| Unlimited Gamer » Reviews » F.E.A.R. Review |
| Review Submited By Staff Member Death God |
F.E.A.R.The only thing to fear is F.E.A.R. itselfWelcome to the sick and twisted world which is F.E.A.R., the game is not something for the kiddies, that’s for sure. This game will put you face to face against swarms of countless enemies and forces of evil of which I could not simply explain to you. The game offers a lot in the short time it takes to play and will without a doubt quench your thirst for blood as you simply put annihilate everything that moves. Though the games graphics are nothing revolutionary they do work well with the Slow-Mo effects. This game is sure to tickle your fancy and scare the average gamer but just doesn’t live up to its hype if you ask me. This game starts you off like a typical action shooter with of course a briefing, though this isn’t your average walk in the park situation, it would seem that some supernatural psycho is feeding on the people in the facility your about to infiltrate, and not only that but this guy has the ability to mentally control the platoons of forces he has with him. After briefing you will be dropped into the action and have to track down this Paxton freak that has been eating people, but there something far greater at work here. If only fighting an army of soldiers was enough you are constantly experiencing horrific events of which typically involve a lot of fire, blood, and freaky little girls. In this game fear is defiantly a factor. However this isn’t just another Doom, signs of that are seen with the advancement of flashlight to gun technology (laughs). From the start of the game you will notice that there is a commanding officer always watching your location via a satellite in the sky(obviously), and will be relaying important information to you in order to conduct your search. Other than that you really have nothing else to help propel the story with exception to the telephone in which case you can use to listen to your messages. Also at the start of each area you will be prompted a general overview of the situation and what you are expected to accomplish while you are on that mission. Lastly the're a few people in the game that you will interact with and most the time, end up chasing them all over the place; they add some more depth to the story and allow for a more realistic take on the game. The games puzzles and task are rather repetitive though, while you will have to do various things to get a door open or get around a turret most the time it’s simply turning off the power or turning a valve to stop the gas flow or water flow. Along the way you will also find plenty of weapons to help your situation and most the time some work better than others to get out of a certain predicaments. The enemies in this game are fast and furious and will do just about anything in their power to take you down. At first these enemies will not seem like such a threat that is until you are faced up against say 5 or more of them, and this is where the A.I. really shines. The elites will do everything in there power to work together to take you down, they will constantly send guys around in different directions in order to catch you off guard and if there is no other path to get to you they will simply throw grenades to flank you out of hiding. Not only that but they will use there surroundings to there advantage by flipping over tables and couches to take cover or hiding behind walls and sticking there guns out to fire. Trust me these guys are not something to take lightly your best chance of survival is to attack them one at a time from a distance and if it comes down to it just shotgun rush them. The graphical look of the game, like I said already is nothing that will completely revolutionize the genre but it does stress the graphics card which is always a sign that good work was put into it. The most impressive aspect about the graphics is when you go into slow-mo mode and how well it is done, considering the array of weapons and the effects of explosions that change with the slow on the physics and the action. The enemy design isn’t anything great either but some of the later enemies are fairly cool looking but defiantly do not have the detail of say Doom 3. You will become very familiar with the environment as they are almost entirely composed of office complexes and warehouses, there isn’t very much originality in your surroundings and that was something that kind of disappointed me. The best part about the game is the physics engine that it runs on and the effects it has on enemies and the environment, just about every gun does something different to an enemy whether it’s the shotgun blowing them 10 feet away or the plasma like cannon that just completely evaporates everything but the enemies bones. The lighting in the game is also noteworthy as you will find lights spinning out of control and darkness suddenly surrounding you; offers some very scary situations. In the game you have a decent selection of weapons, the only pitfall in this is that you can only hold 3 weapons at a time so you really need to balance your priorities in the game, my preference was a shotgun and assault rifle, combo those two with anything else with ammo. You also have some grenades that are well way too much fun, as they completely destroy anything around them and the explosion effect does please. The sounds of the weapons and the grenades are above average and the fact that you go sort of deaf when a grenade rolls by you, does show they put some detail into the sound department of the weapons. The sound of the environments and your surrounding is really on a level of it’s own very much like Doom with ominous voices and screams that will surely stir you from your seat. There is also music in this game unlike Doom, it doesn’t use the environment to play the music but actually ads scary tunes that will change depending on the situation, which can also be used to your advantage. Throughout the game you should really stop to search your surrounding from time to time, though your enemies are fast and without mercy it really pays off to scout around for health packs and various boost packs that allow you to increase your health and your slow-motion duration. I also suggest inspecting your surroundings just for sake of time, as this game will not take you very long at all, I would guess it only took me 10 hours and it might be less than that. However this game does over a very good multiplayer aspect that is just as fast and spectacular as the single player, and the fact that slow-mo is still enabled online is really cool and allows for frantic firefights. Before I wrap this review up however I do need to comment on some things, while this game was getting best in show at E3 and what not things were being said that it was comparable to Half-Life 2 in terms of physics and would really turn up the bar. Turn up the bar however it did not, the game feel short compared to Half-Life 2 physics, though there enemy rag dolling and explosions were worth a head-turn it was nothing compared to the in-depth detail that Half-Life 2 had on it’s physics with the gravity gun and how almost everything in the game had weight and could be moved and stacked. The game as a whole was decent and I enjoyed it for the duration that it took, and look forward to taking the experience even further by playing some capture the flag online. The game was like I said above to short, though and I think we can expect a sequel based on the cliffhanger ending. For those of you that are hardcore first person shooter fans and really need a game to hold you off until Prey then I recommend picking this game up, also look out for Quake 4, I suggest getting both but I favor F.E.A.R. for the fact that Quake doesn’t look like much more of an extended Doom 3. In any case the game was good and I enjoyed it. Final Score - 8.5/10 |
