Reviews// F.E.A.R. (Xbox 360)

As you’d come to expect with this sort of game, your arsenal of weaponry will steadily increase as you progress. You’ll begin with a pistol and sub-machine gun. The former is pretty much useless for the majority of the game. Its okay when dual-wielded, but you’ll quickly find you have little use for it. The latter is very useful as ammo is abundant and, although of low power, the rate of fire is impressive.

In fact, it’s probably our favourite weapon, if only for it sounding uncannily similar to those used by the marines in Aliens. The assault rifle offers a longer range, and is more powerful, but has heavy recoil, making incessant fire awkward.

The Penetrator pays homage to Quake’s nail gun; it fires small stakes, and is very accurate, but its slow rate of fire only makes it effective in bullet-time, where you can make each shot count. One very cool by-product of this weapon is leaving enemies pinned to the environment by whichever part of their anatomy you hit.

The effects can be both gruesome and hilarious. There are other, more powerful and less ‘traditional’ weapons later in the game, which we’ll let you discover on your own.

However, special mention must go to the shotgun. This beast absolutely decimates enemies at short distance, and is an excellent tool to if you’re curious about the human anatomy. After you’ve shot off countless limbs and heads, and experienced dividing clones at the waist, you’ll certainly agree with the legitimacy of the 18 Certificate.

Enemy AI is also noteworthy. Employing a tactic of hiding away and mowing the bad guys down as they come into sight won’t work. Likewise, running in with guns blazing can also prove foolhardy.

If the enemy feel they’re under the cosh, they’ll fall back, regroup and attempt to flank you. However, if they feel they’re gaining the upper hand, they’ll try and root you out from your cover, often with the crafty use of a grenade. They also navigate the environment impressively; jumping out of windows to avoid a well-placed grenade, or skilfully leaping over the railings of walkways to trap you.

The key is to be decisive and ready to react according to how the fire-fights pan out. One thing for is for sure, battles are rarely anything other than challenging and exhilarating.

Perhaps the only gripe to be levelled at F.E.A.R. is the lack of variety in the environments. All the action takes place in an urban/industrial setting, and after seeing the umpteenth gloomy alley, steaming pipe or office desk, the sense of repetition unfortunately sets in.

Perhaps this is a harsh assessment. After all, you are a Special Forces operative assigned to a specific urban/industrial based mission. Obviously there’s no journey of self-discovery. You’re not the subject of a worldwide manhunt. Besides, a tropical island hardly lends itself to heightening that sense of real F.E.A.R. and paranoia.

SPOnG Score: A-

While F.E.A.R. is a year old PC game, it’s aged very well indeed. The combat is satisfying and the developer’s use of horror to add to the tension works incredibly well. Once you’ve completed the substantial single player Campaign mode, the Live! enabled classic Multiplayer modes - although no Halo 2 or Unreal Tournament - are a great deal of fun, and add considerable life to a very accomplished shooter.