Today I’ve decided to give into my current compulsion and revisit First Encounter Assault Recon
better known as F.E.A.R., developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi
Universal through Sierra Entertainment in 2005.
This Windows PC version may have released over a dozen years ago, but back then it was
setting the computer gaming world on fire, look at these quotes!
The hype was real when this launched in ‘05.
I remember being floored by the E3 demos, with it appearing to be a mix of the John
Woo-inspired bullet time spectacle seen in games like Max Payne mixed with the gory atmospheric
spookiness of Doom 3.
That sounded good to me as-is, plus I was enjoying the mid-2000s trend of stringy-haired
ghost girls in horror movies, so F.E.A.R. seemed liked a fitting mix of my preferred
pop culture trends.
Inside the box you got the game itself on a quintet of CD-ROM discs in sleeves, as well
as a 33-page instruction booklet diving into gameplay basics, along with a description
of items and weaponry without spoiling every detail.
Additionally there was a Director’s Edition release, which included a DVD-ROM version
of the game that also packed a documentary video, interviews and roundtable discussions,
and a spoof by Rooster Teeth titled P.A.N.I.C.S.
Furthermore it came with this sweet comic book by Dark Horse Comics, acting as a brief
narrative prequel.
And in later years, F.E.A.R. came to Xbox 360 and PS3 as well, but from here on out
we’ll be sticking with the PC original.
After some company logo animations that have become oddly nostalgic, you’re greeted by
the main menu, with its eerie ambiance and video clips showing the upcoming chaos.
Before that though it’s best practice to hop into the graphics options and see what’s
up, because in 2005 this was a PC benchmarking staple.
F.E.A.R. makes use of what was then the latest LithTech game engine
known as the Jupiter Extended Engine.
Its combination of DirectX 9 rendering, Shader Model 2 support, Havok Game Dynamics, particle
physics, and a slew of other tech meant F.E.A.R. looked cutting edge on a capable PC.
And getting decent numbers at the end of the built-in benchmark was a point of pride indeed.
Once you’re finished ogling numbers the single player mode awaits!
F.E.A.R. then plays an M.O.V.I.E., beginning with teeny tiny text describing how the US
Army formed the F.E.A.R. team to respond to “paranormal threats to national security,”
but personally I feel it was to have another clever acronym under their belt.
After this you get a pretty excellent intro cinematic showing the possession of one Paxton
Fettel, and how, with the help of a creepy ghost girl in a red dress, he’s escaped
from his cell and taken control of a battalion of cloned soldiers using mind control.
Cuz video games.
To top it off, the man has some particular culinary preferences.
[CHOMP CHOMP]
Oh yeah F.E.A.R. can get a bit graphic, so uh, you’ve been warned and stuff.
Anyway, since there’s a telepathic cannibal weirdo on the loose, the First Encounter Assault
Recon team is brought in to clean up.
You take control of the voiceless protagonist known simply as Point Man: the new guy on
the team that was hired one week prior for his exceptional reflexes.
["You've seen his training results. His reflexes are totally off the charts."]
[“I think he can handle himself!”]
Maybe they should’ve done more research though, since you immediately black out and
start having visions.
["What's the first thing you remember?"]
["Where are you taking him?!"]
["You will be a god among men."]
["Wake up, Mr. Freeman."]
Oh well I’m sure everything is fine.
Once you arrive on-scene and step out of the car you’re provided a peaceful little tutorial
level that guides you by the hand, calmly showing you how to break pieces of wood and
work with a fellow soldier until oh noooo, “Mister Point Man, I don’t feel so good.”
Before long though you stop tripping balls and eventually run across some of Fettel’s
recent happy meal leftovers.
Then it’s this radical helicopter arrival scene where you drop into the level with your
disposable military buddies.
Man these guys are great, I’m sure we’ll be friends foreve-NOPE.
[creepy noises, silent skeletons]
Welp, pack it up boys, tutorial’s over.
And so is the rest of your squad for that matter, thanks to the psionic abilities of
a creepy girl named Alma.
From this point onward your visions continue with increasingly disturbing visuals flashing
before your eyes as you walk through each level.
[shrill, unsettling noises]
[NIC CAGE]
Finally though, you’ve been through enough and are
ready to shoot some mind-controlled soldiers in the face.
Cue the bullet time montage!
[slowed sound effects, classical music]
Dude yes. As effective and unsettling as the horror elements can be,
it’s the feel of the combat that really made F.E.A.R. stand out from the rest.
And the first key component of this is the slow-motion mechanic, explained in-universe
as Point Man having exceptionally high reflexes.
It’s also a legit life-saver in most situations, with plenty of encounters and enemy types
that will handily overwhelm you with both attack speed and sheer volume of ammunition.
Bullet time or reflex time or whatever you wanna call it is as much about difficulty
balancing as it is an easy sales gimmick for the marketing team to get off on, everybody wins!
Then there’s the arsenal at your disposal, which kicks off with a very Hard Boiled akimbo
pistol option, followed by the requisite submachine gun, an incredibly satisfying pump action
shotgun, assault rifles in both fully-automatic and burst firing configurations, a rocket
launcher that lobs multiple missiles with every press of the trigger, and several types
of grenades and explosives for fragging the crap out of everything.
Each of these are mighty pleasing to use, especially that shotgun with its ability to
reduce clones to a fine red mist.
But for the most part it’s a loadout pretty typical for a special forces-focused FPS game
in the mid-2000s.
It’s the remaining weapons where F.E.A.R. really cements itself into memory, starting
with the legendary HV Penetrator.
This is one of my favorite game weapons ever, it’s a military-grade nail gun essentially,
firing chunky metallic cylinders at stupidly high speeds.
This results in some gleeful piercing action, allowing you to staple dudes to the wall for
an extra dosage of overkill.
After this you have the Type-7 Particle Weapon, one of F.E.A.R.’s more absurd options that
is immediately deadly to darn near everyone.
A single shot typically evaporates armor and flesh alike, instantly reducing weaker enemies
to blood and bone.
One of the more tense levels in the game features a whole section where most guys are equipped
with a particle gun themselves, making for quite an anxiety-ridden firefight when everyone
can deal so much damage to everyone else.
And finally there’s the MP-50 Repeating Cannon, an absurd 20mm semi-automatic weapon
that shoots exploding ammo from a substantial 50-round magazine.
It’s a late-game item so you don’t get to do a ton with it, but I’m glad it exists nonetheless.
However, all these wouldn’t be nearly as fun if the baddies themselves weren’t enjoyable
to dispatch, and thankfully they’re outfitted with what I recall as the most advanced artificial
intelligence of its day.
It’s still impressive man, the way these guys move, communicate, flank, regroup, defend,
and generally outmaneuver you throughout the campaign is fantastic.
After all this time I’m still surprised at what each squad is capable of doing during
any given battle, with them shouting tactics and expletives in equal measure.
Every single encounter ends up being a unique event, with any number of variables determining
whether they go high, go low, flank from behind, throw down cover, blast through barriers,
flush you out with explosives, and generally incite unpredictable mayhem that still manages
feel like an intelligent, trained group of soldiers.
So whenever you do manage to get the drop on them and hear something like this
[“ohh fuuu*kk!”]
then you know you’ve done something right.
Partially to thank for these moments are the thoughtfully-built levels and carefully-displayed
lighting, with no shortage of opportunities to remain stealthy and track down enemies
using only shadows on a wall and positional audio cues.
It’s no Splinter Cell or Metal Gear, but it gets the job done.
And the levels themselves are just complicated enough without being overwhelming, consisting
of interconnected rooms and pathways, with an occasional valve puzzle or bit of machinery
to manipulate in order to progress to the next section.
So you get ample opportunity to approach groups of enemies in interesting ways, and there
are plenty of rooms off the beaten path hiding ammo, medkits, armor, and upgrades for your
health and reflexes.
It all leads to an experience that lends itself to a surprising amount of quiet moments.
It’s you, a flashlight, and dark winding hallways for the most part.
You don’t even have to go in guns blazing all the time, as you have a variety of unarmed
combat options.
The Amazing Point Man is apparently adept at martial arts too, serving up bicycle kicks,
sliding takedowns, rapid punches, pistol whips, and sweeping kick attacks.
Melee often ends up getting you killed if you’re not careful so I don’t always recommend
it, but it’s a neat option and further adds to the full body presence going on.
Yeah, F.E.A.R. was one of the first FPS games I experienced with such a believable feeling
of existing as a physical thing in a virtual world.
Not only can you look down and see your own feet and legs and stuff, but when you’re
knocked down you actually see your character push himself up off the ground.
That blew my mind a little back then.
And every time you pass by a light source you can see your own shadows in real time,
reminding you that you’re basically as vulnerable as everyone else.
And man do you feel vulnerable, especially during sections where control is taken away
from you in order to provide some haunted house scares.
Beyond the aforementioned Nic Cage faces flashing on-screen, you’re constantly running into
spots where the lights start flickering, apparitions appear for just long enough to make you wonder
if you actually saw them, and controls are either slowed down or taken away from you
entirely so various disturbing things can happen.
Things that are probably not real but you can still die so it still gets under your skin.
[creepy crying and ghost noises and such]
And then there are ladders, which, heh, you know I think the opportunity to make players
pee themselves is half the reason they were designed this way.
To climb a ladder you press a key to be locked onto the ladder, resulting in limited movements
and camera angles.
While this means the classic FPS problem of accidentally falling off a ladder is solved,
it also means that sometimes HI THERE.
So yeah, F.E.A.R. contains its share of jump scares and scenes of supernatural carnage,
but a hefty amount of the horror stems from the constant threat of the unknown and unseen.
You aren’t sure what exactly Alma and Fettel are capable of, and the visions you experience
grow increasingly disturbing and physically threatening.
The whole campaign really does hold up in my opinion, with a thoroughly enjoyable romp
through dimly-lit warehouses, industrial zones, office buildings, science facilities, and
other various places that for whatever reason intrigue me.
Especially things like construction areas and office cubicles, I dunno, they simply
captivated me with their normalcy.
Just cinder blocks, spackled walls, computer monitors, and drink cans all over the place.
Most of this stuff can be destroyed in spectacular fashion as well, which makes the inevitable
battle in each new room a joy in terms of visuals alone.
It also goes with the tried and true method of first-person exploration-based narrative,
as popularized by games like System Shock and Half-Life.
Audio logs in the form of answering machine messages reveal tidbits of character backstory,
and Alienware-branded laptops perform a similar task, having intelligence operatives sift
through data and explain how things got so messed up.
All you really need to know is it’s a story of weird events happening to even weirder
people, with government entities performing morally questionable experiments leading to
unforeseen consequences.
And yes, the protagonist has a key role in all of this because it’s one of those
“chosen one” stories where you’re super awesome but oh noooo, amnesia.
Anyway I won’t spoil the story for those of you that haven’t played it, though I
will say it’s a great time for the 7 to 10 hours it lasts.
Even if it ends on a rather high-stakes cliffhanger moment.
I am not a big fan of those, but it didn’t detract from my overall satisfaction with
the game up to that point.
And besides, it wasn’t long before we got Extraction Point in 2006, an expansion that
picks up directly where the story left off.
This was followed up with F.E.A.R.
Gold, packing both the Director’s Edition of the base game and Extraction Point into
one package.
Even though it’s developed by Timegate Studios and not the original dev team, it’s still
a solid expansion to the story, providing another 6 or 7 hours of gameplay and introducing
several excellent new weapons: including the minigun, the Type-12 laser carbine rifle,
and throwable turrets that activate on sensing motion.
It also introduces some new features, like breakable crates full of valuable item drops,
and the ability to smash through doors using melee, something I always wanted to do in
the main game.
And while I know some considering Extraction Point to be an even better campaign than the
first, personally I rank it just below that.
Having greater enemy variety gives it a leg up for sure, and at least it doesn’t have
that annoying Dennis Nedry character from the main story.
But I dunno, there was something about the new environments and the quantity of scripted
scary bits that didn’t fully engage me like the base game did.
Totally worth playing though and I enjoyed that crap out of it back then so I was quite
excited to dive into Perseus Mandate a year later, again by Timegate Studios.
And well, this is where it kinda lost me.
As expected, you get some new weapons and enemies and the combat’s still a lot of fun.
But eh.
You play a totally different character parallel to the main story, and you’re accompanied
by squadmates for a good portion of the experience.
Combined with the larger, and quite frankly uglier levels, and Perseus Mandate alters
the feel of the game in ways that do not do it for me.
Plus like, how many mutes with superhuman reflexes does F.E.A.R. have anyway?
This is never really explained and it all just struck me as a slapdash pack as a result.
And I guess Monolith kind of agreed seeing as neither of these expansions by Timegate
are considered canon anymore, with F.E.A.R.
2 being the only “official” follow-up to the original nowadays.
Video game lore is weird.
Besides, another big chunk of F.E.A.R. has nothing to do with lore at all, and that is
the multiplayer mode.
This was released on its own for free under the title F.E.A.R.
Combat in 2006, and lasted a good six years before the master server was shut down in 2012.
Thankfully, a group of fans put together FEAR-Community.org, which continues to provide their own server
access as of the making of this video.
And for a game that features tons of slowed-down gunplay, the multiplayer is anything but.
Frantic barely begins to describe it, for the most part it is a mad dash of nonsense,
at least on the maps and modes that folks are still playing right now.
Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Conquest, doesn’t matter.
The chaos is just non-stop and if you’re into that kinda thing it’s a blast.
There is a fascinating slow-motion deathmatch mode too that treats it as a power-up, slowing
down your opponents while your side temporarily gains the upper hand.
But I didn’t find anyone in those maps at all and I kinda don’t blame them considering
how chaotic the real-time modes are.
And that’s about it for First Encounter Assault Recon, one of my favorite shooters
from the mid-2000s, and one that I still entirely recommend revisiting.
Whether it’s the original game on CD-ROM, one of the console ports, a collection of
the expansions like F.E.A.R. Files, or F.E.A.R. Platinum
on services like GOG and Steam, it’s all very much worth your time.
And I’m happy to say that it still works great for me on modern 64-bit operating systems,
barring some issues with low frame rates, something that is
easily fixed using fan-made patch files.
So if you’ve never played it or it’s been a long time, now is as fine a moment as any
to go all slow-mo with a High Velocity Penetrator and avoid creepy children on top of ladders in F.E.A.R.
If you liked what you saw here and you’re into gaming retrospectives like this one,
then might I recommend these!
And I release new stuff every week here on LGR, so stick around or subscribe if that’s your style.
As always, I thank you very much for watching!