At a basic level, I can summarise a good shooter as one that makes the immediate objective of moving from point-a to point-b exciting; enticing; entertaining. It can achieve this through story/narrative, character/dialogue, environment/traversal, gameplay/action.
F.E.A.R. fails at the first two. It's eight hours of game stretched from a single A4 sheet of paper. The dialogue is all expository. But none of that really matters because it succeeds so well as a balls-to-the-wall Hong Kong action inspired shooter, told through levels that evoke the sparse liminality of Half-Life and the seedy, grimy domesticity of Max Payne (with a hint of tactical gunplay and enemies that feel drawn from like a Tom Clancy shooter).
I only played Doom and Quake for the first time less than 9 months ago, but I find myself turning back to them as the essential shooters. The skeleton for what a shooter can be is all there. The guns are bomb; the levels evoke a very specific atmosphere, and are compact and pushing you forward on instinct; movement is swift; there's nothing to think about other than shooting bad guys and maybe using a health pack. FEAR is all that plus it lets you blast dudes in slowmo across an office cubicle with a combat shotgun (and can still switch it up on a dime making you feel like you're playing through The Matrix lobby scene).
F.E.A.R. fails at the first two. It's eight hours of game stretched from a single A4 sheet of paper. The dialogue is all expository. But none of that really matters because it succeeds so well as a balls-to-the-wall Hong Kong action inspired shooter, told through levels that evoke the sparse liminality of Half-Life and the seedy, grimy domesticity of Max Payne (with a hint of tactical gunplay and enemies that feel drawn from like a Tom Clancy shooter).
I only played Doom and Quake for the first time less than 9 months ago, but I find myself turning back to them as the essential shooters. The skeleton for what a shooter can be is all there. The guns are bomb; the levels evoke a very specific atmosphere, and are compact and pushing you forward on instinct; movement is swift; there's nothing to think about other than shooting bad guys and maybe using a health pack. FEAR is all that plus it lets you blast dudes in slowmo across an office cubicle with a combat shotgun (and can still switch it up on a dime making you feel like you're playing through The Matrix lobby scene).