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Half Life 2 is just a distant memory

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 85 / 114
Date: October 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is one terrific shooter. More involving than half life 2 and I swear the the graphics are at least as good if not better. Certainly, I have never seen better use of lighting or shadows in any game I have played.

FEAR is more linear then Far Cry but much less so then HL2. The story line is suspensfull. At times it can get downright chilling. The combat action is fierce. One of best shooters I have played in several years.

Some folks have complained that FEAR needs a super PC to run decent. I don't know what they are talking about. Yes, it needs a bit more power. I had to turn many of the graphic options to medium. However, I'm running on a rather old PC (slot A Athlon overclocked to 1.1ghz, 512mb of PC100 SDRAM, Radeon 9700Pro at AGP 1X - yes 1X!, 17" LCD monitor at 1024X768). No problem at all running FEAR on this rig and it has half the power of a low end PC today. I guess if your running this at max settings on a 50" monitor, you may have some issues.

There is some bad news. Like HL2, there are 5 CDs to install. Unlike HL2, once the last CD is loaded, you don't have to spend the next couple hours getting "steamed" before you can play.

The game itself runs flawlessly. I have encountered no problems whatsoever - how refreshing.

If you love shooters, I highly recommend FEAR. You will not be dissappointed.

Best FPS Combat I've Ever Seen!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 20
Date: June 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was lucky enough to get the chance to play this game at the E3 2005 conference and I must say that I was completely blown away! Everything positive you've heard about this game is TRUE. Many of the games at E3 were just movies of gameplay (some even pre-rendered movies - Killzone 2 anyone), but I actually PLAYED FEAR myself. Everything that I state below is from my first-hand experience PLAYING the game. No faked demo, just full on gaming goodness!

GRAPHICS:

Screen shots do not do this game justice. If you can find a video of the game, I highly recommend watching it. FEAR must be seen in real-time to be believed! The attention to detail is astounding. All the lights in the environment cast shadows in real time! If you shoot a light it either goes out or swings around realistically flickering on and off and casting MOVING shadows the whole time. This might sound like a small detail, but it really helps to make the environment feel real/dynamic and not static. Also, you can destroy almost all the glass (windows) you see and they shatter realistically (I had a blast just running around shooting the windows). Also the weapon effects are breathtaking! The muzzle flash lights up the world around you and sometimes even the bullet impacts create light flashes...dynamic lighting is very cool! The bullet holes created by shooting the environment are actual holes! Some of the weapons even create big holes in the walls/ceiling/etc.! Also, unlike most FPS there is a lot of smoke/sparks created by the gun fights which makes it very difficult to see the enemies sometimes. This adds a TON to the realistic feel of the combat (which I'll get to next).

Also, there is this very cool bullet-time like mode where you can slow down time. It works just like Max Payne except is WAY cooler as all the weapons create FX like the movie The Matrix so you can see where your bullets are going. This mode is something you just hit a button to activate and it gives you a big advantage over the extremely challenging AI (see below). When in this mode all of the sounds in the game slow down too! Also there is this cool effect where everything looks a little blurred...Hard to explain, but cool as hell!

The environments are very beautiful too. I'm so glad it's in a real-world location and not some lame space station. The level I played felt like a real place...this made the scary moments (encounter with the little girl...see below) all the more scary. The detail was incredible. The bricks on the walls didn't look flat like most games, you could actually see each individual brick had depth! Also the real-time shadows added a ton. You can even see your own shadow! (and legs...it's about time!). This added to the creepy factor a lot as I ran around every once in a while I'd get scared by my own shadow! But you actually get used to it pretty quick (it's hard for me to play Half Life 2 now as I feel like I'm just floating around as a body-less head and arms :)

In other words, this game's graphics engine is second to none, I hope more games make use of it!

COMBAT:

Definitely the thing that sets FEAR above and beyond any other FPS I've ever played (and I've played them all!). The AI is the best I've ever seen! It doesn't feel like you're playing against AI it feels like you're playing against real people! They call out to each other just like real soldiers. If you throw a grenade, the yell "grenade!" and take cover. If you try and circle around them, and one of them sees you they'll say "He's trying to flank." Also, they understand/use the environment in ways I've never seen before. They jump over railings / crawl under pipes, knock over things to give themselves cover, etc. Also, if you're hiding by something, they'll yell to their friends "he's by the pipe" or "he's behind the wall." It really helps to immerse you in the game. Also, they use real-world tactics against you. They won't just rush you like every other FPS AI, where you can just hide around a corner and wait for them to come one at a time into your aim. These guys will wait for YOU to come to them...Or if there's an alternative route (which there usually is) one of them will go around and attack you from behind (so you can't just play the waiting game). In other words, when it's 3 AI against you, just like in real-life you feel like you're a bad @$$ if you beat them all. However, saying all that you should realize FEAR isn't like a tactical-sim (Rainbow 6) game. It has elements of that, but it plays more like Call of Duty or Half Life 2. However, the combat is waaaaay better than either of those games. Seriously, if you like FPSs download the demo and give it a try...you won't be sorry!

STORY:

Everything I stated above is more than enough of a reason to buy this game. However, the thing that I think will make FEAR an instant classic is that it has a very interesting story as well! In the demo I played at E3 not much of the story was explained, but if you look around the web you can find out more about the story. Basically you're part of a group of highly specialized soldiers that is only called in when the situation gets really bad (somewhere I read it's sort of like an X-files SWAT team...or something). In other words when something extra-ordinary (supernatural?) is involved they call in your unit. As far as I can tell the premise of FEAR is that there is some type of super-powerful little girl (sort of like the movie The Ring) that is killing lots of people. However, she seems to appear out of nowhere and can move quickly from place to place, walk on the ceiling, etc....very creepy! Also there is some sort of army of super-soldiers that either she controls or some 3rd group controls (not sure about this one as the information is somewhat sketchy). Anyway, I'm totally convinced the story will be awesome! Monolith (the developer of the game) has always made games with outstanding stories (like No One Lives Forever and Aliens VS Predator 2).

BOTTOM LINE:

BUY THIS GAME! If you like FPS you will be glad you did

Fear is here! Atomizing first person shooter begins a new franchise

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 15
Date: October 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

`Half-Life', `Doom', `Quake', `Farcry' and now `F.E.A.R'. Boasting the new Havoc engine and a story as big as Half-Life 2 it is not hard to see why F.E.A.R is occupying a whole shelf by itself. Sierra has certainly found a new contender that is going to demand some sequels. F.E.A.R is a mixture of all the well loved first person shooter titles, and then some more. You are a member of a tactical recon team pitted against other recon squads that are controlled by a telepathic genetically engineered squad leader. It mostly resembles `Half-Life 1', not `HL2', as the action takes place inside buildings. The new Havoc engine is similar to the Source engine in that most objects in the game are movable and or destructible. There is a higher degree of special effects in such things as bullet impacts, dust effects and blood gushes. The F.E.A.R engine also includes slow motion bullet time effects so you can literally find yourself using a shotgun to blow the enemy into a pile of guts while moving through the spray. The atomizing effects make fighting more furious and certainly creative leaps and bounds ahead of any other game out there. F.E.A.R simply has an astonishingly evolved enemy AI that leaves `HL2' to go pound on sand. The enemy AI is a step beyond `Farcry'... in fact, is a step beyond anything you have seen before. The enemy reacts realistically enough to hide, aim, miss, crawl, limp, walk wounded, shoot you, gang up on you or leap over a stairwell. F.E.A.R now owns the enemy AI market! Sierra delivers on its promises. You will be enjoying hours of going around office floors just blowing everything to dust while the enemy advances. Expect a non-stop running, window splintering, limb flying and cement shattering experience all the way. In terms of scares, `Silent Hill 3' still rules, and `Doom 3' is one big scare-a-thon, but F.E.A.R can compete. Even though it rips off the movie `Ring' completely, and mixes it with dashes of `Resident Evil' the hybrid nature of F.E.A.R being a combination of all the top material does not stop it from being a contender... and that it is... very much so. There is a number of interesting in-game dream sequences that are semi-playable. There are various subliminal ghostly flashes and lots of environmental poltergeist activity. It has a `Doom 3' atmosphere where the story is told by listening to phone messages or downloading vital information from a laptop that is relayed to you `Splinter Cell' style by your advisor on a microphone. Although being a five star experience, this does not necessarily make it the first person shooter replacement by any means. The texture detail, modelling and environments try to compete with Half-Life 2 but HL2 still rules them. F.E.A.R also still resides in the world of button touching puzzles that are easy to understand and beat. It is hardly likely that you will get stuck anywhere or have your brain teased much. The new Havoc engine, for all its glorious special effects (the main reason to play F.E.A.R), can be a demanding game engine like HL2. If you use DirectX 9 then ensure that DirectX 8 shading is turned off (it is automatically on sometimes) or else it will only play with your systems settings and allow you minimum settings. Turn it off and DirectX 9 will allow you to max out even on a 265mb card. The Havoc engine is all about particles and time dilation, and for that it scores in aces. With that said and done F.E.A.R can literally display bullets rippling through the atmosphere. This means that F.E.A.R is a fully fledged Directx 9 first person shooter. The single player campaign is closer to HL1 than any other first person shooter out there (except for Half-Life 2). It has elements of `Die Hard' where you shoot up about a thousand foot soldiers in the Armacham Technology Park buildings. Sweeping through each floor gives it a real recon feel. There is lots of vent crawling and automatic laser dodging to keep you occupied. You can also save wherever you want to save and it is not like the current wave of checkpoint save games that have found their way into mainstream gaming that has drawn so much negative criticism. However F.E.A.R lacks the number of enemies that "HL2" and "Doom 3" have to offer with five or six variations in characters... eeekk, however the animations of these characters are top of the line stuff. Another downside is that the weapons are limited to about six or seven that offer nothing really new, but the machine gun is by far the best any game has had to offer and feels the smoothest of any of the shooters. Instead of using target area pixel sensors, it actually feels like the bullets are moving through the air and impacting with the target. Overall it took me 3 days play to beat the game. That is akin to HL2. Does it beat HL2? Not by a long shot. Does it have anything new to offer? Yeah, heaps! That is why the name F.E.A.R will be household terminology soon enough. F.E.A.R has its power in being the only first person shooter to do slow motion. And for that it is an exclusive smash hit... and yes F.E.A.R rules "Quake 4" that was released at the same time. Q4 is all scripted (no enemy AI) with OpenGL graphics that are not a patch on F.E.A.R - the new DirectX 9 screamer.

Pros:
- Enemy AI is the best ever
- Abundance of frights
- Multiplayer is not bad at all
- One big gunfight from start to finish

Cons:
- Heavy system requirements leave a lot to be desired
- Last scene is terrible!
- Not enough characters.
- The whole game is set indoors.

This thing is awesome. Needs good hardware though

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: November 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

So I am a pathological upgrader. And FEAR was a great excuse to buy yet more hot hardware. The good news is that FEAR is incredible. The less than good news is that on lesser machines, you might not get to see why it is simply so amazing. Even according to the highest end video card manufacturers, this game really pushes the limits of the technology

So now that I've spent way too much on new hardware, FEAR simply blows me away. The behavior of the AI (the enemy soldiers) is simply not to be believed. The developers have made huge strides in creating natural bahavior in software. The guns...my goodness, the guns are simply awesome. Once you get the hang of the slow motion, and decide which of the weapons are your favorites, the weapons are unparalleled with the possible exception of Half Life (Doom 3 has good weapons, but they are slow and always out of ammo). The way the AI react and interact, you feel like you are there sometimes.

As far as the story goes, I didn't totally get it until the second time through. Its a good SciFi yarn actually, would make a decent movie. Now the game isn't exactly frightening, at least not to me. There were a couple of a eerie sequences for sure, and a couple uncomfortable surprises, but basically that was it for me.

However, the action is what its all about. The firefights, the bad guys, the weapons, learning the subtlties of the storyline, more bad guys. I can't say I've enjoyed many games as much as this. Half Life 2 and FarCry are up there as well with games I keep playing and playing. But this one is so organic feeling, like you're in the action with these wierd AI characters.

FYI, when I moved from a Nvidia Geforce 6800 to a 7800GT, the game became totally different. A couple of patches, a bios or 2, and the thing now runs so well, it feels like an alternative world, and less like a game.

FEAR. Truly moving the art form to a new level. Totally awesome

F.E.A.R.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: December 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

FEAR is one of the best FPSs I have played in a while on any system. To start, the game play in FEAR is fast, furious, and most importantly fun. FEAR is an extremely fast paced game. There is constant stream of surprisingly intelligent enemies putting up their best efforts to kill you. And if it was not for the extremely useful slo-mo feature, they would succeed much more often than not. Slo-mo may seem so 1999 but the fact still remains that it is freakin cool in this game. Slow motion enables the player to move at roughly 2x the speed of the enemies, thus gaining an extremely useful edge in combat, or even retreat.

Also in you arsenal are a series of perfectly designed weapons. Every single weapon has its place throughout the game; all the way from the pistol to the rocket launcher. This is not DOOM where you start at the guns with the highest number on the number pad. Every weapon is balanced perfectly and has positives and negatives so there is no super weapon. And following along with the somewhat realist aspect of Halo the player can only hold 3 guns plus an assortment of grenades (proximity, frag, and remote).

Also HALO like is the close quarters combat. The player can bludgeon with the but of a weapon, do a spin attack, a jump attack and a diving attack. All of these attacks so some significant damage. However these moves are more suited towards multiplayer combat as opposed to single player where the tactics are more suited towards staying back and picking the enemies off.

FEAR is also one freaky game. And this is coming from one who sees horror movies and haunted houses as more as jokes. There were multiple times i just went oh @&^$! and jittered a bit. The horror aspects in this game are superbly implemented both through freighting visuals and terrifying audio.

Now to FEARs weakest point: level design. This is where the FEAR team should have taken some lessons from the beautifully laid out corridors of Half Life 2. The levels in FEAR just seem so bland and repetitive. I see the same objects, color palette, and walls all throughout the game (the parking garage segment is a welcome exclusion though). Where the masterfully designed levels of Half Life seem like living and breathing places with realistically places objects, FEAR just seems like a concrete maze with some computers and windows thrown in for good measure. The levels in FEAR just do not seem real. I the middle of a underground bunker there is placed a lone cubicle with a phone and a computer. (???) This seems so fake. Another game that exemplifies excellent level design is SWAT4. There are random, everyday objects placed throughout the levels to make them seem more real; magazines, soda can, papers, all kinds of everyday stuff that goes unnoticed.

Now on to the beautiful, but taxing graphics of FEAR. This is one good looking game, if you have the right system. Yeah, you can run this game on low setting, but it looks horrible. Even on my GeForce 6800 Ultra I can usually only run safely on medium settings. And the time demo used to test settings is completely inaccurate compared to real game play. But with everything turned on high this game looks STUNNING. However, for most it will be a stunning slide show on the majority of computers.

The multiplayer composed of FEAR is a nice addition, but is not the main focus of the game. Once again the poor level design comes into play here and on most maps is seems as if you are a bunch of rats fighting in a maze. The map featured in the multi player demo is one of my favorite maps due to its uniqueness. The slow motion in multiplayer is also integrated very nicely wit h one person, or team holding the slow motion activator that slowly recharges.

Overall, download both the single and multi player FEAR demos to get a taste of what to expect. In general the full game follows the demo experience pretty closely (the full game is hella more scary though and even has some performance enhancements) FEAR is not a HALO or Half Life 2 killer but it is pretty close up there, it is defiantly a game worth buying. The Directors edition even has some insightful extras. It some good stuff. Just go get it.

5 Stars with one BUT

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This was one of those where I found myself up at 2AM trying to get through a portion. Nothing like this since Half Life 2.

The graphics are excellent. The AI is pretty respectable and the gore and effects are beyond belief but not gratuitous. The weapons are slick and the limitation of carrying only 3 leaves you making decisions along the way that affect outcome and ability. There were usually multiple ways of attacking an area if you explored which made for a great strategy angle missing from most shooters. The ability to change difficulty mid-game was a great idea. SLO-MO and LEANING AROUND CORNERS ROCKS!

PARENTS WATCH OUT, there is some seriously foul language that cannot be turned off. A guilty pleasure though as I liked the realism it brought. If someone just lobbed a grenade at me I would probably not say, "Dang! and Gee Whiz"

I LOVED this game and here comes the but...unlike HL2 the story and continuity were lacking. I did not feel drawn into it and at the end I still didn't know quite what they were trying to reveal. They tried to build the story up too much, too shrouded in mystery with many loose ends and incomplete characters. What was with all the answering machine messages? They did nothing for me. Rather than feeling like it was a seemless story line (think HL2), it still felt like a traditional level based game.

In the end though let's face it...I was HOOKED

The New Standard For All Games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: August 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First and most importantly, I would like to say this isn't a game for everyone. Stong language and violence abound here. Violence and blood is important in this game where everything revolves around horror and gun fights, but the language bothered me. I had a hard time with cyborg soldiers dropping the "F" bomb constantly. Luckily, I found a professional swearing edit mod for the game. Even still, this is one of the greatest games ever made. Why is it so good? Here is my rundown:

1- GRAVITY. The game physics feel REAL. If your falling, jumping, running, crouching, shooting or standing still. You can imagine the main character as "actually human." Perfect timing for all actions make controls and game-play smooth. Never do you feel to slow, or to fast. No "smooth walk" like Half Life 2, (which really bothered me) but not too bumpy either.

2- THE ENEMY. The combat is second to none. Arenaline pumping action complete with a "slo-mo" reflexes that only add to the experiance. The advanced A.I. works against you as a team, distracting you while the others come in from behind. Shooting around corners is the best!

3- LIGHTING. Highly detailed shadows create dark and gritty enviornments. Realistic yet frightening in it's simplicity, every room and hallway can make you jump.

4- SOUND. Every gunshot pounds into the floor and every footstep can be heard. Each weapon feels powerful by the sound it creates. (My favortie is the pistol.) The music and effects make the game.

5- DETAIL. Everyone agrees the graphics are outstanding, as long as you have a system to run it properly. (I wouldn't recommend buying this game unless you at least reach the recommended requirments.)

6- FRIGHTENING. Being a fan of everything scary, this game scared me more than any movie has. Its one thing to watch, and another to walk through it. Stopping at every corner and peeking around, waiting for something to happen. You feel safe, then it finally hits you. (The watchers really got to me the first time.)

7- STORY. Very unique and engaging. I had to know what would happen next!

That concludes my opinion one of my new favorite games.
Overall Rating: 9.5/10

CONS---

High system requirments.
Not for the weak of heart.
Cannot play with your family around. Not sutible for young viewers. Not only would it scare them to death, they would freak over the violence. DID YOU JUST BLOW THAT GUY UP? yup. heh...)

(My favorite thing is to throw a grenade torwards a group of enemies, use slow mo and shoot the grenade right when its above their heads. Creates quite a mess, but the hard part is what makes it fun. When you actually pull this one off it makes you feel unstoppable.)

Bad reviewing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 16
Date: October 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Its not helpful when people criticise a game and give it low rankings just because they have video card issues. A learned gamer knows his stuff and stays ahead of the game. If u don't update your video card for more than a year you can't expect it to handle the more demanding newer games. So critique just the game and don't bring us your video card issues because we don't care. The game is very good by the way. Most sophisticated AI i've seen in a game.

Best PC Game to Date (next to Quake 4)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 14
Date: October 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

To say this game rocks would be an understatement. Sure you need a high end video card (GeForce 6800 - 7800 or Radeon X800+) but isn't that what makes us PC gamers? The Graffix are off the hook and the gameplay is amazingly fun. It deos get repetitive but what FPS doesn't? This game will scare you, this game will thrill you, what the hell else do you want!? If you don't buy this game then sell your PC, you don't deserve it!

Definitely Worth Your Time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: December 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is truly awesome. The graphics are incredible, and although they will look better on high-end pc's, they still look excellent on mid-range rigs. The game is also just straight up creepy. Some weird and freaky stuff does occur. One of the best parts about the game is the combat. Its probably the most fun that I've had fragging enemies in a single player game. They are smart and do seem to use pretty good tactics against you most of the time. The enemy A.I. probably surpasses that of Far Cry. Also, the game developers added a nice touch to the game: hand-to-hand combat moves such as bicycle and roundhouse kicks. That adds a whole new element to combat. Also, the sound effects are incredible. Basically everything about this game has been enjoyable. I would highly recommend this game. Keep in mind, however, that the game is also really gory, so it's not for the squeamish.

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