F.E.A.R. Platinum

F.E.A.R. & the first expansion - Extraction Point are an excellent demonstration of the right combination of gameplay level design, effective, believable AI encounters and visceral combat presentation. Extraction point caps this off with extra attention to environment variation and lighting, cranking encounters up even further to 12/10 and improving the "horror" moments while also exploring a more ominous sense of isolation. Absolutely worth the blast through. Multiplayer was rereleased as a standalone free game, FEAR Combat, which continues to have active community servers during Dec. 2024 - and there are also SDK tools available to create both custom multiplayer and singleplayer content. The SecuROM issues mentioned in other reviews are no longer present, however you will still want to check PCGamingWiki for the dinput.dll fix that alleviates an issue that drops the game framerate to single digits after a few minutes of play (this fix will work for any and all machines). Also worth getting if playing on newer machines is a replacement for hardware sound mixing. If you don't have an EAX native card, two options are available, each with their own advantages. - Creative ALchemy simulates enhanced audio effects originally exclusive to specific audio cards. - OpenALsoft doesn't have the above, but adds HRTF and accurate 3D positioning for headphone/surround sound setups. If you enjoy the base game / Extraction Point, Perseus Mandate (originally released as a standalone expansion) offers more encounters and equipment to play with, though the PC version of Perseus Mandate is missing firing audio for one of the new weapons. If you're an emulation wizard, the Xbox 360 version of F.E.A.R. & F.E.A.R. Files (a standalone release of both expansion packs) include bonus time attack missions + an exclusive weapon. Xenia can run it at an uncapped framerate and is worth checking out after finishing the main campaigns on PC for an extra challenge.

Absolutely incredible game...booted it up in 2022 and right out of the box it functions FINE in 4k. ZERO crashes so far! When this game out 18 years ago I would of been utterly blown away by how good it is! Even here all these years later I am still very very impressed! The only thing I may have to find a little bit of a fix for is the small text and UI...yet everything else seems flawless so far! Really superb release...I have heard that the sequels are trash in compare, so I am GLAD I went with this one. Could play it on a potato of coarse, which is also one of the reasons I bought it, if I want to run it on my Win10 Pro 32 bit Insignia tablet! I have seen in a review that the expansions are missing? So I will re-visit this review to comment on that later as best I can when I have more information! I bought both THIS and Far Cry 2 for $5 Canadian...AND HERE IS A BONUS FOR YOU READING THIS...Tweak Guides are SUPERB for these two titles, when I write the review for FarCry I will include the link...yet HERE IT IS for this one :) https://tweakguides.pcgamingwiki.com/FEAR_1.html So I have yet to read it (read farcry 2's one and that was where I got the idea to include this valuable link/information in this one...so I know it is going to be AN EXCELLENT asset for said title! Enjoy people, if you are smart enough to buy this game (especially on a discount if you are patient enough) then YOU DESERVE IT!

17 years since its release and F.E.A.R.'s AI is still unsurpassed. If you're tired of big open world BS games that do not respect your time, games filled with imbecile enemies and crafting nonsense then please give this magnificent game a shot. I'm not sure if the Sega Dreamcast was "thinking" but the enemies in this Monolith masterpiece sure as hell seem to be. It feels fresher than anything currently out there. Monolith deserves all the praise in the world for this game. Story? Who cares. Something about an evil guy and some little ghost girl--it's just an excuse to fight off swat teams in creepy night time office buildings and warehouses. Your AI enemies flank and take cover, all while communicating with each other your position. They wait, they attack, they get shot and they damn well appear to be as worried for their lives as you are for yours. Play it on Hard or Extreme.

As 2005 becomes ever more distant and hazy, so to rows the danger that FEAR will become forgotten to the relentless march of time. Playing FEAR is like cracking open a time capsule from the early 2000's for better or worse. If you're of a certain age you may remember when there was nothing creepier then a young girl in desperate need of hair cut and Slow Motion was still the coolest thing in the world. Look I get it, you take one look at FEAR and think it'll be stale if you crack it open. The vast amount of enemies are literal clones. 85% of it takes place in an office building. You're wrong though. FEAR, its brilliant mini sequel expansion Extraction Point, and sure, let's throw in Perseus Mandate, still kick as hard as Point Man does nearly 15 years later. FEAR's combat is sublime each encounter an open ended puzzle asking "How will you kick all this ass?" Will you meet the enemies on the stairs head on? Or will you jump over the railing and rain death as you descend like an angel of ass kicking? You're slo-mo is an invaluable to as encounters in FEAR move like greased lighting until you slow it down. You would think an office building would be a snoozer of setting, but Monolith honed every inch of the map to serve the you in your quest of kicking ass. Cubicles become labyrinths where you are the Minotaur. Meeting rooms become savannas where only the quick will survive. Roof tops become deadly games of cats and mice with sniper rifles. Your enemies, The Replicants, are that rare group of video game enemies you'll come to think of as (murderous) friends you'll think about as you slog through some other games mindless hordes. Through clever programming (by one guy!) the Replicants will plan, outsmart, and surprise you over and over again. All this and the best shout gun in gaming. I realize that is a hell of a claim. But once you pick it up you'll see it speaks for itself. None of its sequels ever equaled FEAR. That's fine, it got it right the first time.

First off, F.E.A.R has a weird bug that will crush your FPS. Here's the fix for that https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/789-directinput-fps-fix. I love this game. I am not afraid to call out shooters like Half-Life and Return to Castle Wolfenstein for actually not really being all that great. I will admit Half-Life's intro sequence is iconic, it actually is amazing and I was around in 1999 to bear witness to it. But what else? What does it really have to offer? Some of the levels are terrible (Zen, On Rails) and the combat is weak. The weapons lack impact, the monsters are dull and there's lots of cheap deaths. In my RTCW review I pointed out how lackluster the game feels and how annoying the endless hitscanners are. I don't consider these games great shooters. With any game, I always ask myself, what is great about it. What is that thing it does that sets it apart from the rest - a distinct reason to play THAT game. Some games have more than one of such a thing. Fear is one those games. First off it's a game that was clearly playtested to death. The encounter design, the complexity of the levels, the placement of equipment; it's all high quality and intuitive. The graphics are just stunning. This game needs to be played on a monitor with deep blacks and high contrast for the right experience. Massive black shadows, tasteful color palettes and subtle lighting make up the levels. It has aged so well. The combat is a delight. The tools you have combined with the clever map layouts and stealth makes it possible to get the drop on enemies. Slow Mo gives you a fighting chance when you need to break out. What I'm saying is the combat feels fair. You don't need to rely on quicksaves if you play smart. The weapons are highly satisfying, especially the shotgun. The gunplay looks and feels awesome. It's unique and exciting. I advise to adopt a "check point only" style of play, to prevent save scumming. Trust me, it really brings out the thrills in this game.