Amazon.com: F.E.A.R. Director's Edition: PC: Video Games

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars F.E.A.R., December 16, 2005

By	Victor W. Michnowicz (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

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.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Game of the year by far., December 9, 2005

By	Gareth Mc Bride (Lynnwood, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Believe the hype, F.E.A.R. is the best game of the year hands down. It is enthralling mix of adventure, horror, and action not only makes it in a league with Half Life 2, it sets the bar high for future 3D shooters to aspire to. Players take on the persona of the point main for an elite team know as First Encounter Assault Recon or F.E.A.R. Tasked with locating and eliminating a dangerous killer know as Paxton Fettel who is controlling a very large force of clone super soldiers in an office complex.

With the assistance of your team leader via radio link, players enter an industrial complex and soon find themselves in a pitched and sustained series of encounters against the soldiers under Fettel's command. Further complicating the mission is the appearance of a spectral vision of a young girl who often leaves a path of carnage in her wake. The eerie visions that appear only to vanish throughout the game only adds to the tension which really helps immerse players into the action. The weaponry of the game includes the standard machine guns, nailguns, shotgun, pistol, rocket launcher and energy weapon which are common in shooters, but F.E.A.R. decides to give it a nice twist. Aside from grenades and medkits, players can only carry three weapons at a time. So, while you may locate powerful weapons in game such as the energy weapon and rocket launcher, players must decide if they want to hold onto them when the ammo runs out, or forgo other weapons in the hope of locating more ammunition. I addressed this by saving two powerful weapons and swapping out my other weapon as was needed. For example, when my machine gun ran dry, I dropped it in favor of the shotgun or other class of machine gun that was plentiful. This was often determined by what my enemies were armed with as after dispatching them, I found it a good idea to stock up with whichever ammunition and weapons were most plentiful. While your array of weaponry is impressive, it is your ability to briefly slow down time and move at an increased rate of speed that is often vital to winning a battle against overwhelming odds. This is a very important feature as the game is at times a real challenge and the enemy A.I. is the best in any shooter to date. In one segment, I decided to bounce a grenade off the wall and take out a group of enemy soldiers.

This plan worked great until one of the soldiers pulled a metal cabinet from the wall and used it as a shield against the grenade blast. As the game continued, A.I. controlled soldiers knocked over desks and tables as shields, jumped through street level windows, as well as ducked behind walls to avoid incoming fire. As if this was not enough of a challenge, they would also reach their weapons over objects and fire without presenting a clear target for me to engage.
As the game progressed, the enemy became increasingly crafty and the story became deeper and deeper. Various ethereal segments also arose where in the midst of a dream like state; I had to battle demons mid segment. This was a different touch as I am sure many players would be caught off guard watching the segments rather than preparing to fight. The game is broken down into 11 Intervals or chapters though certain intervals had more than one segment to them. The variety of locales was also impressive as everything from office complexes, to labs, parking lots, and apartments were present and the games physics engine allowed me to interact with numerous map objects from security gun mounts, power switches, valves, phones and much more. A nice touch were the news reports that came in as my players passed radios that informed him of what was happening in the world around him and how the media was covering the events that were occurring in game.

Graphically the game is amazing. From the most luxurious of offices to the slums of an abandoned building complex, the detail level was accurate giving the illusion of being in the game. The smoke and warping effects from grenades as well as the tracer rounds from weapons gave a nice sense of realism. It was tempting at times to just stop and look at the surroundings to take in the splendor. A nice touch was the spackle lines in a room under construction as well as the hardwood floors and artwork in a high end office complex as well as the lab complex.

The sound quality in the game shines as with my Creative X-FI card I was able to really enjoy the creepy sound effects and the surround sound features. It is unnerving to have a voice originate behind you only to vanish to be replaced by a sound elsewhere. The communication between the soldiers is also a key as good listening skills are key to successful engagements and being aware of potential dangers around the next corner.

As good as the solo play portion of the game is F.E.A.R. also shines in the multiplay arena. From Deathmatch to Capture the Flag to name but a few of the variations there are numerous servers where players will find an endless supply of options and opponents to play with and against. The game runs very smoothly online and the action is fast and furious.

F.E.A.R. is a winner and looks to be the first in a hopefully long line of titles in the series. The game has it all, and delivers on the hype and promise. Here is hoping the next segment is not to far off as legions of gamers will be waiting.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, creepy, atmospheric FPS, November 25, 2006

By	Chris (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Honesty, I loved this game. Graphically, it's a beautiful game, content-wise it has a lot to offer and only comes up a bit short in the variety of foes you face (that's really the result of the tight storyline so a bit of a trade off there.) The AI for the enemies is extremely well done also, one of the best ever I think. Good variety of weapons. Nice elements with other gear like the flashlight which only stays on for about 20 seconds at a time then you let it recharge briefly, 5 seconds, will sometimes leave you in the dark for a couple suspenseful seconds.

The music and ambient sounds are terrific, also the chatter of the enemy soldiers who are constantly dropping the F-bomb when your attack catches them by surprise. There's a great variety to the music and it really helps flesh out the horror aspect of the game.

Without getting into the story too deeply I'd characterize it as Delta force + X-files + The Ring. It's very well crafted, not a cliche'd version of those elements but rather a package that really delivers and draws you toward the conclusion of the tale. It's fairly linear but in a good way since the story is quite compelling and you'll want reach the final scenes.

For state of the art FPS action plus horror you couldn't do much better than F.E.A.R.