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Xbox 360 | Action | F.E.A.R.

Publisher: N/A
Developer: Monolith
Release Date: 11/01/2006
Genre: Action
Number of Players: 4
ESRB Rating: Mature
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37 screen shots

GRAPHICS: 4.00
SOUND: 4.50
CONTROL: 4.50
FUN FACTOR 4.00
AVG USER SCORE 4.1
AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.0

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Review: F.E.A.R.

Review by Sid Shuman | 11/02/2006 | 16:46:21 PM PST

Porting PC shooters to home consoles is a tricky business. There's no replacement for the precision and finesse of a mouse-and-keyboard setup, for one. And most game consoles can't even come close to the visual brawn of a pimped-out PC.

PROTIP: The shotgun is a versatile killing tool, but it's best used when you're in Focus mode. Zoom in for narrower projectile spread.

But if F.E.A.R. is any indication, that tide may finally be turning. Short for "First Encounter Assault Recon," this red-hot horror shooter blazed onto the PC last fall. Now it's assaulting the Xbox 360, and lucky FPS fanatics will reap all the brutal benefits.

...but F.E.A.R. Itself

F.E.A.R. takes great pains to fashion itself as an intense horror experience, a sort of spiritual cross between The Ring and thinking-man's shooter Half-Life. But in practice, the game just isn't that scary. F.E.A.R. does starts out wonderfully, though, showing glimpses of half-eaten faces, corridors waist-deep in blood, and a ghoulish little ghost girl spider-walking through air vents. Sadly, by the time you make it through the first creepy couple of hours, you'll find that the game has turned into a paint-by-numbers FPS slog. Oh well. Shooters are a notoriously formulaic bunch, and F.E.A.R. deserves a little credit for stretching, if not breaking, that mold.

The single-player game is good, gory fun, but it can't compare to Xbox 360 heavyweights like Gears of War. What works? The ferocious action, gushing gore, and menacing enemies. What doesn't? The oppressively cookie-cutter levels and lame "find the switch" objectives. What is this, 2001? Despite its shortcomings in the single-player campaign, though, F.E.A.R.'s core run-and-gun action is simply phenomenal, good enough to support the entire game. The weapons are intoxicatingly powerful: Assault rifles spew out instant death, shotgun blasts cut enemies in half, and particle beams reduce targets to charred skeletons. Make no mistake -- this is how you design an FPS arsenal.

The PC version of F.E.A.R. gave players a wealth of commands, including dedicated buttons for leaning, grenades, and melee attacks. This must have presented a real challenge for Day One Studios: how to cram in so many commands onto a cramped Xbox 360 controller? Their solution is faithful to the PC original, but novices will be put off by its complexity. The good news is, the default control scheme will be instantly familiar to any Halo veteran. The triggers are used for firing and grenades; the bumpers are used for weapon selection and slow-mo; face buttons are used for using items, jumping, and attacking; and the d-pad is used for leaning and inventory selection. It's an overloaded control scheme, but with practice it becomes perfectly useable. Best of all, the analog stick accuracy seems unusually responsive, making precision shooting a breeze.

PROTIP: To take out these Heavy Armors, use grenades or remote bombs. Close-range shotgun blasts also work well, but don't get too close!

If it Bleeds, it Leads

In a visual sense, the game captures most of what made the PC version so impressive. The special effects are particularly dazzling: seemingly every object gushes dazzling sparks, flaming debris, or streamers of crimson blood. Add in a slick slo-mo effect and some bone-twisting enemy rag-doll physics, and the stage is set for shootouts that make The Matrix's lobby scene look like a drunken water balloon fight.

But though the special effects look as eye popping as ever, other parts of F.E.A.R. have seen better days. In the name of performance, developer Day One Studios has noticeably reduced the resolution of F.E.A.R.'s textures. This makes many surfaces and objects look softer and blurrier than they do in the crisp, clean "High Quality" mode found in the PC original. Considering that the Xbox 360 has twice as much video RAM (512 MB) as a standard gaming PC, this is a somewhat puzzling sacrifice. On the bright side, F.E.A.R.'s frame rate is generally rock solid, even during intense firefights. All in all, it's a worthy tradeoff, but high-end graphics aficionados familiar with the original game will cluck their tongues and shake their heads.

F.E.A.R.'s freaky 5.1 soundtrack is a chief contributor to the game's ambience. From the clink-clink-clink of spent brass hitting the floor, to the panicked roars of injured enemy soldiers, to the thrumming, minimalistic soundtrack, F.E.A.R.'s audio design simply screams "first rate." Well done, guys.

"It Was a Dark and Gory Night..."

On another note, we have not had an opportunity to try out of the Xbox Live online multiplayer mode as publisher Vivendi hasn't hosted any press multiplayer sessions. But we're optimistic. If the multiplayer mode is anything like the PC version's, we expect F.E.A.R. to be one of the better shooters on Xbox Live. Until we try it, however, our judgment is reserved. We are, however, bummed that the developers didn't deck the game out with more extra features -- all you get are a short bonus level and a crappy machine pistol.

As a highly competent, technically polished, but otherwise straightforward first-person shooter, F.E.A.R. is a safe bet for the Xbox 360 action fiend. It may not replace Halo 2 in your FPS collection, but it sure as hell beats playing Perfect Dark Zero for the fourteenth time.