martok2112
November 7th, 2006, 09:36 AM
VIDEOGAME: F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon)
DEVELOPER: DAY 1 STUDIOS and MONOLITH
PUBLISHER: SIERRA
SYSTEMS: XBOX 360, PC (soon for PS3) (XBOX 360 version reviewed)
RATING: M (MATURE for BLOOD and GORE, INTENSE VIOLENCE, STRONG LANGUAGE)
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 (2 - 16 via XBOX LIVE
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Control: 4.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Endorphin Factor: 5 /5
Frustration Factor: 4/5
Scoring system:
Average: 4.6 /5
GAMES IT COULD BE COMPARED TO: Just about any first person shooter out there...and Resident Evil.
DETAILS: Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame. Those particular titles have been known to invoke chills up people's spines with their moody, atmospheric gameplay. But they're survival horror titles. Before that, a first person shooter like Doom was serving up the scares. Now, the first person shooter genre has done it again with this great game called F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. is more than just the intent of the game, it is the acronym for a special unit (First Encounter Assault Recon) which is designed to deal not only with combat threats, but with the paranormal. In the game, you play a point man for the team (although you go in most of the time on your own....and last I checked, there's no "I" in team). Your mission is to hunt down a telepathic military commander who has taken an army of mindless clones, and started waging a war of terror on your city. By mindless, I do not mean that the enemies you face are dummies. It is simply that as long as he is in control, and alive, you face a fearsome force. But there are more than just meatpuppets that you face....you also face ghostly visages and visions, and confront the dark unknowns, sometimes with only your flashlight to guide you. This adds tremendously to the haunting atmospherics of this game.
You are equipped with the standard accoutrements in terms of weapons... a submachine gun and a pistol. But you also have an advantage over most enemies you will encounter...."heightened reflexes". What this translates to is the "slow-mo" button. When you enter into combat, if you are facing a single enemy or a group of enemies, you can hit this button (left shoulder button by default on Xbox 360). You have a short amount of time to bust the moves on your enemies. What happens is, the world around you slows to almost a crawl...and while you seem to be moving slowly yourself, nothing could be further from the truth. You are in fact moving much faster than your enemies, and you can use this limited time to draw a solid bead on them with your weapons, or maybe you can run up to an enemy and kill him with a swift aerial roundhouse kick. You can also stop the slow mo whenever you want, or just let the meter run out. No worries though, the meter refills (albeit slowly) back to full capacity. Basically, it's like your character is rebuilding his reserves while he continues to fight. As you progress through the game, you'll find health and reflex boosts. These boosts permanently increase your maximum health (in 5 point increments), and your maximum bullet-time (in very small increases). But they are worth it. You can also collect up to 10 medkits to keep on hand for when you start becoming a bullet sponge. The medkits I think only restore about 50 or 60 pts of your lost health. If you are cautious, you can really mitigate the health loss with caution, patience, and strategy.
Enemy A.I. is pretty tough in normal difficulty. They will fall back and take cover when they are engaged. They will hurl grenades to try and flush you out (although you can usually escape their grenades if you are quick enough). They can see your flashlight (which I believe is mounted into your helmet) sometimes if you turn it on at an inopportune moment ,or you can turn the flashlight into a strategic element to lure your enemies toward you....but they won't approach so quickly. They will be cautious. The enemies also seem to have outstanding night vision capabilites, because they can even spot you in shadows a lot of the time.
Your F.E.A.R.-some character can only carry three firearms at any one time....and sometimes you will come across other weapons that seem rather hearty...so you might have to make a decision on which weapon you might want to drop to carry the new ordnance. You also can carry a host of grenades in addition to your maximum 3 weapons.
Graphically, this game is gorgeous. Graphically, it is also GRAPHIC in the violence end.
This game is EXTREMELY bloody...I mean, gory to a deep end. When you shoot up your enemies, you get satisfying sprays of blood bursting out of their bodies. If you have a shotgun, (which like in DOOM becomes your workhorse weapon and bestest buddy) you occasionally dismember, or totally discombobulate your enemies. The shotgun is called a VK-12, and looks very much like a real-world FRANCHI SPAS 12 Automatic shotgun. Grenades and mines will do about the same thing. (I even blasted one enemy with my shotgun at short range, and all that was left was his legs from the calves down, everything else was blown hell-west and crooked). Grenades occasionally obliterate your enemies into a nice red mist.
Profanity is also abundant in this game...and it holds nothing back. But it's really funny when you engage your heightened senses and hear an enemy cry out F*** or Sh** like their voices were slowed down.
Another plus on the graphics end are the "Matrixy bullet time" effects on incoming rounds whenever you use your heightened reflexes. You see the shimmering bullet trails ala The Matrix) and you can easily dodge them...although I don't think you bend over backwards like Keanu "Whoa" Reeves. :D Also, when you get into a firefight, dust flies up EVERYWHERE in the bullets impacts. This creates a great "fog of war" element because you and your enemies mutually obscure each other when exchanging fire. And the dust takes a wee bit to settle. Also, when you fire up your flashlight in these dust clouds, the light goes NOWHERE...just like in a thick fog.
Sounds are ambient, spooky, and sometimes downright unsettling. In between the occasional, mysterious laugh of a little girl, or the haunted voices of people recently deceased, you also end up knocking a lot of things around, and that can be quite disconcerting because sometimes you don't know "what was that noise?"! Many objects in the game world can be knocked around, and some even destroyed (like PC monitors, and TV screens). Probably the only sound I find a little askew is your footfalls as you move. There is a strange rhythm to them, and it just doesn't seem natural.
The story seems pretty good for a science fiction/thriller game. As you go through the game, you might find a phone with a flashing red light. This means that there are messages you can listen to that were left between scientists to help you understand just what is going on in the game. You also will find laptops on occasion. Activate these, and your handler will analyze the data, and give you more explanation of what's going on.
Endorphin factor is the bee's knees in this game. From the spooky ambience, to the satisfaction of seeing an enemy go out in a poof of red mist, and getting to know other weapons in the game, this game had me talking to myself all night. Everything from "Ok, I am officially freaked now", to "I love this gun!"
The frustration factor is not too bad either. You cannot save the game's progress on your own. You have to pass through checkpoints. And sometimes it seems the checkpoints are just a wee bit too far apart....but as long as you exercise patience, cunning, and caution, you'll make it to the next check point, no problem. The environments are also incredibly large, and sometimes it is easy to find yourself running in proverbial circles, losing your bearings and wondering where to go next. Well, as with any game of this nature, if you hear the voices of your enemies, encounter a ghostly visage, or see something you didn't see before, you know you're headed in the right direction.
Multiplayer has the usual roster of game types, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Elimination, Team Elimination, and Capture the Flag. I haven't tried the online element yet. I hope it is as thrilling an experience as the single player game is.
BOTTOM LINE: If you want a first person shooter that really sucks you into its world, and has you telling yourself that you shoulda never played this with the lights out...this is your game. Parents, if you let your kids play Halo, you might want to look into this game a little more in-depth before lettin' the young'n's have at it. :)
DEVELOPER: DAY 1 STUDIOS and MONOLITH
PUBLISHER: SIERRA
SYSTEMS: XBOX 360, PC (soon for PS3) (XBOX 360 version reviewed)
RATING: M (MATURE for BLOOD and GORE, INTENSE VIOLENCE, STRONG LANGUAGE)
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 (2 - 16 via XBOX LIVE
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Control: 4.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Endorphin Factor: 5 /5
Frustration Factor: 4/5
Scoring system:
Average: 4.6 /5
GAMES IT COULD BE COMPARED TO: Just about any first person shooter out there...and Resident Evil.
DETAILS: Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame. Those particular titles have been known to invoke chills up people's spines with their moody, atmospheric gameplay. But they're survival horror titles. Before that, a first person shooter like Doom was serving up the scares. Now, the first person shooter genre has done it again with this great game called F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. is more than just the intent of the game, it is the acronym for a special unit (First Encounter Assault Recon) which is designed to deal not only with combat threats, but with the paranormal. In the game, you play a point man for the team (although you go in most of the time on your own....and last I checked, there's no "I" in team). Your mission is to hunt down a telepathic military commander who has taken an army of mindless clones, and started waging a war of terror on your city. By mindless, I do not mean that the enemies you face are dummies. It is simply that as long as he is in control, and alive, you face a fearsome force. But there are more than just meatpuppets that you face....you also face ghostly visages and visions, and confront the dark unknowns, sometimes with only your flashlight to guide you. This adds tremendously to the haunting atmospherics of this game.
You are equipped with the standard accoutrements in terms of weapons... a submachine gun and a pistol. But you also have an advantage over most enemies you will encounter...."heightened reflexes". What this translates to is the "slow-mo" button. When you enter into combat, if you are facing a single enemy or a group of enemies, you can hit this button (left shoulder button by default on Xbox 360). You have a short amount of time to bust the moves on your enemies. What happens is, the world around you slows to almost a crawl...and while you seem to be moving slowly yourself, nothing could be further from the truth. You are in fact moving much faster than your enemies, and you can use this limited time to draw a solid bead on them with your weapons, or maybe you can run up to an enemy and kill him with a swift aerial roundhouse kick. You can also stop the slow mo whenever you want, or just let the meter run out. No worries though, the meter refills (albeit slowly) back to full capacity. Basically, it's like your character is rebuilding his reserves while he continues to fight. As you progress through the game, you'll find health and reflex boosts. These boosts permanently increase your maximum health (in 5 point increments), and your maximum bullet-time (in very small increases). But they are worth it. You can also collect up to 10 medkits to keep on hand for when you start becoming a bullet sponge. The medkits I think only restore about 50 or 60 pts of your lost health. If you are cautious, you can really mitigate the health loss with caution, patience, and strategy.
Enemy A.I. is pretty tough in normal difficulty. They will fall back and take cover when they are engaged. They will hurl grenades to try and flush you out (although you can usually escape their grenades if you are quick enough). They can see your flashlight (which I believe is mounted into your helmet) sometimes if you turn it on at an inopportune moment ,or you can turn the flashlight into a strategic element to lure your enemies toward you....but they won't approach so quickly. They will be cautious. The enemies also seem to have outstanding night vision capabilites, because they can even spot you in shadows a lot of the time.
Your F.E.A.R.-some character can only carry three firearms at any one time....and sometimes you will come across other weapons that seem rather hearty...so you might have to make a decision on which weapon you might want to drop to carry the new ordnance. You also can carry a host of grenades in addition to your maximum 3 weapons.
Graphically, this game is gorgeous. Graphically, it is also GRAPHIC in the violence end.
This game is EXTREMELY bloody...I mean, gory to a deep end. When you shoot up your enemies, you get satisfying sprays of blood bursting out of their bodies. If you have a shotgun, (which like in DOOM becomes your workhorse weapon and bestest buddy) you occasionally dismember, or totally discombobulate your enemies. The shotgun is called a VK-12, and looks very much like a real-world FRANCHI SPAS 12 Automatic shotgun. Grenades and mines will do about the same thing. (I even blasted one enemy with my shotgun at short range, and all that was left was his legs from the calves down, everything else was blown hell-west and crooked). Grenades occasionally obliterate your enemies into a nice red mist.
Profanity is also abundant in this game...and it holds nothing back. But it's really funny when you engage your heightened senses and hear an enemy cry out F*** or Sh** like their voices were slowed down.
Another plus on the graphics end are the "Matrixy bullet time" effects on incoming rounds whenever you use your heightened reflexes. You see the shimmering bullet trails ala The Matrix) and you can easily dodge them...although I don't think you bend over backwards like Keanu "Whoa" Reeves. :D Also, when you get into a firefight, dust flies up EVERYWHERE in the bullets impacts. This creates a great "fog of war" element because you and your enemies mutually obscure each other when exchanging fire. And the dust takes a wee bit to settle. Also, when you fire up your flashlight in these dust clouds, the light goes NOWHERE...just like in a thick fog.
Sounds are ambient, spooky, and sometimes downright unsettling. In between the occasional, mysterious laugh of a little girl, or the haunted voices of people recently deceased, you also end up knocking a lot of things around, and that can be quite disconcerting because sometimes you don't know "what was that noise?"! Many objects in the game world can be knocked around, and some even destroyed (like PC monitors, and TV screens). Probably the only sound I find a little askew is your footfalls as you move. There is a strange rhythm to them, and it just doesn't seem natural.
The story seems pretty good for a science fiction/thriller game. As you go through the game, you might find a phone with a flashing red light. This means that there are messages you can listen to that were left between scientists to help you understand just what is going on in the game. You also will find laptops on occasion. Activate these, and your handler will analyze the data, and give you more explanation of what's going on.
Endorphin factor is the bee's knees in this game. From the spooky ambience, to the satisfaction of seeing an enemy go out in a poof of red mist, and getting to know other weapons in the game, this game had me talking to myself all night. Everything from "Ok, I am officially freaked now", to "I love this gun!"
The frustration factor is not too bad either. You cannot save the game's progress on your own. You have to pass through checkpoints. And sometimes it seems the checkpoints are just a wee bit too far apart....but as long as you exercise patience, cunning, and caution, you'll make it to the next check point, no problem. The environments are also incredibly large, and sometimes it is easy to find yourself running in proverbial circles, losing your bearings and wondering where to go next. Well, as with any game of this nature, if you hear the voices of your enemies, encounter a ghostly visage, or see something you didn't see before, you know you're headed in the right direction.
Multiplayer has the usual roster of game types, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Elimination, Team Elimination, and Capture the Flag. I haven't tried the online element yet. I hope it is as thrilling an experience as the single player game is.
BOTTOM LINE: If you want a first person shooter that really sucks you into its world, and has you telling yourself that you shoulda never played this with the lights out...this is your game. Parents, if you let your kids play Halo, you might want to look into this game a little more in-depth before lettin' the young'n's have at it. :)