Both FEAR and Max Payne 1 and 2 figured the best places to set their John Woo/Matrix inspired slo-mo bullet-time shootouts were in desolate urban buildings. Both weave nightmare sequences into their shootouts. Max Payne unravels a conspiracy to make supersoldiers with the drug Valkyr and the pointman in FEAR is THE supersoldier. Payne and pointman should grab a beer sometime.

The replicants you fight in FEAR call out to each other with your location, if they've been injured, shout out 'grenade' which only heightens their path finding and flanking moves. It's still highly impressive when one of these guys jump through a window. The shotgun is still legendary, turning clone soldiers into red mist. The only problems I have with the game are the end that only has you blasting these boring ghosts and you spend too long during the middle of the game in blank office buildings. The rest is primo. FPS combat hasn't been this good until Trepang 2, which is a pastiche of the original king FEAR.

She did nothing wrong 😊

Before I could play F.E.A.R. on a modern PC in 2024, I had to put in considerable effort to optimize the game. However, once I had everything set up, I didn't encounter any issues during gameplay. There are numerous helpful guides available that outline how to optimize the game for modern hardware, and I strongly recommend using them if you're playing on recently released equipment.

Unlike the compatibility issues, the game itself did not feel outdated. One aspect of F.E.A.R. that has stood the test of time is the enemy AI. It's often praised as one of the game's best features, and I'd have to agree. The combat never felt unfair or nonsensical. Each encounter was genuinely enjoyable, rather than feeling like a grueling battle against bullet sponges or overpowered enemies that could shoot through walls like other FPS games released around the same time ... and even now.

"The Ring directed by John Woo" may be a pithy sales pitch for those wanting a reccomendation, but it fails to really do justice to the impressive tonal tightrope walk that Monolith pull off here. Sure you get the heroic bloodshed banger replete with weighty firearms and visceral bullet time which makes this a near-unbeaten genre essential. But the psychological horror elements do a terrific job undercutting the supersoldier fantasy, and leaving you deeply vulnerable in-game. And a lot of that isn't even done through the central figure of Alma and her roots in the J-horror boom of the 90s and 00s. So much of the titular sense of fear is achieved through environmental scares, harsh atmospherics/lighting, and a truly oppressive sound design that ranks as highly as the gunplay does. Both the vengeful ghost and corporate malfeasence angle hardly make FEAR stand out for the brilliance of its narrative, but it still suceeds as a cerebral gaming experience within those confines.

- Alma -
Después de mucho tiempo de haberlo iniciado en Gog puedo decir que es un juego muy interesante.
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El nivel que maneja de acción y terror esta bastante bien medido.
El ambiente es muy bueno, miedo solo con estar recorriendo cada zona a la que nos mandan.
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La historia me pareció difícil de entender al inicio pero mucho se aclara casi al final.
Su gameplay me gusto cada disparo y granada pesan mucho y se sienten muy bien.
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Algo que no me gustó fue que por ratos el juego se volvía tedioso con los enemigos que disparaban muy preciso, golpeaban atraves de las paredes y muchas veces eran raros en su comportamiento (creo que no es tan malo realmente pero a mi no me gustó)

Def one of my fav shooters ever now, the best enemy AI I've seen in a shooter yet and really fantastic gun feel. I also love the environments, great mix of uncannily sterile modernist spaces (assisted by the stark lighting) and dirtier worn down spaces with great use of pitch black lighting. The smoke and blood effects here really add a lot to the feel of the game too, firing your gun and entering slo-mo can often make it hard to see enemies through all the chaos, lots of tension there! Gonna try and get to the expansions soon, glad to see they have the same composer too bc the music in this was extremely good.

Super enjoyable and still holds up today. F.E.A.R. absolutely nails the unsettling atmosphere and doesn't rely on cheap jumpscares. The enemy AI is really impressive - every single firefight is engaging as your enemies communicate with each other on your whereabouts and actions while they actively try to flank you. The environments are great and I was pleasantly surprised by some minor details - for example, if you knock over a phone you will hear a dial tone. Brilliant game, would absolutely recommend to anyone who hasn't played it before.

F.E.A.R is a game I'm surprised took me as long to get to as I did. It is still a marvel to play to this day with its harsh combat encounters and oppressive atmosphere. While the main dialogue and plot isn't anything to write home about, the way the game handles its world building and the use of The Pointman's unbroken perspective could put it on par with classics such as Half-Life of Call of Juarez.

The thing this game is remembered for the most is it's combat encounters and impressive AI which still hold up now. It has been known that most of the AI's actions are just little dialogue tricks, but I found some of the stuff that the clones pulled off on me crazy. They will blow up explosives, cook grenades, fire behind themselves when running, all these little cool things. All while the area is pelted with frags and covered in clouds of dust John Woo style.

This game is a true classic, but the worst thing about loving this game is knowing that none of the other games in the series live up to this standard lol.