F.E.A.R. could perhaps be the greatest shooter of all time. F.E.A.R. has you taking control of an operative of F.E.A.R. which is short for First Encounter Assault Recon, a special forces designed to combat the unknown paranormal. The game is played from a first person perspective with a 3 weapon limit and has a hard aim system and tactical leaning. What makes this game stand out in the gameplay department has to be the edition of Slow-Mo which is similar to Bullet Time in the Max Payne series in that you have a limited bar and pressing the Slow-Mo key will put you into slow motion, giving you the edge in combat as you can easily counter enemy movements and avoid shots, the meter is limited though so one has to play it smart when using it, it does refill over time however. Another thing about gameplay is you get various grenade types you can switch between, each having their own strengths and weaknesses. As well there are around 9 or so weapons and each one feels unique and serves it's own purpose, all of them are also great to use. Shoutout goes to the Particle Weapon which is essentially the Railgun from Quake, it's really fun to use. You also can do various types of kicks as well.


Adding onto your usual shooting action, the game is also a part horror game as there are many sections where the action stops and you are taken through what may as well be a hallucination nightmare as tension is greatly built throughout and things lurk around the corners, all of it making you question what's going on and leaving you wanting more which the game does resolve by the end of the journey. Personally I feel the horror aspect adds an interesting dynamic to the game and it wouldn't be the same without it. Some parts even startled me


However what F.E.A.R. is perhaps best known for is it's rather advanced ai for the time and heck even today it's still advanced. While traditional enemy AI in shooters follow basic patterns or stand there and eat your bullets, the ai in F.E.A.R. is unique in that they react in many ways to your playstyle, for example if you were to throw a grenade the enemy would see it and run far enough away from your grenade, if you were to try to rush they would signal out to their teammates you are and would form around to take you out, if you were to try to hide they'd use grenades or go around to flank you. They can see your flashlight, so if you leave it on you give yourself away. The ai in F.E.A.R. is really one of a kind as it truly feels like you are fighting an actual enemy that is competent and one has to be skilled to succeed, never at any point does F.E.A.R's difficulty feel artificial in nature, it's always fair and when you fail against the enemy you are at fault. To compliment the ai, the areas in which you fight them typically have multiple paths around, at first you'd ask yourself why there are but once you engage the enemy, you understand that they're there so the enemy has more areas to flush you out from, genius design. Another thing nice is that F.E.A.R actually has enemy types, while there aren't many, the ones that are here all feel different enough and offer a different style of threat that forces you to change strategies. By the way to truly experience the ai at it's peak, play the game on the hardest difficulty, F.E.A.R. has one of the best highest difficulties in any game as it is perfectly designed, never is unfair and is a serious challenge where you must overcome the advanced ai to survive.


Lastly I want to mention the story, graphics and audio design. The story isn't anything hugely special but it keeps you engaged and wanting to know more about what's happening around you, the visuals on the other hand are just amazing for 2005. The lighting, shadows and particle effects are seriously top notch, to the point where you could mistake some bits from being a game from much later. The Audio design is also superb, it features many blood pumping heavy action tracks that keep you on your feet during the big fights and slower ambient or creepy tone tracks that keep you in suspense and on edge in the horror sections, the sound design certainly makes the game even more special.


So overall this game is honestly just a masterpiece, Monolith Studios proved once again that they absolutely know how to make shooters, they already made great shooters with both Blood and No One Lives Forever 1 and 2, but F.E.A.R. blows them out of the water and F.E.A.R. certainly ranks among the best of the best in the FPS genre and remains a classic memorable game for a very good reason. If I were to have to say one bad thing about this game: it's that it ends, seriously it's just so well crafted and so much fun that one can't help but be sad when it's all over.


I usually don't give out ratings in these reviews, but if I had to give F.E.A.R. a rating, I would give it a rare perfect score of 10/10, it's a well deserved score and you should absolutely play this if you never have before.