F.E.A.R. Platinum

The Levels and the AI are designed for the perfect shootouts and the particle effects make it feel even more tense.

Honestly I was always fascinated by the A.I. and game play of FEAR. The enemies actually speak up to each other to give you a sense of them being organized. They actually use cover, try to flank, flush you out and so-on. They aren't braindead, or appear so like in newer AAA games. The weapon mechanics and their recoil are also more fun to play with. They have quite a bit of recoil but not so much so it shakes you whole screen like crazy like some games do. I wouldn't really call this game a horror game though. It may be scary to someone who's never experienced horror and/or actively avoided it, but the scares aren't really big. The scares are more like jump-scares, you weren't expecting something to be here or there so it startles you, that's about it. Considering the age of this game, I'd say it aged well. The story is a bit cheesy too, but consider the time it came out I'm not surprised. It has a lot of fun special effects though you didn't see often out of games from the earlier game years, seeing how it used to have 5 or 6 CDs for install at the time.

I also wanna marry VK 12 combat shotgun, make babies with it and live the rest of my life together.

A really fun bullet-time fps! That also wants to be a horror game... The action here is solid, the guns all feel distinct enough to feel like they were worth including and they are all fun to use, especially the shotgun... While there aren't many enemy varieties that is made up for by the AI and the numerous tactics they will use to kick your arse, they crawl under vehicles, flip over tables, sneak up behind you, and co-ordinate to corner you. The AI seem to change their approach directly depending on how you approach a combat encounter. The bullet time mechanic itself is not perfect, and engaging without that slow-mo juice bar fully charged is a death sentence, and it recharges passively when it's off. I felt like this re-charge was too slow. I think they should've allowed you to recharge the bar multiple ways, for example maybe hitting your shots allowed you to stay in slow mo longer? or maybe getting a kill fully recharges? so you could throw a nade around a corner of pull of a really cool pot shot that allowed you to instantly get back into the action. This game excels when you have an aggressive play style, It is disappointing that the games design doesn't facilitate this as much as it could which is the one of the only things holding me back from giving this a 5 star rating, well that, and the horror. FEAR tries to be a horror game, but this mostly just feels like annoying time-wasting and none of it is genuinely scary, I did enjoy the other methods this game used to deliver it's story that weren't just non skip-able horror sequences. Namely finding audio recordings, this rewards a little bit of exploration and allows you to choose whether you want to engage with the decently written story. I would have appreciated these even more if the player was able to listen to them at any time in an audio log menu or something. I'm harsh about this game because I care and I love it. It's a 9/10 from me.

Even today, there aren't that many first person shooters that make you feel this close to the action. Is it the refractions of the grenades exploding, which looks absolutely amazing when slowing time, or is it because of the bullet effects and the chips and debris and smoke filling the room on prolonged gunfights? Or maybe the satisfying crunch of sliding into an enemy to send him flying and finishing him off with a shotgun blast to the chest midair, while in slow-mo? Or is it the fear of the supernatural - that annihilates friend and foe - that creeps in whenever the action slows down? THIS is the absolut best slow-mo game there is. And it's also absolutely scary at times (I know of two near-heart-attack moments)! Also: if you can, PLAY IT IN VR!! You'll shit your pants! It is fucking amazing!