F.E.A.R – The Ultimate FPS Thriller 20 Years On!

Introduction

F.E.A.R. is a first-person shooter, horror thriller and close-quarters combat game by Monolith Productions, with its expansions Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate developed by TimeGate Studios. Thanks to your near-supernatural reflexes, you’ve been selected for the First Encounter Assault Recon unit, highly trained to deal with dangerously paranormal situations.

The thing is, even though you’re highly trained for exactly that sort of scenario, it seems that your mission to capture a psychic paramilitary commander is an experience that will push you to your limits and get under your skin…

This review covers the F.E.A.R. Platinum release available through GOG – the main game and its two expansions – without major spoilers.

First Encounter

As a FPS game, F.E.A.R. has most of what you’d expect from a selection of weapons (of which you can hold only three different weapon kinds) and grenades, a variety of enemies, and lots of encounters to test your wits. In addition, there are health kits to restore your health, and you can hold up to ten of them, plus armor pickups strewn about that fix a limited amount of protection – this means it’s possible to run out of armor with no way to replenish it. Sometimes you may be accompanied by friendlies, but usually you are alone against entire squads. Often, you’ll go through dark areas that require your flashlight to be on. The gameplay’s most defining feature is Slow Mode, which slows time to a crawl and allows you to tap into your reflexes and pull off amazing ‘bullet time’ maneuvers, but once it runs out, you have to wait for ‘slow mode’ to charge up.

One of the main things that sets F.E.A.R. apart from other FPS games is its focus on close-quarters combat with actually competent enemies. The bad guys not only rarely miss their chance to take significant chunks of your health off as you emerge out of cover, but they also try to flank you, or flush you out with grenades. In a large area, they’ll move around in an attempt to surround you, or to land a surprise hit and take off your precious health – so don’t be surprised if you eat lead in a room you thought was cleared. And sometimes, they may even catch you unaware in an ambush.

Something’s not right…

The other thing that makes F.E.A.R. such a unique game is its style of horror. It’s not the kind to always be in your face, or resort solely to cheap jump scares, but it chooses to go for keeping you on edge, and messing with your mind. Your equipment may receive unknown paranormal signals for no discernible reason. You might see an entity look at you through a window and then vanish without a trace, or witness a light bulb burst for no reason. But then you might see signs of a bloody struggle stretching through several hallways and rooms, culminating in one large blood bath.

You might even end up in flashbacks of unpleasant events you don’t remember being part of. Besides all of that, not only is the psychic commander – Paxton Fettel – creepy on his own, there’s also someone else even worse than he is. And you could learn even more about what’s going on or how everything ended up as it is by seeking voicemail messages or laptops containing information about the threats you’re dealing with.

Both of the psychological horror and intense gun-play is underscored by an excellent soundtrack that sets the mood, from tense and ominous to grand and bombastic. Rarely is there a silent moment in the game, and you know that something’s about to go wrong when it’s quiet.

In Conclusion

Games with the blend of intense combat through tight, almost claustrophobic rooms and oppressive horror that F.E.A.R. has are few and far between – and this is one of the best, if not straight up the best one. Even when you complete the main game, the expansions don’t disappoint as they build up on the game’s events and main beats, with a new arsenal of weapons and baddies. For a two-decades-old game that’s often seen on discount for $1.99 on GOG, you could easily get 20 to 25 hours of action, horror, and a story that keeps you emotionally invested in its world from the first moments.

We do recommend downloading the actively developed Echo Patch to further modernize F.E.A.R. with better HUD scaling for HD/4K screens and other optimizations if playing on PC.

For another FPS game with its own style, see our review of XIII, the comic book shooter!
Or how about And All Would Cry Beware, the surreal metroidvania shooter?

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