how do i play custom fear maps?

[Chronos]

ive found a few of them but im not exactly sure what to do with the files inside of the maps

[target_changelevel]

There are different ways, you can add lines for custom archives to the end of archcfg and use GameClient.dll from fear sdk, it will allow you to choose stock and custom levels from the game menu.
Something like here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Agc6mj9psqgZMfpqg2DlcGy_boVunlz-/view?usp=drive_link