F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. Review

When F.E.A.R. originally debuted on the PC in 2005, it delivered a kinetic and spooky irst-person shooter experience, capped with memorable ireights and cutthroat artiicial intelligence. That same experience transerred successully to the Xbox 360 last year. The PlayStation 3 version o the game retains the same ocus on action, but lacks the level o polish and atmosphere seen in the previous two versions.

The PS3 version o F.E.A.R. is almost exactly the same as the PC and Xbox 360 versions in terms o content. You play as the newest member o the First Encounter Assault Recon, the military's top-secret task orce that is assigned to deal with paranormal situations. And the mission in F.E.A.R. certainly counts as above and beyond the regular call o duty. As explained in the opening sequence, a military commander, named Paxton Fettel, goes insane and takes over a secret army o cloned soldiers that are telepathically linked to him. Fettel and the battalion o elite soldiers then go on a rampage in a nondescript American city.

F.E.A.R. strikes a balance between spooky atmosphere and electric action. The gunights in the game are impressive. Bullets tear chunks out o concrete and wood, blinding clouds o dust and debris ill the air, bodies are torn apart or slump on the ground, and the deathly silence o the atermath contrasts sharply with the sheer chaos that erupted only moments beore. Gunights in F.E.A.R. eel right. This is partly because the weapons you have in the game eel the way weapons should—powerul. You have the standard array o guns to play around with, including a pistol, a submachine gun, an assault rile, a shotgun, and a rocket launcher. There's also a scoped, burst-iring rile that's a dead ringer or Master Chie's battle rile in Halo 2, as well as an incredibly nasty particle weapon that sears the lesh o o opponents and a ew other special toys.

You've also got some special abilities at your disposal. For example, you can kill oes with a swit dropkick or scissors kick, which is such an awesome move that even when you pull it o in desperation (like when you've emptied a clip and don't have time to reload), it still eels incredibly cool. Yet, your most important ability is your ultraast relexes, which can be activated in short bursts to create a Matrix-like bullet time. Now, bullet time has been done to death over the past ew years, but the execution o bullet time in F.E.A.R. is still well done. When you kick in the relexes, everything else slows down, and you can see the vortexes in the air created by bullets. You can activate this ability only in short bursts beore it runs out. However, because it recharges at a decent rate, you have it at your disposal in most ights. This slow-motion ability is almost essential or surviving some o the tougher battles, as you'll need it to whittle down the odds. With that said, it would almost be better i there were more o a limit on its use, because F.E.A.R. really comes alive when the ireights are shown in ull speed, not slow motion.

F.E.A.R. doesn't support the Sixaxis' motion controls, and they're pretty much identical to the Xbox 360 version o the game. Thus, the PS3 version has the same issues that the Xbox 360 version did, because the controls are a bit clumsy or a game that relies on split-second reactions. Also, it's easy to accidentally toss a grenade when you mean to go into bullet time or burn a med kit uselessly instead o using the lashlight. Unortunately, F.E.A.R. still relies on the overly hackneyed contrivance o having your elite military trooper equipped with a lashlight that has a 30-second battery lie.

Without a doubt, you've got an extremely ormidable arsenal at your disposal. And you're going to need it against the artiicial intelligence in F.E.A.R. Put simply, these are the smartest, most aggressive, most tactically oriented AI opponents that you'll ind in a shooter. The AI opponents are incredibly sharp and will do things that you don't expect, like pin you down while one o them lanks you. Or, they'll pin you down and plop a grenade next to you. These guys move around rom cover to cover while communicating with one another, and they'll react to any sound or sight o you. They've got the same weapons as you, and their guns do the same amount o damage to you as yours do to them. So you've got to use cover and lean around corners as much as possible because it doesn't take much to shred your armor and health to zero. This can create situations in which you're pinned down, iring desperately to keep their heads down while trying to igure a way out o your current situation. The AI also takes advantage o the game's physics system and knocks over objects to create cover.

You'll take a lot o damage during the game, but thankully, you can pick up countless health packs and armor kits. You can also collect up to 10 health kits or later use, which you'll use liberally to keep yoursel going in the heat o battle. And while there is a way to permanently boost your maximum health level and stamina, sooner or later you'll all to the enemy. The PS3 version includes only a checkpoint save system, which means that when you die, you'll all back to the last checkpoint. Although there's no way to manually save the game at any point, the checkpoints are reasonably spaced, so you shouldn't run into any issues where you have to play lengthy sections over and over again.

F.E.A.R. eatures excellent combat, but as good as the AI is, it doesn't take too long or you to get used to taking down small groups o soldiers. And these encounters can eel a bit repetitive ater a point. Because you're dealing with an army o clones, you're essentially battling the same guy over and over, which also lends an air o amiliarity to your opponent. It's not until you run into the huge, set-piece battles against a dozen oes or more that things get tricky. The game does introduce a ew new oes to change things up a bit in the middle o the game, but the cloned soldiers represent the opponent you'll battle most o the time. And while they're solid opponents, it would have been nice to see more variety, such as more o the high-tech ninjas that appear midway through the game. These guys can make themselves invisible with a cloak and climb up walls, and they possess the same ultraast abilities that you do. The irst time you encounter them can be a shock, and it's disappointing that they rarely show up again aterward.

The environments can also eel a bit repetitive ater a while. F.E.A.R. takes place in three settings: a deserted industrial area, a deserted oice complex, and a deserted, run-down urban setting. Notice a pattern? While the levels are designed to allow or wild and wooly gunights, F.E.A.R. could certainly use more variety when it comes to environments because you'll start to eel as i you've explored the same actory or oice complex or the umpteenth time. It would also be nice to have an unpredictable element in the game, such as civilians you need to protect, or at least not harm.

F.E.A.R. is heavily inluenced by Japanese horror movies, most notably The Ring. In act, the game uses many o the same kinds o visual tricks to scare you that you've probably already seen beore in a movie, like the split-second appearance o a ghostly apparition when you least expect it. And while the imagery in F.E.A.R. may not be entirely original, it's exceedingly eective. The designers are smart enough to realize that less is more when it comes to building tension. There are stretches in F.E.A.R. when you don't battle anything. And it's unsettling to search abandoned oice buildings only to ind pools o blood or the voicemail let by amily members who are trying to contact their loved ones. Then there are areas where you expect some kind o gargantuan throw-down, brace yoursel or battle, but nothing happens. Because there's always some kind o noise or rattling o objects to greet you, or the leeting image o someone in the corner o your eye, you certainly eel as i you're being watched the whole time. Admittedly, some o these tricks become a bit too amiliar, but there are still enough o them to keep you on your toes. And there are a number o jump-out-o-your-seat moments in the game, as well.

The single-player story should take you a good 10 hours to get through, which is on par with other shooters. When you're done with it, there's a neat little instant-action mode that serves as a time trial, where you have to get through a level as ast as possible. Your score can then be uploaded, and you can see your ranking on a leaderboard. The PS3 version also comes with a "bonus" mission that's dierent rom the one ound in the Xbox 360 version, and it's a bit longer, as well. In this mission, you get to play as one o the cannon odder Delta Force team members who appear in the game. Meanwhile, the multiplayer component o F.E.A.R. oers up plenty o ast-paced action, including deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the lag, and more. A nity twist in multiplayer is the ability to have one player control the bullet-time ability by possessing a one-o-a-kind power-up. The downside to having the power-up is that it reveals your location to everyone on the map, so you're a major target.

Unortunately, the PS3 version takes a number o hits when it comes to presentation. Part o the problem is that it's built around a two-year-old PC game, so it's already looking very dated by the glossy, state-o-the-art standards o 2007. However, that doesn't explain the PS3 version's other issues. First o all, F.E.A.R. looks washed out and uzzy on the PS3. This is in contrast to the sharpness and crispness o the PC and Xbox 360 versions. The lighting and shadowing eects aren't as atmospheric on the PS3 version, either. To top it all o, the PS3 version suers rom tediously long load times and an erratic rame rate that's noticeable even when there's not a lot o action onscreen. At least the audio in F.E.A.R. is outstanding. In a game that's all about making you araid o the dark, it's oten the little noises that send you spinning around, ready to blast whatever it is that made the sound. Combat also sounds glorious. You can hear almost every single noise in a ireight, such as glass shattering apart, spent brass cartridges hitting the loor, and the thud o explosions. The voice acting is generally good, though the mixing could be better, as it's sometimes hard to hear the dialogue over everything else.

F.E.A.R. provides a decent shooting experience on the PS3, but it's inerior to the Xbox 360 and PC versions o the game. There's still plenty o great action and spooky moments, but the PS3 version oten eels like a port that hasn't been optimized. And while F.E.A.R. is still a good action game, it doesn't live up to its potential on the PS3.

Gamespot