“Cruelty is the law pervading all nature and society; and we can't get out of it if we would.” ― Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure

Wow, has it really been 15 years since this classic hit our gaming libraries? I must confess, some games do not age well, but F.E.A.R. is not one of them. After all this time, it still is one of the best horror fps titles around, by even establishing some ground rules for the genre and introducing the best A.I. ever in horror fps. Let's take a close look at Monolith's timeless masterpiece, then.

Here, we are initiated into F.E.A.R. - or First Encounter Assault Recon - a special opps team brought together and funded by the U.S. government to investigate and engage paranormal threats. As the game begins, we are not introduced with much aside the fact that we are the newly recruited "Point Man" for the group and this will be our first mission for the organization. The game doesn't present you any background information or prior storyline, yet simply throws you into action and asks for you to discover details as you go. As our first mission, we are informed that a psychic commander in government contract, trained by ATC - Armacham Technology Corporation - has gone rogue: Paxton Fettel. He is now leading various replica super soldiers which he controls telepathically and attacking various ATC shareholdings. Our primary mission is to capture/eliminate Fettel - yet as the game progresses, we encounter new bits of information which colors the whole story in a different way... a way that would involve the tale of a little girl, a violent and creepy little girl called Alma.

Well, without presenting epic spoilers, this is as much as I can tell what F.E.A.R. is about. I do prioritize narrative and storyline in all games that I play, and let me tell you: this one may not hold the most interesting, the most groundbreaking story elements of all times, yet the pacing and the construct of the narrative is a small masterpiece in the genre. This is a modern hero's journey - with a dark outlook on human ambition with one question at its core: are monsters born or made? Oh, and be ready for some plot twists!

The atmosphere is the best of its time in means of immersion and attention to detail. LithTech is an engine that can well be compared to either Quake or Unreal in its time - which presents you the best atmosphere and a rich level design for any fps game. The engine and the gameplay allow various tactical decisions, not only on your behalf, yet also for the A.I. Also, the level designs are plain wonderful: the game always rewards you for your intuition to check dark corners, yet you never get lost for long: making any walkthrough redundant. With some intuition, you'd complete the single player campaign in no time.

Going straight for the gameplay, WASD isn't something new. It's your basic fps combat, and some environment interaction, with ammo and health accumulation. The enemy interaction among each other, and their defensive/offensive tactics against you, are marvelous though. Enemies analyze, track and react to your movements in a nearly human way. If you try to take a detour around their premises and someone notices, you can hear them saying "he is trying to flank!" or if you'd manage to hit them hard in short time they ask for backup and the backup actually comes! They can try to dodge your attacks, or simply utilize the environment to establish makeshift barricades. Keep in mind that this was impressive in 2000s, and the enemy A.I. is still one of the best after all these years, making each combat encounter a thrill. The Slow-Mo mechanic is something unique to our protagonist, giving you an upper hand in all combat encounters, nonetheless. For a short period, you are allowed to move with superhuman speed - which makes everything around you seems like slow motion.

I just finished the single player campaign, and the multiplayer mode is disabled for the Steam version for some reason. I am yet to play the newer installations in the series, yet most people who played them declare them to be inferior to this one. Sadly, this game cannot be bought separately from the whole franchise here on Steam - and the series do go for 55 dollars. Now, that price is an exaggeration for games this old, however great they were to be, since they do not even have a multiplayer community anymore. If you are interested in single player mode, and the whole storyline, I strongly suggest for you to wait for a sale. Aside that money-milking approach of WB Interactive - since Vivendi is long merged with Activison Blizzard and WB adopted old Monolith games - the game is a classic of the genre. If you like the genre, this one is a must!

Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page here - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!

[b]“Cruelty is the law pervading all nature and society; and we can't get out of it if we would.” ― Thomas Hardy, [i]Jude the Obscure[/i][/b] Wow, has it really been 15 years since this classic hit our gaming libraries? I must confess, some games do not age well, but [i]F.E.A.R.[/i] is not one of them. After all this time, it still is one of the best horror fps titles around, by even establishing some ground rules for the genre and introducing the best A.I. ever in horror fps. Let's take a close look at Monolith's timeless masterpiece, then. Here, we are initiated into F.E.A.R. - or First Encounter Assault Recon - a special opps team brought together and funded by the U.S. government to investigate and engage paranormal threats. As the game begins, we are not introduced with much aside the fact that we are the newly recruited "Point Man" for the group and this will be our first mission for the organization. The game doesn't present you any background information or prior storyline, yet simply throws you into action and asks for you to discover details as you go. As our first mission, we are informed that a psychic commander in government contract, trained by ATC - Armacham Technology Corporation - has gone rogue: Paxton Fettel. He is now leading various replica super soldiers which he controls telepathically and attacking various ATC shareholdings. Our primary mission is to capture/eliminate Fettel - yet as the game progresses, we encounter new bits of information which colors the whole story in a different way... a way that would involve the tale of a little girl, a violent and creepy little girl called Alma. Well, without presenting epic spoilers, this is as much as I can tell what [i]F.E.A.R.[/i] is about. I do prioritize narrative and storyline in all games that I play, and let me tell you: this one may not hold the most interesting, the most groundbreaking story elements of all times, yet the pacing and the construct of the narrative is a small masterpiece in the genre. This is a modern hero's journey - with a dark outlook on human ambition with one question at its core: are monsters born or made? Oh, and be ready for some plot twists! The atmosphere is the best of its time in means of immersion and attention to detail. LithTech is an engine that can well be compared to either Quake or Unreal in its time - which presents you the best atmosphere and a rich level design for any fps game. The engine and the gameplay allow various tactical decisions, not only on your behalf, yet also for the A.I. Also, the level designs are plain wonderful: the game always rewards you for your intuition to check dark corners, yet you never get lost for long: making any walkthrough redundant. With some intuition, you'd complete the single player campaign in no time. Going straight for the gameplay, WASD isn't something new. It's your basic fps combat, and some environment interaction, with ammo and health accumulation. The enemy interaction among each other, and their defensive/offensive tactics against you, are marvelous though. Enemies analyze, track and react to your movements in a nearly human way. If you try to take a detour around their premises and someone notices, you can hear them saying "he is trying to flank!" or if you'd manage to hit them hard in short time they ask for backup and the backup actually comes! They can try to dodge your attacks, or simply utilize the environment to establish makeshift barricades. Keep in mind that this was impressive in 2000s, and the enemy A.I. is still one of the best after all these years, making each combat encounter a thrill. The Slow-Mo mechanic is something unique to our protagonist, giving you an upper hand in all combat encounters, nonetheless. For a short period, you are allowed to move with superhuman speed - which makes everything around you seems like slow motion. I just finished the single player campaign, and the multiplayer mode is disabled for the Steam version for some reason. I am yet to play the newer installations in the series, yet most people who played them declare them to be inferior to this one. Sadly, this game cannot be bought separately from the whole franchise here on Steam - and the series do go for 55 dollars. Now, that price is an exaggeration for games this old, however great they were to be, since they do not even have a multiplayer community anymore. If you are interested in single player mode, and the whole storyline, I strongly suggest for you to wait for a sale. Aside that money-milking approach of WB Interactive - since Vivendi is long merged with Activison Blizzard and WB adopted old Monolith games - the game is a classic of the genre. If you like the genre, this one is a must! Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page [url=http://steamoss.com/steamstore/curator/11672469/]here[/url] - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!