F.E.A.R is a great game, that much is definitely certain.
Yes, F.E.A.R boils down to nothing more than an FPS set in the horror mold. But for what it's worth, it's one hell of a ride. The strong intro and middle section are great, but things slow down considerably towards the finale. This because all of the fancy tricks and nauances such as debris flying everywhere repeat themselves all too frequently. The standout gameplay aspect of F.E.A.R is the enemy A.I. The artificial intelligence is without a shadow of a doubt, the best I have ever encountered in a game. You seriously need skill and luck to overcome the adversaries. They exhibit intelligence unheard of in games before. But the only disappointing side of the enemies is they show little to no variation. But given how they are clones, I can easily over look that. In other words, F.E.A.R hands down has the most exciting gun battles to ever grace the genre and PC.
Eerie. The sound and music are equally creepy, eerie. They really adhere to whole horror genre well, obviously, seeing how the most successful horror games owe just as much to sound as it does the visuals. With that note, the visuals are quite impressive in F.E.A.R. Granted, the character models look like wax models and as I have previously said, the environments and characters show little to no variety. The clear stand out graphical achievement is the particle effects. Bullets in slow down, paper, debris etc all behave in a realistic manner and they just add to the majestic gun battles.
Ten hours easily to beat the whole game. The superb online mutliplayer will keep you for a while, though you do need an exceptional broadband connection I find. There's no hidden extras that I've come across but there's four difficulty levels to keep the interest alive.
F.E.A.R is a fine addition to the FPS genre on the PC. Everyone knows the PC is king for FPS, which is why it takes alot to stand out on the PC. F.E.A.R does with subtle grace through its gun battles and compelling yet tiny bit disappointing storyline. For every flaw it gets sorted out with a positive. It's not a masterpiece in FPS by any standards. What it is though is a fine game that I can seriously recommend for FPS fans and horror fans. F.E.A.R is a true horror game that can be at times emotionally exhausting. Greatness embounds with F.E.A.R.