Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t play single player games often... I honestly can’t remember the last SP game I finished... I got bored around the dune buggy level of HL2, Area 51 was ok for about 3 hours, Doom 3, maybe 4 or 5 hours, and Quake 4 lasted about 20 minutes. However I just played FEAR from front to back and can honestly say I was freaked out for a good 90% of the game. It got to a point I seriously wouldn’t play after dark unless someone else was home! I’m not kidding!

Throughout the game you don’t really know what’s going on.. All you know is there is a girl about 12 years old following you around the facility, killing people in excruciating ways, and seems to have an interest of your presents. She makes that apparent by making appearances throughout the game such as turning off all the lights in rooms your in and appearing in front of you for a split second, or you’ll see her run across a hall, only to find out the hall leads nowhere and she’s gone.. I think the freakiest was when I walked down a hall, turned around to check on a door that closed behind me, and she was staring me in the face covered in blood then vanished into ash.

You’re not quite sure why you have these visions, but you learn more with every episode you have. The AI is amazing. Guys run for cover, fire blindly around corners, jump and roll through windows, and even crawl under obstacles if there is room! Game play is fast, and an added bonus is the "bullet time" they incorporate. It’s not cheesy like other games, it’s actually done VERY well.

This brings me to the environment. EVERYTHING EXPLODES!! When you get into firefights, stuff flies off desks, monitors blow up and smoke, extinguishers go off if hit, walls break apart and dust fills the room. There have been times I have been in a good firefight and after I’ve mopped everyone up the room is so filled with dust, you can barely see in front of your face. Lights are hanging from the ceiling, and everything that used to be on shelves and desks, is now on the floor. I’ve included a screenshot above of that to show off just how interactive the environment is.

Lastly, the sound is great! Brass falls to the floor with a crisp "plink" after each shot, walking over metal grates, and on wooden planks sound good. Environment sounds are freaky. Whispers such as "They don’t deserve to live" and "kill them all, only you understand" are well placed throughout the game. The game is polished off with rippling reflective water, bullet time round tracers, shock wave effects, and heat blurs from fire. It’s all there. There is even a part where they recreate a full out nuke detonation while your topside! Complete with mushroom cloud, rolling dust, shockwave that throws you back, flying debris and a car that almost takes off your head! They have definitely thought of everything.

My official verdict... If it keeps me entertained for 15+ hours.. its DEFINATLY going to keep you entertained! Don’t expect too much from multiplayer however. Its got the regular CTF, DM, and so on.. the effects are great, and slow motion adds quite a roll to multiplayer (How they incorporate bullet time in Multiplayer you ask? Its actually easy, they slow everyone else on the server down, but allow the player to stay in real time!! BRILLIANT!!) ... But like most games, a few hours of back and forth killing, I tend to want a little more. I really wish there was co-op in this game, but from the sheer number of events that happen, you can tell it would be virtually impossible to incorporate. Oh well, having no-weapon melee fights by far makes up for it!

I'm givin' F.E.A.R 4 ½ scared-out-of-thier-pants army guys out of 5 (only because there is no co-op mode!)

Telnets