 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Monolith Productions |
| Publisher: | Sierra Entertainment | |
| Genre: | FPS | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1 (2-16 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Includes F.E.A.R. Director's Edition and Extraction Point expansion |
F.E.A.R. took the PC FPS world by storm in 2005. Not only is it an incredibly visceral shooter, but it also slickly blends in advanced physics, intelligent enemy A.I., and horror elements more akin to Silent Hill than Resident Evil. The result was a number of Game of the Year awards, a new hit franchise for Vivendi Universal, and of course expansion packs. F.E.A.R.: Gold Edition is an excellent chance for new players to get into the franchise with the original game and first expansion pack before the second expansion arrives this November.
To briefly recap, the original F.E.A.R. finds the player taking on the role of point man in an elite group of soldiers aiming to take down psychopathic nutjob Paxton Fettel. He has control of his own elite group of Replica soldiers, and as their name suggests they’re super soldier clones and elite in their own right. Fortunately for the player, the protagonist has his own enhanced abilities, including lightning fast reflexes that allow the player to routinely slow down time and even the odds.
Of course, anyone that has followed the franchise surely knows by now that neither the player nor the protagonist is really the star of this show. No, that would be Alma, the creepy longhaired girl featured on the game’s box front, in marketing materials, and showing up throughout the game in some of the scariest sequences in gaming history. Ultimately, F.E.A.R. revolves around her story, and part of the fun in the game comes with figuring out exactly what that is. Her appearances are masterfully spaced out to keep the player guessing, and how she ties in to what’s happening with Paxton and the player is a treat to discover.
My only real issue with the original F.E.A.R. is that it gets repetitive after extended play. Throughout the game, you fight the same few enemy types over and over again, using the same tactics to eliminate them that you’ve perfected on countless others. While the Replica soldier A.I. is excellent, you can only kill so many dozens of clones before it loses its luster. There are a few other enemy types in the game of course, and at least one of them is incredibly cool, but sadly they don’t show up often enough to add a lot of variety.
At this point there’s no doubt that the original F.E.A.R. is a bonafide classic, one that should be played by almost all FPS fans (the gore and cursing adverse may want to pass). For those that have, the version included here is actually the Director’s Edition though, which includes bonus content that may make it worth a look for existing fans of the franchise. There’s a behind-the-scenes “making of” video, an incredibly long and informative director’s commentary, a collection of F.E.A.R. prequel live action shorts starring Alma, and even some F.E.A.R. machinima. Unfortunately these are Bink formatted movies, so they launch without any way to pause, rewind, or fast-forward them (that I know of anyway), but nevertheless they’re well worth watching.
Posted: 2007-11-05 09:56:55 PST