F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. is a game I've played since I was a teen around when it first launched, then bought it again on Xbox 360 and once more here on Steam. It's a strong blend of action and, let's call it spooky thriller rather than horror, with some extremely tight action gunplay. If you are looking for this game to *scare* you then you might find it disappointing but it has a well paced narrative and spooky atmosphere to match.

Graphically this game now looks dated, but for a game from the mid-2000s it has some of the strongest lighting you will ever see in a game from this era. Character models look more stylized than realistic with decent facial animations. Despite the load times for each level, the in-game set-pieces also transition fairly smoothly. Some textures look nicer than others but for the most part you won't find anything particularly modern looking in this game aside from its lighting. The lighting is more or less the star of the show when it comes to the game's visuals and they use it to delicious effect. Flickering lights when something spooky is occurring, enemies killing room lights to ambush the player, the lighting is masterfully utilized in a way few games take advantage of even nowadays.

The soundtrack is an interesting part to analyze with F.E.A.R. It is not going to leave you humming any bangers, but it has a moody soundtrack that leans into its thriller aesthetic quite nicely. More often than not, the music will be either subdued or not present at all during moments of gameplay. This is one of those games where dialogue during gameplay is mostly minimal and the player is left to their own devices to piece the story together. Much like other shooters of this era, the player character never speaks which can humorously turn up in an easter egg conversation or two in the game. Speaking of which, the voice acting is surprisingly good for a game of this era, with a key character being voiced by Grant Goodeve, the Engineer from Team Fortress 2. A large amount of dialogue is told through phone messages and just about every line is delivered very professionally and immersively. The enemy characters also routinely speak to each other, cluing you in on what they are presently doing. The Ai system in the game is not as smart as it seems, but for the time it was refreshing to see enemies rush you, take cover, flank and even retreat in response to your actions. Their death cries can also be brutally comical which only adds to the insane fun. Finally, the foley in this game is insanely good. Sound effects sound remarkably realistic with some very solid mixing. The guns in particular sound incredibly satisfying in your hands or the enemies. Praise the shotgun! The only blemish on this area in the game is some explosive sound effects sound a little weak compared to the hand grenades.

Finally with the gameplay, truly the strongest element of F.E.A.R., I am hard pressed to find many flaws in this department. It might be disappointing to only be able to carry three weapons, but I feel the strategy involved adds to the story's "you're mostly flying off the seat of your pants" feel. Every weapon in the game has a very strong kick to it. The player character also sports enhanced reflections in the form of slow-mo, which incidentally boosts your damage output. It takes a very long time to charge back up so it's key to use this strategically during firefights but proves to be immeasurably satisfying when tearing enemies up. The game itself will mosey itself forward in what feels a little like cycles. Each chapter will feature some gun fights, a spooky set piece here or there and some quieter moments where the player can freely explore for a bit.

Probably the game's biggest flaw is its environments. Unlike Halo or Half-Life, you're not traversing a variety of interesting biomes, but rather you start in an industrial neighborhood and then spend the bulk of the rest of the game in a military/science office complex which is mostly samey hallways and office rooms until the last couple of chapters. This can lead to some frustrating moments where player gets a little lost and there is no map to use.

Additionally, there is not a ton of enemy variety, but I feel that because of their erratic and quasi-predictable behaviors, the game never reaches the point of being dull. If you think back to Resident Evil 4, that game also uses its Ganado enemies rather frequently, but the different set pieces allow for some very fun and interesting firefights. I feel the same applies here. If you can get past these issues, I feel the game is a blast otherwise.

F.E.A.R. is one of those games that strives to be something rather specific and then goes well out of its way to be that and nothing more. I personally have never understood why it fell out of the pop culture zeitgeist because, as a shooter, it's one of gamiest shooters I've ever played. It rarely takes control out of your hands and it gives you a number of tools to sway the firefight momentum depending on your playstyle. With a fairly interesting narrative that features a couple crazy twists, and a somewhat future proof enemy ai and lighting system, while many don't really talk about this game, I personally see it as just as legendary as the likes of Halo, RE4 and Half-Life. It's crappy that WB never does anything with this series because it, especially this first entry, is something special.

Для меня первый F.E.A.R самый лучший из всей серии вместе с его аддонами.
Очень понравились графика, сюжет, музыка, геймплей с замедлением времени и самое главное - ИИ противников. ИИ в этой игре намного лучше, чем в современных играх.
Графика даже для 2024 года смотрится неплохо.
Физика - мое почтение. Это то, чего нет во многих современных играх.
Из минусов - танцы с бубном.
Очень жду ремейка этой замечательной части с аддонами.

F.E.A.R. is truly a classic game with multiple paths to fight your enemies, just is pretty much a old school game in a way and you can see that often by the level design. F.E.A.R. is kinda like an action movie mixed with psychological horror and I love that, it's crazy how badass this game is. I can't find nothing negative in this game cuz is 10/10 game all the way.

By far one of the most engaging and thrilling FPS games I've played. The game might seem a bit outdated compared to the other modern FPS games that we've got now but the atmosphere, story building and the challenging difficulties are second to none. Hands down, one of the best FPS games ever made

Fun game, very reminiscent of the first Half-Life.
The game refused to go over 30 FPS or so for some reason but I found a .dll file that fixes the issue. It's nothing too complicated to do but some people may not wanna go over this just for the game to be at a playable FPS.
The graphics and lighting are surprisingly good for a game that can now legally drink.

I played this during 2009 and i was awed by the graphics, gameplay and story. Definitely one the scariest games of our time. Played this on 8400 GS and now playing it after 15 years on a 6600 xt. The game still holds to this day and i would recommend it for people who love horror games. The soundtrack is also good. 10/10 too bad they don't games like this anymore.

Really fun game.

The atmosphere is really intense and deliberate, this isn't a charge in and blast away with a RL like Quake or Doom, which I also love. If you're looking for something to check out give it a shot.

Having played all 3 games by now, I can confidently say this series is just not worth playing. It's a good shooter dragged down by monotonous level design, the only challenge being tanky enemies you spam bullets into in slow-mo. As a horror game, pretty dreadful. The potential was there for a sequel to improve on its flaws and capitalize on its strengths, but the quality managed to only dip from here.

One of the greatest dopamine dispencers in the shooter genre of games.

Campy and fun! Level design was great and the gun play was awesome. I played on hard and it was a little too easy with many health kits. The DLC has upped the difficulty level. Unfortunately, the only way to play the included DLC packs is opening them in file explorer. You would think there would be a launcher.

THIS GAME MIGHT NOT WORK ON YOUR PC. I had to play it on my brother's PC because the game would not load on mine for some reason no matter what we tried. We even had to mess around with his PC a bit just to get the game to play. With that being said, this is a fantastic shooter with very little flaws outside of the storytelling. There isn't a ton going on, but everything offered is of very high quality. The story and scares aren't anything special, but the shooting mechanics are so fun. 7.5/10

Yes baby

- THE ENEMY AI. Every combat encounter, the enemies would do something I'd never seen them do. They are so fun to fight and come off as very coordinated. This is my favorite enemy AI in a shooter
- The lighting and graphics give such a strangely gritty and realistic vibe
- There's a great variety of weapons, all of which are fun to use and feel balanced
- Enemy variety is also great, it's a shame you don't see certain enemy types very often
- The characters, despite their little screen time, are great and well-written
- No cutscenes, the player always has control which works well for a game like this (where the main draw is shooting people)
- The slow-mo mechanic seems like a complete gimmick at first, but it is genuinely so useful, cool, and fun to use. Also borderline necessary to use with certain enemies
- Great sound design (especially with the ambient drones that usually play in the background)
- Great voice acting

Bogus

- Four of your helicopters get taken down in this game, and it just gets comical after the second
- The final encounter is very lame, a boss would've been greatly preferred
- Most locations feel the same, just white corridors. They look great, don't get me wrong, but some variety would've been nice
- The story is very hard to follow, you'll need to watch a YouTube story explanation after this one if you want to know what happened
- The fact that I literally can't play it on my pc lmao
- Screw the drones and turrets
- Most of the story is told from optional and usually boring exposition
- The scares are usually not very scary
- Game definitely makes you feel like a lap dog, you're usually sent to do everything yourself while your colleagues stand back and do nothing

This game is awesome, and I wish I had played it sooner. The horror aspect reminds me very much of Outlast, one of my favorite horror games. There are good jumpscares in this game and not an excessive amount of them. The shooting is very good, especially for 2005. The weapons pack a punch and are satisfying to use. The shooting has a lean mechanic similar to Rainbow Six Siege and has bulletime like Max Payne, very innovative for its time. The AI is also smart, and not the kind of smart where the second they see you they immediately shoot you with laser accuracy, sometimes they don't notice you right away, they will try to flank you, and when they know they are screwed they sometimes hide. They work together and have a good amount of dialogue. I am very impressed with this game, and cant wait to play the rest of the series

Oh god, bullets flying in slow mo and leaving giant hoıles on the walls, jumping kicks, dust particles flying everywhere, spooky apparitions, it's like this game was made for me.
Stop reading and give it a try already.
It saddens me the route the sequel games took but whatever, the first one's a classic.

The F.E.A.R series has always been a childhood favourite of mine, I remember when it first came out and I was buying my first proper PC and all I asked in shops was ''does it run FEAR on max settings'' haha. For it's time the graphics and AI was cutting edge and really shaped some of the future games that came out in the following years. I think it still stands the test of time, and having played it on XBOX360 and PC, I do enjoy it most on PC! I am currently running through them all again and still enjoy them as much as the first time I played.

Imagine Akira (the manga) fuses with Ring (the Japanese novel) and Half-Life. That's what F.E.A.R. is. And it was well done. It mixes phases of heavy atmosphere, typical of Japanese horror, with fights against intelligent enemies who actually know how to fight in team. As you pursue Fettel in attempt to stop him, you dive deep in an underground bunker that seals a reality bending monster.

Strong points are the atmosphere and the AI.
Weak points are the lack of diversity in the terrain. The offices are absurdly gigantic. What kind of building is that? And the bunker never ends. If you like liminal spaces, you might like that, though.

One of the all time greats. Hard to put down. Thrilling gun play, great story / characters / mechanics / atmosphere. Ahead of it's time, still holds up today. 9.5 / 10

wish they'd make a remaster without F#$king it up. its was a good one...everyone should be forced to play it. and if they didn't like it? tell them to go pack sand cause they suck. this game is like a dust n' debris filled OOOO gasm of fury thats full of forgettable music, wimpy guns sounds but extremely stay in your head walkie talkie voice effects...no really you'll remember the dudes yelling and reporting to one another, more than any other sound.

Exquisite.
Gunplay is excellent but feels very odd at first but you get used to it. Mostly because the SMGs and ARs only fire in Burst or full Auto. So one taps will always result in firing of burst shots, and the recoil is mostly accumulated by how long you fire while in full auto. Once you get used to it, it's great.
They say the game is apparently supposed to be scary, but it also has a lot of humor too. If you already like games such as Half Life, you will love it.

Classic FPS horror game that even in todays market still gives great atmosphere and fun gun play. Highly recommend to those who never played the franchise.

A great game and a highlight of that era. There really hasnt been anything like it since. It isnt flawless, however, and has a fair number of criticisms.

Presentation values.
+ Graphics aged well, good lighting, voice dialogue is good, weapons sound great, sound ambiance is effective, very good graphical combat effects.
= 4 environments (color palette combinations) and non really impress (although that does add a certain realism factor)
- sound ambiance can be repetitive, a lack of a good soundtrack throughout the game.

Gameplay.
+ Generally fun combat with availability of slow motion, enemy AI is competent (I played on normal and cant say it was amazing, but I was satisfied with their performance. Some say that it really shines on hard), upgrades that can be found throughout the game. Horror elements that add tension.
= While level design is linear, they put quite a bit of effort to add various rooms, stairways, ladders and obstacles to create the illusion that its more complex and from my point of view they generally succeed in that regard. There are plenty of medical kits scattered throughout the game, too much on normal difficulty, but considering the enemy does decent damage and they are supposed to be better at higher difficulties than this may have its purpose.
- The best and most fun weapons are more abundant in the latter part of the game and you dont have enough opportunity to use them. There is a turret section in the game and while not long and easily manageable isnt particularly fun. The office levels are a bit dragged out. You dont have any indicators when you are taking damage. Shoot outs can create dust clouds where you cant see the enemy, but they can see you. A portion of the game in the latter half seems to forget about the fact its supposed to have horror elements.

Premise
The story is told through in game dialogue, voice messages and news reports.
The horror element is pretty nice, but certain parts of it dont make quite sense and I think they could have done more with the horror theme. While in general the plot makes sense and is self sufficient, there are certain details that feel rushed and not properly explained.
There are also some voice messages that dont really add anything to the story or setting.
No development of characters outside of these telephone messages or briefs, your teammates dont get any development either.

While I did put out some criticisms, as a narrative driven FPS game its still one of the best. If you consider that its priced at the range of a budget game, its a no brainer to try.
However if you are looking to get more out of a particular element like gameplay or narrative, then this game might not impress you that much.

8.5/10

F.E.A.R. was released in October 2005. Almost two full decades later in February 2024, it is still considered a golden standard in the FPS genre. Its gameplay still holds up now, so does its graphics to a lesser extent. The story in particular is stellar. If you haven't played this yet, now's the time to redeem yourself.

One of the best, most impressive fps games I have ever played. This game came out in 2005 but it's honestly timeless. The AI is the highlight of the whole experience however, and will even give callouts to their teammates. I remember being fascinated for a moment in this game when I was leaning out of a doorway trying to get an angle on an enemy, when he moved a couch to get cover and attempted to block my line of sight. A game that is nearly 20 years old has better AI than most modern games nowadays. Truly blows my mind. Please. Buy this game. 9/10

The game is very fun with a cool story that feels very Resident Evil like. The game does not format correctly on higher resolutions, you will probably have a better experience playing with the black bars. There does seem to be a performance problem that increases the longer your play session, however it is tolerable provided the game was never designed for newer hardware, this performance problem does not take away from what is otherwise an awesome game.

What can I say?
From the lonesome atmosphere of this game and its heavy emphasis on feelings of Claustrophobia, to its revolutionary G.O.A.P. (Goal Oriented Action Planning)system;

F.E.A.R. is a masterclass of first person shooters that despite its short campaign, has a lot of replay value and still holds up to this day.

> Be me: can't handle horror games except zombie games
>"Play FEAR it's a great shooter game with great AI and level design with some horror elements to it..."
> Plays the game
> Cannibal guy? okay no problem...
> Plays first mission
> Gets scared by the atmosphere, sound design, and claustrophobic maps
> Realize this is an actual horror game
> Second mission: meets the enemies
> They need a full mag to kill and you don't know where they are or how many until they shoot you
> Gets scared shitless...

Excelente jogo de tiro. Simples, direto, sabe onde brilha.

F.E.A.R. é aquele tipo de jogo de tiro que ainda nâo chegou a época de seu revive. Atirar é bom, os combates sâo interessantes e te botam para pensar em como você vai usar seus recursos. Caralho, atirar em replicante em camera lenta, transformar o mano em uma polpa vermelha ou só o esqueleto carbonizado, esse jogo faz de tudo para fazer vc se sentir foda.

Sabe Black? Que você jogou pirata no PS2 trocentos anos atrás. F.E.A.R. é tipo isso só que com camera lenta. Jogue.

If you've never played FEAR before, buy it. Wait for a sale not because it's not good, but because this series goes on sale all the time for a very low price. I think it cost me 6-$8 on sale and you get the full series.

Now that you have the game, turn off all the lights in the room, close discord, youtube, spotify. Welcome to 2005. I recommend turning on any and everything (A)RGB. Now the mc isn't the only one having tripping and having severe panic attacks

Great for switching off your brain, and shooting shooting and more shooting. And then telephonings & computings, turn on brain, learn lore, wow, want to play F.E.A.R 2 now.

Just beat the game it was really good even from 2005 the story kept me on my toes and the guns and ai were really good

when i was a kid my dad had a copy of this game on his ps3. I was amazed by the game play visuals at the time. playing this game in 2024, even though it was released almost 2 decades ago, still holds up in quality. the AI are actually smart they call out your position and flank. the gun fights feel so chaotic and badass. my favorite quality about this game is the atmosphere. even some modern games struggle to deliver the kind of immersion that FEAR has to offer. 10/10 a true classic.

The graphics may not have aged well, but the gameplay is just as solid as I remember from when it first came out. You get used to the graphics after a while too, but the mouse aiming/camera movement could be smoother. Great for the nostalgia!

it's pretty cool
I immediately got hooked as a new player.
I cant wait to play F.E.A.R 2

Very good shooter and very fun gun play as well along with a engaging story. Speaking of gun play, this game has a very well implemented bullet time system which feels very unique and very fun to play. This game is horror as well action game.it has perfect balance of horror and action. speaking of performance, you just need to do a simple fix that you can look that up on reddit or steam forum or even youtube and you are done. this patch will increase you fps from 40 to 400, giving you a buttery smooth experiece. it is a must play if you like shooter games.

Overall an excellent horror fps game for its time with some small cons like enemy sponges, annoying turrets and drones, sometimes lack of first aid kits and ammo, and bad performance on modern hardware (there is a fix online where you drop a .dll file in the directory of the game which fixes most of the issues except some fps drops on some levels which are still playable). I remember that I was really scared of both the enemies and the scary moments, which some of them managed to still spook me after like 10 years. Overall took me around 7 hours to complete and is worth to try.

A Fun First Person Shooter Game, it is very sad that you may not be allowed to buy it on its own. But on sale sometimes you may get a chance to purchase it for around $5. You will also get the other games of this franchise. Takes about 8 hours to complete.

Smart AI with great level design that compliment each other so well. Also love the replicant soldiers

I'm digging it. The graphics are dated even on the highest settings but the game is still a dope fusion of action and horror.

People hating it for the bugs and the gameplay, but man im loving it alot.
Gameplay is fun, i expected more horror, more jumpscares, but still its scary.
Fixing the FPS bug takes 10sec and done, like stop complaining and just do it or refund it.

Guns: amazing, fun to play with, grenades too, the stealth melees are fun aswell
Maps: nice environments, there are some similar rooms, but thats just because youre in an office centre so its normal.
Explosive barrels and windows, amazing. Vents also great.
Controls easy to use. no info = look at control option, easy as that

Holds up extremely well. The AI, while it isn't godlike as assumed back in the day, is still better and more interesting than a large portion of modern shooters. Some environments may drag on a bit but they are still excellent. The use of dramatic lighting makes everything feel so captivating and keeps you on your toes. Weapon selection isn't stellar or interesting at face value, but you come to appreciate the effort that went into them. The horror elements are at a few moments a little cheap but mostly done quite well, especially since it's how you get most of the story delivered to you. The story is interesting and definitely makes you want to know more, but I still think its one of the weak points of the game. Overall, not a masterpiece, but it's become one of my favorite shooters ever. Pick it up!

TLDR: If you've played it before, you'll prolly love it. If not, it's just ok. Be sure to look up the FPS fix, and I'd suggest a quick beginner's guide on all the mechanics the game doesn't tell you about.

Never having played FEAR upon release due to owning a relative potato PC, I've spent the last twenty years hearing how amazeballs this game is, including the horror elements. In short, after finally playing it, I'm underwhelmed. It wasn't horrible, was clearly cutting edge for its time, and I'll probably still play the DLC's and sequels...But without a nostalgia filter, it's just a bland and very repetitive FPS (slow-mo around a corner, kill three guys behind boxes, repeat) that never once surprised me (an emo little girl runs past you a few times - but only after your UI gets fuzzy, indicating something spooky is coming).

The Good

YMMV

The Bad

one of the greatest FPS games ever made, the fear factor in this game is unlike any other, its not even survival horror and some may say "it doesnt look as scary as any survival horror game i played" oh believe you me once you play it you will see what i mean, it is fun and it has such a nice atmosphere, and look to it that adds alot to its overall tone and fear factor, this series was so beloved until monolith and WB games fucked it up with fear 3, not that 3 was bad it just didnt deliver as big as 1 and 2.

After coming back to F.E.A.R. after couple of years I have to say - this game still slaps! The story is interesting, enemy is as good as I remember, gameplay is fun and of course there is a ton of scarry elements to the gameplay. I'm recommending game to anyone, who wants fo run and gun with some horror elements. For me solid 8/10, because it could be a bit longer.

As a shooter FEAR is OK, as a horror game its really poor...

If you remove Sadak...ehmm Alma and bullet-time from FEAR, its just dark (as in lack of light) military shooter. There only 5 enemies - 1. are humanoid enemies - basic soldiers, soldiers in power armor and battle-mechs, 2. little flying robots that shoot you, 3. Big automatic celling guns (hardest enemy in game for me), 4. ghost or spirits that chase you in hallucinations and at the end, 5. invisible melee enemies. Those invisible enemies are the best so naturally you encounter them 2 (TWO) times in whole game.
Weapons are kinda boring too, except those "high-tech" that you get later in game. Best part of this game for me is the banter between basic soldiers (you fight them like 85% of the game). I forget the reason why you can hear what they say to each other but its hilarious. Most of the time they are scared of facing you, since you have bullet-time and quick save.

Its still nice shooter but as a horror, NO

Peace of barely working crap. If you cant fix the game, remove the fcking DRM so it wont be locked on windows 10 machines (The game itself is great, i really love it but maan it was so hard to make this game playable in 2k24 <3 <3 <3).

Not going to put a long rant on here, though I will say that when FEAR came out it was quite a revolutionary step in enemy AI and the amazing smoke and particle effects were PC melting at the time, even though now it looks okay but very much like an old game in other ways.

I think if you have a retro PC made for games like this you're probably going to have no issues but for me on a modern PC the game suffers from some glitching and other issues including black screens every time it autosaves and by far the worst thing is that enemies shoot through walls which makes it pretty much unplayable.

Not sure what is causing the enemies to shoot through walls but it is the same issue that affects the original Far Cry on modern PC's. Someone said it is the AI breaks with high frequency hardware, others say the high FPS breaks the engine, I dunno as I am not going to pretend that I understand the technical aspects.

What I do know is that the combat in this game was already quite challenging (as was the original Far Cry), so having to deal with enemies in your face along with others shooting you through walls makes this unfortunately unplayable for me.

I am not down voting the game as it is an absolute classic I have fond memories of, however I am sad to say that at least for me, this version is broken on modern hardware and actually unplayable :(

Edit: I have the game on GOG and that version doesn't appear to have the same issues other than it going black screen when it auto saves but it is otherwise very playable.

Holy cow this game is good. Legitimately install whatever patches you need to make it work, but this is one of the best fps games i've ever played. It's so amazingly good.

Im highly into fast paced boomer shooters but this was way different from what i expected it to be. i havent finished the main game yet and i still have like 2 more games and 2 dlcs to go through what a steal for the whole series for 5$

Came to give a unplayable reveiw,

But the fix as everyone has said for FPS. works. Now the game plays full res no problems

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

I usually make jokes on steam when reviewing the games i play but...damn. THIS GAME IS GOOD. Like Condemned is already one of my favourite horror games of all time and No One Lives Forever one of my favourite games of all time, so I somewhat expected the game to be good, since it was made by Monolith at their absolute peak...but my god I did not expect this to hook me and blow out of the water this way. Like I was engaged. COMPLETELY ENGAGED into the game. From the narrative, to the atmosphere, to the shooting, to EVEN THE FACT THAT YOU CAN AIR KICK IN THIS GAME, I was just completely soaked in.

Like the combination of a John Woo film type action and Ringu style horror/dread should not be possible. Said combination usually would cause tonal issues, but here they don't. Somehow the ridiculous slow-motion action and dreading horror manages to mix into each other so beautifully that they compliment each other rather than fight. I like...am f-ing jaw dropped. Like this morning I had only completed until Interval 06 and thought since I had only done half the game, I would possibly finish it next week. But the second half was so f-ing strong, that I sat at 8 AM today and am just finishing it at 3:50 PM. Like, got me good. Hook, line, and sinker as the saying goes.

Like parts of this game feel like I have played before. I have definitely played games with bullet time in them, and I have horror games with hallucination segments in them...in fact condemned also has those (also i recognize some familiar wall textures from that game, which given they both released in the same year kind of gives it away,), but never have i played a combination of those two, and it works really beautifully here.

This is like those playground rumours of your copy of Call Of Duty being haunted and stuff, but that playground rumour actually exist, and it is one of the most glorious games to ever exist.

My god. We really had it good back then didn't we.

Good classic cute and funny game.

Wait it's suppose to be scary??