F.E.A.R.

Just finished F.E.A.R., and it was really great. Solid FPS, but the gameplay started to get stale toward the end. The story was pretty interesting; they must have taken inspiration from stuff like Akira. The gameplay reminded me a bit of Half-Life. It's good if you're looking for some of that old-school FPS style of game.

REMASTER/REMAKE THIS GAME PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

First 2 fear games are amazing games the third one was a disappointment none of what made fear a good game was included in fear 3 they took a different approach and turned what was suppose to be a horror/shooter game into a co op call of duty game fear 2 combat was nowhere near as good as fear 1 but it has good horror and jumpscares which will leave you questioning life

BUY THIS GAME ALREADY!!!

Short and sweet is the only way I can describe this game.

Short like 6 to 10hrs on the hardest difficulty but it'll be some of the most fun 6 to 10hrs you ever enjoyed.

For being as early a title as it is the gunplay and melee feel really solid even by today's standards.

Also... RAGDOLLS AND SLOMO BABY! Sometimes thats all ya need!

One of my all time favorites
If a remaster never comes please at least add steam achievements for the first two.

Lemme warn you upfront, the base PC version has a glitch that causes the framerate to drop every 15 minutes. There are ways to patch it, but I consider the fact I even have to type this in the first place to be a damning demerit against this port. WB, if you're reading this, FIX THIS PORT ASAP! Which is a shame, because this is still a good game. In this version, you can even set up individual saves which was a godsend for me in my quest to find all the collectibles. I know the VK-12 Shotgun has a reputation for being the best shotgun in all of gaming, although I didn't see that while I was playing the Xbox 360 version as it was overshadowed by the nigh-invincible Machine Pistols. It'll be interesting to test out the Shotgun's true capabilities.

Long story short, good game, exemplary save system, framerate drops after 15 minutes into a session, get to work WB.

very nice - couldnt finish extraction point because the game broke, very good dlc though. ignore perseus mandate

It might have been a great game when it actually came out but now, it just feels terrible. I don't want to touch this game again.

Despite some pacing issues and level design that becomes far too repetitive, F.E.A.R.'s iconic Replica remain fun to fight throughout. The horror elements didn't always hit for me, but I found it tense and enjoyable and I had a good time.

This is really three games (original + two expansions), so it's a good deal if you get it cheap, but also a bit of a mixed bag.

The main game is great and it provides the option to use modern screen resolutions (it makes the UI really small is still usable) . The first game is truly the peak of the FEAR franchise and is definitely worth playing.

The expansions are fun, but much weaker than the main game. Extraction Point in particular makes very little sense from a story perspective and for some reason it doesn't support modern screen resolutions, even though the main game and Perseus Mandate do. Also, it's worth noting that the plots of both expansions were retconned so they aren't considered cannon and the plots of FEAR 2 and 3 either ignore them or even change things that happened in the expansions. I still found them fun to play, but they are basically fan fics since nothing that happens in them matters to the rest of the series.

From a tech perspective, it worked pretty well on Windows 10, though with a few issues. All three games crashed the first time I tried to boot them, but then started normally every time after. Not sure why this happened, but I didn't have to do anything to fix it. Extraction Point was by far the most buggy. As stated above, it doesn't support modern screen resolutions, but I also had an issue with it crashing when it was loading a new level. Based on the forums, this is fairly common. I was able to fix it by turning the graphics and resolution down to the lowest options possible, loading the level, saving, and then turning all the settings back up to max. It's annoying, but it was an easy fix. However, keep in mind that some people in the forums said that this fix didn't work for them, so mileage may vary.

Overall, FEAR holds up quite well in terms of gameplay and technical stability. The plot is mixed with the main game being great, Perseus Mandate being mediocre, and Extraction Point being almost non-existent. Overall, it's worth playing if you haven't played it before. Even if you skip the expansions, the main game is worth $5 or less on it's own. Unfortunately, the FEAR series kind of nose dives after this game, but this one is worth playing on its own.

I keep getting back to this game every few years. Every time I expect that it will finally feel aged, wooden and outdated. Every time it manages to blow my mind how freaking cool it actually still is. It is dark, it is desolate, it is claustrophobic, murky, urban. Everything is a disturbing mess of narrow corridors, dancing shadows, Alma, deserted offices, elevator shafts, Alma, blood, concrete, broken glass and Alma. The sound is a freaking revelation - footsteps, ghostly radio station, ghostly whispers, ghostly telephone lines, even some goddamn ravens. Then you enter a fight and you realize that at the middle of the whole mess you could hear even the cartridges that are falling on the floor. And 20 years later the actual fight is still great.
It's an amazing game. Cool, fun and on point.

Decent gameplay for its time, story is mildly intriguing.

Score: 6.5/10

TL:DR - F.E.A.R. is a masterpiece of atmospheric FPS action, with top-tier shooting mechanics, incredible enemy AI, and a chilling atmosphere. Though its plot and environments are somewhat lacking, it’s still one of the best old-school shooters out there.

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) stands as one of the finest examples of old-school first-person shooters, a game that continues to hold a special place in the hearts of those who grew up with it. Combining incredible shooting mechanics with a spine-chilling atmosphere, F.E.A.R. delivers a unique experience that has aged remarkably well, despite some minor shortcomings.

The Good:

Shooting Mechanics:
The core of F.E.A.R. is its tight and satisfying gunplay. The weapons feel powerful, and the combat is visceral and intense, especially in close-quarters scenarios. The level design complements this, creating the perfect arena for dynamic firefights, even if the environments can feel repetitive after a while.

Enemy AI:
What sets F.E.A.R. apart from other shooters is the incredible enemy AI, even by today's standards. The Replica soldiers don’t just charge at you—they strategize. They’ll flank you, suppress your position, and adapt on the fly, creating some of the most intense firefights in any FPS. This is a rare level of intelligence that keeps the player on edge throughout the game.

Slow-Motion Mechanic:
The game’s slow-motion feature is a game-changer. It allows you to dodge bullets, pull off stylish kills, and revel in the chaos of firefights. It’s a blast to use and can be turned off if you prefer a more hardcore experience.

Physics and Visuals:
From realistic bullet traces to impressive particle effects, F.E.A.R. excels in creating a physical, reactive environment. Explosions shake lights, debris flies through the air, and everything from the lighting to the animations adds to the immersion. This is a norm in today's games, but imagine what it was like back when the game released in 2005.

Atmosphere:
Even with a fairly simple plot, F.E.A.R. nails the atmosphere. Its dark, claustrophobic environments and tense moments build a paranoid, horror-infused experience that grips you until the credits roll. It’s not just a shooter—it’s a psychological experience that creeps under your skin.

The Not-So-Good:

Mediocre Plot and Forgettable Allies:
While the antagonists are memorable, the overall plot falls short of greatness. Your allies, in particular, feel underdeveloped and fail to leave a lasting impression. This is a shame, as a stronger narrative could have elevated the game even further.

Repetitive Environments:
While the level design supports excellent combat, the repetitive office and lab interiors begin to feel monotonous toward the end. The game could have benefited from more variety in its visual design to keep things fresh.

Final Thoughts:

F.E.A.R. remains one of the most significant and memorable FPS experiences in gaming history. Its combination of top-tier shooting mechanics, impressive AI, and nerve-wracking atmosphere makes it stand out, even years after its release. The game is a shining example of what shooters can be when they focus on challenge, creativity, and immersion. If you haven’t played it, you owe it to yourself to dive into this masterpiece.

This is an absolute must-play for anyone who loves FPS games with a twist of horror.

Game is fun thus far, but has some sort of FPS bug. If your going to get the game, follow this guide, otherwise your likely not going to be able to get above 40FPS

https://steamcommunity.com/app/21090/discussions/0/343785380897389173/

F.e.a.r is a weak, surface level horror shooter game with loooong corridors. I finished it two times on two different difficulty levels with many years in-between. There won't be a third time.

Positive:
- good graphics, especially the lights
- good gun sounds
- the first person gunplay is tense and enjoyable because of the high level AI and the reflex mode

Negative:
- repetative fights
- jumpscary, almost pointless horroristic atmosphere
- corridor shooter in endlessly large buildings
- not much to do or interact with other than shooting, picking up weapons, and walking...a lot
- the aiming perspective doesn't mean aiming with some kind of sight, but corsair
- lame storytelling through audiologs and horror visions

Oh Man That Was Some Crazy Crap There And That Twist Man My Bro Pranked Me Alot But Still I like The Guy Mapes :(

Nevermind the FPS fix you have to implement to get the game to run correctly, but a few levels in and the game crashes when trying to load the next level in the campaign. Completely stuck. Very frustrating and disappointing.

This is one of my favorite shooters of all time, I'd rank it very high on a top 10 list of my favorite video games. I never get bored playing it, I can literally reset to a checkpoint 30 different times and always find a new way to kill something. I love FEAR.

F.E.A.R. is absolutely amazing, I honestly think it's one of the best FPS games of all time, it just feels so unique even after all these years. Cheers to Monolith for making this timeless classic.

Not as scary as SOMA. Combat holds up pretty well. Story is engaging. A few good jump scares and a lot of psychological horror.

this game reminds me alot of another couple of games I have played before known as half life.

A Classic in First-Person Horror Shooters!

For my 70th review, I wanted to play something a little special, so I looked through my game library. In my search, I found a perfect choice: an old yet still classic game that holds up more or less now but is also spooky. I will also add that this review will have spoilers, so readers beware.

In-game, F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon is a special forces organization created to protect national security against threats involving supernatural or paranormal activity. In the team, players play the role of Point Man, a man who turns out to be a super soldier born with psionic abilities. Our primary mission is to eliminate Paxton Fettel, who has taken control of a battalion of telepathically controlled clone super soldiers. All of this is done in order to free Alma Wade (Paxton and Point Man’s mother) and get revenge on Armacham Technology Corporation for the inhumane experiments and projects she was used for. As the game progresses, we learn more about who we are and the truth behind what happened, culminating in an explosive finale. But the story is only just beginning…

At its core, the game is a first-person shooter with horror elements inspired by J-horror of the time. One of the most notable points of inspiration is Alma, who usually appears as a little ghost girl with long black hair. It makes me think back to things like The Grudge or The Ring. I would say this helped further popularize the scary ghost girl element for years to come. Another significant element is the use of atmosphere, which I think is done pretty well. Though there is some dread in the environments, there is a bit more of an emphasis on jumpscares. Turning around to find Alma behind you, images flashing on screen, and so on. Since I have played the game three times now, the jumpscares didn’t make me jump, but enemies coming out of nowhere did.

Speaking of enemies, the AI and the combat system are pretty good for them, but they are still holding up. One big aspect of this is the use of slow-motion and a slo-mo bar. In order to feel like an action hero, as the game intends, you can hit slo-mo, allowing you to fight enemies better. I found it very helpful throughout my playthrough, especially in tricky situations like with rocket mechs. In addition, the enemy AI is a prime example of intelligent AI, trying to find a way to the player, talking to other enemies, etc. There are only a few games in recent memory that I can think of where the AI is as good as this.

Moving onto some more negatives to this game, my only critiques would be toward the swimming and the performance. There is a tiny bit closer to the beginning where to move on, you have to raise the water level of an area and jump over onto a ledge. The problem is that there is a chance it will take you several tries to get out of the water as if the ledge isn’t within reach. It feels like swimming was a bit of an afterthought when it came down to development, and I found myself getting annoyed. Talking about performance, I had to turn off the HID devices on my computer to be able to play because my game would slow down after 5 minutes. Also, I experienced the “Disconnected from Server” issue while trying to load into certain sections later on, so I had to reduce my game settings to lower ones. All of it was pretty annoying, even when I have a decent computer.

While I experienced some minor issues throughout my overall playthrough, I still had a hell of a lot of fun. F.E.A.R. is a classic FPS that still feels slightly unmatched 19 years later and is a fun time if you enjoy shooters. I can’t wait to see what the DLCs and the rest of the series have in store!

4 out of 5 ★★★★☆!

great game. but it runs like shit.

only buy this if you're willing to go out of your way to run individual .exe files in compatibility mode among other issues.

It's kind of a crapshoot. which is a shame considering that this game is a classic that's influenced basically all of your favorite shooters released in the last 15 years. The gunplay is pure "John Woo - Guns akimbo, jumping through the air whilst shouting AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" type action. So it's a real shame that it runs so poorly out of the box. and even after I've made some tweaks. I still have issues on a mid level pc over a decade after the release of the game.

i gotta say i wish i had played this game sooner but high school was tough anyways this game is the best game i have ever played 10 out of 10 and i recommend it to you guys the only problem i have with it is modern windows compatibility issues which is in no way the games fault but rather its the operating system

-The gameplay was amazing

-The story was great!

-The graphics were great and doesn't need any remasters or remakes because the looks the graphics from 2005 already give it the creepy uncanny atmosphere

-The A.I kicked my ass alright man they used to make challenging games unlike modern fps where they are super focused on making the multi-player rather than the single-player so in short modern games are too easy or just a chore to finish where as this game wasn't a chore but rather fun and challenging man i feel like i want more of this game modern games truly made me lose fun in video games

-We already talked about the A.I in this game and all i can is the combat is great and the mechanics are great and if you don't like the button layouts you can change it

anyways with that said this game was released in 2005 and thats when i was born haha


I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS GAME TO YOU!

but again you have to fix a lot of its problems that are the fault of the game but rather the operating system and this is a windows xp game so ofc it would have these issues

i mean there is always the retro gaming pc that you can build and play this game on i mean sure it would mean buying a copy of this game or ehem the other option which i will not name i will name one of them which is borrowing your friends copy of this game which would be the none patched retail and it will work with windows xp i believe since no patch day one release

anyways with that said


F.E.A.R = FIRST ENCOUNTER ASSAULT RECON IS A 10/10 really underrated game and wish it got more recognition

Classic game, no achievement support but runs great on modern hardware. Required a minor mod to take advantage of modern hardware which boosted performance by quite a bit.

My first playthrough years ago, it was a fun game. 2nd time, not as much. Still not a bad game.

While I'd hesitate to say that FEAR 1 is "scary" (the game is almost 20 years old, come on now), everything else about it holds up.
Combat holds up great, it can be pretty intense, the AI are pretty smart and the weapons have this specific PUNCH to them.
The ambience as well holds up great, dare I say the game's age has made it even better.
I cannot recommend FEAR 1 enough.

I bought this game a long time ago and forgot I had it in my library. I paid less than $12 for the entire F.E.A.R. bundle including DLCs.

This game feels ahead of it's time, hard to believe it is almost 20 years old. Good FPS with smart AI combat, felt like OG Half Life. I wouldn't go as far as saying this game was scary outside a couple quick creepy moments, but the horror aspects ramped up near the end and I enjoyed the game as a whole. I plan to play through the full series.

An old game but still a classic, essentially the full length of the Burj Dubai better than Call of Duty or any other major named shooter that releases uninspiring modern shooter titles to keep the fanboys happy per year. It has one spiritual successor and that is Trepang 2 which I also have, it does what few shooters these days care to do any longer. Make it fun, have interesting but simple mechanics, choose a more realistic color palette especially considering its theme and setting and above all, have normal gameplay that anyone could enjoy without having to think too hard about teamwork in a competition. Apart from Doom and the other dead shooter Blacklight Retribution (which I did grief a lot in before understanding it was its own brand of shooter) which took the mechanics of popular shooters and made them at least unique, there weren't a hell of a lot of shooters I was really into. I tried out Call of Duty and found it as bland as a sandwich for lunch every day, variety is the spice of life but apparently not the winning ticket for big companies. WB bought out Monolith and bleached out everything that made their company stand out, they got them to make some darker and more sexualised versions of Lord of the Rings because they apparently felt Tolkien's universe wasn't deadly enough. Still, Monolith does creepy and sometimes dark humor games best but I haven't heard a peep of them doing another series in the same vein, not while WB wants to capitalize on winning IPs and do the typical corporate MO, make more money or the MMM principle. They don't appear to be interested in letting a company do what it does best, just what other companies cannot afford to divert themselves to. F.E.A.R. will stand up as a legend of horror shooters being a unique breed of shooter altogether and WB has no idea what it had until the devs who made it are completely gone. They could have gone toe to toe with other popular shooters releasing a F.E.A.R. title per year or two years with all sorts of offshoots while doing their damndest to keep the art direction alive and make it to where the others would have to come up with a game like F.E.A.R. to compete or maybe use their imaginations and come up with other styles of shooter like say, fantasy shooters where they shoot spells rather than guns or maybe a steampunk shooter, hell any brand besides the yearly modern soul sucking, mind warping, chuke it out of a vending machine shooter per year.

This game was one of the most unique shooters that distinguished the 2000's from other decades but sadly the bigs never took the mechanics to their own games probably until far later years. Yeah, gaming was pretty wacky during the 2000's but there were several titles that stood out that made being a gamer feel good. A time when AAA skullduggery didn't own the scene and AA game studios were popping out classics and iconic games left, right and center. Indies took over by the late 2010's as the AAA skullduggery got out of control and into the hands of the console realm. Now the gaming industry (AAA titles by YouTuber standards) is where the music industry was in the 2000's, producing lousy titles and broken promises as well as half-baked games while their mainstream ego rules the market, considering YouTube rescued the music industry, hopefully something comes along to rescue the gaming industry making dependence on AAA companies a thing of the past.

Note: There are certain weird bugs that prevent progress such as high settings can cause the 'disconnected from server' bug near the final maps. One of those holes that the devs never plugged.

If only Monolith was still making great games and not become slaves to Warner Bros we would've had an amazing decade for FPS games regardless if Monolith weren't the best at making better sequels of their franchises, they are still somewhat enjoyable. (Except Blood 2, I blame GT Interactive for publishing an over rushed game that was barely finished to begin with and Monolith deserved better treatment from them if only the greediness from GT Interactive never escalated highly in the first place.)

even with all the fixes from pcgw the slo mo makes the whole screen gray and i got softlocked cuz stage 4 starts with an ambush after i got real meesed up at the end of 3 real nice guys

This game was beyond 2005 for sure. 8/10, excellent shooter but the horror doesn't hold up today.

F.E.A.R. is hands down my favorite single-player FPS. It's incredibly enjoyable even in 2024. It was one of the last FPS games without all the crap that modern shooters have: long boring cutscenes, minigames, countless lines of unnecessary dialogue, RPG/crafting elements, and all that other nonsense that actually breaks immersion and detaches the player from the story.
F.E.A.R. is extremely simple yet effective. The narrative flow is very similar to Half-Life (1998), with the story unfolding gradually and only with a few lines of spot on dialogues. The mystery is revealed slowly and elegantly—no annoying cryptic explanations here.
Just a masterpiece.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10

Is this game nearly 20 years old? Sure. Is it still excellent? Absolutely! Sure the graphics are a bit dated at this point, but the game play is still excellent and most importantly it is still fun! My only "complaint" was that I had to buy the bundle of all 3 games and their expansion packs to play the original.

Due to the age of the game and differences in how games were programmed back when this was made there is a major issue with how the game handles RAM and mouse inputs which leads to the game slowing down and eventually crashing. Granted there is a guide and a .dll download for a fix, and the fix actually works on other Monolith games, but at some point other issues arise that do not let me finish the game. At a random point the game started to launch in the wrong monitor and try as I might there was no real solution for the problem outside of an uninstall and subsequent redownload of the .dll. At that moment I gave up on this. Hope that someone will remaster this someday

good story, tight gameplay and tried out some extra gameplay features with the stat boost syringes through the game. for a psycological horror with these types of graphics i think it aged well and holds up against AAA titles produced these days pretty well. loads of mods are available for the game so theres gonna be something new for you when you come back if thats your style.

7/10

Имба часть, знатно прогрело на эксперте, но концовка не очень думал чёт пострашней будет.

still holds up as the best horror game I've ever played, not to mention such a great fps way ahead of it's time.

What do i think about F.E.A.R?

For a survival horror game it didn't out F.E.A.R into me (Ban a few moments where the gremlin child walked on all fours at me) but it has an amazing story and AI is pretty interactive in game with both the enviroment and voicelines commenting on whats happening (Squad member death, your flashlight, ect)

its just plane fun with a pretty cool storyline to boot! i reccomend giving it a chance!