F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon Review

February 14, 2010

Explosive action brilliantly mixed with horror elements in a one of a kind first-person shooter.

Story

A team specially trained for supernatural encounters take on a mission to stop an escaped criminal who apparently is capable of commanding a replica army. You, as the rookie of the F.E.A.R. team is assigned to lead the squad. The mission quickly takes a turn for the worse as some supernatural and unforeseen events occur. As the squad leader, you must press on to found out the terrifying truth about the origin of the incident. What is this all about? What is your part in all of this?

The Game

F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon is a dark horror first-person shooter game. You experience the entire game and the supernatural occurrences from the eyes of the protagonist character referred to only as ‘Point Man’.
To make progress in this game you have to complete various mission objectives given to you, and while this makes the game linear it also ensures that you stay effective and on point.
This is a game where you’ll engage in hundreds of insane firefights, and these firefights are truly spectacular – it’s very gory, messy, gritty, raw and really tense.

Point Man is a newcomer to the F.E.A.R. Team. He has through scientific tests shown that his reflexes and capabilities are far superior to that of any normal human. This is portrayed in the game by giving the player a slow motion ability which lets you slow down time, while still maintaining the normal speed of your character. This can be used to your advantage in that it can make it easy for you to, for example, take down multiple enemies at once, run to safety, dodge bullets and grenades and so forth. This ability is limited by time once it’s activated however, so conserving it for crucial moments is of course the best practice. It does recharge automatically whenever it is not in use so you’re guaranteed an advantage at least some of the times when you need it.

The maximum time limit of this ability can be increased by picking up so-called Reflex Boosters. These are special power-ups that are scattered throughout the game, some more hidden than others. Point Man can also increase his total health by picking up Health Boosters. These can also be found throughout the game and they are a bit more common than the Reflex Boosters.

Content

Throughout the story mode you will be going through several environments that all have a different creepy atmosphere to them. Some examples of environments would be rundown apartments, abandoned factories, water treatment plants and office buildings. The game also keeps things fresh by introducing new enemies at a decent rate, but mostly you will be fighting the replica army which mainly consists of cloned soldiers. These soldiers are quite unique because they always work together in squads – they will call for help, use sophisticated flanking tactics, give suppressing fire or even flush you out with grenades.

Some other enemies that are worth mentioning are the Mech suit soldiers, the assassins and laser equipped flying drones. Other than engaging in deadly firefights you will be kept busy avoiding traps like claymores and obstacles like high voltage electricity and bursting pipes.

F.E.A.R. has eleven chapters of various length, making the game rather lengthy for a first-person shooter. The game offers you a pretty basic line up of weapons that you can find and use. There are of course a couple of exceptions. You start the game with a standard pistol, but you’ll be able to find shotguns, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, hand grenades, rocket launchers but also special weapons like the “ASP rifle”. It shoots in bursts of three, and it comes equipped with a scope for long-range combat. Another weapon that really leaves a lasting impression is the “Penetrator”. This powerful weapon fires large spikes that will nail anyone to the wall. The game only allows you to carry three weapons at any given time, meaning that you can’t always keep all the weapons that you happen to find.

Given the fact that weapons are generally hard to come by, you can’t really waste any bullets. At times you may be forced to use hand to hand combat as a last resort. Point Man can punch and do flying kicks that can instantly knock most targets out. However, diving head first into close combat is almost always risky and something you’d typically want to avoid.

The single-player mode of F.E.A.R. has four difficulty settings, which dramatically change the pace of the game as they are targeted for different types of gamers. The easier modes are indeed easy, and is suitable for players that, perhaps, never play action games like this. The harder difficulty levels, on the other hand, really challenge veteran players as enemies are much tougher. Choosing a difficulty level certainly has an impact on how you will experience the game.

The main effort and experience is in the single-player story mode without a doubt. The story is both intriguing and unique and it will have the player asking questions throughout the game about what’s going on with all the freaky stuff happening. This is where you will experience the horror elements of the game. You will see and hear unspeakable things that are sure to leave an impression on you. The game keeps the jump scares to a minimum so the legit atmosphere of horror is indeed present throughout the entire game. With that said, the horror aspects are very well made, and what makes it even more interesting is the fact how well it is mixed with the intense action. The enemy AI is definitely one of the best to date in terms of how much it adds to the dynamic gameplay experience.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer experience is decent at times. The online servers (as with many other games) are plagued by cheaters and there isn’t a lot going on to stop it. There are multiple game modes to choose from like deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, last man standing, Control and Conquer All. But what is unique for F.E.A.R. are the “Slo-Mo” modes. This is a server setting that allows players to have the slow motion ability available in multiplayer. There’s only one player carrying the power however, and when killed it drops to the floor. Whoever picks it up can use it to wreck havoc on the opposing players. Players who are victims of the Slo-Mo power find themselves slowed down – their weapons will fire with a delay and their movement speed is severely cut back.

There are some different character models that you can choose as your online appearance, along with some special decals that goes along with your entered screen name.

While all this adds a little flavor to the multiplayer aspect, there are plenty of reasons not to play F.E.A.R. online for a longer period of time. For example; the lack of weapons, the lack of players, the lack of balance in the gameplay and so forth.

The multiplayer aspect of F.E.A.R. has been released as a free download called F.E.A.R. Combat, so anyone could download it and play without actually buying the game. This was a surprise initiative by the developers and it is much appreciated and welcomed, and it certainly helps to keep the multiplayer community alive.

Graphics

F.E.A.R. does have some good graphics although there is a constant lack of detail. There are numerous textures that appear rather dull, and the level design isn’t always believable. This is a very dark game, with pitch black shadows and darkness everywhere. But to be fair, the graphics still capture the right feeling just fine, and there certainly are enough creepy locations to explore. The lighting and shadows look great, and it plays a big role in the game. There are also some neat effects such as dust and sparks flying around and bullets tearing off chucks of the walls. There’s also some nice looking effects in place when you’ve activated the slow motion ability, and the firefights in general are just awesome looking.

Sound

But what really sets this game apart is the amazing use of sound effects – bullets hitting walls, cartridges bouncing on the floor and the soldiers yelling out commands – it’s all well done to say the least. Once you’ve heard the soldiers talk among themselves and curse at you for making life miserable for them, you’ll remember it fondly. Also the Slo-Mo ability slows down all the sounds accordingly, and it’s remarkably well done.

The soundtrack is very ambient and nothing more than a tool to further increase the creepy horror atmosphere. As such it is very appropriate, but nothing about it really sticks out as particularly good nor bad.

Summary

F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon does have a few minor issues like the above mentioned multiplayer, and the fact that some environments can be lacking in detail. It can also be off-putting that a game with these cool firefights won’t allow you to be trigger happy, thanks to the fact that bullets and weapons are rather scarce. However, this game is highly recommended for its great and creepy atmosphere, solid gameplay and interesting story. It has a unique blend, that’s for sure. But it’s not suited for everyone. Those who aren’t capable to immerse into the game world will miss the true experience and atmosphere that it portrays. But for the rest, this game will easily become an all time favorite.