Not Quite as Haunted but still a bit spooky
Whilst the basic gameplay is very much the same as every other FPS out there, the actual implementation is pretty damn good. It’d be unfair to penalise F.E.A.R. for not bringing anything new to the genre in the actual gameplay mechanic and far fairer to say that you can do everything you’d expect to do in a modern FPS. There’s a zoom/aim mode on all weapons, walk and crouch are toggleable, you can lean around corners, throw grenades without having to switch weapons and there’s the now obligatory bullet time mode too.
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Click for larger imageSo F.E.A.R. offers nothing special in that department but it has to be said it does do it well. I’ve given it an extensive playtesting and I’ve yet to find any invisible walls preventing me from going into certain areas though I have to say that the blocking a door with boxes way of keeping you in an area is starting to wear a little thin. I’m a tooled up superhuman ass-kicking foot soldier and I can’t barge a door open? Still, at least it’s better than not being able to hop over a two foot high wall as in some other FPSs.
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Click for larger imageWhere F.E.A.R. does excel though is in the atmosphere of the game which it does superbly with several set pieces, all of which are brilliantly placed to get your nerves jangling. It looks as if Monolith have spent a lot of time watching Japanese horror movies, which rely on your imagination to create the real horror, and Monolith have done a much better job of translating this into their game than Western filmmakers have with their frankly poor remakes. I thoroughly recommend playing F.E.A.R. with the lights off, the surround sound on and the house nice and quiet… Just the first few levels should freak you out enough to give you an idea of what the game’s all about.
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Click for larger imageThe pacing of these sections is timed just right but it has to be said that the game feels much creepier and scarier in the early levels than later on. Perhaps it’s because it’s all new at first and then later on you’re used to it, but I found the game less scary the further in I went. It was a shame to see some set pieces lifted straight from Half Life, such as a scientist being devoured by something in an air vent before being spat out, but this was countered the random and totally unexpected appearances of the little girl. Perhaps Monolith should have focused more on those rather than going for some gore moments too… let’s face it, there’s not much gore in the original Japanese ‘The Ring’ but it’s a film full of shocking moments. So if there’s a sequel to F.E.A.R., which I hope there is, let’s have more scare and less blood eh?
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