F.E.A.R. Platinum

This is one of my favorite games. I played it for the first time a few years ago and thought it was OK, but after playing it again recently it has earned its place on my top games list. I'm pretty picky about my games. I value gameplay over story any day and don't like things getting in the way of my shooting (cutscenes, RPG/upgrade menus, etc). There are a couple cutscenes in this game, but they felt mild and tolerable. So I'll give them a pass. I could sit down and expect to PLAY the game. And I enjoyed every minute of it. The guns are satisfying. I think FEAR has the best pistol in FPS history, and that shotgun just might have the same honor. The melee and slow-mo are fabulous. FEAR has excellent gameplay mechanics and it makes the gun fights fun. The level design is pretty linear, and the environments not too varied, but the design is top-notch for combat and story-telling, and that's what's important. Every combat area is a well thought out and planned arena to pit you against some of the best AI you'll face. The way they tell the story through optional environment interaction is my favorite way to do story-telling in an FPS: it's there if you want it, and you can skip it if you don't want it. The horror is done right, too. This game has stunning ambiance. It has some of the best lighting I've seen in a game. It's scary and frightening, but it never forgets what it is: an FPS. Enough raving. FEAR is an excellent game and I think you should play it. I did have to apply a couple fixes to get it working properly for me, and I could nitpick a couple aspects of the game here and there (e.g., I wish movement speed were faster overall), but other than that I have nothing to complain about. You should play this game! PS: I thought the expansions were great and I recommend them. I also really liked FEAR 2 and 3 and recommend those--just beware they are not like FEAR (1), but they are great shooters nonetheless.

Game works perfectly fine on Window 11 (for me). FEAR plays like an 80s/90s action movie. Great music, some hilarious dialogue and over the top action. It also plays like a slow burn horror. There are extended periods in the game where you are walking and exploring before any significantaction happens. It's a good pace of slow gameplay that ramps up then slows again. I love playing through old games from my younger days. I remember the lighting being just amazing and it still brings back memories seeing the light filter through fan louvers and grating. I am really impressed with some of the effects from back then. The water, clouds, particles and of course lighting were really pushing the visuals then. The sound effects are quality as well. The shell casings, zip of bullets as you exit slow mo. There is some really good stuff in here. FEAR definitely isn't as scary as I remember but it is an awesome action game. Highly recommended for gamers looking to go down memory lane or newer ones who are interested in something that was really pushing FPS visuals on PCs when hardware was one up-ing itself daily.

A great game and I think a lot of the problems people were having were probably fixed with the expansions not working? The first thing I did was boot them both and start a new game and both seemed to start up fine? I'll come back and check but a lot of those issues were almost a decade ago so I'm glad they fixed the issues! I was searching for this by itself so I'm really glad GOG had it compared to Steam, or I would've acquired this through 'other means' tbh. Really happy as the original FEAR is great.

FEAR is a masterpiece of tight game design which is a blend of old and new tropes. This version has everything patched with it out of the box and runs well on Windows 11.

Yes, there have been better FPS games before and since, but F.E.A.R. does so much right, that it deserves to be recognized. The AI is especially good! It tries to get the heck out of your way when you're laying down heavy fire, runs from your grenades and will regroup and try to outflank you!