F.E.A.R. (video game)
F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon is a 2005 first-person shooter psychological horror video game for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi Universal Games, the Windows version was released worldwide in October 2005. The Xbox and PlayStation versions were ported by Day 1 Studios and released in October 2006 and April 2007, respectively. Two standalone expansion packs were released for the Windows and Xbox 360 versions of the game, both developed by TimeGate Studios; F.E.A.R. Extraction Point and F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate. Released on Windows in March 2007, F.E.A.R. Gold Edition includes all the content from the Director's Edition plus Extraction Point, while F.E.A.R. Platinum Collection, released for Windows in November 2007, includes the Director's Edition, Extraction Point, and Perseus Mandate. Neither expansion is now considered canon, as the Monolith-developed F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin ignores the events of both.
The game's story revolves around the fictional F.E.A.R. unit, an elite group in the United States Army tasked with investigating supernatural phenomena. When a mysterious paramilitary force infiltrates a multi-billion dollar aerospace compound, taking hostages but issuing no demands, the government responds by sending in a Special Forces team only to have them obliterated. Live footage of the massacre shows an inexplicable wave of destruction tearing the soldiers apart. With no other recourse, the elite F.E.A.R. team is assembled to deal with the extraordinary circumstances. They are given one simple mission: evaluate the threat and eliminate the intruders at any cost. The player takes on the role of the unit's newest recruit, Point Man, a man with a dark past and extremely short reaction time, leading the character through countless firefights and witnessing paranormal manifestations conjured up by a mysterious little girl dressed in red.
Although the atmosphere of the game was heavily influenced by Japanese horror, Monolith's primary goal with F.E.A.R. was to make the player feel like the hero of an action film. To this end, they combined a slow-motion technique called "reflex time", a semi-destructible environment, and a highly detailed particle system in an attempt to create as immersive an environment as possible. Another vital element in this is the game's AI, with Monolith employing a never-before-used technique to give hostile NPCs an unusually broad range of actions in response to what the player is doing. This results in NPCs who can also work as a team, such as performing flanking maneuvers, laying down suppressive fire, and attempting to retreat when under heavy fire.
Upon its initial Windows release, F.E.A.R. was very well received, with the AI garnering particular praise. Critics also lauded the graphics, atmosphere, sound design, music, and combat mechanics. Common points of criticism were a lack of enemy variety, a weak plot, and repetitive level design. The Xbox 360 version was also well received, but the PlayStation 3 version met with mixed reviews, with many critics unimpressed with the port's technical issues and graphical inferiority. It was a commercial success, selling over three million units worldwide across all three systems.
Gameplay
F.E.A.R. is a first-person shooter in which the player's arsenal includes handguns, an assault rifle, submachine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle, nail gun, repeating cannon, rocket launcher, and particle beam. Each weapon differs in terms of accuracy, range, rate of fire, damage, and weight. The latter characteristic is important, as the more powerful weapons tend to be more cumbersome and slow the player's movement and reaction speed. Only three different firearms can be carried at any one time. The player also has access to three different types of explosive – frag grenades, proximity grenades, and remote bombs. The player can carry five of each type and can carry all three at once, but only one type may be equipped at any one time. Additionally, when using the remote bombs, the player must holster their weapon.Compared to other shooters where melee combat is often a last resort, F.E.A.R.s melee system is a viable combat alternative. The butts of all firearms can be used in close combat; lighter weapons, although less powerful, allow the player to move around more quickly and increase the chances of a successful melee attack. Movement speed is maximized if a player holsters their weapon, which allows them to engage in hand-to-hand combat. As well as the basic melee attack, players can also perform a jumping kick and a sliding tackle, both of which, if landed correctly, instantly kill regular enemies.
A prominent gameplay element in F.E.A.R. is "reflex time"; an ability which slows down the game world while still allowing the player to aim and react at normal speeds. This effect is used to simulate the player character's superhuman reflexes, and is represented by stylized visual effects, such as bullets in flight that cause air distortion or interact with the game's particle system. The duration which reflex time lasts is limited, determined by a meter which slowly fills up automatically when the ability is not being used. The player can permanently increase the size of the reflex meter by picking up reflex boosters. Other pickups available during the game include medkits, protective armor, and health boosters.
Reflex time is an important element of the game's combat mechanics insofar as F.E.A.R.s artificial intelligence allows hostile NPCs an unusually large range of action; enemies can duck to travel under crawlspaces, jump through windows, vault over railings, climb ladders, and push over large objects to create cover, all in reaction to what the player is doing at any given moment. Various opponents may also act as a team, taking back routes to flank the player, using suppressive fire, taking cover and often falling back if under fire, alerting one another as to the player's location, and giving one another orders.
Multiplayer
The game's multiplayer can support up to 16 players, and initially featured deathmatch, team deathmatch, elimination, team elimination, and capture the flag. "Control" and "Conquer All" games were added later as free downloadable content. Also added at a later date were game types specifically designed to allow players to use reflex time; SlowMo deathmatch, team SlowMo deathmatch, and SlowMo capture the flag. These game types feature a reflex time power-up, which only one player can carry at a time, and when it is fully charged that player can activate it and give themselves a considerable speed advantage over opposing players. However, whoever is carrying the power-up will have a bluish glow and will be permanently visible on all players' mini-maps. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game feature the same modes as the PC version. Multiple new maps were made available for the Xbox 360 version throughout 2007, with the release of three major map packs; Nightmare, Synchronicity, and Bonus.In August 2006, F.E.A.R.s multiplayer component was re-released on PC as a free download under the name F.E.A.R. Combat. Incorporating the latest multiplayer patches, all ten gameplay modes, and all nineteen maps, F.E.A.R. Combat was compatible with the original PC retail edition's multiplayer, meaning those with only the download could play with those who own the full game.
Plot
In 2002, the elite United States Army unit F.E.A.R. was founded to "combat paranormal threats to national security". The game is set in 2025 in the fictional city of Fairport and begins as the unit is joined by a newly assigned Sergeant. At a facility owned by Armacham Technology Corporation, a psychic operative named Paxton Fettel has gone rogue. Officially an aerospace manufacturer and medical research company, in reality, ATC are a hugely powerful private military company dabbling in cryogenics, nuclear technology, cloning, and telepathy. They were attempting to develop a unit of telepathically controlled clone soldiers, and Fettel was their commander. However, he has now used the Replicas to seize control of the facility. The mission of the three-person F.E.A.R. team is to eliminate Fettel, which will automatically shut down the Replicas.As the mission progresses, Jankowski disappears and Point Man begins to have powerful hallucinations, implying that he has a deeper connection to Fettel. Point Man witnesses Fettel interrogating a worker, and later finds the mutilated worker who mentions a girl named "Alma" before dying. Despite being unable to locate Jankowski, F.E.A.R. is redeployed to ATC headquarters, where a Delta Force recon team has dropped out of contact.
Point Man learns that Fettel's brain waves during his revolt were identical to those during the "first synchronicity event", which happened when he was ten and resulted in the termination of "Project Origin". This time, however, Fettel is infinitely more dangerous. Meanwhile, Point Man finds that the Delta recon team have been massacred. He then encounters an ATC survivor, Aldus Bishop, who tells F.E.A.R. that the Replicas were looking for Harlan Wade, a senior ATC researcher. A Delta Force team led by Sgt. Douglas Holiday is sent in to extract Bishop. They get him to a helicopter, but as he is boarding, he is shot by ATC security. Point Man subsequently learns that Fettel was the "second prototype" resulting from Project Origin. Shortly thereafter, Fettel tells Point Man "a war is coming. I've seen it in my dreams. Fires sweeping over the earth. Bodies in the streets. Cities turned to dust. Retaliation."
Point Man subsequently learns that the prototypes were created from the genetic code of a female psychic named Alma, who gave physical birth to both prototypes from within an induced coma. He also learns about the "synchronicity event" – despite being in a coma, Alma formed a telepathic link with Fettel, and began influencing his actions, leading to several deaths. In the Origin facility, Point Man discovers that Alma was only eight when she was brought into Origin, 15 when the first prototype was born, and she is the girl in the red dress. He also learns that Wade is planning on freeing Alma from stasis in the Origin facility, even though she officially died in 2005. After her death, the facility was sealed until 2025, when it was reopened with an eye to possibly restarting the project. Moments later, Fettel experienced the second synchronicity event. Point Man then has an hallucination in which Fettel tells him that they are brothers, both born of Alma – Point Man is the first prototype. Finding Fettel, he shoots him in the head, rendering the Replicas dormant. He then witnesses Wade, who is revealed to be Alma's father, releasing her from stasis. She immediately kills him, and Point Man heads to the facility's nuclear reactor core, overloading it.
As the facility explodes, Point Man escapes and is picked up by a Delta Force helicopter, on board of which are Holiday and Jin. As it flies over the mushroom cloud, the helicopter loses power, and Alma pulls herself up into the cabin. The game then cuts to black. After the credits, we hear a phone call between an unnamed senator and Genevieve Aristide, president of ATC. She assures him that Project Origin is secure and Fettel has been neutralised. As he complains about how indiscreet the cleanup has been, she points out, "there is some good news, however. The first prototype was a complete success."