Forced walking sections through stale environments that overstay their welcome, an "ahead of it's time" A.I. that will always fall for your proximity mines no matter how blatant, and gameplay that literally just boils down to slo-mo abuse for free kills; when its down you hide behind cover until its back up. That's the entire game: a mindless cover-shooter.
I wouldn't have minded the lulls in gameplay if the horror angle was effectual in the slightest. No game that hands you a shotgun and assault rifle, slomo powers at the touch of a button, and throws waves of soldiers at you is still walking the path of horror. The game never takes these opportunities to create interesting platforming for the player to engage with, the furthest off the beaten path you'll go is through a vent into an elevator shaft to leisurely go up a ladder or two.
After going through the trouble of getting the game's EAX support to work on modern Windows, I'm happy to say that I found the positional audio pretty impressive. Unfortunately you lumber through the world like an elephant in a chinashop, jostling every single little can and cardboard box within a 3 yard radius. I can't count the amount of times I was caught off guard by a stray soda can tickling the back of my eardrums. Outside of that, the scariest thing about F.E.A.R. is that people in 202X still prop up this dreck like it has anything insightful to impart.
+.5 Star for first-person roundhouse kicking. That never got old.
I wouldn't have minded the lulls in gameplay if the horror angle was effectual in the slightest. No game that hands you a shotgun and assault rifle, slomo powers at the touch of a button, and throws waves of soldiers at you is still walking the path of horror. The game never takes these opportunities to create interesting platforming for the player to engage with, the furthest off the beaten path you'll go is through a vent into an elevator shaft to leisurely go up a ladder or two.
After going through the trouble of getting the game's EAX support to work on modern Windows, I'm happy to say that I found the positional audio pretty impressive. Unfortunately you lumber through the world like an elephant in a chinashop, jostling every single little can and cardboard box within a 3 yard radius. I can't count the amount of times I was caught off guard by a stray soda can tickling the back of my eardrums. Outside of that, the scariest thing about F.E.A.R. is that people in 202X still prop up this dreck like it has anything insightful to impart.
+.5 Star for first-person roundhouse kicking. That never got old.
6 Comments
Pretending like """""FEAR"""" isn't at least secondarily horror is some ????
I don't think walking away from F.E.A.R. unsatisfied was a result of how I engaged with the game, frankly I don't think it's really possible to engage meaningfully with the combatants when your movement tops out at 2mph and 3/4 of your weapons are just hitscan, though I must admit the nail gun rips. Played on hard with a good dash of reckless abandon once I started getting bored and had no deaths outside of a few isolated incidents where the game will just throw a sentry or mech around the corner.
Also, one of the game's directors specifically cites Ringu (1998), The Eye (2002), Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), and Dark Water (2002) as influences specifically because he and the lead designer found Japanese horror scarier. Am I supposed to interepret little girl = scary as "not really horror"?
I would agree!
Also, one of the game's directors specifically cites Ringu (1998), The Eye (2002), Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), and Dark Water (2002) as influences specifically because he and the lead designer found Japanese horror scarier. Am I supposed to interepret little girl = scary as "not really horror"?
I would agree!
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I did all that and more, I don't know what else to tell you. The fact that proponents of this game feel morally compelled to correct how other's play it cements my conclusion that F.E.A.R. is fundamentally flawed.
It's interesting you bring up HL1, I think it does a fantastic job of weaving the setting of a top secret research facility into the gameplay without oversimplifying its environments, complete with small touches like interactable soda machines and microwaves. When F.E.A.R. busted out the cloaking soldiers my mind leapt immediately to the aggressive tonal change Half-Life took when the black-ops soldiers arrived at Black Mesa, only to be disappointed when the cloaking soldiers disappeared for the rest of the game outside of a short encounter with a handful of them in the penultimate interval. I was expecting F.E.A.R. 's world to evolve over the course of the game but the urgency of Fettel/Alma's response to the player character remained stagnant. The game seemed perfectly content to send out the same 4-6 dudes patrolling a room or dropping out of a helicopter for the overwhelming majority of the campaign, only occasionally spicing it up with an armored soldier. How was my approach to encounters expected to evolve if the game wasn't willing to provide a catalyst?
Also, I'm at odds with use of the slo-mo mechanic being tantamount to spam, it regenerates in its entirety in no more than 5 or 6 seconds. If the game really didn't want me to use it I'd expect it to reinforce this point by limiting its usefulness with repeated use.
Thanks for your thoughts in any case, I realize I'm being quite harsh but I felt I did more than what was expected of me and F.E.A.R. never met me halfway. If the A.I.'s ingenuity really does show itself on subsequent playthroughs I'm afraid I might never see it come to fruition, the discourse surrounding this and other tentpole shooters reminds me of my other vice: Souls games - and that's a beehive that’s not worth my time or effort.
Also, I'm at odds with use of the slo-mo mechanic being tantamount to spam, it regenerates in its entirety in no more than 5 or 6 seconds. If the game really didn't want me to use it I'd expect it to reinforce this point by limiting its usefulness with repeated use.
Thanks for your thoughts in any case, I realize I'm being quite harsh but I felt I did more than what was expected of me and F.E.A.R. never met me halfway. If the A.I.'s ingenuity really does show itself on subsequent playthroughs I'm afraid I might never see it come to fruition, the discourse surrounding this and other tentpole shooters reminds me of my other vice: Souls games - and that's a beehive that’s not worth my time or effort.
I'd love to disagree here because there's lots of things about F.E.A.R. I find appealing but I think I know now why it never stuck with me much. The game ultimately lacks anything of substance to the gunplay, because even though I think the situations and AI can carry it on the contrary, the bullet-time ability ultimately undoes any positives as it just allows for instant cheesing.
Squigglydot
1 year ago
And you don't really need to abuse slowmo, or hide behind cover. I mean, maybe if you only use weapons that leave you wide open, I guess? Otherwise you can bob and weave pretty easy and kill just as easily.