Official FEAR thread

[PyroGod]

FEAR is out today. Having acquired it a little early has allowed me to present this review in honor of the release:

A mini review:
FEAR is a FPS game that takes place in the very near future, in a semi-realistic setting. You play the part of a commando for the First Encounter Assault/Recon, which basically means you kick supernatural ass.

Graphics: Amazing. This is easily on par with any game ever released in terms of technical prowess. However, in addition, I find it the most satisfying personally. The game has a good use of light and dark (rather than perpetual darkness like doom3), and uses shadows to both build atmosphere, and more gameplay (such as seeing enemies by their shadow alone). I enjoy the overall art direction, although the point that the environments tend to remain fairly similar throughout is fairly valid.

Audio: Also very good. The music is good for keeping the atmosphere, and some of the later music is very cool. The weapon sounds are pretty nice, and the sound also helps with the gameplay, between hearing footsteps or the enemies communicating between each other.

Technical: I personally encountered no significant bugs, and completed the SP without crashing once. A couple minor bugs exists, but they are extremely trivial. The game gives pretty good freedom with toggling options.

Gameplay: So very cool. The singleplayer campaign mostly pits you alone against various enemies. The number of enemy types isn't huge, so you'll be fighting similar oppontents throughout with a couple suprises. However, the actual enemies themselves are great. The AI very good and fun to play against. The enemies communicate among themselves to try to take you down. They use cover extensively, and are decent with sneaking and grenades. You don't want to allow yourself to get pinned down too excessively, or they will blast the hell out of you with a nade. And letting an enemy disappear can lead to some interesting suprises as well. To be fair, it isn't as good as a player might be, as it can be a little noisy occassionally, or move from cover too early. I actually may try to write a mod to improve the AI even more when the SDK comes out, because I think FEAR is by far and away the closest game to having AI that is scarily good.

One of the protagonist's unique abilities is the ability to slow down time, i.e. bullet-time. This can be used to good effect sometimes in the game. It looks the best any bulletime has looked before, and it "feels" very good as well, as you do get the impression of being extremely fast, as you kill an entire enemy squad with your bare hands before they can react. It has been done before, but this is easily as good or better than previous implementations like in the Max Payne series.

There is a decent variety of real world based weapons, including pistols (can be dual wielded), a SMG, assault rifle, shotgun. There are also some experimental weapons like a nailgun (slow ROF auto weapon, can pin enemies into walls), a particle cannon (think railgun, but with added ability to melt flesh), and some others. The weapons are all useful, and there is a good deal of freedom to choose what to use in almost all circumstances. There are also three grenade types, including normal frag nades, proximity mines (bouncing betties to be specific), and remote mines. These can be very fun to play with as well, especially in multiplayer.

Speaking of multiplayer, I don't have a huge experience with it, but I have played a bit. There are some fairly traditional modes like DM, TDM, elimination, and CTF. However, a server can use the "slo mo" version of these gametypes, which includes a unique powerup that grants the slow motion ability from the singleplayer game. The slo mo or the player who has it equipped is always marked on everyone's screens, and can only be used from full power to empty, rather than being toggled at will, which helps other people out a little. Slo mo is pretty cool, although it can be kinda annoying if you are in the middle of nowhere when it goes off and are moving slow with not much to do.

Players are allowed to choose from a large variety of weapons upon spawn, all drawn from the SP game. The ultra weapons are scattered around the maps, and while they do provide an advantage, combat is deadly enough to allow someone with dual pistols to waste a guy with a battle cannon with a little luck and/or skill.

The game moves fairly fast, and it is quite deadly, as it only takes a small amount of hits to kill someone. Melee attacks are actually useful, and if someone is foolish enough to let you get close, it is goodnight for them. Barring elimination, which I imagine I will despise, dying is no huge issue, as you are back and playing seconds later. However, unlike many FPSs, dying does negatively effect your score, so someone who is 25/25 will lose to someone who is 21/0, although a kill is worth much more than a death.

I have only played several of the smaller levels, which are quite good for smaller player counts, especially the Office and High Tech. I have not ufortunately gotten a chance to play the larger maps, due to being at a school with a shitty network (I hate our tech department with almost enough fury to burn them alive). Overall, I really like the MP. It is fast and deadly, but intelligent as well. There are a good number of prox mines and remote mines, which can reward an intelligent player with a good number of kills.

Overall: FEAR is an extremely good game, with few flaws. If you like the gameplay present in FEAR, you will find the game a good example of it. The game seems to get better as it goes on, and culminates with an awesome and unique ending. The multiplayer is great for those who like high actions, deadly games. I would compare it slightly to Call of Duty, although it tends to be in closer quarters than that.

FEAR was one of the best experiences I have had in gaming for a while. I eagerly wait to see what will happen in the mod scene, and fully intend to participate myself, even if it is mostly smaller scale stuff.

For reference, FPS games I like and why:
* Old id games, esp. Quake 1 (action)
* System Shock 2 (atmosphere, story)
* Deus Ex (story, depth of play)
* Call of Duty (fast and deadly MP)

FPS games I found mediocre:
* Doom 3 (too dark, prefered old school Doom more)
* Halo 1/2 Singleplayer (Hated the level design, enemies took a while to kill on the harder difficulties compared to MP, overall feel of it, storyline was cheesy in a bad way).

I hope this review is helpful. Besides the review, this thread is for discussion of any part of the game, SP or MP, upcoming mods or patches, whatever.

[Jigglypuff]

Ya know I wasn't planing on buying this till Mid November, but I went to walmart and they had it on sale for 39.99 so I couldn't pass it up. I've played it a bit and so far I like it. I'm not at the point where I'd say it's better then the Original Halflife but I'm only 4 missions in.

Two problems I see with the game and one of them has been plaguing me since the Single Player demo. First off the weapons still seem terriblly inacurate, even when you're crouching and aiming. This is the main reason I use the Shotgun and Nail gun (since it shoots straight) most of the time. The other problem is I died only once so far in the game it was in the room past where the heicopter drops the troops in on you. Health is way too plentyful, and that's only compounded by the fact you can pick up and carry the health kits.

The scary moments are good, a few of them got me real bad. The worst is where you're walking through an access vent, the lights go out and when you flick on the flashlight the little girl appears crawling reall fast toward you...

All in all a good game with just some minor complaints...

[Mendel Secord]

I played the demo, and I thought it was ok. I was very impressed by how well the enemies were animated; the animations for climbing and jumping were superb.

But the "creepy little girl" has been overused to the point where I can't even recall the first time I've seen it (universally, not just related to FEAR). The fact that they use it as their icon/promotional/advertising device makes me extremely annoyed. That just bugs me more than anything. Perhaps it's not fair of me to write of their game because of this, but oh well.

[Jigglypuff]

I played the demo, and I thought it was ok. I was very impressed by how well the enemies were animated; the animations for climbing and jumping were superb.

But the "creepy little girl" has been overused to the point where I can't even recall the first time I've seen it (universally, not just related to FEAR). The fact that they use it as their icon/promotional/advertising device makes me extremely annoyed. That just bugs me more than anything. Perhaps it's not fair of me to write of their game because of this, but oh well.

Creepy Kids go way back, First I could ever remember is the Original Village of the damned. In more recent times you got Poltergeist, The Exorsist, Sixth Sense, The Ring etc. Not sure what it is exactly but creepy kids have been with us through out history...

The animations are pretty deep, you can do some crazy stuff to the enemies with a weak weapon such as the pistol. For instance shoot a soldier in the leg he'll move slower, and limp. Shoot him in the Arm he'll fire his weapon one handed or switch hands if you shot the one holding the gun. Then you got the shotgun, this beauty will explode or blow off heads, limbs or even cut people in half.

[Argent]

The demo worked verrrrryy slow on my home PC - and I haven´t had any trouble with HL2, Doom 3 or Far Cry. Is the specs really as through-the-roof as it seems? I couldn´t even get it to go smooth on 640*480, which was annoying.

[Marikir]

Yeah, I'd like to have a list of the specs on this bad boy. Kinda curious if my system (2.7 GHz, 128 MB Radeon 9200, 2GB RAM) will be able to play it well enough. I would think so as I can dial up HL2 and CS:S to high and chug along no problem, but I would like to know for sure.

Even though creepy games freak me the hell out worse than anything, this game looks too good to pass up.


So yeah...system reqs please. :o

[Pointycat]

Been playing for a couple of days (a store near me broke the street date, yay), and so far, it's the best FPS experience I've had since Half-Life. The pitched battles are amazing. You really get the feel that your enemies are using tactics against you: they flank, flush you out with grenades, and when you have them pinned down, they'll wait for you to expose yourself rather than run out into your line of fire.

Plot-wise, I'm not quite as thrilled. While things may change later on, it currently feels like a more generic military shooter mashed up against a survival-horror game, and the parts don't mingle well at all. Fight some decidedly mundane-feeling soldiers, go through a spooky set-piece, fight some mundane soldiers, rinse and repeat. Also: spooky dead guy walking by and spouting gibberish before exploding in a cloud of soot is creepy once or twice. By the fifth time he shows up, it's not creepy anymore. (Especially when he's quoting chunks of Ringu at you. "They left her in darknesssssss," my hiney.)

[PyroGod]

Yeah, I'd like to have a list of the specs on this bad boy. Kinda curious if my system (2.7 GHz, 128 MB Radeon 9200, 2GB RAM) will be able to play it well enough. I would think so as I can dial up HL2 and CS:S to high and chug along no problem, but I would like to know for sure.

Even though creepy games freak me the hell out worse than anything, this game looks too good to pass up.


So yeah...system reqs please. :o

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIRED
Windows XP, x64 or 2000 with latest service pack installed, DirectX 9.0c (August Edition) or higher, Pentium 4 1.7 GHz or equivalent processor, 512 MB of RAM or more, 64 MB GeForce 4 Ti or Radeon 9000 video card, Monitor that can display in 4:3 aspect ratio, 5.0 GB free Hard Drive Space for installation, Additional hard drive space for a swap file and saved game files. DVD-ROM drive, 16-bit DirectX 9.0 compliant sound card with support for EAX 2.0, Broadband or LAN connection for multiplayer games. Mouse, Keyboard

RECOMMENDED HARDWARE
Pentium 4 3.0 GHz or equivalent processor, 1 GB RAM, A 256 MB Radeon 9800 Pro or GeForce 6600 or equivalent supported DirectX 9 compliant video card with hardware T&L and pixel shader 2.0 support, Sound Blaster X-Fi series sound card.

My system: AMD 64 3800+ dual core, 2 gb ram, 6600gt. It runs flawlessly in all situations with everything maxed, save for AA, AF, and soft shadows, which are all off. It looks simply amazing beyond belief.

My laptop: 3 ghz p4, 1 gb ram, 9600 mobile pro. Run very solidly with many options on medium or low. I haven't spent too much time tweaking as I only use it on this comp when playing multiplayer with someone who doesn't have their own comp to run it.

My roomie: AMD Opteron 1.7 ghz, 1 gb of slowish (old) ram, 5700ultra. Runs pretty decently with many options on medium, but not perfect. The ram seems to be the biggest problem here by far.

Overall, the only thing I'd worry about is the graphics card on your machine, although that does seem a little on the old side. The 2 gb ram will be useful.

[PyroGod]

Been playing for a couple of days (a store near me broke the street date, yay), and so far, it's the best FPS experience I've had since Half-Life. The pitched battles are amazing. You really get the feel that your enemies are using tactics against you: they flank, flush you out with grenades, and when you have them pinned down, they'll wait for you to expose yourself rather than run out into your line of fire.

Yes, this is one of my favorite things about the game.

Plot-wise, I'm not quite as thrilled. While things may change later on, it currently feels like a more generic military shooter mashed up against a survival-horror game, and the parts don't mingle well at all. Fight some decidedly mundane-feeling soldiers, go through a spooky set-piece, fight some mundane soldiers, rinse and repeat. Also: spooky dead guy walking by and spouting gibberish before exploding in a cloud of soot is creepy once or twice. By the fifth time he shows up, it's not creepy anymore. (Especially when he's quoting chunks of Ringu at you. "They left her in darknesssssss," my hiney.)

I liked the plot, as I do think it gets better on. Listen to voicemails and stuff to get a huge chunk of the story when you get to the office buildings. And the end justifies any possible problems with the plot, anyhow.

[Jigglypuff]

Plot-wise, I'm not quite as thrilled. While things may change later on, it currently feels like a more generic military shooter mashed up against a survival-horror game, and the parts don't mingle well at all. Fight some decidedly mundane-feeling soldiers, go through a spooky set-piece, fight some mundane soldiers, rinse and repeat.

This changes, you start to see signs of it at the water treatment plant. I don't want to spoil game so this is all I'll say =)

[Pointycat]

This changes, you start to see signs of it at the water treatment plant. I don't want to spoil game so this is all I'll say =)

Aah, okay. :) I'm on the roof of the office building right now, and all the voicemails have been hinting about the 'bad water,' so I assume it's coming up.

[Silesia]

F.E.A.R. - The AI in that game is amazing.

One thing that I have been told has been that copy of Direct X 9.0c does not prompt you to restart your computer. Therefore, if you are having problems playing it first time around, then restart your PC.

[clark411]

So far my FEAR experience is "Click on Icon, Wait, Nothing Happens." I'm under the impression that it has to do with my monitor perhaps not working in the correct ratio. Sigh.

[Fade]

What is the explanation for the protagonist having superspeed?

[Argent]

What is the explanation for the protagonist having superspeed?

According to the demo... something about neurokinetics or some shit. That is, not relly an explanation at all. Hopefully, this changes.

[Jigglypuff]

What is the explanation for the protagonist having superspeed?

I believe it's explained more as the game goes on. I'm inside the office building now and I got a few hints as to why the Main Character has super skills..

BTW - I never thought I'd be afraid of drop ceilings :eek:

[RemyDuron]

What is the explanation for the protagonist having superspeed?
The only clue so far is something you see before the first mission.

Fettal (who is wonderfully creepy) looks down at you, blood splattering his body and face, and asks, rather monotone, "What is the first thing you remember?"

Then you see a surgical looking light shine above you, and you hear a girl/woman screaming "NO! Where are you taking him?!" then a scientist leans over you and says, "I will make you a god among men."

When I saw that same style of surgical light in the first level, I got kind of freaked.

For me the creepy little girl thing isn't tired at all. It still pushes my buttons excellently. And the game's story, so far, seems to strike a very neat balance between The Ring and Akira. I'm not very far at all though, but the little girl appearing where you find soldiers of their flesh, and Fettal's line, "I'm not sure if they are my memories or hers... it doesn't matter," both remind me of Akira.

[PyroGod]

What is the explanation for the protagonist having superspeed?

As Remy said, the intro is a clue, and it is fully explained by the end of the game in a way that makes sense.

[Argent]

As Remy said, the intro is a clue, and it is fully explained by the end of the game in a way that makes sense.

Cool.

[The Incredible Bohemian]

I've only just started this, but so far, it rocks really, really hard. For all the reasons you chaps have said, but mainly because of this;

Kick! Kraaash! Splat! Smack! Shoot! Crumple! Leap! Kick! Ker-ACK! POW!

It just feels so....physical! Your character actually having limbs makes a HUGE difference to the feel of the game, and crunching and pummeling the baddies is great - the impact is deliciously visceral, and the same for the bullets.

Stinking good so far!

[IceShadow]

Picked this up. Having fun.

But HOLY CRAP am I out of the loop on FPS games. I'm on Moderate difficulty, and I have to keep reloading...

[DM with a vengeance]

I played through the demo again just to whet my appetite (the full game is installing now), and what makes this game great is that the weapons feel like the hurt like hell. When you nail a clone, he goes flying through the air, take a burst of autofire to the chest, and you'll be staring at the ground through a haze of red. A lot of games feel like you're armed with airsoft weapons and the laws of gravity have been repealed, but FEAR nails the sensation of momentum perfectly, and that's enough for me to forgive it any other flaws.

[SeekerJST]

Ok, in the little psycho trauma where you see your birth and Alma comes up and attacks you... how do you defeat her? Cause I've done it about 10 times now and the pistol is really not cutting it for me.

[mathey]

Ok, in the little psycho trauma where you see your birth and Alma comes up and attacks you... how do you defeat her? Cause I've done it about 10 times now and the pistol is really not cutting it for me.


Just beat the game...

I'm guessing you got to the doors to the surgery, and saw her walk over and attack the doctor (or whoever that was in there), splattering the doors with his guts. When you turn around, she comes at you twice - once, a little ways down the hall, then a second time, closer. I had to do it three times, myself, but you just back up and shoot like a sonuvabitch until she stops trying to 'hug' you.

And, then, well...

The Ending is totally worth dealing with all those annoying spectres.

[mathey]

Okay, having just beat the game, I feel obligated to discuss the game's storyline and the assorted unresolved plot threads. I'm going to use Spoiler formatting, of course, so don't peek unless you want to have things ruined/revealed for you without playing through on your own in blissful ignorance (which is personally recommend).













Still there?

Right-o.


Damn. Talk about an ending.

So, to review what I understand of the story, revealed in the laptop data and the voice messages, and from my viewing of the F.E.A.R. prequel video spots on the VUgames website -

Alma, the Creepy Little Girl (TM), is Alma Wade, the (adopted?) daughter of Harlan Wade, little sister of Alice Wade. She was a disturbed kid, and evidenced early signs of psychic powers. When she was 8 she was put into isolated study by the sinister Armacham corporation, who wanted to figure out her abilities and, presumably, how to profit by them. At this time, she was interviewed by Dr. Green, a company psychiatrist, who learned more than she wanted about Alma's abilities. These included some kind of ability to speed up or slow down time, telekineses, and telepathy. Something Bad happened to Dr. Green (its never entirely clear what that was - she's last seen trapped in an airvent by one of Alma's "games"), but Harlan Wade went ahead with trying to utilize Alma as a guinea pig.

She was artificially inseminated (I hope - I wasn't entirely clear about that) so as to produce a genetically engineered-super soldier of some kind, Armacham being a governmental military research group. They induced labor, putting Alma in a coma (she died some days later), and the child was tested for his psychic potential. He failed to manifest any obvious abilities, however, so he was sent to a foster home, living a relatively normal life. He would grow up to become a special forces soldier and joined F.E.A.R. - unaware of his connection to Alma or Armacham. His psionic potential showed in his superhuman reflexes, and (known only to him, apparently) his ability to link with Alma, and her second son, Paxton.

Paxton quickly developed psychic powers of lethal potential, however, killing several people in a 'synchronicity event' when he was only 10. He was chosen to become a super-general for a cloned army of soldiers, the idea being that he could use his telepathic abilities to coordinate them in war. I'm not sure, but I think the clones are based on his genetic material. Around the time the protagonist character joined F.E.A.R. (probably encouraged to do so through the machinations of an unknown Senator and Genevieve Aristide), though, Alma's spirit/ghost/psychic presence was re-awakened.

The Armacham creeps had killed Alma's physical form as a result of her induced pregnancies, leaving her to die in a facility they called the Vault, which was built presumably to both conceal their activities and contain their potent test subject. Her body was stored there, in some kind of strange suspension, presumably so they could recover it and do more testing later. Somehow, Alma's ghost was trapped there, but her hatred and malice toward her tormentors manifested in the world as some kind of pollution leak in the outside world in the town of Auburn. As a result of some fiddling with the Vault or the water treatment plant in Auburn (I'm a bit fuzzy on this), Alma was 'awakened' from whatever stasis she'd been in.

Instinctively reaching out to her more psychically sensitive son, Paxton, she possessed or twisted his mind sufficiently to cause him and his army of clones to become her pawns ("Kill them all" is no doubt her message to Paxton, and later, to your character). Determined to gain revenge on those who had cruelly used her as a test subject, she had Paxton go out and track down the parties most responsible. This included the supervisor guy at the water treatment plant, some other guy in the facility, Alice Wade, Harlan Wade, and ATC in general.

Harlan Wade's conscience was somehow stirred by the awareness that Alma was still around, and despite the suggestions of the other ATC execs/researchers, he set about going to the Vault to release her body and her spirit from whatever contanment it had been in. Alice, his other daughter, tried to locate him and keep him from doing this, also fearful of what Paxton would do to Harlan if he got to him. She got et for her trouble, though. The tubby system administrator guy - forget his name - he was just used by Harlan to get him access to the Vault.

The player character was recognized as Paxton's brother by the psycho killer and, eventually, Alma herself. They tried to get him on their side, sharing their visions/thoughts as he fought Paxton's goon squad and the ATC security forces. He was finally able to destroy the Vault, which went up in a mushroom cloud. He somehow escaped this, but Alma's spirit was still around, hitching a ride on the F.E.A.R. evacuation helo.

So. Questions and thoughts I have, now:

1) Is Alma as we see her at the end possessing her dead, older body and using it to run around in within the physical plane? Or is this just the player character seeing her closer to her "real" self instead of her self-perception as an 8 year old kid?

2) Jankowski, the F.E.A.R. op who disappeared, clearly something happened to him, but we're not entirely clear on precisely what. This is purposefully obscure, but I think its safe to say his physical form is dead. So - is he a 'good' ghost who is trying to guide his friend the player character, or is he just another tool of Alma's to lead him where she wants him?

3) Paxton apparently was the necessary psychic link to 'activate' the clone army - once he's dead, they go comatose/asleep. Does that mean he was personally throwing the clone soldiers at you, using them like meat puppets? Or was he just sending them occaisonal commands? And are they clones of him, or somebody else? And, while he's obviously 'round the bend, I wonder if his cannibal activities or his loopy smile waiting to be executed by the player are somehow meant to help Alma. Was Alma just done with him and favoring the player character when he's finally cornered and killed?

4) What, if any part, did Alice have in what befell Alma? She'd presumably be too young to be involved in her first testing - but did she know her sister at all? I'm none too clear on her role in the whole thing, beyond that of unfortunate bystander.

5) What was the deal with the water treatment plant? Was the leakage and Alma's whisper about "There's something in the water" related to the Vault and her own body, or was that something else entirely? Is this like in Dark Water, with the spirit somehow tainting the water? Or was that just Genevieve's excuse to precipitate this whole mess?

6) Who is the Senator? Genevieve apparently works for him rather than Armacham or Harlan Wade. You can hear her trying to persuade assorted ATM people in those voicemails, but she seemed opposed to Harlan's plan to go mess with the Vault. I'm assuming that she was talking about the player character when she spoke to the Senator in the post-credits conversation (shades of Metal Gear Solid, no?) and said the first test subject was a success. They weren't happy about the amount of public knowledge involved, but - was it all just a test for the player character?

7) What are those spectral forms you encountered? They could kill you, and they seemed set on doing just that. Are they psychic manifestations of Alma's madness/rage, out of her control? Or are they the spirits of some other person or persons? Given that letting Alma hug you kills you instantly, I doubt she has much control, but - who knows.

[bv728]

This text here so this post is not entirely black.

She was artificially inseminated (I hope - I wasn't entirely clear about that) so as to produce a genetically engineered-super soldier of some kind, Armacham being a governmental military research group. They induced labor, putting Alma in a coma (she died some days later), and the child was tested for his psychic potential.

She was in the coma before she was artifically inseminated; she was too dangerous awake. During the birth, she became consious again, and they had to put her under again; it's unclear how much later they pulled the plug on her.

As a result of some fiddling with the Vault or the water treatment plant in Auburn (I'm a bit fuzzy on this), Alma was 'awakened' from whatever stasis she'd been in.

It's never explicit, but it seems that the vault being closed was all that kept Alma in check. When Genevive Aristide opened the Vault, Alma got out.

1) Is Alma as we see her at the end possessing her dead, older body and using it to run around in within the physical plane? Or is this just the player character seeing her closer to her "real" self instead of her self-perception as an 8 year old kid?

I think it's her manipulating her body... which may not even be properly dead. We know that Alma has some serious psychic mojo, so she may have done something to keep it from actually dying when they pulled the plug (The game does seem to assume she's dead).

2) Jankowski, the F.E.A.R. op who disappeared, clearly something happened to him, but we're not entirely clear on precisely what. <snip> So - is he a 'good' ghost who is trying to guide his friend the player character, or is he just another tool of Alma's to lead him where she wants him?

Jankowski's spirit would seem to know what Alma is thinking, and he doesn't say too much in the way of help; I'd say he's loose and on the fringes of Alma's psychic presense, but not actively for either side.

3) Paxton apparently was the necessary psychic link to 'activate' the clone army - once he's dead, they go comatose/asleep. Does that mean he was personally throwing the clone soldiers at you, using them like meat puppets? Or was he just sending them occaisonal commands?

It seemed to me that he was sending them commands, but they're refered to as "Mindless Clones"; I suspect that they're inbetween; he sends them commands and keeps their minds working through extreme trauma, and they do exactly what he tells them.

[reedins]

I posted this in AB3's thread too, but...

You get a weapon that is a spike gun. I didn't really notice the name of it when I picked it up, but I noticed the effect the first time I used it. My enemy didn't fall down. Then, when I got close to him, I discovered it was because I had pinned. Him. To. The. Wall. Oh, holy crap - I'm like a psychotic butterfly collector. If I run back through areas that I've already cleared there are soldier-butterflies pinned to walls everywhere! I shot one through his leg, and he's pinned to the wall at the knee while the rest of him lies on the floor.

I feel disgusted, and yet, weirdly ecstatic.

I must collect more.

[bv728]

You get a weapon that is a spike gun. I didn't really notice the name of it when I picked it up, but I noticed the effect the first time I used it. My enemy didn't fall down. Then, when I got close to him, I discovered it was because I had pinned. Him. To. The. Wall. Oh, holy crap - I'm like a psychotic butterfly collector. If I run back through areas that I've already cleared there are soldier-butterflies pinned to walls everywhere! I shot one through his leg, and he's pinned to the wall at the knee while the rest of him lies on the floor.

Ahh, the 10mm High-Velocity Penetrator. Such a nasty weapon; it's murder on the heavies; only thing better is a shotgun to the knees.

I think I was super happy when I shot a guy from a vent hole in the ceiling, and one of his buddies yelled "He's in the ceiling!". They bothered to have an AI routine for that.

[JohanKoch]

The demo worked verrrrryy slow on my home PC - and I haven´t had any trouble with HL2, Doom 3 or Far Cry. Is the specs really as through-the-roof as it seems? I couldn´t even get it to go smooth on 640*480, which was annoying.

I found the same thing. I have a PC that runs Half Life 2 and Far Cry at high resolution smooth as silk, but the FEAR demo was choppy. And I didn't think the graphics were quite at the same level as those other games, so I don't know the reason for the slowdown.

I found the demo's gameply okay, but a little generic. You review made me a little more interested.

[bv728]

I found the same thing. I have a PC that runs Half Life 2 and Far Cry at high resolution smooth as silk, but the FEAR demo was choppy. And I didn't think the graphics were quite at the same level as those other games, so I don't know the reason for the slowdown.

I found the demo's gameply okay, but a little generic. You review made me a little more interested.

I see sporadic reports of really low speeds, but just as many of normal speeds (personally, it runs fine). A couple of things which are often referered to as helpful:

A) Ensure that all shadow settings are off: Having soft shadows on without shadows on apparently still runs the soft shadow shader, which slows everything down.

B) Try disabling the sound hardware settings: Apparently some cards lie to the game and then do all the 3d sound work in software, resulting in a net slowdown.

[SeekerJST]

Ok, what was the deal with the ninjas? Were they Armcham or Replica? I didn't really catch what they were supposed to be doing.

Anyway, I just beat the game, I and I have to confess that the boss battles (Alma, Fettel were kind of a let down. Fettel went down in one hit like the demons, and I was kind of hoping for something more than back up and fire like crazy with Alma.

[Bob the Insane]

Ok, what was the deal with the ninjas? Were they Armcham or Replica? I didn't really catch what they were supposed to be doing.

Anyway, I just beat the game, I and I have to confess that the boss battles (Alma, Fettel were kind of a let down. Fettel went down in one hit like the demons, and I was kind of hoping for something more than back up and fire like crazy with Alma.


Warning the following is very spoilertastic and a bit ranty in places... :p


I am pretty sure that are replica soldiers and they are not used nearly as much as they should. Combined with regular grunts to distract you they would be leathal.

I think you have to accept that the last level is all story and not much action... You don't really fight Fettel so much as 'put him out of his misery', he's looking up at you like an expectant child...

There where to replica soldier left after you shoot Fettel and they go complete inactive, stood still and not moving (unless you shoot them to nick thier guns)!!

And what is with losing all you guns and gain a pistol (that I wan not even carrying) during the Fettel dream/surreal episode?? Was that an actual continuity error or just another way of making wonder wether those episode arre real or not...

And what was with the repetitive flying ghost things at the end???? Where did they come from??? The story had done a pretty good job of makeing me think ghosts at the start, then ghost with an adgenda, then ghost who is a bit creepy but is leading me to something, to not ghosts but the pyschic friends network on steriods, to OMG I am one of them too!, too OMG it's his mother, too OMG she's my mother, too OMG the little girls my mother and finally back to fricken ghost!!!!!

End was good though!!

Sorry for the rant...

I would have loved the fight to have continued on the helicopter right at the end!!!

[PyroGod]

Picked this up. Having fun.

But HOLY CRAP am I out of the loop on FPS games. I'm on Moderate difficulty, and I have to keep reloading...

Are you using bullettime? Proper application of bullettime ought to save your ass many a time. I'm going through on Extreme and I have reloaded like twice because of death and two more times to do a part perfectly instead of poorly. That said, FPS is my genre.

Also, remember that melee is a one hit kill on everything but the Walls. Shotgun is very deadly up close too.

My primary tactic is to activate bullettime, use melee to kill as many people as possible without being shot, then switch to the shottie to finish the job. Anything that is too far away I use the nailgun to take out.

[PyroGod]

I see sporadic reports of really low speeds, but just as many of normal speeds (personally, it runs fine). A couple of things which are often referered to as helpful:

A) Ensure that all shadow settings are off: Having soft shadows on without shadows on apparently still runs the soft shadow shader, which slows everything down.

B) Try disabling the sound hardware settings: Apparently some cards lie to the game and then do all the 3d sound work in software, resulting in a net slowdown.

I'd like to note that you kill all the atmosphere of the game with no shadows, but soft shadows is totally unnecessary for visual sexiness.

[Santiago]

I picked F.E.A.R. up yesterday, and have been having a blast with it. It's running smooth, and even at 800x600 resolution, it's a pretty game (I kept shadows on... it does make it spookier). Actually, last night I had to stop playing because I was freaking myself out.

Little bit of spoilers:

When you first run into the cloaking ninja guys, I found out just how much the game succeeded in screwing with my head. I saw the dude jump off the wall and vanish, and I though "just a ghost, so I won't... the hell?! I'm taking damage!?! Oh hell, he's REAL!" Fantastic! :D

[Jigglypuff]

Just finished Fear and I must say it has one of the best (if not the BEST) endings ever...:D

[SeekerJST]

Reply to Bob:
I don't know, I'm really having trouble with the idea that they're replica. They're just so under used that way, that with out someone from the developing team saying "Dude, they're totally replica" I'm going to continue to hope that they're a third as yet undixclosed party in all of this.

[PyroGod]

When you first run into the cloaking ninja guys, I found out just how much the game succeeded in screwing with my head. I saw the dude jump off the wall and vanish, and I though "just a ghost, so I won't... the hell?! I'm taking damage!?! Oh hell, he's REAL!" Fantastic! :D

Haha, my friend had the same reaction. He told me, "Yeah, about those ninja guys. I was walking along and saw something that looked like another illusion, until it came up to me and kicked me in the face.

They were underused a bite, though.

[reedins]

Warning the following is very spoilertastic and a bit ranty in places... :p


I am pretty sure that are replica soldiers and they are not used nearly as much as they should. Combined with regular grunts to distract you they would be leathal.

I think that there are really 3 factions in the game (depending on how you divide them up) - Armacham, the Replica, and Alma herself. Some of the machines (like the trifoil gun platforms and the mechs with the rocket launchers) are obviously made by Armacham (a high tech weapons company), but they don't always seem to be working for Armacham. In one case a mech wipes out a squad of Armacham security. So, I believe that Alma (or perhaps Fettel) controls some of the high tech weapons. The Predators (I don't think of them as ninja) are an Armacham weapon, but I believe that they are controlled by Alma.

As far as underused goes... Considering how freaking lethal hand to hand combat is in the game, combining a Predator with a gun squad would be absolutely devastating. I think they are used the only way the can be used without wipining you out every time. Even if they attacked in groups of 2 or 3 you'd be down to no armor and little to now health at the end of a battle. I think they're just right - freaking scary and lethal as hell, but still beatable.

And what is with losing all you guns and gain a pistol (that I wan not even carrying) during the Fettel dream/surreal episode?? Was that an actual continuity error or just another way of making wonder wether those episode arre real or not...

And what was with the repetitive flying ghost things at the end???? Where did they come from??? The story had done a pretty good job of makeing me think ghosts at the start, then ghost with an adgenda, then ghost who is a bit creepy but is leading me to something, to not ghosts but the pyschic friends network on steriods, to OMG I am one of them too!, too OMG it's his mother, too OMG she's my mother, too OMG the little girls my mother and finally back to fricken ghost!!!!!

Since they do the "wake up with a pistol" thing twice (and once you wake up with an autocannon) it's obviously not a continuity error. Alma is totally screwing with your reality.

The ghosts were sendings from Alma. They're the same ghosts that live in her nightmare/hell where you are surrounded by fire. You'll notice that they hurt you there as well; they just come in much smaller numbers and you can't see them clearly. So, really they are just part of Alma's nightmare. You may blow up the Vault, but Alma is obviously a long way from being finished with you.

I loved the fact that you think you are experiencing hallucinations/flashbacks, but everything that happens in the "vision" is real.

I never really did get the part about the water supply, though. I don't know if I missed some lap-tops and things. Here's what I think I got out of that -

The eeeeeeevil gubmint military had an underground complex there. Something in the complex (probably a chemical experiment) tainted the water, and the tainted water caused Alma to be born a mutant with horrific powers. Years later Armacham buys the place. Wassername has the water tested, and all of those compounds are still there, and in larger concentrations than they should be. Perhaps Alma is psychically tainting the water so that others will have to go through her hell as well.

[Santiago]

I just beat it myself, and I have to say kudos to the game for managing to be an atmospheric FPS with a rockin' story.

I only wish it had been longer. I wasn't even going at it that intensely, and I finished it up in less than a week. Took me considerably longer to finish HL2 and Far Cry. That said, definitely one of my top FPS games.

[Jigglypuff]

I just beat it myself, and I have to say kudos to the game for managing to be an atmospheric FPS with a rockin' story.

I only wish it had been longer. I wasn't even going at it that intensely, and I finished it up in less than a week. Took me considerably longer to finish HL2 and Far Cry. That said, definitely one of my top FPS games.

With all Respect to Halflife one, which is my fav FPS all time, it took me a month to beat because I couldn't Stand the Xen Levels.. They made me so mad that most of the game was so cool fighting my way out of the research facility then they throw me into what seems to be a half assed alien levels.. I hated every second I was in those levels and I could only play them till I died a few times, by then I was mad enough to smash the game.

My only beef with farcry was the game was great untill you suddenly got the difficulty ramped up by the super trigens. They were a cheap way to make the game harded, instead of making creatures that can use different tactics (the monkeys come to mind) they make monsters that eat rockets and bullets to the face for breakfast. When I met up with the Monkeys I was scared because they moved very fast and could jump a mile, but could be killed easily. When the super trigens came knocking I wasn't scared of them I was just upset that I'd have to use all my ammo to kill them.

Fear was different. It ramped the difficulty up gradually like half life did. I could remember saying to myself wow this game is easy I always have ten medkits and massive ammounts of ammo. That is untill I reached the Armcham building and I was praying for medkits and more ammo for the better weapons At the end of Fear when they changed everything it didn't feel out of place like the Xen levels in halflife. Then those invisible buy you meet a few times in the game... Geeze everytime the drop ceiling tiles would make a sound or move I'd be blowing the foam tiles to hell.

[NoCarrier]

FEAR was founded in 2002, but I don't think it's stated outright in which year the story takes place, right? Well, I came across this:

<img src=http://www.d20.demon.nl/temp/fear1.jpg>

For those unfamiliar with the science-fiction/horror movie Event Horizon, here are a couple of stills:

<img src=http://www.d20.demon.nl/temp/eventhorizon1.jpg>

<img src=http://www.d20.demon.nl/temp/eventhorizon2.jpg>

[Ghostwise]

Awright, awright, I *am* donwloading the demo.

Cheech.

[Santiago]

FEAR was founded in 2002, but I don't think it's stated outright in which year the story takes place, right? Well, I came across this:

Yeah, I saw that and was wondering the same thing myself. I like little touches like that. :)

[NoCarrier]

She was artificially inseminated (I hope - I wasn't entirely clear about that) so as to produce a genetically engineered-super soldier of some kind, Armacham being a governmental military research group. They induced labor, putting Alma in a coma (she died some days later), and the child was tested for his psychic potential. He failed to manifest any obvious abilities, however, so he was sent to a foster home, living a relatively normal life. He would grow up to become a special forces soldier and joined F.E.A.R. - unaware of his connection to Alma or Armacham. His psionic potential showed in his superhuman reflexes, and (known only to him, apparently) his ability to link with Alma, and her second son, Paxton.

Paxton quickly developed psychic powers of lethal potential, however, killing several people in a 'synchronicity event' when he was only 10. He was chosen to become a super-general for a cloned army of soldiers, the idea being that he could use his telepathic abilities to coordinate them in war. I'm not sure, but I think the clones are based on his genetic material. Around the time the protagonist character joined F.E.A.R. (probably encouraged to do so through the machinations of an unknown Senator and Genevieve Aristide), though, Alma's spirit/ghost/psychic presence was re-awakened.

The Armacham creeps had killed Alma's physical form as a result of her induced pregnancies, leaving her to die in a facility they called the Vault, which was built presumably to both conceal their activities and contain their potent test subject. Her body was stored there, in some kind of strange suspension, presumably so they could recover it and do more testing later. Somehow, Alma's ghost was trapped there, but her hatred and malice toward her tormentors manifested in the world as some kind of pollution leak in the outside world in the town of Auburn. As a result of some fiddling with the Vault or the water treatment plant in Auburn (I'm a bit fuzzy on this), Alma was 'awakened' from whatever stasis she'd been in.

Instinctively reaching out to her more psychically sensitive son, Paxton, she possessed or twisted his mind sufficiently to cause him and his army of clones to become her pawns ("Kill them all" is no doubt her message to Paxton, and later, to your character). Determined to gain revenge on those who had cruelly used her as a test subject, she had Paxton go out and track down the parties most responsible. This included the supervisor guy at the water treatment plant, some other guy in the facility, Alice Wade, Harlan Wade, and ATC in general.

Harlan Wade's conscience was somehow stirred by the awareness that Alma was still around, and despite the suggestions of the other ATC execs/researchers, he set about going to the Vault to release her body and her spirit from whatever contanment it had been in. Alice, his other daughter, tried to locate him and keep him from doing this, also fearful of what Paxton would do to Harlan if he got to him. She got et for her trouble, though. The tubby system administrator guy - forget his name - he was just used by Harlan to get him access to the Vault.

The player character was recognized as Paxton's brother by the psycho killer and, eventually, Alma herself. They tried to get him on their side, sharing their visions/thoughts as he fought Paxton's goon squad and the ATC security forces. He was finally able to destroy the Vault, which went up in a mushroom cloud. He somehow escaped this, but Alma's spirit was still around, hitching a ride on the F.E.A.R. evacuation helo.
I don't think the protagonist, a.k.a. 'the first experiment', had a normal childhood either. At one point Paxton Fettel points out that "you have no name, you have no memories," or something like that.

Norton Mapes was sent to the vault by the Armacham CEO Genevieve Aristide to clean up any incriminating evidence. Harlan Wade had been against re-opening and cleaning up the site since the beginning, and apparently decided to set Alma free after he was confronted with his misdeeds.

3) Paxton apparently was the necessary psychic link to 'activate' the clone army - once he's dead, they go comatose/asleep. Does that mean he was personally throwing the clone soldiers at you, using them like meat puppets? Or was he just sending them occaisonal commands? And are they clones of him, or somebody else? And, while he's obviously 'round the bend, I wonder if his cannibal activities or his loopy smile waiting to be executed by the player are somehow meant to help Alma. Was Alma just done with him and favoring the player character when he's finally cornered and killed?
Paxton Fettel obviously had no intention of killing you off, otherwise he could have done that in the very beginning when he bashed your head in with a two-by-four. I think the clone soldiers were mainly for mass-murdering the whole Armacham company (all the Armacham employees are missing — at one point you come across an elevator shaft filled to the brim with bodies) and putting up resistance against Armachem Security, who were out to shut the whole site down. The more I think about it, the more I get the feeling it was all a very elaborate ruse to get the protagonist to set Alma free.

4) What, if any part, did Alice have in what befell Alma? She'd presumably be too young to be involved in her first testing - but did she know her sister at all? I'm none too clear on her role in the whole thing, beyond that of unfortunate bystander.
Guilt by association, I think.

5) What was the deal with the water treatment plant? Was the leakage and Alma's whisper about "There's something in the water" related to the Vault and her own body, or was that something else entirely? Is this like in Dark Water, with the spirit somehow tainting the water? Or was that just Genevieve's excuse to precipitate this whole mess?
I got the impression that the water purification plant was to filter out the toxic waste the nuclear power plant was producing. It clearly took a lot of energy to keep Alma's containment field running.

6) Who is the Senator? Genevieve apparently works for him rather than Armacham or Harlan Wade. You can hear her trying to persuade assorted ATM people in those voicemails, but she seemed opposed to Harlan's plan to go mess with the Vault. I'm assuming that she was talking about the player character when she spoke to the Senator in the post-credits conversation (shades of Metal Gear Solid, no?) and said the first test subject was a success. They weren't happy about the amount of public knowledge involved, but - was it all just a test for the player character?
I think it's the other way around: Genevieve Aristide wanted the vault re-opened to clean up the mess, Harlan Wade was opposed to it because people got killed the last time they tried that. I don't think it was all a test for the protagonist. After all, Auburn got nuked in the end, but rather a case of killing two birds with one stone. Besides, the protagonist was the only one who proved reasonably immune to the paranormal— all the others, like that missing Delta Force team in the Armacham building, got turned into puddles of blood by Paxton and/or Alma.

7) What are those spectral forms you encountered? They could kill you, and they seemed set on doing just that. Are they psychic manifestations of Alma's madness/rage, out of her control? Or are they the spirits of some other person or persons? Given that letting Alma hug you kills you instantly, I doubt she has much control, but - who knows.
Who knows? Perhaps those spirits are sent by Alma to take you to the afterlife, so she can be with you. Her hugs are very deadly, too.

I think I'll play the game again, to see what I missed.

[EvilBrennan]

Whoop.
That's one Botched spoiler tag...

[NoCarrier]

Whoop.
That's one Botched spoiler tag...
Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't know spoiler tags don't cover quote-blocks. Took me a couple of minutes to edit it. It should show up now correctly, right?

[EvilBrennan]

Indeedy!

[Something Else]

So... I just finished it. The plot was very cliche, although the game was fun enough...

I just wish they would stop doing the YOU ARE SECRETLY A CLONE/SITH LORD/WHATEVER twist. I get that it was awesome in KOTOR, because that was Star Wars and you weren't expecting anything other than a formula plot. When it's a weird horror story it's just lame and Mary Sue-ish.

I never realized how much Deus Ex spoiled me on the not-railroaded FPS genre. This felt so railroaded.

Did give me a few good jumps though.

[J. H. Frank]

PC or 360? I have it on 360 and would love to know how different, if at all, the experience is.

[Professor Phobos]

Anyone have the expansion yet?