Great visceral fun...
The guns all have very quick and realistic rate of fire and recoil making it almost impossible to effectively take on a huge group of enemies (or even a few ) if it were not for your ability to slow down time. This is something that has been done before but not quite like this. Here you are nothing without bullet time. Enemies in FEAR are actually quite smart (they throw objects around for cover, duck behind obstacles, actually manage to flank you, etc.) and trying to take them on without the help of bullet-time will only result in you missing most of your targets and getting killed. Bullet-time gives you time to really ENJOY shooting your opponent (you actually feel enjoyment with every landed shot) and seeing him and the environment get torn apart by your gunfire. Bullet-time is not infinite however, you have a gauge that fills as time goes by or as you kill opponents.
The story doesn't really break any new ground. Everything in there has been seen before in the new Hollywood horror flicks and recent games. The game does a good job at screwing with your mind with the supernatural stuff at first but after a little while it gets repetitive and you half expect most surprises before they actually happen. There aren't too many supernatural enemies except for a few ghosts who disappear as soon as they are shot. Most enemies encountered throughout the game (and the most fun) are part of a clone army. The climax of the game is somewhat lost near the end of the game (can't really give out more here without spoilers) . But this game's strong point isn't its story, it's the action sequences and they are plenty of those in there.
Graphically, FEAR is one of the most impressive titles yet. It features realistic textures, great character and gun models. The environment are very destructible showing bullet marks, smoke, destroyed objects such as paper, file cabinets and the like (this game is mostly set in an office setting) . The game's physics are another wow factor. At one point in the game you obtain a nail gun that can be used to literally nail enemies to the walls. The character models are fully destructible as well. What I mean by this is that compared to recent shooters where throwing a grenade at an enemy only sends him flying, FEAR's models will actually blow up to bloody bits. A shotgun shot to the head will decapitated an enemy and one to the arm will rip it off (Did I mention this game was gory?). Obviously not for the faint-hearted but anyone remembering the old shooters were this was common occurrence will be pleased.
Another strong point of FEAR is it's sound. The dialogue doesn't sound too forced (with a few exceptions) and the sound effects are great and really add to that action movie feel. A warning though, playing this game with surround sound headphones with the lights off will freak you out at first (you eventually get used to the spooks unfortunately). The supernatural sequences have fitting sounds and music which add to their creepy feel.
Multiplay is present in FEAR and has some nice twists on the regular deathmatch and other typical game modes. One of the coolest multiplay features is that in certain game types your bullet-time is a team-activated pick-up where one member of your team gets it and ti then activates bullet-time for all players but only players on your team have the enhanced aiming and movement speed, effectively slowing down the other team to a crawl. I can't comment much more on the multiplay aspects of the game as I haven't played them as much as would have liked.
To conclude, FEAR is a game any shooter or action-movie fan should own and everybody else should give it a try.