The folks at Monolith are no strangers to first-person shooters. They have an impressive repertoire under their belt - the No One Lives Forever series, combining great art and a fresh comedic approach, Contract JACK, the acclaimed TRON 2.0 and of course the Alien vs. Predator franchise. All their games exhibit great polish and an impeccable attention to detail with an unusual twist that distinguish them from the standard genre. The first-person aspect is used to immerse the player into the world as part of a cinematic experience, intermingling scripted scenarios with cut-scenes that further the plot. F.E.A.R is no different. Armed with a next-generation game engine, a unique slow-mo system and a sinister story line aspect this game has good reason to turn down the lights and turn up the volume.

You are part of First Encounter Assault Recon, an elite S.W.A.T-like task force specializing in investigating paranormal activities. You are charged with locating a rogue military commander with telepathic abilities and an army of clone soldiers that have taken over a corporate warehouse. The action is quick to follow with a series of gunfire exchanges and some fierce outdoor battles. Here you can make use of your slow-mo ability where you can speed up your actions in a Neo-like fashion, gaining superhuman advantage over your opponents. Players of Far Cry will already be familiar with this system, although Monolith has gone a step further and integrated a truly spectacular particle system that showcases bullet trails, warping effects and a damage model that is a feast for the eyes. The first thing that popped into my head was the lobby sequence from The Matrix. Pieces of debris explode from walls, bullet trails spiral through the air and enemies are thrown back with gruesome realism.

Weapons are another aspect where this game shines. As you progress a wide variety of weapon choices are presented. I found myself switching between favorites throughout missions, depending on the available ammo dropped by enemies along the way. The player is limited to carrying three weapon choices at one time. Each weapon has it’s own advantages although they are minor when it comes to dispatching enemies with a well-placed head shot. There are also three types of grenades for sticky situations. These can be used with great effect and some spectacular firework displays. For much of the game you will be fighting soldiers in tight office environments, long corridors and building rooftops. I would suggest brushing up on SWAT clearing techniques. The crafty A.I. is smart enough to keep enemies behind cover and will even try to flank you if the level permits it. Sometimes the only way to break a stalemate is to expose yourself to a flurry of bullets. Most of the time though it’s easy to discern the enemy’s intentions by their noisy, sometimes over-the-top radio chatter. And of course using slow-mo gives you the ability to charge into a hot-zone taking down enemies before they have a change to squeeze the trigger.

The crouch, flashlight and health keys are mapped close to each other and can cause accidental triggering. I suggest remapping at least one of them. Right off the bat the lighting scheme is such that you are forced to use the flashlight which utilizes a recharging system and lasts only a few seconds, a minor inconvenience especially later in the game. There are numerous moments of pitch black where waiting for the flashlight battery to recharge gets tedious, although sometimes helps to regain composure and reload.

As part of a new breed of next-generation video games F.E.A.R has some great eye-candy. It stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the most technically advanced game engines to date including Doom3 and CryTek. All the modern bells-and-whistles are there (normal mapping, dynamic lighting, advanced particles and shaders). It goes without saying you will need a very powerful rig to run the game in all it’s glory. As of this moment F.E.A.R stands as the top resource-intensive PC game out. What I found most visually impressive was the particle system and special effects as opposed to the character models and general harsh lighting. Dynamic shadows are very sharp and contrasted and do not add much more to the gameplay as Doom 3. Still in certain situations it does look fantastic especially if your setup can keep up. I ran the game on an Athlon 3400+ and nVidia 6800 at 1024x768 and experienced no noticeable slow-downs using respectable visual settings.

Very few games manage to create an atmosphere where the player can feel completely immersed. I believe that’s what made Half-Life so successful and what many in the genre try and fail to achieve. Although not succeeding entirely in hitting the mark with story line, F.E.A.R more than makes up for it with thrilling atmosphere and ferociously intense action. Coupled with the paranormal aspect of the plot this game did a good job of elevating my blood pressure. The weapon system allows for some interesting replay values (see if you can complete the game with the pistol alone) and the A.I. is fiendishly clever. If you can afford the high system specs I wholeheartedly suggest picking this up!