Sounds great but has its bugs
On the plus sides it has to be said that the sound is simply amazing. No really, it’s bloody superb. Now of course great sound doesn’t make up for a game’s shortcomings, but if you have played F.E.A.R. before and can hook your PS3 up to a decent surround system you’ll be loving it. The directional sound is spot on and, with the volume whacked up and lights down low, the sound brilliantly sucks you in. In fact, I heard more and had a richer experience with the sound than using a decent set of headphones in the original on my PC.Control of your character is pretty straight forward with the usual joypad rules applying; left stick to move, right stick to aim, triggers to fire etc. But a big omission is any sort of support for the six-axis controller’s motion detection. I’m particularly miffed about this one as melee combat in F.E.A.R. is a powerful and extremely useful option, one which the PS3 version of Call Of Duty 3 used to excellent effect. This is a big missed opportunity as it might have added something new to the game, especially for those who know it already.
I’m trying to find stuff to be positive about and to that end I brought in a neighbour who likes his console shooters, hasn’t played F.E.A.R. before and doesn’t own a PS3... a perfect candidate for some honest testing. After about half an hour’s play we had a quick chat and his views were that it was an enjoyable shooter but once he’d gotten past the graphical improvement over his PS2, he started to wonder why he was playing... he was enjoying himself but at the same time wasn’t sure why he was doing what he was doing... In essence, he had literally lost the plot.
Click for larger imageHe then asked some awkward questions about the graphics, such as why the shadows adhere to such a rigid set of rules. This one puzzled me until we reloaded a level (after a 60 second wait) and he showed me what he meant. It seems a light source has a finite and abrupt cut-off point for where it’ll cast shadows and now he’s mentioned it I see it all over the place. I loaded up the PC version and although it’s there too, for some reason it’s far less noticeable. He also wanted to know why the flash light doesn’t cast shadows... and he’s right, it doesn’t, it just lightens up that area of the screen, like a patterned, mobile gamma increase.
Giving the game some serious playtime, I noticed a fair few bugs which are mainly down to the rigid physics engine from Havok which, given Havok is a such a mature physics toolset, was, again, disappointing. Try shooting a bad guy on the stairs. When dead he’ll go into ragdoll mode and collapse, but if he falls down the stairs he’ll bounce and twitch... if his body lands on the floor and his legs stay on the stairs you might be treated to a little dead-guy leg-jive... which ruins the immersion and reminds you you’re playing a game.
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