Bought this game to have something to do while riding my stationary bike during the quarantine. It's an overall okay experience but could have been so much more if not for several bad design decisions: - your character moves very slowly on the map and you need to buy an upgrade to increase their movement speed, not only is this wasting your time but it will make the game feel extremely sluggish if you decide to replay it - your character gets stuck on the objects on the map all the time and it's impossible to visually determine if you can walk around and obstacle, further wasting your time - too much time is spent walking around pixel hunting and not enough time is spent playing the cards, which should be the meat of this game, it feels like 80% walking simulator and 20% card game - too often card effects are poorly described, using only in-world descriptions and not explaining what the effect in the game is, it typically happens during puzzle battles making you replay them not because of their difficulty but because you have no idea what the cards' effects are - upgrades are generally unimpressive and unexciting, I've never felt I was really looking forward to any upgraded card, but just knew I might as well spend my resources on something so I did - the story is set up quickly and effectively in act 1 then grinds to a halt in the next few acts, the main storyline disappears in the background to make room for a few local storylines, none of which is as interesting as the main story - the loading screen could be used to show the card text of new cards you'll be facing against, instead it's just their illustrations and you'll have to waste time during the game reading their text - the game is in a dire need of a glossary, the one provided on individual cards is insufficient. Overall, this is an okay game but it could have been so much more if the rough edges were taken care of. As it is, it's okay if you have too much time but it won't capture your imagination.
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.
