Graphics:
From a technical standpoint, F.E.A.R. is one of the best-looking games of any genre I have ever played. The quality of the indoor environments matches that in Doom 3, the previous FPS champion in this regard, and the outdoor scenes do not look shabby in comparison to those in Half-Life 2 (although little of the action occurs outdoors). The settings are consistently dark, noticeably without a lot of vibrant color, and ominous. While what you see is never really beautiful, it is always engrossing.

While the depiction of your people and your enemies is not in the top tier, the animation of the characters is simply superb. You see them jump over obstacles, peek around corners, and move objects around in natural ways, and when they are killed their contorted ways of flailing around and falling to the ground are extremely effective.

There is a full complement of special visual effects here, all wonderfully executed. Of special note are dynamic lighting and shadowing effects, smoke, sparks, and particle effects, and the depiction of fire is the best I have ever seen. Explosions rock everything on the screen and have a massive visual impact. The physics of both character and object movement and collisions is right on the mark.

To accomplish this graphics splendor, F.E.A.R. requires a lot of horsepower. Without a high-end video card, you have a choice of running at lower settings or watching the frame rate dip during some of the action scenes. Moreover, this system hog takes up well over four and a half gigabytes of hard disk space.

Interface:
F.E.A.R. utilizes the standard mouse-keyboard first-person shooter control system, and it works extremely well. The input system is very responsive. There are a lot of extra commands, however, such as leaning, activating slow-motion, using your flashlight, and fighting in melee mode, so you need to remember a few more keys than usual. The menu system and the play screen indicators are intuitive, but not anything flashy.

It is very handy that you can pick up health packs without activating them immediately (unlike in many first-person shooters); you may collect up to ten and then choose judiciously when to apply them. This makes health management more a product of intelligent decision making than usual.

The save system is very convenient, and though quick saves, checkpoint saves, and regular save slots you rarely have to retrace your steps very far. Loading conveniently does not take very long. Unfortunately, there are just ten save slots, which restricts your ability to return to various points in the game you want to play again.

There are a few minor glitches in the gameplay. A few times the game crashed to the desktop, and once thanks to a flaw an invisible and invincible foe kept shooting me from vents and even the ceiling.

Gameplay:
F.E.A.R. provides relentless nonstop tension throughout the play experience. You can never relax or let down your guard. The spooky and weird setting is totally absorbing. Many of the environments provide precious few places where you can feel at all safe or protected.

The downside of the play experience is that the action is somewhat repetitive. With few dramatic differences in the settings, enemies, and weapons you use, a real sense of déjá vu occurs rather quickly. Without a deep, tight, and compelling story, some might loose their desire to continue onwards.

Though extremely serious, there are occasional moments of levity in F.E.A.R. For example, there is a rather chubby fellow named Norton Mapes whom you are trying to aid, and later try to take into custody, and in one case you see through a window of a room his legs wiggling frantically as he attempts to climb into a ventilation shaft (he eventually makes it through).

Nonetheless, F.E.A.R. richly merits its Mature ESRB rating. There is occasional foul language and plenty of blood-and-guts, with at least a possibility of turning off the gore. The carnage is not gratuitous, however, as it aids the offering’s unnerving tone.

This is not the longest play experience, as most will make it from start to finish in well under 15 hours. The magnificent ending sequence, involving a lot of bizarre moments, makes the whole experience well worth it.

Multiplayer:
While the focus is on the single-player experience, F.E.A.R. features a robust multiplayer mode for up to 16 players. All the usual variants are included, including deathmatch, team deathmatch, elimination, team elimination, and capture the flag, within a few relatively spacious environments. It is special that the slow-motion ability continues in multiplayer, albeit as a pickup requiring charging up that only one player at a time can possess. In addition, face-to-face melee tactics can be really a blast against human opponents. The combat is frenzied and can be every bit as much fun as single-player battles, although you may find yourself getting killed a lot more. Lag is minimal except on rare occasions.

Sound FX:
The sound effects in F.E.A.R. are generally outstanding. The weapons are powerful and convincing, and the ambient environmental noises — such as glass breaking or empty gun cartridges dropping — contribute really well to the dark tone of the gameplay. When someone throws a grenade that lands near you, you are really rocked by the impact. The supernatural sounds are truly jolting. Hardware surround sound, in the form of Creative Labs’ EAX standard, is fully supported.

The vocal effects are fine but not the highlight of this offering. Appropriately, slowing down time slows down sounds as well. You get to hear almost constantly your enemies communicating with each other, but the unchanging voices of the clones can get a bit tiresome. Moreover, the default volume on the audio messages you hear from the computer, phone, and radio is sometimes so soft that it is barely audible (the other vocal effects have normal volume).

Musical Score: The music in F.E.A.R. is kept subtle and in the background. Rarely do you hear a coherent melody, instead hearing a primitive beat or a repetitive few notes to jar your senses. Sometimes during combat the soundtrack becomes more energized and noticeable. Overall, though, you pay much more attention to the sound effects than to the music here.

Intelligence & Difficulty: There are four levels of difficulty in F.E.A.R. — low, moderate, high, and extreme. This allows for the full range of players, from novices to experts, to find a challenge. One way or another, most people will find that they will not just breeze through the game without experiencing death several times.

The artificial intelligence of the computer-controlled enemies is quite impressive. The cleverness of your foes is well above that in most first-person shooters: adversaries duck and jump out of range, move or blast through objects, flank you, take advantage of cover, use grenades intelligently, and otherwise make formidable combat opponents. They are usually quite accurate shots. One time an enemy under fire climbed up an overhead vent to escape. They react quickly to your flashlight and usually notice you if you make a lot of noise, and they let each other know when they have spotted you. They often coordinate attacks with each other and catch you in a lethal crossfire, pinning you down with seemingly little hope of escape. If you kill a few, they often request backup. They never just run at you with reckless abandon.

However, the enemy AI is not perfect, as your foes will rarely pursue you across long distances and virtually never come toward you even at close range if there is a closed door between you. On occasion, enemy behavior becomes somewhat predictable.

Overall: F.E.A.R. has by far the best tactical combat I have ever experienced, and has super-high production values throughout. The sense of dread never lets up throughout the game. The graphics and sound effects alone are worth the price of admission, the implementation of slow-motion is very entertaining, and the artificial intelligence present is well above what we have come to expect in this genre. However, the lack of variety is the key drawback present throughout the gameplay. Moreover, the story is a bit of a mishmash. Nonetheless, the largely retro style gameplay with modern polish is a winning combination, and I would highly recommend this release to any first-person shooter fan who is open to a solid jolt of fear.