F.E.A.R. (computer game)

F.E.A.R. redirects here. For other uses see Fear (disambiguation).

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is a horror themed first-person shooter computer game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi Universal. It was released on October 18, 2005 for Windows after distribution of both single player and multiplayer demos. An Xbox 360 port is currently in development, alongside the expansion F.E.A.R. Extraction Point by Timegate Studios. Also, an unnamed sequel has been announced by Monolith Productions, the creators of the original.

The game's story details the events following a paranormal crisis that the Special Forces team F.E.A.R. is called to contain. The player takes on the role of the F.E.A.R. Point Man, gifted with lightning fast reflexes, as he fights against an army of clone soldiers and their rebellious leader, uncovering at the same time the secrets of the paranormal menace which has the form of a mysterious little girl.

A special "Director's Edition" DVD was also published, enriched by the inclusion of a "making of" documentary, a director's commentary, a short live-action prequel and related Dark Horse comic book, and the exclusive first episode of the promotional P.A.N.I.C.S. machinima.

Gameplay

Like the vast majority of modern FPS games, F.E.A.R. features both a singleplayer mode and a multiplayer mode for LAN or online play. In singleplayer mode, the player takes control of the F.E.A.R. team's newest recruit and leads him through the game's story. Gameplay depends on level exploration and the firefights against the enemy computer-controlled soldiers. The levels themselves are indoor environments that are quite linear in structure, there's rarely more than a single route to reach a specific location and there is only one way to complete each level.

Multiplayer in F.E.A.R. relies on the usual gameplay modes popularized by previous titles, such as Deathmatch, Team deathmatch, Capture the flag and Last man standing."F.E.A.R. - First Encounter Assault Recon" game manual (2005) Additionally, with the 1.05 upgrade, the Control and Capture All gametypes are introduced, featuring rules similar to the Domination gametype previously seen in Unreal Tournament. However, the most innovative element introduced by F.E.A.R. is the usage of the "SlowMo" effect (See Features for more info) in multiplayer; as a result game modes with the bullet time-like effect appear alongside the usual modes: SlowMo Deathmatch, SlowMo Team deathmatch and SlowMo Capture the flag. Unlike the singleplayer mode, where players can activate the SlowMo feature whenever they want, in multiplayer a power-up must be collected to enable the special feature. Since there is only one such power-up on each level, acquiring it gives a player, or their team, a serious advantage over the opponents. To compensate for this, on most servers the position of the SlowMo power-up (whether it is held by a player or not) is visible to all players at all times.

Story

Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) is a hi-tech weapons company with billions of dollars worth of contracts for the US government. Currently a serious crisis is taking place inside one of the facilities owned by ATC: a battalion of clone supersoldiers, under the telepathic control of a man named Paxton Fettel, has taken control of the structure, killing anyone who was there.

After a phone call between ATC president Genevieve Aristide and a mysterious senator, agents from the secret special operation team F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) are called in action to contain the crisis. Commissioner Betters briefs his team, composed by the new Point man (the main character) and veterans Jankowski and Jin Sun-Kwon, about the mission objective: eliminate Fettel, thus severing the mind link between him and the soldiers, who should shut down once they no longer have an objective.

Fettel is located by means of a satellite tracking device implanted in his head and F.E.A.R. rushes to intercept him, but the agents fail to catch the villain, rather remaining caught in the chaos of the crisis, as several civilians and ATC employees are found dead and units from Delta Force are killed by unexplained paranormal phenomena. To make matters worse, Jankowski disappears and the Point Man is constantly plagued by sudden hallucinations. Nonetheless, he is still able to follow Fettel to the Armacham HQ where, in order to save hostages Aldus Bishop and Alice Wade, he is forced to deal both with the replica soldiers and ATC security, who, in their haste to cover up the corporation's secrets, are more than willing to fire upon anyone. However, some of these secrets are uncovered and the F.E.A.R. team learns terrible details about the crisis: Fettel is the second prototype of a project known as Origin, aimed at creating telepathic super-soldiers for military purposes; these individuals were to be obtained by impregnating a powerful psychic, a girl named Alma. While the first prototype was deemed a failure, the project was successful with Fettel, but the researchers had not taken into account Alma's power; the woman, in the attempt of exacting revenge for what she had been subjected to, used her psychic powers to take control of Fettel and turn him against ATC. Armacham decided to solve the problem by removing life support to Alma's cryo-chamber in the Origin facility; she was believed to be dead and Fettel under control, until ATC president Aristide re-opened the structure, triggering the new crisis.

The F.E.A.R. Point Man heads to the Origin facility, since Fettel is likely going there himself, presumably to free his mother Alma; fighting back both the cloned soldiers and ATC alike, he finally comes face to face with the villain. The showdown takes place in form of a vision, during which the protagonist is revealed to be Origin's first prototype; in spite of the sudden revelation, he is able to shake off the hallucination and kill Fettel. The replicas stop and all seems well, until ATC researcher and Origin's mastermind Harlan Wade makes his appearance. The man was hiding in the structure too, and now he is bent on opening Alma's chamber, something the protagonist is unable to avoid, much to his dismay; shortly after, a figure of a bloody, naked and emaciated woman makes her appearance killing Harlan Wade and summoning evil spirits into reality. The main character finds himself forced to sabotage the structure's power plant in order to destroy the Origin facility; while Alma's apparitions (depicted as waistless ghouls) try to hinder the attempt, the sabotage is successful. Alma then brings the F.E.A.R. Point Man into one last horror scenario, which he is able to survive, finally escaping the woman. Still, the protagonist is unable to completely flee to safety when the reactor explodes. By some miracle he is still alive however, and he is then rescued by a Delta Force UH-60 Black Hawk from the rubble. As the vehicle flies over the area, Alma appears over the side of the helicopter, preparing to pull herself up into the cabin: it seems that something is still unfinished in her restless soul...

After the game's credits, a phone call between the senator and Genevieve Aristide is overheard, explaining the project is now under control, and that the first prototype (ostensibly the Point Man) is a success.

Characters and organizations

Main article: List of F.E.A.R. characters & organizations.

Throughout the game the player will come across, and eventually interact with, a number of different characters from various organizations. Some of them are allies or friendlies, like the F.E.A.R. and Delta Force team members, while others will be plainly hostile or try to sabotage the player's progress, like Fettel's soldiers and some ATC personnel. Interaction is somewhat limited; the player will find the F.E.A.R. Point Man discussing with several characters, although he never talks (though at times he can be heard breathing heavily). Also, on occasion he will be required to hand a communicator to other characters, to let them speak over the F.E.A.R. team radio. No computer controlled characters fight alongside the player, as they are conveniently separated from the protagonist through one mean or another.

Arsenal

Main article: List of F.E.A.R. weapons.

The weaponry available in the game is mostly based on real-life equivalents, though the token overpowered weapons of first person shooters, such as rocket launchers, are present as well. F.E.A.R. limits the number of firearms the player can bring along to three, in addition to the three types of different grenades available in the game; this means that the player will be forced to drop one of the weapons in his possession if he wishes to collect a new one. Also, each firearm differs from the others in terms of ammo type, accuracy, range, fire rate, damage and bulkiness; this latter characteristic has an impact on the agility of the player character, since wielding a light weapon, such as a pistol, results in better speed and smoother movements when compared to handling a cumbersome rocket launcher. All taken together, these aspects contribute to add a minor tactical detail to F.E.A.R., in that the player, before discarding or picking up a weapon, is called to consider carefully the effectiveness of a firearm in terms of its performance in the environment or situation he is about to face, availability of ammunition and impact on the Point Man's agility as well.

Features

The game is notable for its innovative features, the most prominent being reflex time (also known as "SlowMo"). This ability allows the player to slow down the game world while being able to look, aim, and react at normal speeds: this effect is used to simulate the player character's super-human reflexes, and is similar to the "bullet time" effect seen in the Max Payne series. Unlike Max Payne, F.E.A.R. utilizes a first-person perspective. Although F.E.A.R. is not the first FPS to feature a bullet-time effect (earlier examples include "adrenaline mode" in Chaser, "hero mode" in Vendetta, "Gun mode" in GUN and "spirit armor" in Geist), the title from Monolith differentiates itself through the heavily developed presentation of SloMo (including visual effects such as bullet trails and a significant interaction with the game's extensive particle effects), as well as SloMo being made a core component of F.E.A.R.'s gameplay due to the speed and skill of the computer artificial intelligence.

F.E.A.R. features a highly advertised advanced A.I., allowing computer-controlled characters a large degree of action, especially if compared with scripted routines: when playing it is not unusual to notice various opponents acting as a team, taking back routes to surprise the player, taking cover if under fire or covering the advance of their allies. F.E.A.R. opponents have a variety of moves that allow them to navigate the game environment noticably better than the average first-person shooter enemy: they can duck to travel under crawlspaces, jump through windows, vault over low objects such as railings, jump down to a lower level, and climb ladders. F.E.A.R. opponents are also noticably more mobile than average by FPS standards: they constantly strafe and dodge instead of standing still, making them more difficult to hit.

Martial arts moves have been introduced for hand-to-hand combat: in addition to the use of weapons for mêlée purposes as seen in other games like Halo, the player can use specific combinations of keys to trigger a number of different moves, including a slide-kick, a jump-kick, and a roundhouse-kick.

F.E.A.R. utilizes an immersive perspective: there are no external cutscenes other than the short introductory movie, and the entire game is experienced through the eyes of the protagonist (a technique made famous by the 1998 blockbuster Half-Life). The game further improves immersiveness by providing a fully-present body for the protagonist, which is different from the more basic representations found in most other first person shooters. Looking down, a player can see the protagonist's torso and feet; during scripted sequences, such as the protagonist's rising from a lying position or his rappeling down a length of rope, the hands and legs of the protagonist can be seen performing the relevant actions. However, it should be noted that no movement whatsoever is observable during certain actions such as using computers and opening doors.

Atmosphere

A core element of F.E.A.R. is its horror theme, which seems to have been heavily influenced by Japanese-style horror movies, just as well as computer games like Deadly Shadows, with reference to its level "The Shalebridge Cradle". This is apparent in that F.E.A.R. uses the idea of a disturbing little girl, Alma, instead of the more obvious first person perspective scare tactics used in horror-survival games such as Doom. Admittedly, this concept is relatively common in horror films. As noted, the game's story borrows extensively from two Japanese films: Akira and Ringu (or The Ring). The debt owed to The Ring is obvious throughout the entirety of the game, especially in the design of Alma herself, her menacing walking and crawling animations and the way in which her long hair constantly covers her eyes. The Akira references are most obvious at the end of the game, when both storyline and stylistic influences become apparent. In particular, the styling of Alma's cryo chamber, and the long inclinator ride down towards it are obvious borrowings. It must be noted that the ending of the game has more in common with the Anime version of Akira than the Manga version.

Interestingly, the game design has been developed to take full advantage of its underlying horror element; the entire story of F.E.A.R. takes place approximately over a single night, starting at dusk and ending the next day, hence providing a conveniently dark atmosphere, reliant entirely upon artificial lighting. This reliance is further exploited to provide a feeling of horror: as the game renders shadows in real-time, a light source that is moving, damaged, or hit will cause shadows to dance wildly over surfaces and cause disorientation, especially if the effect is sudden and presented suggestively in the game as a supernatural phenomenon. Often, this is used to keep the player wondering whether an effect was due to supernatural forces or can be explained rationally, thereby enhancing dramatic tension.

The levels of the game take place primarily indoors and even the outdoor areas are small and narrow to provide a feeling of claustrophobia. Passing through certain areas will trigger scripted hallucinatory sequences that include childish laughter, unearthly whispers, voices from nowhere, simulated projections of characters, visions of recent events, and also include full-blown virtual sequences, always of a medical facility, burning and blood-drenched. The music changes appropriately to suit the sequences as needed.

The more expressive sequences are not without prior warning. The sudden music shift and a new dream-like quality of the view are obvious signs that a sequence is occurring. Edges of objects and persons become extremely blurred, phantom light sources may appear, all existing lighting becomes abnormal, and colors become dull and washed-out. Static white noise is a common indicator. Basic surprise sequences such as sudden appearances often occur with no warning signs in order to preserve their shock value.

Engine technology

Main article: Lithtech.

F.E.A.R. is the first game to be released that was developed using the newest iteration of Monolith's Lithtech engine. Codenamed "Jupiter EX", the F.E.A.R. engine is driven by an all-new DirectX 9 renderer and has seen major advancements from its direct precursor "Jupiter". The new engine includes Havok physics that lets the game portray realistic physics. In addition to Havok's character dynamics, Jupiter EX includes the Havok "Vehicle Kit", which adds support for common vehicle behavior (although F.E.A.R. does not actually feature any vehicles, apart from a couple pre-scripted sequences in which the player has no control).

Graphically, F.E.A.R. utilizes normal mapping and parallax mapping to give textures a more rounded, realistic appearance. Volumetric lighting and lightmapping are included with the addition of a per-pixel lighting model to allow complex lighting effects to be developed. Vertex, pixel, and high-level shaders, including a host of additional special effects are also featured in Jupiter EX. The game makes heavy use of particle effects: in combat, the environment becomes saturated with dust clouds, debris, fire, and airborne blood splatter.

Director's Cut contents

Alongside the "basic" F.E.A.R. version, a "Director's Cut" edition of the game has been released with a number of extra features. The Director's edition comes on a single DVD disc, rather than the 5 CDs of the basic edition, and contains the following:

Comic book: a special F.E.A.R. comic book from Dark Horse Entertainment whose contents help clarify a number of plot elements depicted in the game. It should be noted this item was not included in the DVD edition published in some countries (e.g. Italy).

Prequel movie: a series of live action vignettes filmed as a prequel to the events in the game. The movie centers on an interview with Alma conducted by Dr. Green: the ATC scientist initially tries to develop a rapport with her interviewee, but gives up when Alma is clearly unreceptive to her questions and, in the end, she is slowly driven insane by Alma's psychic powers.

Making of F.E.A.R.: a documentary with interviews to Monolith and VU employees who talk about the development of the various elements of F.E.A.R., such as game AI, music accompaniment, quality testing and marketing. Between interviews game footage from F.E.A.R. is shown along with some scenes removed from of the game.

Developers' commentary: another documentary where F.E.A.R. developers at Monolith describe some "behind the scenes" facts about the game. Among these a planned car chase sequence that was later dropped, the presence of a second bad guy, Conrad Krieg, whose traits and jacket were later integrated into Fettel, and the game's intro music which was supposed to be simply a placeholder piece, but became official when the developers found it really suited the initial scene.

F.E.A.R. Machinima: the exclusive Episode 0 of the F.E.A.R. machinima P.A.N.I.C.S., created by "Rooster Teeth Productions", authors of the well known Halo machinima "Red vs Blue". This episode presents the members of a Special Operations team about to investigate some mysterious happenings.

Reaction

Even before hitting the shelves, F.E.A.R. generated a lot of hype in the computer gamers community, attracting much interest thanks to those details about its background story and artificial intelligence that had been unveiled. Upon its release, F.E.A.R. lived up to this reputation and was very well received by the press, with reviews generally getting high ratings (see Reviews) and praising the game's gameplay, engine technology, A.I. and sound . Also, owing to successful critical acclaim, the game was awarded several "Best Game" titles.

As with all things however, the game received a fair share of criticism. Chief among them being the Armacham HQ romp and type of horror used. So much of the game took place within Armacham headquarters that many felt it to be drawn-out, a problem compounded by the fairly-average map layout and repeated usage of the same approximate visuals room after room. Additionally, a good portion of the horror element relied heavily on graphic violence and surprise, traditionally seen as "cheap" ways to create a horror setting, as opposed to the more sophisticated methods such as well-done implementations of psychological horror. Another common source of complaint lies in the game's extremely demanding system requirements, which call for a very high-end system to adequately play the game with its features and details set to maximum .

Awards

E3 2005 Game Critics Awards: "Best Action Game" .
2006 Imagina Game Awards: Best Graphics, Best Technology .
GameSpy Game of the Year 2005 Awards: Best Story .
Winner of GameSpot's 2005 "Shooter of the Year."

Reviews

Publication	Score	Comments	Review link
GameSpy	4.5 out of 5	Editor's Choice	^*
GameSpot	9.1 out of 10	Editor's Choice	^*
PC Gamer (US) magazine	92%	Editor's Choice
PC Gamer (UK) magazine	89%	PCGamer Must Buy
Maximum PC magazine	8 out of 10		^*
Joystiq	8.5 out of 10		^*
IGN	9.2 out of 10	Editor's Choice/PC Game of the Year Nominee
Gamehelper	9.5 out of 10		^*

Sequels

Monolith announced that there will be a sequel to F.E.A.R.. This follow-up game will not be titled F.E.A.R. 2, due to Vivendi Universal Games owning the F.E.A.R. name, but will continue the storyline, keep the characters and stay in the game's existing universe. Monolith will be looking for a new publisher for the game, since they were purchased by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment in 2004 after development of F.E.A.R. was under way, after which Vivendi was dropped as a publisher.

Even though Monolith owns the rights to the game's characters, VU Games is not done with the F.E.A.R. name, as the company recently confirmed rumors of a Xbox 360 port of the original, which is to be developed by Day 1 Studios. It also announced an expansion titled F.E.A.R. Extraction Point to be released in the fall of 2006.

References to popular media

F.E.A.R. pays many homages to a number of different movies and computer games throughout the game. Various references to Office Space ^* can be found, such as the ATC logo resembling the film's "Initech" logo, Post-Its with "Chotchkie's" written on them, or "TPS REPORT" sheets on several desks. There is also a cubicle in an office, that is a direct replica of Milton's (a character from Office Space), complete with a red Swingline stapler, radio and many boxes of files. The notable science fiction movie THX 1138 is referred to by the presence of many "8311 XHT" fume hoods throughout the game's levels; also there are copies of a magazine laying around with the title "Event Horizon found" on the cover, a clear reference to the film Event Horizon. A subtle Star Wars quotation can be found in the level "First Encounter", where large crates feature black and white shipping tags with the code "IG-88", the name of a robot assassin hired to track down the Millennium Falcon.

References and similarities with several other games developed by Monolith abound in F.E.A.R.. Mobile Armor Division is the most cited, as the Armacham name and a couple of weapons come straight from this title, and Shogo's theme song and icon are found throughout the levels of F.E.A.R.. Humorous signs and the large amount of gore bring back to memory Blood, whose cover is also available as a multiplayer symbol in F.E.A.R.. No One Lives Forever's H.A.R.M. organization is referenced by the presence of "Heater And Refrigerator Maintenance" signs, and several objects, like the "Fizzy Cola" vending machines, have been seen in Criminal Origins as well. There are also minor relations to other, regular, gaming terms such as, "Number of giant rats in pump" or "Coins collected", that can be found on certain machine labels scattered throughout the game.

Trivia

It is revealed in the Special Edition DVD that during game development, the lead level designer John Mulkey reported seeing a shadow in the office's restroom mirror. A colleague investigated and would only agree that the restroom was "creepy", with one non-working light and a flickering one. Mulkey insists that he saw it and though no one seems to believe him, they don't go to that restroom much anymore.

The original E3 video, in which Alma slaughters a team of three in a corridor, was placed at the beginning of the "water purification plant" level of F.E.A.R. final build.

As very prominent product placement, the laptops in the game bear the Alienware logo and name. Additional non-ingame advertising includes the SoBe No Fear energy drink, the Masters of Horror TV series, the Sound Blaster X-Fi card, the D-Link DGL-4300 router and a F.E.A.R.-specific Alienware rebate ad.

The game contains a number of "funny" objects scattered through its levels, such as a sign that reads "Remember/It's Quantity/Quality/Safety/In that order" in the Vault facility, as well as a photocopy of somebody's buttocks.

There is an office where a radio plays a news segment about a totally chromed motorcycle entering the freeway, blinding all the drivers and causing a large accident. The radio voice signs off as "Radio Free Chronus". In the same office there is a white board with a drawing of a cowboy on a horse, with names such as "tex.abc" and "chaps.dtx" with arrows drawn, this is also seen in Shogo. Among other things, there is a sign on the whiteboard that says "Sheepskin Vent".

References

External links

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