F.E.A.R. Exclusive Single-Player Hands-On - The First Four Levels with Spoilers
You've seen bits and pieces of Monolith's and VUG's upcoming horror thriller. We've gone through the entire first part of the game. Exclusive info and many spoilers inside.
As this movie illustrates, you expect a lot of intense firefights in F.E.A.R.
By now, you've hopefully heard of Monolith's F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon. If not, the studio has already summed up the game in a single phrase: a combination of the highly kinetic action of The Matrix with the supernatural themes of the Japanese horror classic The Ring. What we've learned so far is that you play as part of a small and highly elite task force put together to investigate paranormal activity, and your latest assignment is to launch a surgical strike to clean up a top secret military snafu. Apparently, a clandestine research project in conjunction with the government has produced a battalion of clone supersoldiers that follow the orders of a genetically engineered commanding officer with the power to broadcast his thoughts mentally. Unfortunately, the commanding officer (one Paxton Fettle) has, for some reason, gone berserk, along with the rest of the troops. As we'd heard previously, your primary mission is to neutralize Fettle before the rest of the clone army can do any real damage. We've learned more of the story, as we've now played through the first four levels of the game--though as we found, these areas raise more questions than there are answers for. Join us now for exclusive story details on what is easily one of this year's most anticipated action games, but please be advised that there are quite a few story-related spoilers ahead.
Apparently, the opening sequence of the recently released demo of F.E.A.R. may in fact be the opening sequence that will appear in the game. The in-engine cinematic shows the game's mysterious little girl (who bears more than a passing resemblance to the ghoulish girl in The Ring) approach Paxton Fettle, and apparently she drives him mad with such whispered words of encouragement as "kill them all." The commander escapes from his cell and ambushes a guard by effortlessly slicing open the man's throat with a single, backhanded swipe. Soon afterward, ranks of the clone army snap to attention and begin attacking the unprepared guards at the research facility. The introductory sequence closes with a small group of clone soldiers standing watch over Fettle, who is hunched over the mangled corpse of a guard. He then looks up to reveal that his lips are smeared with blood as a result of devouring the body. Make no mistake--this introductory sequence is only the very tip of F.E.A.R.'s iceberg in terms of violence and gore. The game gets much more disturbing and graphic, but we'll get to that soon enough.
After the introductory sequence, a black screen flashes with what appears to be the name of the game's first chapter (or "Interval 01," named "Inception"). Behind the black background, a terse phone conversation goes on between a woman and a senator. The latter has apparently just been roused from his sleep to be informed that "Project Origin" has gone awry, and that Paxton Fettle has taken over the army of clones. As the faceless congressman voices his shock and dismay, the scene fades out to your first mission briefing, which takes place from a first-person view. You're standing in a control room of sorts with your colleagues, the Dennis Franz-esque commissioner, Rowdy Betters, and your fellow agents Jankowski (a fellow with a shaved head and a loud mouth) and Jin (a more even-tempered female agent and the group's forensic investigator).
At the beginning, Fettle has just gotten loose, and Jankowski is less than pleased with the idea of fighting a thousand clone soldiers. But apparently Fettle has some kind of microchip implanted in his head, so tracking him should be easy. You can piece the situation together pretty quickly from your teammates' banter (especially Jankowski's lack of faith in your abilities, since you're being assigned to the job on your very first day with the team), as well as from their animated facial expressions, which seem remarkably effective in expressing emotions and tossing you sidelong glances when you're not looking. What they don't mention is your remarkable ability to temporarily slow time around you (or why you even have this ability for that matter), which helps you outmaneuver your enemies and even dodge bullets. Just before you hit the first drop site, you're treated to a brief intermission, presumably from Fettle's perspective, in which you hear the officer ask no one in particular, "What's the first thing you remember?" The voice of a young girl (possibly the same one that appears in the introductory sequence) screams, "Where are you taking him?" To which a third man's voice replies, "You will be a god among men."
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