F.E.A.R. is one of those games that you love at first and then start to hate but you tough it out and it ends up being an enjoyable experience. The backstory of the games protagonist, the Point Man also known the mute karate kicking FEAR operative for you Yahtzee fans, is told in the games manual. Unfortunately, I bought this game used and the manual wasn?t in the case. What I get from the story is that some guy with telepathic powers have taken control of a small army of clones and kills the entire occupancy of a the ATC building and you have to stop him. All the levels are primarily consists of corridors filled with cannon fodder that lead to a switch to open a gate that leads to another corridor of enemies to kill.
Medkits are placed about every twenty or so feet and you can carry up to ten. Armor is placed sporadically through out the game but when you find some it means something big is typically coming your way.
Weapons are based off real guns like the HK .45 pistol and HK MP5 but also include various fictional weapons like plasma rifle that burn enemies flesh off leaving only their skeleton. This brings me to something that I find seriously annoying with this game. Gunsmoke. Now, I own guns, fire guns, and all that and never have I every experienced a shotgun leaving a cloud of smoke after firing only three shots. I get that Monolith was making a atmospheric shooter but for fuck sakes gunsmoke isn?t really a problem with modern weapons. Hell, even the plasma based weapons have smoke. Melee combat is included which makes killing enemies insultingly easy. Which brings me to another point, killing enemies with certain weapons is hit or miss, no pun intended. The shotgun is your best friend in this game cause just about every enemy dies after getting hit with on shell. I've shot numerous enemies across large rooms and got a kill with the shotgun.
One thing I can?t get over is that the character models look recycled from the original Half-Life, another game published by Sierra, just with a different paint job. Even the shadows of the characters look recycled. Enemies consist of the cloned soldiers and ATC security officers as well as mech suits and what look like Samus? biggest sister. Allied characters are Delta Force soldiers but they only serve as allied cannon fodder and are in very few levels, mostly at the beginning.
FEAR was ported to the PS3 early in it?s life and it really, really shows. Loading times are horrendous. The progress bar fills about 20% and stops so long that you think the damn game froze before continuing to load 20 seconds later. Framerate issues are everywhere, and they?re particularly bad in the middle of the game.
The problem aren't enough to make the game unplayable, unless your a perfectionist ****, but if you have a PC that can play it then go with that version. And the Xbox 360 version isn't too much better than the PS3 version.
Medkits are placed about every twenty or so feet and you can carry up to ten. Armor is placed sporadically through out the game but when you find some it means something big is typically coming your way.
Weapons are based off real guns like the HK .45 pistol and HK MP5 but also include various fictional weapons like plasma rifle that burn enemies flesh off leaving only their skeleton. This brings me to something that I find seriously annoying with this game. Gunsmoke. Now, I own guns, fire guns, and all that and never have I every experienced a shotgun leaving a cloud of smoke after firing only three shots. I get that Monolith was making a atmospheric shooter but for fuck sakes gunsmoke isn?t really a problem with modern weapons. Hell, even the plasma based weapons have smoke. Melee combat is included which makes killing enemies insultingly easy. Which brings me to another point, killing enemies with certain weapons is hit or miss, no pun intended. The shotgun is your best friend in this game cause just about every enemy dies after getting hit with on shell. I've shot numerous enemies across large rooms and got a kill with the shotgun.
One thing I can?t get over is that the character models look recycled from the original Half-Life, another game published by Sierra, just with a different paint job. Even the shadows of the characters look recycled. Enemies consist of the cloned soldiers and ATC security officers as well as mech suits and what look like Samus? biggest sister. Allied characters are Delta Force soldiers but they only serve as allied cannon fodder and are in very few levels, mostly at the beginning.
FEAR was ported to the PS3 early in it?s life and it really, really shows. Loading times are horrendous. The progress bar fills about 20% and stops so long that you think the damn game froze before continuing to load 20 seconds later. Framerate issues are everywhere, and they?re particularly bad in the middle of the game.
The problem aren't enough to make the game unplayable, unless your a perfectionist ****, but if you have a PC that can play it then go with that version. And the Xbox 360 version isn't too much better than the PS3 version.
