The Original F.E.A.R Trilogy

F.E.AR is a game that's been around for quite a long time now.  It's one of those games that makes me feel old because if you play it now it looks REALLY dated but I remember this shit coming out.  I originally had it on 360 and never played much of it and after my 360 and all its games got stolen I got in on the cheap for PC and have recently been playing them through.

F.E.A.R is an FPS horror (using that term VERY lightly) game where you play as a dude called Point Man in his quest to stop an army of telepathically controlled super soldiers.  This start to go a bit awry though once little cliche horror girl Alma starts showing up and fucking with the very fabric of existence or something, I dunno.  The plot is dumb and I wasn't really paying attention but the game itself played fairly well and I had a good time.

Point Man, being a member of the First Encounter Assault Recon or F.E.A.R (har har) team has the ability to go into bullet time mode and mow people down.  At the time, the AI for this game was fairly impressive and the areas in which you battle dudes in were sort of wide and there were lots of chances to get flanked and whatnot so the bullet time was a welcome addition.  The game is sort of mindless FPS stuff but there's something rather enjoyable about playing it.  Maybe the dated look and non regenerating health and limited health kits are reminding me of simpler days of my youth and that could be why I had such a good time with it.

The big problem with this game, and with the series as a whole I'm discovering is that despite the title there seems to be a lack of fear to be had here.  If the game isn't trying to jump scare you to death then there are often parts where the environment will change and you'll get some SPOOKY dialogue or you'll get shown some kind of horrible murder or something like that.  Those scenes aren't very effective though and all the scary parts of F.E.A.R do is serve to delay the action parts that you just want to get back to.

There were also two stand alone expansion packs called Perseus Mandate and Extraction Point which told the story from the viewpoints of different characters but were essentially the same thing.  However having already started F.E.A.R 2 which plays a bit more like a proper modern FPS, you know the kind designed for brain dead twats, I'm sort of missing the retro feel of the original 3 games.

If you're looking for a fun-ish FPS to spend a cozy afternoon on, the F.E.A.R is a good bet if you haven't played it already.  However if you're the kind of person who only likes modern shooters then you'll probably hate it and not understand why it was so interesting back in 2005.  Either way, fun little game.