F.E.A.R. Single Player Demo Impressions

With my new system, I've been able to try out titles I previously could not, and one game I really wanted to try was F.E.A.R., an action/suspense FPS. It's received great reviews and critical acclaim, and after playing the demo, I'm left scratching my head wondering why.

Not that F.E.A.R.'s Single Player was overly bad, not at all, but it certainly didn't strike me as this amazing, genre re-defining shooter and I have no desire to run out and purchase the thing.

To be fair though, let's start off with what was done right: Enemy AI. This indeed was the coolest part of the demo, as the enemy soldiers I fought had some really great AI, the best AI I've see in a shooter since Halo 2. The enemy soldiers will indeed work together, unlike what Valve claims in Half-Life 2, and they'll continually move from cover to cover, advancing and falling back, flushing you with grenades, and even diving through windows to get a better vantage point or defensive position. They'll notice your Flashlight beem, call for back-up, and not charge you suicidally. Very impressive and even on the default difficulty, I found them challenging.

F.E.A.R. is powered by the Jupiter EX Engine, and visually, the game looks good, though not Doom 3 Engine or Source Engine good, and that made it all the more frustrating as I encountered a lot of framerate issues; even on the auto-detected settings. I have read that the final retail version is optimized more than the Single Player demo, but seeing as how the Demo's supposed to make me want to run out and buy the retail product, having it perform so poorly on strong hardware is not a bright selling point. I also found that weapon models looked old, and they're style, size and position, reminded me of the original Half-Life.

The game also does sport some really good physics. It uses the same physics engine as Half-Life 2, though not as refined as Valve's shooter. Objects will generally react as you'd expect them to, however I found it annoying to walk over corpses, as the bodies would often bump around slightly. Somewhat realisitic, I guess, but I honestly found that more annoying than anything.

Being a suspense game that's supposed to scare the player, it's drawn a lot of comparisons to Doom 3 (even though Doom 3 was more classic horror) in terms of it's look and lighting, and yes, the game is dark, however you have a Flashlight at any time. Now, many people praised this, complaining about Doom 3's lack of a weapon/Flashlight combo, however I'm going to slam this right now and say the simple truth: F.E.A.R.'s Flashlight is a piece of shit. Not only does it illuminate poorly, unlike Doom 3's, it's on a fucking battery that lasts around 45 seconds. Who the fuck uses a Flashlight that only lasts 45 seconds?!?!? This basically negates the bulk of its use and brings about the same problem I had in the Marine Campaign from Aliens versus Predator 2, also developed by Monolith Productions, which is I walk a bit and then stand still bored as the Flashlight recharges. Great way to kill the pacing.

I also must say the story is extremely weak, and from what I've read, a lot of stuff is not explained even by end of retail. Basically, the game starts off with a cheesy, dramatic intro where a lot of people die, and based on the tone of the music I think I was supposed to feel sad and concerened for what was going on, but instead I found it cheesy, poorly acted, and without any rhime or reason for its setup. And of course, without a good setup, the rest of the reason for the game is really shallow.

So, why exactly did the US government create a special "Ghostbuster" unit? I guess they've been having more problems with supernatural events than they care to admit. At least the few paranormal encounters that do happen in the demo are pretty cool, and a few of them did indeed make me jump.

Another gripe I had was with bullet time, or whatever they want to call it here. Basically, your character has bullet time, and yes, things slow down a lot while you use it. Now, exactly how can your character continually move and react like Neo from The Matrix, outdoing genetically enhanced supersoldiers? According to the intro, you have good reaction time. That's it. Well, I have good reaction time in real life, but I can't fucking dodge bullets, now can I? If you're going to include something as superhuman as bullet time, at least give me a plausable reason for it.

The game's audio was pretty good, nothing I found amazing but nothing to jump and shout about either (I missed Doom 3's amazing ambient sound mix though), and I imagine had I not had so many framerate issues, the game would have controlled well.

Overall, the F.E.A.R. demo wasn't bad, but it's poorly contrived plot setup, dark areas with a BS Flashlight, and poor performance hold it back as being purchase worthy. Yet another critically acclaimed title that I simply don't see what all the fuse was about, and don't understand how reviewers can praise it for doing things they slam in other titles.