F.E.A.R. E3 2004 Preshow First Look

Monolith had been on a roll with PC first-person shooters ever since 2000 with the critically acclaimed No One Lives Forever (and its later sequel, the acclaimed No One Lives Forever 2). Now the studio is revealing its next PC shooter, F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon), a first-person shooter that casts you in the role of an elite, top-secret operative on an urgent mission.

According to the game's story, you and your squad have been assigned to infiltrate and recapture an aerospace facility that has been taken over by an unknown band of heavily armed assailants. Special Forces troops had already been dispatched to take back the compound, but they have been completely overwhelmed--an unusual broadcast signal interrupted their radio communications before they were literally torn to bits, according to the compound's security cameras. It falls on you and your team to investigate the source of this signal, eliminate the intruders, and take back the compound.

Monolith will attempt to make F.E.A.R. a highly cinematic game that makes use of advanced DirectX9 graphical features and a number of exciting, in-game set pieces. You'll have access to conventional firearms as well as experimental futuristic weapons, like personal missile launchers and a subnuclear blaster.

F.E.A.R. is scheduled for release next year. We'll have more details on the game at the show.