The following sentence is one I’ve heard more than I would prefer: “have you played F.E.A.R.? Oh man, you’d love it!” Which turned out to be true, but I knew I would eventually get to it… that’s why I never got to it. Odd logic, I know, but one that eventually led me to this title after I heard of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin‘s release.
F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) encompasses the madness surrounding technological advances in warfare. What makes this tale so interesting is the paranormal quality it keeps. Even more interesting than THAT is how this particular quality bubbles throughout the game while keeping you distracted with disappearing people, blood and Replica super soldiers under control by the telepathic powers of Paxton Fettel, a military commander. Fettel is your primary objective, finding and neutralizing him after he escaped imprisonment is what that objective entail. It would not be wise to let a telepathic people-muncher run around when he controls a battalion of specially trained clones. That’s just silly.
As if that weren’t enough, you have little girl walking around being all spooky trying to give you the willies.
While wandering the dark halls of Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) H.Q. you can look forward to being tossed into hallucinations, hearing voices and taking a stab at not dying. But you, the F.E.A.R. “point man,” have a doozy of a power on your side: highly reactive reflexes. Meaning “bullet time,” “slow-mo” or “tearin’ shit up!”
Sometimes the right shot can cause Replicas to explode in a cloud of bloody mist, sending unidentifiable body parts to to the other side of the room.
As you find out more and more about Project Origin, the whole reason all this shit is going down, hallucinations will become more and more intense. You find out more about the events that took place through downloading data from laptops, listening to voicemail and taking whatever can be taken from the visions undergone along the way.
The weaponry has its pluses, my personal favorite was the Type-7 Particle Weapon (checkmate!) along with the the staple of my FPS endeavors, the trusty Shotgun. All of the weapons are pretty fun when you’ve got slow motion to aid you in clearing a room of goons. The environments were repetitive, but that’s to be expected from a soulless Corporate testing facility. I wasn’t too impressed with the graphics until I realized the potential of Point Man’s reflexes. Once again proving graphics don’t necessarily make the game.
The ending, without going into a lot of detail, is a mindfuck. Just know that shit will indeed be going down, and it involves past hallucinations… or what were thought to be hallucinations. There are so many details I wouldn’t feel right about spoiling. F.E.A.R. is a game you need to man-up and play through, it’s as simple as that.
The Perfect Setting for Playing F.E.A.R.
(1) No Lights
(2) Big Screen
(3) SFX & Talking up, Music down
[You’ll need to hear things to figure out what’s going on]
(4) Just You and the Game
(5) Comfy Chair or Couch
(6) Getting Brain
[thus, negating 4 if you can make it happen!]
