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F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is a horror-themed first-person shooter computer and video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi. It was released on October 18, 2005, for Windows,[1] and ported by Day 1 Studios to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.[2] An expansion pack for F.E.A.R. entitled F.E.A.R. Extraction Point was released by Timegate Studios on October 24, 2006,[3] and a direct sequel has been announced by Monolith Productions.[4]
The game's story revolves around a supernatural phenomenon, which F.E.A.R.—a fictional special forces team—is called to contain. The player assumes the role of F.E.A.R.'s Point Man, who possesses superhuman reflexes and combats an army of cloned soldiers, and at the same time uncovers the secrets of a paranormal menace in the form of a little girl.
F.E.A.R. was well-received by critics, scoring 89% on Game Rankings,[5] and The New York Times calling it "as thrilling and involving as Half-Life."[6] A "Director's Edition" DVD version of the game was also released. The DVD included a "making of" documentary, a director's commentary, a short live-action prequel and the exclusive first episode of the promotional P.A.N.I.C.S. machinima. A related Dark Horse comic book was also packaged with the DVD.
F.E.A.R., as a first-person shooter game, simulates combat from a first-person perspective. The protagonist's body is fully present, allowing the player to see his or her character's torso and feet while looking down. Within scripted sequences, when rising from a lying position or fast-roping from a helicopter for example, the hands and legs of the protagonist can be seen performing the relevant actions. The game's environments are largely urban-styled and indoor; this element has received criticism.[7]
A prominent gameplay element is "reflex time," which slows down the game world while allowing the player to aim and react at normal speeds. This effect is used to simulate the character's superhuman reflexes. Reflex time is represented by stylized visual effects, such as bullets in flight that cause air distortion or interact with the game's particle effects. F.E.A.R. lead designer Craig Hubbard stated that Monolith Productions' primary goal was "to make combat as intense as the tea house shootout at the beginning of John Woo's Hard-Boiled." He continued on to say that "defeat[ing] ... enemies ... with style" was crucial to this goal and that reflex time plays a large role in "mak[ing] the player feel like an action movie hero."[8]
The game contains weapons based on non-fictional firearms, such as pistols, assault rifles and submachine guns, as well as entirely fictional armaments like particle beam weapons. Each firearm differs in terms of ammunition type, accuracy, range, fire rate, damage and bulkiness. The latter characteristic affects the player's character, as more cumbersome weapons slow the player's maneuvers. Monolith Productions stated that it aimed for "a balanced arsenal where each weapon serves a specific function," rather than "just going with a bunch of real-world submachine guns and assault rifles."[9] F.E.A.R.
's heads-up display crosshair's size dynamically shows where shots will fall based on movement, aim and the weapon in use. The player may carry only three firearms at a time; thus, strategy is required when using and selecting weapons. All weapons possess mêlée attacks, and a hand-to-hand combat system allows unarmed players to attack with maneuvers including punches and kicks.
F.E.A.R.
's artificial intelligence allows computer-controlled characters a large degree of action. Enemies can duck to travel under crawlspaces, jump through windows, vault over railings, climb ladders and push over large objects to create cover. Various opponents may act as a team, taking back routes to surprise the player, using suppressive fire or taking cover if under fire. The game's artificial intelligence is often cited as being highly advanced,[10] and its efficiency helped the game win GameSpot's "2005 Best AI Award."[11]
F.E.A.R.
's multiplayer component includes mainstay gameplay modes, such as Deathmatch, Team deathmatch, Capture the flag and Last man standing.[12] "Control" and "Capture All" gametypes were later added through a patch. These new gametypes feature rules similar to Unreal Tournament
's "Domination" gametype.[13][14] Some gametypes in F.E.A.R.
's multiplayer utilize the "reflex time" effect: SlowMo Deathmatch, SlowMo Team deathmatch and SlowMo Capture the flag. In multiplayer, a power-up must be collected to enable this ability. As each map contains only one such power-up, acquiring it gives players a large advantage over their opponents.[12]
On August 17 2006, F.E.A.R.
's multiplayer component was retitled F.E.A.R. Combat and made available for free download.[15] Downloaders of F.E.A.R. Combat and owners of F.E.A.R.
's retail edition may play together online.[16]
A core element of F.E.A.R. is its horror theme, which was heavily inspired by Japanese horror.[17] The design team attempted to keep "[the] psychology of the encounter" in the player's mind at all times, in order to "get under [the player's] skin", as opposed to the "in your face 'monsters jumping out of closets' approach".[18] Lead designer Craig Hubbard stated in an interview that "horror is extremely fragile ... you can kill it by spelling things out too clearly and you can undermine it with too much ambiguity". He remarked that he attempted to strike a balance with the narrative elements of F.E.A.R., to give players "enough clues so that [they] can form [their] own theories about what's going on, but ideally [they will] be left with some uncertainty".[9] Lead level designer John Mulkey stated, "Creating expectation and then messing with that expectation is extremely important, predictability ruins a scary mood".[18]
The main source of the game's horror is Alma, a ghostly little girl. Craig Hubbard remarked that "a guy in a mask chasing co-eds with a meat cleaver can be scary, but on some level you're thinking to yourself you could probably kick his ass if you got the drop on him ... but when a spooky little girl takes out an entire Delta Force squad, how are you supposed to deal with that?"[8] While Alma has been compared to the character Samara from The Ring,[19] Craig Hubbard stated that she "was born out of a tradition of eerie, faceless female ghosts" and not "as an answer to any specific movie character".[8] Hubbard acknowledged that Alma "admittedly bears some visual resemblance to the ghosts in Dark Water or Séance", but "creepy little girls have been freaking [him] out since The Shining".[8]
F.E.A.R.
's audio was designed in the style of Japanese horror films, with the sound engineers using inexpensive equipment to create sound effects, utilizing methods including dragging metal across different surfaces and recording pump sounds.[17] Monolith Productions commented, "The sound designers had to be concerned with avoiding predictability," since "[l]isteners are smart ... they will recognize your formula quickly and then you won't be able to scare them anymore."[17] Silence was also utilized in order to "allow players to fill in the space, which lets their imagination create their own personal horror".[17]
Monolith Productions composed F.E.A.R.
's music in reaction to scenes, instead of "creating a formula that would consistently produce music throughout the game".[17] The design team called F.E.A.R.
's music structure "more cerebral and tailored to each individual event", and continued that "sometimes the music is used to ratchet up the tension to toy with players ... [it] will build to a terrifying crescendo before cutting off without a corresponding event, only to later have the silence shattered by Alma, when players least expect it."[17]
F.E.A.R.
's horror theme was praised by critics. Game Informer claimed that "... the frequent spooky head trips that Monolith has so skillfully woven together make an experience that demands to be played."[20] IGN opined that "the environment has been so well-crafted to keep you edgy and watchful ... [that] playing the game for a few hours straight can get a little draining." GameSpot reacted similarly, calling F.E.A.R.
's horror "exceedingly effective," and agreeing that it "can leave you a bit emotionally exhausted after a while."
The story of F.E.A.R. is presented in such a way that only a few minor plot elements are presented in the game's beginning, thus allowing players to experience the adventure as "the hero[es] in [their] own spine-tingling epic of action, tension and terror."[21] The manual briefly mentions the player character's recent induction as "Point man" to the F.E.A.R., a secret special operations group of the U.S. government specialized in dealing with paranormal threats. The character's extraordinarily reactive reflexes are described as well, hinting that the government is interested in his abilities.[12] When the game begins, the player witnesses a man named Paxton Fettel taking command of a battalion of telepathically controlled clone supersoldiers, seizing control of the Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) structure and killing all its occupants.[22]
Now fully in control of the Point Man, the player attends a briefing held by Commissioner Betters, in the company of his F.E.A.R. team-mates Jankowski and Jin Sun-Kwon. The team's mission consists of eliminating Fettel, operating in conjunction with Delta Force.[23]
Fettel is located by means of a satellite tracking device and hunted by F.E.A.R. and Delta Force over several locations.[24] The search for Fettel begins at a water treatment plant and later continues at Armacham headquarters. While the villain evades capture by the special forces, the player witnesses unexplained and occasionally life-threatening paranormal phenomena, including frequent hallucinations, all of which center around a little girl in a red dress named Alma. Laptops found during the course of the mission, hacked by Commissioner Betters, provide details regarding the background story. The player learns that Fettel was raised to become a telepathic military commander[25] as part of ATC project Origin. He is the son of Alma, who is described as being a powerful psychic.[26] The player also learns of the existence of another child of Alma, who was before Fettel.[27]
All clues lead F.E.A.R. to believe Fettel is under control of Alma,[28] who was buried within the Origin facility when ATC closed down the project because of the danger posed by the woman. Now the villain is searching for that same facility to free his mother.[29] The player eventually takes the Point Man to the abandoned structure, fighting back both the clone soldiers and ATC, whose security agents have received orders to cover up the whole affair.[30] When the protagonist finally comes face-to-face with Fettel, he is drawn into a hallucination where the player learns that the Point Man is Alma's first son.[31] After this hallucination, the player is able to kill Fettel. Nonetheless, Alma is freed when her storage chamber is opened by an ATC researcher, Harlan Wade, who feels guilty about the company's treatment of her;[32] eventually, it is revealed Alma shares Wade's name, implying that he might be her father or a relative.[33] The player is then called upon to sabotage the structure's reactor,[34] before the whole location explodes. In the aftermath of the detonation, a Delta Force UH-60 Black Hawk extracts the Point Man from the rubble. While the player and the survivors of the F.E.A.R team survey the results of the explosion from the helicopter, Alma makes one last appearance, preparing to pull herself up into the helicopter's cabin. The destruction of the Origin facility has not stopped her quest for revenge.[35]
After the game's credits, the player can listen to a phone call between a mysterious senator and ATC president Aristide, which offers some further explanation: The president considers the project under control and deems the first prototype (ostensibly the Point Man) a success.[36]
Main article: List of F.E.A.R. characters & organizations. During the course of the game, the player interacts with a number of different characters from various organizations. Some of them are allies, such as the F.E.A.R. and Delta Force team members, while others are hostile, such as Fettel's soldiers and some ATC personnel. The player's character never speaks, and instead participates in one-sided discussions with other characters. On occasion, the Point Man is required to hand a communicator to other characters, allowing them to speak over the F.E.A.R. team radio. No artificial intelligence–controlled characters fight alongside the player in F.E.A.R., except for during some sequences in the expansion Extraction Point.
F.E.A.R. was announced at an E3 2004 pre-show,[37] though its existence as an untitled project was revealed prior to this announcement.[37] The game's first trailer later premiered at E3 2004 and was well-received by critics.[38][39] During the E3 2004 showing, F.E.A.R.
's lead designer, Craig Hubbard, stated that the game "evolved out of a concept we started developing right after Shogo that we've been dying to work on."[39] Monolith Productions' director of technology, Kevin Stephens, later elaborated that this concept was "to make an action movie in a first-person shooter, where you really feel like an action star."[40] To this effect, the team focused on immersing the player, utilizing elements like a silent, nameless protagonist with an unknown background,[40] and allowing the player to see the protagonist's body when looking down or sideways.[41]
During 2005, F.E.A.R. made playable appearances at Consumer Electronics Show, Game Developers Conference and E3, all of which were well-received.[42][43][44] Its showing at E3 garnered it the Game Critics Award for "Best Action Game."[45] After the release of a single-player demo,[46] Vivendi allowed gaming journalists to play through the first four levels of the game, which received even more positive reaction than before.[47][48] F.E.A.R. eventually released on October 18, 2005.[1] Alongside the basic CD-ROM edition, a "Director's Cut" DVD version of F.E.A.R. was released with a number of extra features.[49] A Dark Horse Entertainment comic book and a series of live action vignettes help clarify a number of plot elements depicted in the game, while the "Making of F.E.A.R." and "Developers' commentary" documentaries offer several insights and trivia into the game's development through interviews with employees of Monolith Productions and Vivendi. Also included is the exclusive first episode of the F.E.A.R. machinima, P.A.N.I.C.S., created by "Rooster Teeth Productions."
Over the course of the "Developer's roundtable commentary," producer Chris Hewitt reveals, "We had a whole level in the game where we had this car chase sequence [...] we spent about two months on that thing...." "[B]ut the car chase sequence didn't work the way we hoped it would," adds designer Craig Hubbard, commenting on the choice to remove that level from the game.[50] Hewitt also comments that, "Actually we started off with two villains, and [Fettel] was one of them until we merged them together...." Craig Hubbard also remarks that "his jacket actually used to belong to another villain we had in the game named Conrad Krieg, whom we combined with Fettel pretty literally."[50]
Main article: Lithtech.
F.E.A.R. is the first game developed using the newest iteration of Monolith's Lithtech engine. Codenamed "Jupiter EX," the F.E.A.R. engine is driven by a DirectX 9 renderer and has seen major advancements from its direct precursor, "Jupiter." The new engine includes both Havok physics and the Havok "Vehicle Kit," which adds support for common vehicle behavior.[51] This latter feature goes mostly unused in F.E.A.R., as no vehicles appear outside of scripted sequences.
Graphically, F.E.A.R. utilizes normal mapping and parallax mapping to give textures a more realistic appearance; the latter is used to give the appearance of depth to flat bullet hole sprites on walls. Volumetric lighting and lightmapping are included with the addition of a per-pixel lighting model, allowing 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.[51]
Prior to release, F.E.A.R. generated large amounts of hype from computer game journalists.[42][52] Upon release, F.E.A.R. received critical acclaim, with Computer Gaming World calling it "one of the year's top single-player shooters"[53] and PC Gamer regarding it as "the first game to convincingly channel the kinetic exhilaration of 'John Woo violence' in the FPS format."[54]
IGN claimed that "Monolith forges new shooter territory with some truly freaky elements, challenge, fun, and beauty."[55] GameSpy praised the game's plot,[56] later awarding it their "Best Story" Game of the Year award.[57] The New York Times thought differently, stating "I was never quite clear on what was going on in the game. I knew my goal—track down a psychic, escort a corporate executive's daughter out of danger—but I didn't ever care who these people were nor did I understand their motives."[6] The game has also received criticism for its system requirements, which call for an extremely powerful PC.[7]
Maximum PC stated that "Monolith did a great job with both the in-game sounds and the soundtrack ... the spooky audio makes exploring deserted ruins creepy, and the positional sound works to great effect; sinister noises like breaking bottles and creaking metal come from your rear channels with just the right frequency to freak you out," but "after eight hours of battling the exact same opponents, in a perfectly linear environment, it’s tough to remain enthusiastic."[58] GameSpot also found the game slightly repetitive, but still called it "quite easily one of the most intense and atmospheric games that you'll play"[7] and later awarded it their "Shooter of the Year" prize.[59]
Monolith Productions has announced a sequel to F.E.A.R., which will not be titled F.E.A.R. 2 due to Vivendi's ownership of the F.E.A.R. name.[4] However, the follow-up will stay in the game's existing universe, retaining the original storyline and characters.[4] Monolith Productions will require a new publisher for the game, since they were purchased by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment in 2004 while development of F.E.A.R. was under way, after which Vivendi Universal was dropped as publisher.[4]
While Monolith Productions owns the rights to the game's characters, Vivendi Universal retains the use of the F.E.A.R. name, publishing Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 ports of the original,[2] developed by Day 1 Studios. An expansion pack titled F.E.A.R. Extraction Point was released by Timegate Studios on October 24, 2006.[3]