Recent reviews by PatchWork

TL;DR - The plot is a genertic Scf-Fi story and it's servicable. The gameplay is a standard FPS shooter with normal FPS weaponry plus a few weapons unique to F.E.A.R. The AI is notably smart, but it's not as amazing as most people pedal it to be.


Plot: Armacham Technology Corporation is comissioned by the U.S military to create an army of clone soldiers commanded by a telepathic commander in hopes that the commander can avoid the danger of combat by commanding through their troops.

The player the takes control of "Point Man", an operative of a government organization known as F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon).

Paxton Fettel, a telepathic military commander in the clone army, is leading a revolt and the F.E.A.R team is deployed to to locate and capture Fettel, there by ending his clone revolt and containing the situation before it spirals out of control.

Gameplay:

F.E.A.R follows the standard FPS fourmla.

Assault rifles (G2A2 Assault Rifle, ASP Rifle), smg (RPL Sub-Machinegun), pitsols (AT-14 Pistol, SM15 Machine Pistol), shotguns (VK-12 Combat Shotgun, Watson Automatic Shotgun), explostive weaponry (MOD-3 Multi-Rocket Launcher, M77 Remote Bomb, N6A3 Fragmentation Grenade, AT-S Proximity Mine), and speical weaponry unique to F.E.A.R (MP-50 Repeating Cannon, 10mm HV Penetrator, Type-7 Particle Weapon).

Of course if there's weaponry there's something to shoot. The enemy consists of two different sources. I will only discuss one though because the second - being the paranormal source - involves the plot.

The clones apart of Fettel's battalion are one of the main obstacles for the player. On easy and normal the AI isn't much of a challege though they can be annoying on normal. On hard, they're well, hard. Normal and hard the AI is very intelligent. With that being said they're still subject to all the old tricks any veteran FPS player can dish out. It's not hard to outsmart the AI, but they're not as brainless as the rank and file FPS AI the industry is accustom to. The bet way I can put is it a more advance verison of the original Half-Life Marines.

Once aware of the player the AI gets straight to work trying to eliminate the player. Very aggressive and show apparent signs of enviroment awareness. Unlike most AI in FPS games where when the enemy knows of the player's general location they fire at said general location, the F.E.A.R AI will constantly move in order to maintain line of sight and by proxy line of fire. Even if they see the player, they generally wait until there's an opportunity to open fire. This makes them way more of a threat then say the Half-Life AI or maybe the AI from the Call of Duty games or [insert other FPS here]. Also, when I say "very aggressive", I mean VERY AGGRESSIVE. The AI does not stop unlil the player is dead and they stay on the offensive the whole engagement.

This brings me to the first thing I, personnelly, disliked about the game. The AI is, legitimately, too good at times. There were times on normal I almost gave on completing the game because of how good the AI was at combat. The game has a mechanic to negate the challeging AI where the player can slow time for a limited period. It makes every almost every single engagment a cake walk if used correctly. When I say I almost gave up on the game I ment that as I as frustrated because it was either the game was too difficult or too easy. If I engage the enemy toe-to-toe I'll parish, but if I use the time-slow function it's like kicking an orphan through a street hockey goal - the middle ground does not exist. Downgrading to easy is downgrading to easy so there's really no way to balance the game enough to suit me. The time-slow fuction is very fun actually, but it does completely negate the tactics of the AI.

Now I did say the AI was smart, but don't expect to be fighting the clones as if Rommel or Hannibal was leading them. They're just more fine tuned verisons of the standard industry FPS AI. The F.E.A.R AI should be the standard. It's not mind blowing, it's what I believe the minimum should be.

A bit glitchy, but very entertaining when it works properly.

When it doesn't work properly it's frustrating.

Also, don't plan to play with friends if your ping shoots past 100 or more because the game will give you zero breaks.

A fantastic four player foray into combative alterative history. Think of if a Metal Gear had sex with a giant mech from Kogoro Kurata and you have "The Trench", the player's personal battle bot with guns and grit (minus a cover so the character is completely open to fire, however it doesn't seem to matter).

One downside I came across is that the later levels will require grinding to complete. So if players aren't fans of replaying levels to grind for cash for the oh so important and necessary weapons, gear, etc they might not favor this game.

Besides replaying levels the game isn't half bad.

The characters aren't complete cardboard and actually have life in them. The game is fairly balanced and the enemies aren't similar so the player can expect to be kept on their toes.

I give it an 8 out of 10.