1 stars (Very disappointing...) - F.E.A.R. was hyped to be one great horror shooter. It delivers some good visuals, good positional audio, but... The story is way too poorly covered to convey any real sense of dread - OK, you're fighting evil, but how and when and why Alma became this evil agent is never really explained - nor is most of the rest of the story. It's doled out piecemeal, as you'd expect with a horror game, but the first 80% of the game has 20% of the story, while the last 20% (when you get to the underground site) has about 40% of the story squished into a small timeframe and area. That's right - 40% + 20 % = 60%. So where is the other 40%? Apparently, hopefully, somewhere in the sequel. The game plays like a cardboard cutout shooter, too. The weapons are wimpy (except one, which has too wide of an area of effect to use it for most of the game). The levels are very drab, run of the mill shooter stuff - big pipes and wooden crates are everwhere. It's also very short, and the ending, because of the story elements left out of the game, comes up very abruptly. This shooter is nothing new...sadly, it's the same old Resident Evil clone, dressed up in a 2004 era engine. 5 stars (Great game, but you will only play it once.) - The storyline is FEAR is genuinely disturbing for the early part of the game, but it is obvious that the developers run out of tricks by level 3... Not to worry though, because the game then goes into John Woo overdrive mode, with over the top gun battles, complete with Matrix style slo-mo and explosions, shattering glass, and enough blood to paint the town red. You also have limited hand to hand combat moves, so you can also take the enemy out with some great kung fu moves (this is recommended for some of the hard to kill baddies, because they will otherwise seriously deplete your ammo). The other really cool thing about this game is the enemy AI. At one point, I knocked over a shelf, thus cutting the path of the AI. I did... Vivendi Universal :: f :: e :: a :: r :: first :: encounter :: assault :: recon :: vivendi :: universal :: games :: kids :: f e a r -firstencounterassaultrecon 18 october :: 200 :: F E A R - First Encounter Assault Recon
Barcode Software/ encounter shareware download trial 
