may stumble across. The transition between the action and the horror elements is perfect, keeping you on your toes at all time because you never know what's going to be round the corner. Generally the scares include you glimpsing something disappearing or the occasional sight of Alma, the mysterious little girl who relentlessly haunts the protagonist. Unfortunately for me these horror set pieces don't come often enough and I would have liked to see more of them throughout the game.

While I commend F.E.A.R. for trying to be a FPS horror game it just doesn't execute as well as it could've been. I read a few notes from the developers who said that they were trying to subtly bring the horror element into the game without too many repetitive jump scares, which is good but they ended up going too light. Much like Doom 3, a game becomes less scary the more you play it and you become used to its mechanics and that's exactly what F.E.A.R. does. The game doesn't keep me guessing but instead makes me just move through area after area with no interest at all. Like I said earlier it's a fun game but what the developers did just isn't enough to really immerse you in the world which is unfortunate given the games potential. Having not played the second or third installment I'd be interested to see how they progressed in gameplay and if they are a little more true to the FPS horror genre. Maybe I just can't get my head around the mute protagonist aspect but it really does let the game down. The other thing that confuses me a little and is clearly summed up in the title of the game; is this assault or recon? The game honestly doesn't know it wants to be at times. There is certainly little to no recon and if push comes to shove I'm always going to choose the assault option because it's more entertaining. When a game loses me a little over half way through simply because it's getting too repetitive I think there's something wrong. The ideas and elements are great but the just need a little fine tuning and you could have a solid horror based shooter. If you're looking for a fun game that offers some interesting ideas and just to pass the time then I'd give F.E.A.R. a go!

Genre: FPS 

Platforms: PC, PS3 & 360

Score: 8.2 / 10