really fun game but I wish it was longer

also make sure to download the echopatch as the game seems to be basically unplayable on modern hardware

Shooting guys in slow-mo feels incredible. It like you are John Wick or Max Payne, until a little girl reminds you who's actually in charge here ;)

I have some thoughts about this game. Mostly good, but I also have a few negative points.

The concept and idea of the story are unique and very intriguing to me, especially for the time the game was released. You play as a freshly recruited agent of F.E.AR., a task force designed specifically for handling paranormal or extraordinary situations such as the aftermath of a government research gone wrong. The story keeps you engaged for almost the entire game, but you can very easily lose track of it a few hours in. It has believable characters who are supposed to have their own roles, but they have very little impact on the game, and the only characters with any significant roles in the story are the main cast, such as the protagonist, the antagonist, and a few others.

The main character is your typical silent protagonist who’s overpowered and goes through entire armies with insane reflexes and gun skills, saving the day single-handedly. The real star of the show is the antagonist, the mastermind you encounter towards the end of the game. You get hints about them throughout the game, so you can see it coming through all the lore bits you discover in the form of laptops scattered around the experiment facilities, but those hints still don’t take away the shock of what happens in the last few chapters, and oh do the things go down towards the end. Those last few sections don’t pull any punches and things get pretty wild the more you get close to the end, and the game ends in a way that clearly sets up the second game. But again, I think the ending sections could’ve elevated the experience even more if the story had been easier to follow. That is one of the few complaints I have about the narrative and the overall experience.

The gameplay is really fun and has aged well, considering the game came out more than two decades ago. All the guns feel different, and almost all of them shine in different scenarios and are fun to use. The slow down ability is quite handy and fun to use, and it being the gameplay equivalent of showing the character's insane relfexes is really smart. The movement feels like it’s taken straight out of a Valve game; the same goes for the physics and sound effects. Another thing that really impressed in terms of gameplay is the enemy A.I., which is surprisingly smart, even by today's standards, where the enemy squads use covers and, real calls and tactics like flanking and suppressive fire, and even react to your every little action like sprinting, using your torchlight, etc.

The music is hauntingly beautiful. Especially the background ambient music, that has a rusty vibe that sounds like Silent Hill music without feeling like a direct copy of it. Going through certain quiet and dark sections with the same haunting ambient music playing in the background can be a chilling experience, and overall, the music plays a big role in slowly building up tension and then smoothly transitioning to a different tone upon the reveal.

But the biggest negative aspect of the game that degraded my overall experience has to be the repeated level design and the pacing. The game starts off really well, and the last few sections are personal highlights for me. But the middle section just pales in comparison in my opinion. You go through two different areas that, aside from a few small changes and the introduction of some new enemy types, feel largely the same because of the very similar and lackluster level design. I beat the game in 8–9 hours (I was AFK for roughly 1–2 hours, hence the 10 hours on record), which is kinda short, but the pacing still felt off because of that dragged-out middle section that ended up hurting the overall experience significantly for me.

I personally didn't find the game to be much scary. To me, it felt more action oriented than horror (largely due to the middle section where it's mostly run and gun, or strategize, then run and gun), except for the ending sections where the action took a backseat and horror became the main focus, but even then I'd say you'd barely flinch at most if you're used to playing regular horror games.

When I weigh the positives against all the flaws I felt during my gameplay, I’d still recommend this game and say that I had a good time playing it.