Single Player Part 1: Story, AI and Combat
Is it as scary as Monolith says? The scary moments build up at times and sure I’ve fired of a few rounds in panic from time to time, but heart pounding fear? Not really. It’s a lot better then the traditional scary moments seen in games like Doom 3 when an imp jumps out at you from the shadows after you’ve picked up a medkit or a weapon. A more scary game would be Aliens Versus Predator 2, at least the marine part. The scary moments in F.E.A.R. are well made, some are not dangerous but Monolith was smart enough to make several dangerous so you should at least be ready with the trigger finger and that’s the idea behind it all, keeping you alert through out the game.
Before starting the single player you select difficulty level; low, moderate, high and extreme, I picked high. The game starts with what I think is very cool cinematic intro and we are after that briefed that a very hush-hush military experiment with an army of clones, controlled by a telepathic commander named Paxton Fettel, has gone wrong and F.E.A.R. has been called in, along with Delta Force, to resolve the situation. Replica forces (the clones) are making a mess at a water treatment plant and you are inserted with Delta at the scene but soon something strange happens and you are all alone and have to figure out what’s actually going on. Standing orders are to find Fettel and eliminate him and find out what he is up to. The plot is different, maybe not the best nor the strongest, but it’s certainly a little bit new for us gamers (at least I can’t remember a game with a similar plot). The plot have its problems though, there are more questions than answers on what’s going on. Why is a government weapons contractor involved? Why are you having a lot of strange flashbacks and visions? And in the middle of all this a little girl, Alma, shows up at times and you wonder what her part in all this is [insert X-Files theme here]. You’ll get additional information from conversations recorded on answering machines and text files from computers. Some questions are answered, or partially answered, but not all and it leaves open for a sequel, but they should have been answered in the game, it would make it a lot clearer for the player what actually happened and why.
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