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

The Good
The game incorporates most popular and proven things of its time. They are: 1) military combat very popular thankfully to Counter-Strike franchise, 2) Japanese horror critically acclaimed in 'The Ring' movies and its American re-makes, and 3) the talents of the developers from Monolith. The blend of such things gave the "F.E.A.R.".

Horror in the game was raised to the very high point. The plot is composed by you mostly not based on the straight-forward story-telling, but on the phone calls and laptop data you've discovered along your way. Some of the dead bodies are cannibalized and shown to you to scare you, but some of them are hidden, and you may find them if you want tracking the blood spots. The game is very bloody and the plot was scary even for me.

The music and sound effects are very atmospheric. The action is very challenging. Since the very beginning, you should be ready to the full hard contact with different enemies as soldiers in real world as paranormal creatures in your hallucinations.

The Bad
The game is very straight-forward. You should run mostly on only one road and it doesn't give the freedom to the player. Too much questions were left after the game finish than the answers were taken. Sequel should cast the light on several issues, but not on all, I guess. But also I guess that it was a twist of the designers to make the game in such way. You will not replay the game to revive the memories, for sure. These memories are too terrific to revive them. Instead of it you have a multiplayer option, if you want to play this game once more.

Some of the weapons are useless during the game. The shotgun was almost not used by me as well as mini-guns, but it is personal preference. However, I've played Extraction Point (the game's add-on), where shotgun was my one of the best weapons during 2nd Interval instead, but I'll review the add-on later.

It is definitely, that the game is not NOLF2 with all its best parts, but it is solid (yeah, I've remembered Metal Gear Solid, it is also Japanese and also military and slightly paranormal based game) action. Some of the plot twist are not clear for me. For example, why you've killed Paxton Fettel so easily, and why you have killed him at all? Why Alma've killed her creator and Alice? I've guessed that answer will be that Paxton should be dead because it was your main mission goal during most of the Intervals and that Alma is a monster who should killed her creator, but who knows...

I wrote much letters in this section, but I didn't think that game is bad at all. It is great, instead.

The Bottom Line
The game is a solid horror military Delta Force-based shooter, where you as shoot the enemies in challenging combat as untwist the story (if you want to). It should be played for the FPS fans, for sure. It should be played by adventure game genre fans also, because the story is not so simple as it seems, and the plot will capture your imagination and put it in a real-life's nightmare.