F.E.A.R. holds up surprisingly well. It's nestled in a comfortable era for FPS games, predating grey angsty Xbox 360 slop, and old enough to avoid the stiff controls of the original Half Life.

The story is simple but serviceable. It's constantly flowing in the background, and mostly serves to give you reasons to go places and shoot people. It never grabbed me, but it didn't need to. F.E.A.R. isn't that kind of game.

Combat is punchy and fast. Enemies take chunks out of your life with every shot, but you can kill most enemies with a few well placed shots in return. The slow-mo and leaning mechanics make you feel really powerful at time, and I genuinely liked the gunfights in this game.

As for the horror aspect...it was rough. It wasn't really scary, and while I like Alma as a villain, none of her segments really did anything for me. In fact, it was more funny than anything. You'd have soldiers get zapped by her mind powers, and they'd collapse like G-Mod skeleton ragdolls.

Overall, I'd say give it a go. It's pretty cheap and easy to come by, and I was able to beat it in just about ten hours. It's nothing spectacular, but it was a fun way to spend a few afternoons.