bapenguin
10-17-2005, 12:22 PM
F.E.A.R. review by Qoz (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/member.php?u=1152)
Edited by: Nick "bapenguin" Puleo
F.E.A.R. is influenced in many ways by Max Payne and also the horror imagery from "The Ring" (particular the US version). For the past year I have been waiting to play a good shooter. I thought perhaps HL2 would become the ultimate FPS but it left me unsatisfied. I want a shooter where you stir things up with big explosions, a shooter that has some movie-atmosphere, and shooter with game play rewarding actual skill.
F.E.A.R is just what I needed.
Graphics
The graphics fit the game perfectly. I don't think screenshots do the engine justice, as there is so much detail around. The shadows are great and are used heavily throughout the game. I was a little disappointed that you couldn't shoot some lights completely out. They just flicker and move around. This would have been an interesting gameplay feature if used alongside night vision goggles combined with the melee combat moves. The water is beautiful and reflections move realistically if you drop something into it.
Physics are applied to almost any object although some barrels seemed to not move at all. Blocking tree-planks are smash able just like in HL2, but some aren't. This is a bit confusing sometimes (because it's inconsistent). It was far worse in Max Payne2, but hey.. that’s a long time ago.
Textures are heavily influenced by the art style from Max Payne ("photorealistic") and almost all of the F.E.A.R. location-themes have been seen before in Max Payne. We have hospital rooms, an old-worn-out-building (paint peeling and all), office rooms, an underground parking lot etc. The game could easily be Max Payne 3 if you replaced the horror with a cop-out-for-revenge story. This is not a bad thing for me, as Max Payne did some fantastic work graphics-wise.
There is rag-doll physics applied to the characters. Sometimes an enemy or object is jittering/vibrating on the floor because of this, but that’s rare and it's cool to see phones dangling by the string after an explosion.
You will experience jaw dropping moments - mostly due to the grenades blowing everything around so realistically. Every room has basic furniture like most previous shooters (statues, lights dangling, phones, books, chairs and tables), but when a firefight begins and/or a grenade is detonated everything just changes. All objects are scattered around realistically. It's important to mention, that the objects behave as they should when manipulated. You won't see a chair flying around like it has no mass (as in the silly game "Devastation").
Physics are not used to solve puzzles (like HL2) and thats a relief for me. I personally thought the physics puzzles in HL2 were boring - created only to show of the system.
System Demands
The game is a system hog. My settings were at Medium for System and High for graphics. I have an AMD64 3500+, a Geforce 6800GT.
Loading is not a problem. When you die you are almost instantly back in action at a previous auto-save point.
I did have some trouble with hic-ups or small "lag-spikes" just before something was about to happen. It seems the system need to fetch textures and other data and it lags the system. Sometimes this happens during a firefight and is really annoying (didn't happen alot though). A few times I died before I even had time to react, because of all the things going on. It happens especially when scripted events are happening or are about to happen. It seems the AI (and/or model rendering?) is pretty CPU intensive, as the framerate slow down quite a bit when enemies are alive, but speeds up when they are dead.
Perhaps they needed a bit more engine polish/optimization regarding on-the-fly loading at certain scripted events.
Combat
The gameplay is in the combat.
You run around different locations and blow up people trying to kill you.
Games are often not fun when they present you with an objective (kill person) and very few different ways to do it. Doom3 was extremely boring to me for this very reason - you could not get much better at killing monsters except for aiming a little better. F.E.A.R. introduces a whole lot of options to optimize your killing-effectiveness.
The SlowMo ability (ala Bullettime from Max Payne) offcourse slow things down but also make you harder to hit and a bit quicker. The ability grants a huge advantage, but is to be used with caution to maximize the damage done. When the effect wears off you better have killed everyone in sight or be behind cover. The effect is explained in the cut-scenes as being "super-reflexes". You are apparently a unique person able to do these extremely fast actions. When you are not in SlowMo the enemies kill you ALOT quicker.
Other factors to decide a battle are the weapons, the architecture, and the use of different grenades.
Weapons of course provide some different tactical options (as in all shooters). Many weapons stun the opponent for some time (shotgun) and if faced with two enemies in SlowMo, an option could be to change target every other shot to keep them stunned.
Grenades have 3 types - the normal throw-and-forget type, proximity grenade and the remote controlled (think Duke Nukem3D pipe bombs that stick to everything). These are extremely fun and effective to use. They can turn the tide when faced with hard opponents. The mech robot (from the end of the F.E.A.R. demo) seem a bit unfinished combat-wise. It shoots rockets that hardly do any damage and its hard to not get hit (fires instantly at you). It's quite easy to kill it, but I just didnt feel I had the same options as when faced with human opponents. Still a fun fight though.
The levels are fantastic and provide a lot of different strategic scenarios. Anyone who played CS can testify to the fact that every room has a different tactical approach. Monolith created these levels to create interesting strategic challenges. You will be presented with a lot of different rooms, stairways and balconies that all need to be approached with care.
There is not much diversity regarding the different enemies, but I was satisfied (because the AI was so superb). Every time you get near some enemies (often 2-3) you can hear them chatter on the radio. You know when they spotted you (or your flashlight) and when they are looking for you (put out a proximity mine?) or staying put (an ambush?). They act upon where you are, what you shoot at and the surroundings - every battle is different if you approach it differently.
Sound
The audio is perfect and sucked me right in.
The horror sounds are perfect. The weapon sounds are perfect. The speech is great. The music fits the mood always and often enhances the frantic battle you are in.
Grenades explode with a huge bang. HL2, Max Payne2 and even Call Of Duty 2 have these sissy-grenades with little sound-effect and a small visual explosion (realistic perhaps? not fun). F.E.A.R. grenades have an impact, they sound great and look amazing. It's very rare that I play games where sound is perfect in every aspect and F.E.A.R. delivers.
Multiplayer
I tried some multiplayer, but its really not for me. I would imagine Counterstrike being awesome with this engine. It has a lot of different modes just like the MP Demo. Not much to say that hasn't already been covered in the demo.
Game Play
Some people on forums tend to dislike most modern FPS games because of the linear nature. They don't like how you can't run around like in GTA and do your own thing, but are limited to the path created for you. That is true for F.E.A.R. Sometimes corridors branch but they always meet up again shortly after. I don't really care about the path being linear. The core gameplay in F.E.A.R. is not walking from A to B, but the things happening on the way. Every battle is a new non-linear situation.
There are scripted events happening (horror, explosion, building collapse), but seldom during the battles. I love how they let the AI figure out what to do, instead of scripting the combat to make the experience the same every time.
For me everything works perfectly. It's not too short and it can be replayed on different difficulty levels with perhaps an alternate approach to the battles.
I like the sense of danger when the SlowMo is about to time out and things are about to get hectic.
I love the over-the-top explosions causing everything to scatter around with smoke and debris everywhere.
I love the perfect audio experience.
I love how the levels force me to rethink my strategy at almost every encounter.
Pros and Cons
- the on-the-fly loading causing lag-spikes
- some repetitive enemy models
+ everything else
Rating: 5 out of 5 EvilEyes
http://www.evilavatar.com/images/icons/e5.jpg
Edited by: Nick "bapenguin" Puleo
F.E.A.R. is influenced in many ways by Max Payne and also the horror imagery from "The Ring" (particular the US version). For the past year I have been waiting to play a good shooter. I thought perhaps HL2 would become the ultimate FPS but it left me unsatisfied. I want a shooter where you stir things up with big explosions, a shooter that has some movie-atmosphere, and shooter with game play rewarding actual skill.
F.E.A.R is just what I needed.
Graphics
The graphics fit the game perfectly. I don't think screenshots do the engine justice, as there is so much detail around. The shadows are great and are used heavily throughout the game. I was a little disappointed that you couldn't shoot some lights completely out. They just flicker and move around. This would have been an interesting gameplay feature if used alongside night vision goggles combined with the melee combat moves. The water is beautiful and reflections move realistically if you drop something into it.
Physics are applied to almost any object although some barrels seemed to not move at all. Blocking tree-planks are smash able just like in HL2, but some aren't. This is a bit confusing sometimes (because it's inconsistent). It was far worse in Max Payne2, but hey.. that’s a long time ago.
Textures are heavily influenced by the art style from Max Payne ("photorealistic") and almost all of the F.E.A.R. location-themes have been seen before in Max Payne. We have hospital rooms, an old-worn-out-building (paint peeling and all), office rooms, an underground parking lot etc. The game could easily be Max Payne 3 if you replaced the horror with a cop-out-for-revenge story. This is not a bad thing for me, as Max Payne did some fantastic work graphics-wise.
There is rag-doll physics applied to the characters. Sometimes an enemy or object is jittering/vibrating on the floor because of this, but that’s rare and it's cool to see phones dangling by the string after an explosion.
You will experience jaw dropping moments - mostly due to the grenades blowing everything around so realistically. Every room has basic furniture like most previous shooters (statues, lights dangling, phones, books, chairs and tables), but when a firefight begins and/or a grenade is detonated everything just changes. All objects are scattered around realistically. It's important to mention, that the objects behave as they should when manipulated. You won't see a chair flying around like it has no mass (as in the silly game "Devastation").
Physics are not used to solve puzzles (like HL2) and thats a relief for me. I personally thought the physics puzzles in HL2 were boring - created only to show of the system.
System Demands
The game is a system hog. My settings were at Medium for System and High for graphics. I have an AMD64 3500+, a Geforce 6800GT.
Loading is not a problem. When you die you are almost instantly back in action at a previous auto-save point.
I did have some trouble with hic-ups or small "lag-spikes" just before something was about to happen. It seems the system need to fetch textures and other data and it lags the system. Sometimes this happens during a firefight and is really annoying (didn't happen alot though). A few times I died before I even had time to react, because of all the things going on. It happens especially when scripted events are happening or are about to happen. It seems the AI (and/or model rendering?) is pretty CPU intensive, as the framerate slow down quite a bit when enemies are alive, but speeds up when they are dead.
Perhaps they needed a bit more engine polish/optimization regarding on-the-fly loading at certain scripted events.
Combat
The gameplay is in the combat.
You run around different locations and blow up people trying to kill you.
Games are often not fun when they present you with an objective (kill person) and very few different ways to do it. Doom3 was extremely boring to me for this very reason - you could not get much better at killing monsters except for aiming a little better. F.E.A.R. introduces a whole lot of options to optimize your killing-effectiveness.
The SlowMo ability (ala Bullettime from Max Payne) offcourse slow things down but also make you harder to hit and a bit quicker. The ability grants a huge advantage, but is to be used with caution to maximize the damage done. When the effect wears off you better have killed everyone in sight or be behind cover. The effect is explained in the cut-scenes as being "super-reflexes". You are apparently a unique person able to do these extremely fast actions. When you are not in SlowMo the enemies kill you ALOT quicker.
Other factors to decide a battle are the weapons, the architecture, and the use of different grenades.
Weapons of course provide some different tactical options (as in all shooters). Many weapons stun the opponent for some time (shotgun) and if faced with two enemies in SlowMo, an option could be to change target every other shot to keep them stunned.
Grenades have 3 types - the normal throw-and-forget type, proximity grenade and the remote controlled (think Duke Nukem3D pipe bombs that stick to everything). These are extremely fun and effective to use. They can turn the tide when faced with hard opponents. The mech robot (from the end of the F.E.A.R. demo) seem a bit unfinished combat-wise. It shoots rockets that hardly do any damage and its hard to not get hit (fires instantly at you). It's quite easy to kill it, but I just didnt feel I had the same options as when faced with human opponents. Still a fun fight though.
The levels are fantastic and provide a lot of different strategic scenarios. Anyone who played CS can testify to the fact that every room has a different tactical approach. Monolith created these levels to create interesting strategic challenges. You will be presented with a lot of different rooms, stairways and balconies that all need to be approached with care.
There is not much diversity regarding the different enemies, but I was satisfied (because the AI was so superb). Every time you get near some enemies (often 2-3) you can hear them chatter on the radio. You know when they spotted you (or your flashlight) and when they are looking for you (put out a proximity mine?) or staying put (an ambush?). They act upon where you are, what you shoot at and the surroundings - every battle is different if you approach it differently.
Sound
The audio is perfect and sucked me right in.
The horror sounds are perfect. The weapon sounds are perfect. The speech is great. The music fits the mood always and often enhances the frantic battle you are in.
Grenades explode with a huge bang. HL2, Max Payne2 and even Call Of Duty 2 have these sissy-grenades with little sound-effect and a small visual explosion (realistic perhaps? not fun). F.E.A.R. grenades have an impact, they sound great and look amazing. It's very rare that I play games where sound is perfect in every aspect and F.E.A.R. delivers.
Multiplayer
I tried some multiplayer, but its really not for me. I would imagine Counterstrike being awesome with this engine. It has a lot of different modes just like the MP Demo. Not much to say that hasn't already been covered in the demo.
Game Play
Some people on forums tend to dislike most modern FPS games because of the linear nature. They don't like how you can't run around like in GTA and do your own thing, but are limited to the path created for you. That is true for F.E.A.R. Sometimes corridors branch but they always meet up again shortly after. I don't really care about the path being linear. The core gameplay in F.E.A.R. is not walking from A to B, but the things happening on the way. Every battle is a new non-linear situation.
There are scripted events happening (horror, explosion, building collapse), but seldom during the battles. I love how they let the AI figure out what to do, instead of scripting the combat to make the experience the same every time.
For me everything works perfectly. It's not too short and it can be replayed on different difficulty levels with perhaps an alternate approach to the battles.
I like the sense of danger when the SlowMo is about to time out and things are about to get hectic.
I love the over-the-top explosions causing everything to scatter around with smoke and debris everywhere.
I love the perfect audio experience.
I love how the levels force me to rethink my strategy at almost every encounter.
Pros and Cons
- the on-the-fly loading causing lag-spikes
- some repetitive enemy models
+ everything else
Rating: 5 out of 5 EvilEyes
http://www.evilavatar.com/images/icons/e5.jpg