NOTE: don't know how to start all this; It seems so hard to write a review for a game like F.E.A.R cause you have to be a lot more articulate than yours truly to describe this roller coaster ride called 'F.E.A.R'. I could just go on talking crap like 'ingenious' 'intense' 'awesome' etc...which is a good description of the game itself but its really easy to say all those things about any other game that you loved playing. One of the things that I feel weird about when writing a review is that I often find myself saying things that all other websites have already said about a particular game ( mostly in a more professional manner); for instance the story elements....why narrate the story when you people can just go find out on GS review or any other review or even wikipedia. So I'm not going to tell you people what the game is all about; I will only tell you what I think about it i.e my opinion. Hell, I'm not writing a review for a website am I...this is just another 'member opinion'

Things I liked about F.E.A.R:

1- the ATMOSPHERE of the game is a mixture of spooky, bone chilling, gritty and it has this raw nagging feeling that a dozen enemies are about to pop out of nowhere to shoot you down and you're always on the edge of your seat concentrating hard and trying to look out for enemies. When they do pop out of nowhere, you find yourself running around and taking cover, gunning, going crazy with the grenades flying and bullets speeding here and there; at those moments you just want nothing more to save you hide and kill those bas****s...hehe...

2- the GRAPHICS are just amazing. Even after the release of games like Bioshock and Darkness, I think FEAR's are pretty good for their own time; supported by the fact that its graphics are used as a benchmark to test a systems power. combined with the awesome physics and the particle effect...Graphics easily grab a 9 for me

3- AI--state of the art really :P...enemies will try to use surrounding objects, ducking, taking cover, crawling down tables and to top that, the physics engine allows them to move things to create cover for themselves!!!This makes things ore realistic, challenging and fun as you try to outdo your AI controlled opponents.

4. combat--gritty, fast and smart. One of the things that sweeten up the combat are the especial abilities given to you: using drops kicks, scissor kicks and ground sweep kicks (or whatever they are called) are fun cuz you can kill your enemies in just one hit provided you an get close enough to them. But the best thing that FEAR offers is the bullet time: with the help of your fast reflexes you can slow things down a bit to make things more easier (and fun) for you...this also makes it easy to sneak opponents or rush head on to use your melee moves. The way FEAR incorporates bullet time is just amazing mainly because the combat is high quality and also because of the graphics...its just cool to watch bullets fly with the slow mo on. This bullet time has a gauge though fills back with time...so you cant overuse it

5. Weapons-- The weapons all serve different purposes and unlike alot of shooter, every weapon is useful in its own way. you can wield pistols (dual pistols as well), submachine gun, assault rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher, a rail gun like weapon that shoots particle (pack a punch...see enemies disintegrate into nothingness :P) form part of the list of tools available that you can use to send your enemies into oblivion. You can only carry 3 weapons though; this turns out to be a good thing cuz its realistic and makes you choose according to different strategies that you use during combat (as I said; every weapon has its own pros and cons) 6. sound--Sound is one of the most important aspect of a solid video game, especially a sold FPS. Fear not (:P), FEAR has an awesome sound which brings the whole experience alive. Th whispers, rattling noises and sound o footsteps will often make you look around to see who's there. This and the environment give you this nagging feeling that you're being watched which is really creepy and freaked me out sometimes. Every sound effect, bullets, footsteps, sound of enemies, guns, combats etc add to the atmosphere and makes FEAR one hell of a cinematic experience. In fact I recommend playing it with dim lights or in a dark room and with a very good sound system with the noise level turned up.


cons:

repetitiveness

1--in combat--fighting the same old enemies and using the same old strategies against them can turn out to be a chore for some (not me though)

2--in level variety and atmosphere--same old setting throughout...levels seem to be the same with minimal variety...the reason I've rated it 9 is actually this other wise I would have given it more.

3--holes in the story--in the end you feel like you want to know a lot more...the overall story is pretty good but it feels like the writers left some holes in them cuz it feels incomplete. But maybe thats because of the cliffhanger ending. In any case, the story progress is pretty good and you'll be really curious to know more about whats going on throughout the game overall an FPS I can recommend to every FPS genre fan....