A Great Multiplayer Experience
Thank the heavens that Max Payne paved a way for slow-motion in gaming, or else, we might not have a game like F.E.A.R.. F.E.A.R. stands out from shooters today for it's ability to slow down time with the click of a button, and because it's really gory, which is a good thing. The graphics are superb and the audio is really amazing. Only downfall of having a high-profile game is it comes at a hardware cost. You'll won't be running this game on low settings with 256MB of memory (which why in the world would you only have that in today's world?).
The single player portion of the game is alright. There's nothing really exciting about it, especially giving the length in which to beat it. I beat it around 5 hours, which after playing many great first person shooters, such as Half-Life, you really wonder why they decided to make the game this short. Other than that, the levels are extremely linear, which makes the game really easy. I really didn't have any trouble knowing where to go next, which is a good thing and a bad thing. There should have been more puzzles laying around the game. The characters in the game are very limited as well. You'll fight a total of 5 or 6 different style enemies: humans, Robocop robots, flying robots, and some ghosts. There's nothing too special about them, aside from the robots are harder to kill. The good thing about the slow-motion is that you can literally aim better, as well as get a few cool looking shots in at the last moment. The bad thing is that the slow-motion makes the game extremely easy. The last really bad thing about the single player is the lack of an end-game boss. The game just sort of ends, after a short epilogue. Being it's a horror game, I'm really not sure what I was suppose to be scared of. I jumped once or twice, but that was pretty much it. The quality of the story was pretty good though. They have some good twist at the end, leaving you wanting more, which is exactly what happens.
As far as the single player goes, the game was very mediocre, at best. However, the multi player, is where it's at. There's a lot of options in the game types, such as your typical DM/TDM all the way to Slo-Mo DM, which is generally a mix of DM and capture the flag. You run and look for a device to slow down time, all the while fighting off everyone that's following your glow. However, if you happen to charge up your Slo-Mo, you can literally slow down time to your advantage, meaning you'll move slightly faster than everyone and shoot more accurately. There's plenty of really good maps to fight on as well. You'll recognize a lot of the single player areas in the multi player, which is pretty cool.
The only thing that really doesn't do it for me about the weapons is the lack of selection. There's some really unique weapons (the predator, or spike gun, to some), but overall, the weapons are just pretty boring. However, in the multi player, you won't really mind as much since one of your best weapons is going to be your melee combat.
I recommend this game for someone looking for some amazing multi player, but I really can't recommend the single player to anyone. It really feels like a console first person shooter, meaning it is shorter than normal, and very limited. However, I really don't even recommend buying the game unless you just want to support Sierra and Monolith. You can download F.E.A.R. Combat, which is the full multi player experience of F.E.A.R. for free on their website. Maybe if they release a platinum edition of F.E.A.R. (with both new expansions), I could recommend it as a purchase, but it's really nothing more than a few hours of fun, aside from the multi.
Verdict: Buy
