All I can say is “wow”.
FEAR is Monolith’s new FPS on the block. Monolith being the development house that brought us classics such as SHOGO and “No One Lives Forever”.
First off – the game engine. Monolith’s new engine is very impressive, seemingly merging the detailed characters from Doom 3, and mixing them with the visual effects of Half-Life 2. The game, thus far, has featured many cramped spaces “a la Doom 3”, though these levels failed to approach the amount of details found in the environments of Doom 3 or even HL2. That said, the graphics are sharp.
Now the gameplay, is scary, though its approach to how precisely to scare you is very mixed (for better or worse). At first, its all about random, scary, events (lights going out, flaps shutting). Then its about this freaky-ass girl that fades out of nowhere to provide scary taunts. And then, its these soldiers bursting out of corners when you least expect it. The final effect is one scary game, though the inconsistency might ilk some.
Lastly, I find that some game elements lack polish. The cinematics appear very bland. You can see your feet in this game, though they really do little to increase the realistic nature of the game – when you turn around, your legs stay straight as your body turns, seemingly making you appear floating about.
This game has potential. It’ll be interesting to see how it all ultimately pans out.