The beginning of a landmark franchise. Worth playing if only for the story in this one. Gameplay is rather repetitive if you compare it to its sequels.

Great atmosphere and setting, great visuals, but gameplay is rough around the edges at times, most noticeably at the nazi encounters and the library (frustrating enemies, iffy stealth detection, etc.). Overall tough, it really is fun and engaging despite those little flaws. I can only expect great things from the sequel and judging from the early gameplay videos, seems a lot of things have been improved/fixed gameplay-wise :).

At first, I was having trouble enjoying the game as much as I did the first one for some reason. It just really opens up at one point and I realized it's just as good if not better than the first. The atmosphere, the scares, the up in your face combat that does its own thing (doesn't suffer from Call of Dutyness), everything is there that makes FEAR, FEAR. Really an enjoyable experience, check it out!