Monolith has been responsible
for some good underrated games. NOLF and its
sequel are two of the most underrated first-person
shooters in my opinion. I skipped their previous
shooter, Contact J.A.C.K. due to below average
reviews, but F.E.A.R. is another great release
from the Washington based studio.
F.E.A.R. was met with a fairly
positive reception, suprising consider the industries'
criticism of games that bring nothing new to
the table. And indeed F.E.A.R. really doesn't
bring anything new. In fact, for pure single-player
focused first-person shooters (which excuses
Splinter Cel and Battlefield 2), F.E.A.R. is
the top rated of 2005. Ahead of Call Of Duty
and even Quake 4. But it's not without it's
issues.
The biggest issue is the lack
of finesse in the level design. Now the Lithtech
engine, developed in-studio by Monolith, is
a great engine. In fact the version of the engine
(Jupiter EX) used in F.E.A.R. is still being
used in shooters in 2011. The problem with F.E.A.R.
is that it failed miserably on using the engines
potential. Sure, they made good use of lighting
as this is a definite strong point in the game.
Although not as amazing looking as Doom 3, Quake
4 or Splinter Cell; it's not far off. Where
F.E.A.R. lacks is, firstly in the texturing.
Textures are plain, drab and dominantly grey
throughout the game. Follow this up with abysmal
level design. Constantly throughout the game
you'll be walking through plain four-brush corridors
with a scattering of prefabs such as barrells
and pipes. Follow this up with a room, then
another corridor or two leading to the next
room. All the while looking horribly unfinished
in the detailing department. There are no complex
angles, no extravagent architecture. This is
level design 101, to the point where you could
take just about any level in the game, for instance
one of the far too many office levels, put some
drab brown wood textures in there, and suddenly
it's a warehouse complex.
As mentioned each room has
a couple of routes to get in and out. The upside
is enemies can also use either route to attack,
so it's sets up for good gameplay. However it
gets repetitive very fast and confusing because
it sometimes feels very maze-like.
Where F.E.A.R. excels is in
it's gameplay. We deal with human opponents
almost exclusively. Some take more damage than
others, some have different weapons. But the
AI is all the same; and that is fairly good.
Not perfect, but good enough to provide a decent
and fun challenge. I played the game on medium
and it's fairly perfect. I always had plenty
of shotgun ammo, plenty of health packs in reserve,
which is how I like it. The weapons all felt
great. The shotgun and machine gun are your
main weapons, with enough space to carry only
one other weapon which alternates depending
on what you find in each level. It was slightly
disappointing that you can only carry three
weapons, but that's a minor niggle as the shotgun
is great fun.
There could have been a few
different enemies. Sure you have turrets, both
ceiling-mounted and flying; both of which were
very annoying and didn't enhance gameplay at
all. Some kind of ghost also makes an appearance
occasionally, but these are far too underwhelming.
Some sort of challenging ninja enemy, complete
with invisibility and very fast manoeuvres makes
very few appearances, unfortunately.
The story, which I won't go
in to, had a fairly solid premise. Unfortunately
there was little storytelling and very few cut
scenes throughout the game. Most of the backstory
was told through laptops which were too long
and boring to sit and listen to throughout the
game. Monolith should have put a lot more effort
into telling their story.
Overall, F.E.A.R. is a fun
romp for around 10 hours, with a successful
engine but sadly let down by old skool level
design which may have been great for a late-90's/early-2000's
game, but in 2005 looks too bland compared to
the level of detail of, for instance, Doom 3.
