It's going to be a busy season for first-person shooter fans, with titles like Call of Duty 2 and Quake IV hitting shelves. One of the most anticipated titles, though, isn't a sequel at all, but is rather a new game, inspired in equal parts by horror films and Hong Kong action films. After many months of waiting, and after impressive single-player and multi-player demos, F.E.A.R. has finally arrived, and it's every bit the game we thought it'd be: a fast, fun, run-n-gun exercise in blowing stuff up real good, with a few genuine scares thrown in for good measure.

The plot of F.E.A.R. puts you in the shoes of a nameless operative of the First Encounter Assault Recon squad, a group of soldiers that's America's first line of defense against paranormal threats. Think Mulder and Scully with automatic weapons, in other words. It's your first day on the job, and things go poorly almost right from the start, when a cannibal that's psychically controlling a thousand slave clone soldiers manages to go rogue, causing a small-scale war to break out in the middle of a large American city. Since you're the only soldier in F.E.A.R. that can get anywhere near the combat zone without going insane or melting, it'll be up to you to take out the psychic commander, Paxton Fettel, in the hopes that doing so will break his control over the clones.

GameSpot's Game Guide to F.E.A.R. is here to help you get your sea legs, with a complete walkthrough of the game, weapon descriptions, and some general tips to get you started. Enjoy!

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