 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Day 1 Studios |
| Publisher: | Vivendi Games | |
| Genre: | FPS | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1-16 | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | PlayStation Network (online play) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Unfortunately, gameplay itself can be as repetitive as the phrases the super soldiers utter. During the course of the game, you'll almost exclusively fight nothing but the same soldiers over and over again in the same basic environments, using SlowMo in much the same fashion as well. They never seem to get any smarter than they originally are, although they can be slightly harder to kill later on during the game's later levels due to there being more of them and their positioning. While the few new enemies you'll encounter later on that aren't Replicas are a nice change of pace (and downright scary), they're used too sparingly.
I do have a few minor quibbles about the game that aren’t necessarily tied into the gameplay itself. The first is that the player seemingly works inside a vacuum. Although you will see your team on a few occasions, most of the game is spent working alone. When you do regroup when your teammates, your character doesn’t say a word about all of the freaky things happening around him. This struck me as unrealistic, because if nothing else as a good teammate he should want to warn them about some of the dangers they too may face. My other complaint is that the L2 and R2 buttons are too sensitive in this game. They’re sensitive anyway, but in this game they seem overly so. Here they’re mapped to throwing grenades and firing your equipped weapon respectively, and I ended up wasting ammo several times at the slightest brush of one of the buttons.
F.E.A.R. also supports online play for up to 16 players on the PS3, with the usual assortment of modes including Death Match, Team Death Match, Capture the Flag, Elimination, and Team Elimination. SlowMo is handled a little differently however, giving the game somewhat of a unique spin online. In the first three gameplay modes, SlowMo is activated by picking up a Reflex Booster. When picked up the player glows blue on all players’ HUD, so that player instantly becomes a big target. However, it allows anyone on his or her team to activate SlowMo. When it’s activated, time slows down for all players, but the team that acquired the Reflex Booster is able to react faster than those on the other side. This setup makes its use a bit more strategic than what you’d usually find in a game like this. Sadly there’s no offline multiplayer though, meaning you’ll only be able to play with your friends if they’re online as well.
Graphically F.E.A.R. is solid, although it shows a little bit of its roots as a PC title initially released in 2005. The particle effects are excellent, with smoke, sparks off of bullets, shattering glass, and chunks of things spreading in a realistic manner. Some textures can be a little blurry compared to today’s top shelf titles, although they are designed well overall with plenty of little details such as visible rings on shelves left by cans long removed. From a technical standpoint there’s also a little bit of slowdown (not the good kind) and framerate stutters present as well, although it’s hardly enough to hurt the game.
The audio is very well done, with good voice acting throughout. As I mentioned before the Replicas repeat the same phrases too often, but it’s never bad enough to really annoy. F.E.A.R. also makes very good use of ambient noise to add to the game’s creepy atmosphere, with the usual assortment of creaks in the distance, transmission interference, etc. Parents and general objectors should be warned that there’s a lot of profanity that can’t be turned off though, unless you turn off the voices altogether and miss out on the story. Naturally you wouldn’t want to play a game like this in front of small children regardless, but it’s worth considering if you’ll be playing the game in a home where sound carries well. After all, it's a lot less of a negative impact on overall enjoyment of the game to turn down the sound of gunfire than it is to turn off the voices giving you the storyline itself.
Bottom Line:
F.E.A.R. is an excellent game, combining the atmosphere usually found in a survival horror title with intense FPS gameplay. While the game’s age does show a bit in the blurry textures and somewhat repetitive gameplay, it’s still well worth adding to any shooter fan's library.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 8.2 |
Posted: 2007-08-22 21:02:38 PST