excerpt from heather's fps museum:
sorry, everybody: i think f.e.a.r. is just ok. those here only for the wonderfun slow-mo shotgunning (listen to that shell hit the ground, holy hell) and the fancy enemy ai are gonna have a good time. i find f.e.a.r. underwhelming in nearly every other facet.
my main gripe is the combo of flaccid storytelling with shallow and repetitive environments. i cannot remember a single facet of f.e.a.r.'s plot, despite how often the game insists of dragging down the pacing to convey it. i had to look the details up up just to write this entry. it's soooo mundane and the weak ambience throughout the every level only makes it more painful. the finale is the worst offender. i should be eating paxton and alma's relationship up. alma could have been one of history's great traumagirls (please give me a darkness-esque game starring her). in practice, i found it hard to even pay attention when i wasn't being forced to play target practice with the ghosts. everything feels rushed, rushed, rushed.
thing is, i don't think f.e.a.r. was supposed to be monolith's definitive statement for this series. that rushed energy to everything other than the legendary combat makes sense if you view the game as a tech demo or a pilot episode with the bones of an interesting world and aesthetic. the problem is that the series that followed got screwed over by publisher bullshit. regardless, i'm going to try f.e.a.r. 2 and see if my hypothesis is right. perhaps it will be the full experience i'm looking for.
sorry, everybody: i think f.e.a.r. is just ok. those here only for the wonderfun slow-mo shotgunning (listen to that shell hit the ground, holy hell) and the fancy enemy ai are gonna have a good time. i find f.e.a.r. underwhelming in nearly every other facet.
my main gripe is the combo of flaccid storytelling with shallow and repetitive environments. i cannot remember a single facet of f.e.a.r.'s plot, despite how often the game insists of dragging down the pacing to convey it. i had to look the details up up just to write this entry. it's soooo mundane and the weak ambience throughout the every level only makes it more painful. the finale is the worst offender. i should be eating paxton and alma's relationship up. alma could have been one of history's great traumagirls (please give me a darkness-esque game starring her). in practice, i found it hard to even pay attention when i wasn't being forced to play target practice with the ghosts. everything feels rushed, rushed, rushed.
thing is, i don't think f.e.a.r. was supposed to be monolith's definitive statement for this series. that rushed energy to everything other than the legendary combat makes sense if you view the game as a tech demo or a pilot episode with the bones of an interesting world and aesthetic. the problem is that the series that followed got screwed over by publisher bullshit. regardless, i'm going to try f.e.a.r. 2 and see if my hypothesis is right. perhaps it will be the full experience i'm looking for.