Introduction

In 2005 First person shooters were pretty basic. This is where F.E.A.R came in... F.E.A.R [first encounter assault recon] was what I think was the beginning of a new era of games particularly first person shooters. Not only it looked amazing it played and sounded amazing aswell. Physics and special affects were stunning: hanging lights shake when there are explosions close by and even the player shakes when there are explosions not to mention...slo-mo. Not only that Blood and gore was a whole new thing...it looked so awesome, it felt so awesome, it is so awesome.F.E.A.R not only set the example technically it set the example gameplay wise too.


Singleplayer

F.E.A.R is and was known for its freaky singleplayer campaign following a group named F.E.A.R [First Encounter Assault Recon] that targets paranormal threats. One of these threats was a little girl named Alma. you would think some tough guys with machine guns would easily take down some little girl but no she is freaky. Alma appears infront of you and dissappears in thin air. One mission you have to open a gate by the switch in the building so your squad can enter the shipping docks but when you get down you see a cutscene where they are running shooting and then they turn to burning skeletons...freaky. Many scary cutscene forever bother you and scare you though dont waste your bullets throughout them because they won't die. Oh yeah did I ever mention pictures of dead flash upon your screen? Anyway on a more less gruesome note the enemy soldiers you face are super smart. They will scatter, take cover, lay supressive fire on you and have some guys to flank you. They even dive through windows to dodge grenades. The soldiers communicate all the time to their squad mates and swear when underfire. The whole aspect of gameplay in this singleplayer is different to other first person shooters but similar to some titles. The levels have a number of squads of enemy, weapons lying around and obstacles such as highly lethal electrical volts that block pathways so you have to find the switch to turn it off. Maps are found to be dark and little light but thats what its like in F.E.A.R so get used to it or its going to be a long bumpy ride. Slo-mo is also awesome in the single-player...machine guns slow down and pistols and shotguns sound like cannons. You can pick up certain sryinges on the way during the campaign to extend your slo-mo time. Unlike games such as Halo the storyline isn't really that obvious during the game though you don't care because half the time you are enjoying shooting the crap out of the enemy. Obvious or not the storyline, the developers have at least done something right of the story give you nightmares!


Multiplayer

Multiplayer is highly intense gameplay. Maps are balanced and use parts of levels in the singleplayer campaign. Gunfire is never far away and intense punching and kicking is also fun unless servers forbid use of melee. There are 100s of servers to choose from and lots of maps are fun. To start in match you can choose from the basic weapons: assault rifle, shotgun, dual pistols, SMG, Nailgun, and ASP rifle but many other superweapons such as particle guns and rocket launchers are scattered but you move slower wielding them and arent useful in close combat. Grenades are fun and so are proxmity mines and remote bombs also add to the carnage oh yeah did i mention grenades explode on contact? All guns are badass in multiplayer evenly balanced. Players also get their username printed on their uniforms and their own insignia: many to choose from too it makes it easier to know whos who in your team. Multiplayer was so successful they released a free download standalone version exactly the same as a official free online FPS.


Gameplay

F.E.A.R apart from the scaryness it is the most fun in my opinion gameplay wise for that time period. Glass shatters arms come off, what used to be perfectly normal soldiers is now a mess of blood and meat That my friends is what makes this game so badass...it makes shooting the crap out of people more fun. Not only shooting people is fun karate chopping their ass is more enjoyable. In F.E.A.R there is 4 ways of melee combat...which is quite alot if you look at most first person shooters, they only have 1 which is hit guy with gun boooring. In F.E.A.R there is karate scissor kick, slide tackle, punch, hit guy with weapon. All of those right there are 1 hit KO and are actually quite easy to do. If you enjoy blood and gore, or the trigger happy type maybe F.E.A.R is the game for you even tactical people can enjoy this wait all fans of first person shooters should enjoy this due to the smart AI of the enemy soldiers.


Technical stuff

F.E.A.R in all its glory also has a setback...minimum requirements. If some of you don't know what that means it means that most computers then couldn't run it. Think of Crysis...masterpiece of a game but needs a flash computer which some people don't have. F.E.A.R is on the same page but like Crysis if you have a nice PC it will take your breath away. looking at F.E.A.R to recent games such as Call of Duty 4 they look both nice though of coarse Call of duty would win but it's not bad on your eyes compared to other games of that era *cough* counterstrike . Sound is also a great point of F.E.A.R because everything sounds great: from the sound effects, voice acting, weapon sounds, slo mo you name it everything sounds like what you would expect from a Hollywood Blockbuster horror film. F.E.A.R is recommended for all who have decent computers and laptops.


Conclusion

If you wanted a good solid First person shooter game that might be cheap because of its age...get F.E.A.R. Once you buy this you won't regret it...ever. With such a good [scary] singleplayer and exciting multiplayer and not to mention special effects and gameplay I would give it a 9.5. I'm also reviewing it as if it were 2005 so It would be fair.