Absurd Minds

More than 100 years without a motto.
It is currently 28 Mar 2024 11:43

All times are UTC-04:00




Post new topic  Reply to topic  [ 4 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: 24 May 2010 21:15 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: 25 Mar 2010 20:32
Posts: 1247
Location: Austin, TX.
Have you ever told yourself at one point in time that you'd never try this or that and then later on in the future, you try it and get instantly hooked on it? Well, for me, Fear fits into that category in games. Back when I used to game on consoles (that's when I didn't know squat about PCs), I vowed to never watch a horror movie nor play a horror game. Anything with a horror theme to it, I'd try to shun for the sake of wanting to keep my heart intact. Fast forward to around 2008 and I decide to take up my cousin's suggestion to play Fear. Now, I am a convert and love the series! What made me change my vow to never play horror games? Well, let's dig a little deeper into what Fear is.

Minimum Requirements:

- Operating System: Windows XP or Windows 2000 with all service packs
- Processor: Intel Pentium 4 1.7ghz or AMD equivalent
- Memory: 512MB of RAM
- Graphics: 64MB Nvidia GeForce 4-series Ti or Radeon 9000 series [with DirectX 9.0c compatibility]
- Storage: 5GB of space

Recommended Requirements:

- Operating System: Same as minimum
- Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz or AMD equivalent
- Memory: 1GB of RAM
- Graphics: 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro or GeForce 6600
- Storage: Same as minimum


Story: In the year 200X, the U.S. government creates a covert unit specifically for paranormal threats. That team is called First Encounter Assault Recon and you play as the newly appointed Point Man (he has no name) pursuing a psychic commander named Paxton Fettel who has led a rebellion and has also taken control of a battalion of psychic clone soldiers.

Gameplay 1: The gameplay of Fear can be described with 1 word: EXTREME! The firefights are fast-paced and brutal and is on a whole new level of gunfights compared to other FPS games. What makes it brutal? The intelligent A.I. These guys aren't your average type of Counterstrike bots and they'll do whatever is necessary to kill you. These guys aren't scripted so they are free to use maneuvers like flanking from the sides, suppressive firing, knocking over stuff for cover, and lobbing grenades at you if you're behind cover. Basically put, these guys will use certain strategies depending on how you fight them. Even though you see these guys mostly in groups, you're granted a couple of tricks up your sleeves as well. First off, you're granted what is known from the movie; "The Matrix" as bullet time. Time basically slows down for you so that you can aim your shots better and flank your enemies much faster. The other trick you have is your melee. Now you're probably thinking: "Melee? What's so special about a melee attack that you call it a trick?" Well, in most games, a melee is the weakest attack you can muster but in Fear, it's a 1-hit kill. It makes sense since you should be awarded a quick kill for achieving a successful melee attack.

Gameplay 2: Another reason why the gameplay of Fear is so extreme, in my opinion, is because of how the horror aspect was thought out and done. Doom 3 was a shooter that had a dark theme to it and Fear does that but in a more Japanese sort of way. If you've seen the movies: The Ring or The Grudge then you'll see the resemblance in Fear. Monolith (developers for Fear) concentrated heavily on those two movies to think up the horror elements for Fear and they hit it on the spot. I don't want to ruin too much of the fun but there was one instance in the game that I looked at a door very slightly opened with nothing there. A split second later, I turn to look at something else and then look at the door again, only to find a spooky little girl in a red dress staring at me while standing behind the same damn door. I'll be honest with everyone, there were times when I screamed like a little girl when I first played this game; then there were times when I threw my keyboard off from the keyboard holder. Other times, I flinched and then there were those times that this sense of dread come over me. My cousin told me it was creepy and scary but damn, I didn't expect it to be THAT creepy and scary.

Graphics: I'm going to say this now: this game's graphics are pretty. Now, they are NOT as pretty as many of today's games but being a game from 2005, it's pretty damn uhhh...pretty. The character models look good, weapons look badass, and the textures of the environment makes me wanna gnaw on a wall (well not really.) Dust kicks up pretty high in a heated firefight from damaging the walls, floor, boxes, and so forth. Almost everything in the world seems to be like it can be shredded. Ragdoll physics are just flat out insane and often end up with hilarious results. Gore level is extreme in this game so if you're a bit squeamish at the sight of blood in games, then this isn't the game for you.

Sound: The sounds in Fear meld in with the theme and really adds more to the creepy feeling of the Fear atmosphere. There is hardly any background music playing in Fear and usually only comes up in those heated story-related firefights. Music can ruin the mood of a game at times and Monolith did an outstanding job at keeping the music away from the dark mood. There was one instance where I was roaming around when I accidentally knocked over a coke can. The noise it made when it hit the ground literally made me jump out of my seat a little. Believe me, you'll do a lot of knocking-over in this game. The noise from glass bottles, buckets, coke cans, boxes, and human bodies (sometimes) all give Fear and extra feeling of dread.

Misc: Aside from the awesome-ness of Fear, there are some problems with the game. First off, a few of the button binds can act a bit wanky and sometimes just flat-out won't work until you restart the game or your PC. Another problem that I can point out are graphics related. This game has some clipping problems but nothing that harms gameplay. Probably the biggest gripe about Fear is the framerate problem when you use certain Logitech products. I use a G500 gaming mouse from Logitech and there was some bug with Windows 7 that made my framerates drop significantly (there is a fix for this though...not by patch but a few changes in Windows.) As far as I know, this polling problem is only affected by Windows 7 users and doesn't affect XP (never tried in Vista.) Finally, there were times that the bots acted like Counterstrike bots (retarded basically) but that was usually fixed by shooting at them.

Conclusion: Fear is, by far, my favorite series of PC games and it's no surprise why. Superb action, gripping story, excellent horror elements, and the very intelligent A.I. give this game a very high replay value. It may be a 5 year old game but I'm still picking it up and playing. No other game has been able to get my attention like Fear has. There are few that have come close but they haven't been able to grab my attention totally like Fear. If you're looking for a game with out-of-control action, extreme gun fights, and ridiculously smart A.I. then this game is gold. It is currently available on Steam for $9.99 (with the 2 expansions.) I give this game a 9.0/10.0

A visual example of what Fear is like:
[youtube][/youtube]

Pros:

+ A.I. intelligence is great
+ Firefights are brutal and fast-paced
+ Horror elements are very well thought out
+ Excellent story
+ Sounds add a lot to the horror
+ Ragdoll physics are flat-out insane

Cons:

- Tedious scenery
- Bots can sometimes act dumb
- Clipping issues
- Multiplayer is kind of dead
- Logitech framerate issue


Last edited by DimSumGuy83 on 19 Jun 2010 14:47, edited 1 time in total.

Top
   
PostPosted: 18 Jun 2010 14:59 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: 25 Mar 2010 19:21
Posts: 5029
man fear is SUUUUUUCH a good game. I played some of the first and a huge chunk of the second. Its not an easy game. You will get mad at times because you get your ass handed over to you on a silver platter by an all too polite butler. It is a must try for everyone. Its scary though so turn the lights on.


Top
   
PostPosted: 18 Jun 2010 23:00 
Offline

Joined: 29 Mar 2010 17:20
Posts: 991
Location: Los Angeles, CA
at the end i was like....the littlle girl is there!!! lmao


Top
   
PostPosted: 19 Jun 2010 02:11 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: 25 Mar 2010 20:32
Posts: 1247
Location: Austin, TX.
"Turn the lights on?" No way! Fear was meant to be played in the dark with your volume at near full blast. Doing those two gives you a rush when you play.


Top
   
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic  Reply to topic  [ 4 posts ] 

All times are UTC-04:00


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited