F.E.A.R.

First Encounter Assault Recon (F.E.A.R.)

I never new the actual name of the game until I booted up the game for the first time. So actually paying attention to the name of the game does help you understand where they are coming from in the game since you're going after something that you don't know anything about.

I actually chose to play this game on the PS3 as I needed to get some games for my PS3 and not just my Xbox 360 for a change. Plus the achievements in this game would be nearly impossible to get on the Xbox 360 and I get to by bass it by playing it on the PS3 as I'm not really worried as much on getting Trophies even though I do try some.

So at the beginning of the story you are some rookie that is being thrown into the mix on the F.E.A.R. team in which everyone thinks it's a bad idea to send a rookie in for what they are going to do. However no matter how many times the group says he shouldn't go in alone, the commander in chief says, "He can handle himself, send him in". It's like he knows something nobody else knows in the group and you don't even know yourself since it doesn't really explain you outside of being a rookie.

The game is dark overall with light in most places. You will hit a bunch of sections where it's just enough light so you'll know where you're going but you can't always see what's right around you. You do have a flashlight you can turn on and off. It only lasts for a certain period of time. I had to stop numerous times in the pitch black to wait on a recharge only to turn it on, walk a few more steps and see the light of the right hand turn I needed to make. That seems to happen quite frequently throughout the game.

Something else you'll run into while playing this game is it's easy to get lost and you'll end up running backwards which is where you don't need to go. However the game will have you go backwards on some levels to get to the next spot but it isn't obvious as that's what you need to do. So you're walking around aimlessly until you get a check point pop up or you run into some guys to kill that let you know you've finally found the right path to take. It gets confusing and seeing what to do next isn't always obvious in the game. The lighting isn't done to help you out in anyway with this. So if you miss a grate you can blast through, a railing to jump over, or a barrell that you can jump on to get on top of an object to get on other objects in order to get around to the back of an area. Yea, stuff like that isn't obvious to see in this game all the time, so getting stuck and not knowing what to do happens more than I would have liked for it to. I had to pull out a guide once as I just couldn't figure out one part at all but I'll leave that for you to get stuck on as well.

The very first thing you're going to notice when you start your campaign though, is the load time it takes to even start. Go grab a soda and a snack. By the time you get back, it might have just loaded up. It does that on every section it loads in the game. Which their are 11 sections and subsections under them. So prepare for the wait.

The next thing you will notice playing this game is that you do a lot of walking around to get to the next section without doing any fighting at all. I think 65% of this game is walking around to the next section just looking around. The fights do pick up by the end of the story. You will have phones with messages on them to help add to the story by listening. You will also find laptops to hack and sync back up to command for more story line. Those would have been great for Trophies as a collecting everything in the game. I think the game is too old for them to add trophies to now which is why it doesn't have them.

While you are wandering around though, their are spots in this game that do give you the jump, scare, or freaky feeling. Which is the main reason I got the game to see if it had it. The timing of some of them is what makes it work. I was about 2/5 of the way through the game before I hit the first thing that made me jump. After that, they start happening more and more. So the more the story goes along, the deeper you get in, the more frequent it happens. You can tell when something is about to happen as your hud in the game starts fuzzing up like it has interference. When that happens you need to keep focused otherwise you will miss some things. Sometimes it's a blink and it's gone. Some last for a little bit and some pull you into memories that you're not sure what to do.

Their is a good variety of weapons in the game even though you can't always seem to pick them up. Thought that was kind of quirky. You can only hold 3 guns at a time but they can hold a descent amount of ammo. You can swap out your guns for the ones laying around or the ones the enemy drops when you kill them. You can also hold 5 of each type of grenade you will use in the game. Something to keep note of, if you're in a close combat range, punch the enemy as your punch seems to be stronger than any weapon you'll get early on in the game.

I went online to try to see the different types of online play the game had to offer. I did a search on every type of mode the game had and nobody is online playing. So that's a no go for this review.

Now that I've finished the first F.E.A.R., I can start up F.E.A.R. 2 next and see if the scare factor has increased or not.