F.E.A.R. Platinum

Great game !!!

Till today, this is my base line for AI in shooters. Sadly, I have not encountered any that manage to top it. It is a game that challenges more with the behaviour of the enemies, than with high damage or soaking bullets. You try to stand still, the enemy will try to flank you, while providing cover fire. Enemy has metal plates? Well, better don't shoot at those, won't go through. Precision and fast decision is, what will win this game. The other part of the game well done: It frightens you more than it scares you. That is probably depending on the person playing it, but I personally can't stand those horror shooters that at every corner fling something unexpected at you, just so you flinch. (Like Monsters dropping from ceilings, breaking through walls, etc.) A bit of nostalgia is probably mixed in this.

To say F.E.A.R. holds up over a decade later would be doing it a disservice. Monolith have always crafted great shooters (just look at No One Lives Forever, Tron 2.0, or Shogo: Mobile Armor Division), and F.E.A.R. is a perfect example of their talent. Atmospheric presentation that still uses dynamic lighting like almost no other, satisfying shooting and weapons (the VK12 alone makes this memorable), fantastic AI that feels dynamic and responsive to the player's actions, and horror elements that work really well with the environments that Monolith created make F.E.A.R. feel like a game that could have been released recently. This even extends into the expansion packs, even if it is to a much lesser extent with Perseus Mandate. While the sequels went in an arguably generic direction (F.E.A.R. 2 is alright, and F.E.A.R. 3 is forgettable outside the cooperative and versus multiplayer modes), the original is still a highly original classic, and having it complete DRM free makes this more than worth the $10 price tag.

F.E.A.R. is a really good shooter. The Gameplay is fun, the graphics still are nice too look at and the lighting is actually even good for today's standards. It actually has the option to play on 1080p. Officially 1080p is not supported, but it runs nice on modern hardware. I had no issues with it. The AI is one of the smartest, I have seen in a game. It will actually try to flank you and it changes the position regularly. The Game comes with the expansions. There is one issue though, which has to be adressed. The game has a problem, where you have very low fps even on high end systems. This is not a dealbreaker though, because there is a fix, which can be downloaded and installed easily. It is a dll file which has to be copied into your F.E.A.R. folder. You should be able to find a link to the fix, in the GOG forum of the game.

This is my first review on GOG but I believe this game deserves all the support it can get. This is going to be a review of FEAR only because I haven't even played the expansions yet. Even without trying them, I can tell you that this package is worth its price. Let's start from the top - what makes this one of the most amazing shooters I've ever played? Some people will focus on the scary atmosphere, phenomenal AI which still hasn't been beaten by modern games, others will point out the amazing graphics for its time. While all of these factors are important and add to the experience, to me the most important reason why this game still holds up 12 years after its initial release is the map design. The first 3 levels of the game are some of the best levels in video game history. Every room is different and will require a different approach, sometimes a single well placed grenade (you will learn to love grenades in this game) is enough to clear out the whole room, other times you might prefer to sneak up on your enemies and take them down using one of the 3 melee attacks just to slow down the time and headhsot the last remaining enemy. In this game, every room is an experience and when replaying it, you might find yourself experimenting to find your own pace and tactical preference. With the addition of slowmo, which is another resource that you have to control but which also offers great benefits in combat, each room becomes a puzzle that's waiting to be solved with copious amounts of lead. Later levels unfortunately lack this freedom to choose your own approach but they are still fun in their own way. Watching the 'making of' video (one of the downloadable goodies) you learn that this was a conscious choice by the designers to let the players initiate the gunfights and explore the AI reactions as much as possible early on. Still, if the first few levels won't get you hooked then I don't know what will. Just give it a shot and you'll be in for the ride of your life.