Amazon.com: F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon: Xbox 360: Video Games

75 Reviews

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(5)
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3.9 out of 5 stars (75 customer reviews)

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42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing to fear but..., November 5, 2006

By	Terrence Aybar (New York City) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Short review:

Go out and buy this game right now, you will not be disappointed. You need this like you need blood in your body. Okay, maybe not that badly but still worth every cent.

Review:

The single player for this first person shooter is a tad repetitive but still tense and creepy as all hell. I wouldn't put this at the top of scariest games of all time but it's at least top ten. It's unsettling and unnerving at times but the emphasis is more on action in this game.

The single player campaign is a lot of fun, with pretty nice graphics and effects. The rag doll physics are hilarious and it's always a blast to shoot someone and watch them fly back and over a railing to a six story drop. One of the things that makes the single player really stand out is the enemy soldier A.I., which you won't really appreciate until you experience it for yourself. They are very strategic in their methods and execute what seems like professional, real-world offensive maneuvers in washing you. Just don't be surprised when they keep you pinned down long enough to throw a grenade right where you're squatting and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. There is also a nice little Max Payne style slow motion button that works wonders when you're going up against a squad of commandos with high powered machine guns and rocket launchers. Also, the 5.1 surround mix on this game is immaculate. This is a game to be played loud and in the dark for maximum effect.

The multiplayer portion of the game is just downright gritty. Literally, it's the perfect game for those that just want to go online and shoot someone in the face with a shotgun or empty an entire clip from a machine gun into their jiggling bodies without having to think about it too much. The modes are your standard deathmatch, CTF, team based modes so there's really nothing innovative about the multiplayer game, save for the modes that allow one to use the slow-mo function. I'm actually surprised at how well it plays online and if there's one thing that I have to complain about, it's the lack of a lobby function. So basically, you'll get kicked out of the room once the session is over and everybody will have to start the process of starting up a new room over. It's a minor beef and I'm praying that they'll fix this with a patch, which I'm sure they will.

Bottom line is, this game is damn good and a great port over from the PC version. Great graphics, fantastic surround sound, exciting multiplayer action and some spooky chills will make this worth your while.

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46 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real FEAR?, November 18, 2006

By	David Foskin "SneakyGoblin on XBL" (Waterford, Ireland) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Monsters I can do. Witches, bears, black magic, lunatics with machetes are fine by me. What I can't tolerate, no matter how comfortable my surroundings might be, is little girl ghosts. Worst still little girl ghosts with a massive cob on. Add a bright red dress and lank long black hair draped over a dreaded face - see The Ring - mixed with that little freak cloaked in a red rainmac from Don't Look Now and you've royally got me. Computer games are supposed to be about fun and full of joyousness, not grown men being obliterated by ghosts. What's the world coming to when a little girl craves to see such anguish in the faces of men? These are strange times, strange times indeed.

Bearing all that in mind there is one job that I wouldn't do for all the women on the internet - be a member of F.E.A.R. For those unfamiliar with such an unnerving acronym it means: First Encounter Assault Recon. These bad boys don't muck about with terrorists or rescue hostages from jungles and all the rest of it. No. Members of F.E.A.R. are elite soldiers trained to deal with situations that normal people just wouldn't be able to handle. So if there's a mean supernatural force of gargantuan proportions posing a threat to national security, who you gonna call? F.E.A.R. I'm not talking Most Haunted here either - Derek Acorah would be splashing his pants within minutes of playing this - sadly so was I.

Predictably you play the new kid on the block. You don't speak and your colleagues doubt you - although bizarrely despite being a part of a 'team' you spend the entire game fighting alone. They think you're not made of the right stuff, that under pressure you'll do a runner faster than Thierry Henry on speed. Very little about the plot is given away initially - you're a bit special - you're training results scored off the charts - there's some evilness to be dealt with and that's about it. Rather pleasingly one of F.E.A.R.'s strong points is the narrative, but more importantly how it is delivered to you. Where most FPS use cut scenes to move the plot forward F.E.A.R. is subtler. You'll hear whispers that suggest future events, characters will react to you in a certain way suggestion something isn't right. Messages on phones, note books and the occasional cut scene - however these never really feel traditional as they link seamlessly into the action, so much so that you barely notice that you're not in control anymore.

Within minutes of starting you're running down corridor upon corridor while being treated to the kind of subtle psychological scare tactics usually found in far eastern horror movies - glimpses of people behind doors, flashes of gore and evil innuendo. Similar to the excellent Condemned in atmosphere, F.E.A.R. tightens the vice on your nerves and builds tension like the very best horror movies. While the physics engine pales compared to Half Life 2, the world you're a part of is tangible - objects can be manipulated and you'll often mess your pants as inane objects are placed in your path as you run down dimly lit corridors. Such is the tension that you'll scream when you bump into an empty drinks can and it goes flying.

See through F.E.A.R.'s horror niche and you'll find a pretty decent shooter in there as well. Next-generation perhaps it isn't, but the lack of any slowdown despite the barrage of explosions and bodies flying mean that you can play a highly demanding PC game smoothly on the 360. F.E.A.R. has another trick up its sleeve in the slow mo feature - there is nothing original about it, Max Payne was doing the whole bullet time thing back in 2001. On the 360 however it's a different kettle of shrapnel - a visual spectacular that looks so good it could have been taken straight out of The Matrix. Bits of debris fly out, dust is thrown up and walls crumble as you blast your way through your enemy. The point being that when you're overwhelmed with enemies you can use your 'special abilities' to dish out the pain. The combat system is something to marvel at - going in guns blazing is going to get you capped and shooting from behind cover is equally perilous as the AI is such that they will flank you and pop you one before too long. In order to progress through the battlegrounds you have to combine the slow-mo feature with melee attacks as well unleashing a barrage of lead.

For all the explosions and slow-mo arse whipping F.E.A.R. remains a generic FPS. The AI is superb and the scary bits are nothing short of cinematic, but there is an awful lot of running and gunning. While this might not be a negative factor for an hour or two, the similarity between weapons only illuminates the lack of diversity on offer. F.E.A.R. is also a short game, but with the said lack of variety this isn't necessarily a bad thing - imagine one big kaboom as opposed to a peppered drawn out series of explosions. These days longevity can usually be found online anyway - F.E.A.R. offers an array of game types all familiar to the genre: capture the flag, deathmatch, etc.

However any frustrations that you might have with this will be easily overshadowed by the emotions it invokes within you. F.E.A.R. made me react like no other game can - one particular nerve shredding point literally forced me to involuntarily throw the pad from my hands - the glorious thing about this is that very little happened on screen, it was all about suggestion and even the world's greatest horror movies would do well to learn from Monolith's creation.

A game that fashions such primal fear and mixes it with an always-compulsive if a little generic shooter action can only be a positive thing for gaming. What's on offer here is sheer ingenuity in manufacturing an atmosphere that creeps right into the room you're sitting in - and that's playing it in broad daylight at three in the afternoon. If you like you shooting with a dollop of tangible fear, F.E.A.R. is for you.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and fun!, December 12, 2006

By	S. Sharp "GamrGrl" (Orange, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

This is probably some of the most fun I've ever had playing a game. Not to mention the most I've ever said 'Oh @$#%!!' while playing. There are some parts that really, really, made me jump.

A few things:

Most reviewers are saying that it's repetitive. I agree, but have to say that I seriously feel this was done intentionally to lull you into complacency before some bad guy or ghost or voice jumps out at you. Part of the scariness was due to unexpected things happening in the 'familiar' environments. Still, a bigger change from level to level would've been welcome.

Also, I found the controls a bit jumpy and needed to be reworked through the options several times; but even still didn't quite get it for me. This could be because, 1. I am not good at FPS games (like 'em, just not good at 'em) or 2. our left stick is a big wiggy from another house member playing Dead Rising. From other reviews though, I think it was a combo of the aforementioned and design. Not enough to warrant more than minor irritation at the more precise points.

Third, the plot IS there, but has to be gleaned from voice messages from office equipment and voice-overs. Everything comes together in the end, and the little girls story is disturbing.

Last, these enemies are smart. You'll hear, "I hear him, he's behind the crate", see them hide behind a box, raise their arm up, and shoot you blind, or limping to hide once hit. The AI is sweet.

This game is good on its own right... if you've just finished playing COD or Halo, you may be hard pressed NOT to find flaws. But get over yourself and have a good time, you won't regret it!!