F.E.A.R. Wow what a great game.

[Exposed]

FEAR will always be a good game but these flaws will always be glaring:

- FEAR couldnt decide if it was COD or Silent Hill
- All the horror sections were straight ripoffs from The Ring/ The Grudge.
- Completely unrealistic corporate floor layouts and deli shop gates.

[Eisberg]

Originally Posted by Exposed

FEAR will always be a good game but these flaws will always be glaring:

- FEAR couldnt decide if it was COD or Silent Hill
- All the horror sections were straight ripoffs from The Ring/ The Grudge.
- Completely unrealistic corporate floor layouts and deli shop gates.

Wasn't all the map layouts built around on making things easier for the AI, basically force the AI to make certain decisions, a part of the smoke and mirrors of making the AI look smarter than what they really were?

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by Exposed

FEAR will always be a good game but these flaws will always be glaring:

- FEAR couldnt decide if it was COD or Silent Hill
- All the horror sections were straight ripoffs from The Ring/ The Grudge.
- Completely unrealistic corporate floor layouts and deli shop gates.

The original F.E.A.R. is to this day the most complete, balanced FPS ever. Later releases (including expansions) only took steps backward. No one talks about the later releases when they bring up F.E.A.R. because it was an impossible task to create a better game.

[Nunz]

no one talks about the later releases because they all sucked. has nothing to do with how good FEAR 1 was, just that the expansions and sequels were just straight up mediocre/shitty games.

[theshadowcult]

well... kind of... the very first expansion was actually really goode. The only down side it had was it destroyed the only characters you liked from the base game... i think in like, the very second map or something, they just killed them all. Excepting that one part, there were lots of parts in the expansion that were even better than the base game. Especially the messing with the environments parts. Amazing **** that we take for granted now, but was unheard of at the time.

Fear 2 was great too, its biggest problems were the graphics were a downgrade from the first game. Everything else fear related though has been ****.

[Nagorak]

Honestly, I hated the first FEAR too. It's strange because a lot of people apparently liked it, but it did nothing for me.

I've sometimes thought I should go back and replay it and see if I felt the same way now, but I probably never will since I have a backlog of games I haven't even played once.

[RedBarchetta]

Replaying this series again and it still kicks ass

[acroig]

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

Replaying this series again and it still kicks ass

Always, some of the best game AI seen.

[Lazy8s]

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

Replaying this series again and it still kicks ass

+1

Originally Posted by acroig

Always, some of the best game AI seen.

+2

[Crawdaddy79]

Replayed this in the middle of 2020. It aged very well.

[nutcrackr]

I think the key to why the Ai is so good is because they're vocal about what they see and do. They navigate spaces pretty well and move to cover/hide. I wish more games would try to emulate fear's AI.

[acroig]

Originally Posted by nutcrackr

I think the key to why the Ai is so good is because they're vocal about what they see and do. They navigate spaces pretty well and move to cover/hide. I wish more games would try to emulate fear's AI.

Seconded.

[Lazy8s]

I almost beat up a little girl over this game.

My daughters friend was over, and I was in the man cave playing with all the lights off. Daughters friend’s appearance - 5 years old, pale skin, black hair.

I never heard her come upstairs, or come up behind me - I just saw and felt the little white hand on my shoulder. Keyboard flew, I think I screamed, she screamed

She was coming to get “uncle Phil” because dinner was ready

I love this game

[SubCog]

by half way through the game, I was absolutely loving FEAR. The tactical stuff took some time to get used to, and the game started off a bit slow, but once it gets up and running (or the player gets up and running), it's pretty amazing.

I thought the sequels had significantly better graphics than the first, but I just couldn't quite get into them. They felt a little bit too Call-of-Duty to me.

[KAC]

Only first FEAR was good.

[theshadowcult]

Originally Posted by SubCog

by half way through the game, I was absolutely loving FEAR. The tactical stuff took some time to get used to, and the game started off a bit slow, but once it gets up and running (or the player gets up and running), it's pretty amazing.

I thought the sequels had significantly better graphics than the first, but I just couldn't quite get into them. They felt a little bit too Call-of-Duty to me.

I never played the 3rd game. However graphics wise, 2 was a bit of a step back. Higher fidelity for sure, and nice really nice assets, but they hampened the lighting and shadows to make it work for console. Was pretty disappointing i thought

[JohnnyFlash]

First game I thought of when alienware announced the 34" OLED.

[SubCog]

Originally Posted by theshadowcult

I never played the 3rd game. However graphics wise, 2 was a bit of a step back. Higher fidelity for sure, and nice really nice assets, but they hampened the lighting and shadows to make it work for console. Was pretty disappointing i thought

hmm... I kindof get what you're saying. FEAR 2 definitely had a softer, more subtle look to it, which I tend to see as more "advanced". Definitely more polygons, etc. FEAR 1 had this very harsh, chunky, in-your-face kind of graphics. It's more striking, but I do think it's technically inferior.

Also, I think they dramatically optimized the engine for FEAR 2. Smooth as butter, whereas FEAR 1 had very poor and unstable performance.

[demo]

Originally Posted by KAC

Only first FEAR was good.

Yeh I thought so too.

[Thr0tt]

Same, first was best then it went downhill hard and fast (Went from unique to generic and bad in that order). Shame it hasn't been remade in the U5 engine yet as it would look amazing.

[Jaillum Malord]

F.E.A.R. remake while keeping the core gameplay elements plus RT shadows, RT ambient occlusion and RT GI would be like using silk toilet paper....i love it.

[Crawdaddy79]

Wouldn't that just smear everything?

[Trunks0]

Originally Posted by Crawdaddy79

Wouldn't that just smear everything?

It's a saying

[Meteor_of_War]

Been a very long time since I played any of the F.E.A.R. games, but have very found memories of them. Especially the first. Might reinstall the first one and give it a quick run through.

[RedBarchetta]

When one of the mercenaries called me a pussy I knew this game was for the ages

[acroig]

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

When one of the mercenaries called me a pussy I knew this game was for the ages

[SubCog]

Graphics comparison between the 3 games. FEAR 2 & 3 are lightyears beyond the first one, in terms of tech. FEAR 1 has the geometry of a Quake2-era game, with some Doom3-style lighting. It looks cool, and the art direction works, but it's clearly an older game.

FEAR 2 has that smeared color-grading that was popular at it's time. kindof gross by today's standards. FEAR 3 fixes that, to some degree.

[theshadowcult]

Not really sure what video you are watching there, but aside from slightly better textures in SOME areas, and obviously higher poly count models. Fear 1 still looked the best of the 3 there to me. In fact, the blurring and smudging in the second game made the whole thing look awful.

Was some of fear 1 outdated? Yes. Things like shadow casting distances, and props certainly got better as the years went on, but they got better by default, not because fear 2 or 3 actually made leaps and bounds in graphics.

[twonha]

Geez. What's most painfully noticeable about the comparison, is how the user interface is butchered to be console friendly. Huge fonts, notifications, heads-up markers for power-ups, icons for taking cover... FEAR 1 is obviously designed for PC with a clean, almost minimal interface, allowing the player to focus on the game itself. I never got into the sequels, and judging from reviews at the time and little fragments like the video, there wasn't much to miss out on.

FEAR was all about the combat encounters in my opinion: using the AI, the smoke effects, the slow motion and explosions to make the player look cool. The scares and story certainly took a back seat to that, and the level design was outright previous gen compared to precursors Half-Life 2, DOOM 3 and Far Cry. So it was simultaneously very pretty, and very ugly, but it played oh so well and that's really what carries the game, and perhaps even the franchise.

[theshadowcult]

Originally Posted by twonha

Geez. What's most painfully noticeable about the comparison, is how the user interface is butchered to be console friendly. Huge fonts, notifications, heads-up markers for power-ups, icons for taking cover... FEAR 1 is obviously designed for PC with a clean, almost minimal interface, allowing the player to focus on the game itself. I never got into the sequels, and judging from reviews at the time and little fragments like the video, there wasn't much to miss out on.

FEAR was all about the combat encounters in my opinion: using the AI, the smoke effects, the slow motion and explosions to make the player look cool. The scares and story certainly took a back seat to that, and the level design was outright previous gen compared to precursors Half-Life 2, DOOM 3 and Far Cry. So it was simultaneously very pretty, and very ugly, but it played oh so well and that's really what carries the game, and perhaps even the franchise.

FEAR 2 was actually pretty goode. it had contrasting reviews on the story, but i actually enjoyed it. The campaign was decent too. FEAR 1 was still the best (and its first expansion was pretty goode too), but FEAR 2 definitely had its moments in the spotlight.