So I spent my 50 dollar gift card on a new video game. I wanted Gears of War, but it was out of stock, I might have bought a movie if I'd had any idea what I wanted... but I got Fear instead.

I'd review if for you guys, but I'm only half through it and haven't touched the other modes of play, so instead I'll talk it up here a bit.

Fear, for people like me who had no idea, is essentially a first person shooter horror game.  You run around and shoot shit, you've got a small arsenal, body meter, health meter and an 'adrenalin' meter that gives you a vague 'bullet timey' effect. Vague, as in you aren't jumping around and dodging shit, but everything (including you) moves like its swimming in molassess.  You pop out in a hail of gunfire and you gonna die, bullet time or not, it just makes hitting moving targets easier really.

Game play is, therefore, somewhat ordinary. Guns are pretty simple, nothing fancy. You can dual wield pistols and one of the two types of SMG's out there, you can only carry three 'guns' at a time (dual weilding counts as one), but unlike halo you can still toss off a grenade.  Aiming is reasonably self targeting, which is nice, because the bad guys don't stand still for you.  

In fact the game is fairly challenging even on the second easiest setting. There are typically two or three routes between you and the other guy, and I've been blindsided pretty often. reinforcements are common, meaning just because you see three badguys (which is, I should point out, a tough fight) doesn't mean you are gonna fight three... it could be nine.  They are smart, fast, and hide a lot.  Depending on what you are using they can usually take a few hits too, your health, not surprsingly, drops like a stone. Oh, and they throw grenades too.

Overall, I'd say it's a pretty decent shooter if you like fairly realistic guns (pistol, SMG, shotgun and assault rifle for the most part. I found a High velocity gun recently, but it just shoots bigger more powerful bullets, more like a sniper rifle without the cool scope option...)...

None of which is really a strong selling point, certainly not enough to get hyped up on over the net, right?

What is then?

The game is Scary. Creepy, motherfuckers, bad ass scary.  You spend a long time running around in dark cramped places alone, wondering if you are gonna get jumped, you can hear occasional crackles of staticy communications that tell you the enemy is close before you see them, or footsteps creaking... you kick buckets and rustle over trash bags... and that's just atmosphere...

See, the plot involves some sort of cannabalistic dude who controls an army of clone soldiers. Sound silly, but the presentation isn't bad. What is bad is the fact that this fucker talks to you, usually cryptically, you see shadowy figures walking away from you, gone when you catch them, your team mates die horrifically the first time you leave them to open a gate and you see flashes of... stuff.  I played for about four hours and is still jumped every time another weird thing happened.  never mind the psychic little girl that seems to be out for blood. If anything, it was a flaw in the game play the first time you confront her. You can die, horribly. Which means you reset to the last checkpoint and do it again. I don't know if you have to die the first time, or if I just magically did somethign wrong once, and right the second time and got blasted through a wall instead of burned to death... but dying that first time made every possible chance she'd show up again genuinely fear inducing.  She is bad news with a fucking BAD... and the game masterfully drives it home.  

I played it with the lights on and someone chatting to their Wow buddies three feet from my ear and I still was creeped out playing.


There is a downside, the rendering is seriously sub-par. I mean, dead bodies hanging in space I can forgive in WoW, with it's multiplayerness, less forgivable in a next generation gaming platform product that has proven capable of much better.  The enviornment sustains damage from gunfire, but 99% of it is repetatively cosmetic, the CGI models for characters tend to be plastic looking.  So, visually it suffers a bit. Red Faction was better, and that's going back a lifetime ago in gaming terms.  

So: gameplay, good, even great at times if you like this style of play.

Atmosphere: Awesome, the game lives up to its name

Visuals: Sub par, its not even stylisitically bad, just 'unfinished' when they aren't scaring the crap out of you.

I have the PC version. "Optimal" system requirements are insane, though I can run it in lo-res. Still, a very good game.

FRankly, just going on what I've read, vs. my actual play of Gears, you're better off with FEAR.  

FEAR seems a pretty straight forward shooter, but with scary bits added, and to be honest it wasn't one I was chomping at the bit to try or anything, but I'd give it a go if I had the chance, based on comments like yours and others.

Quote from: J ArcaneFRankly, just going on what I've read, vs. my actual play of Gears, you're better off with FEAR.  

FEAR seems a pretty straight forward shooter, but with scary bits added, and to be honest it wasn't one I was chomping at the bit to try or anything, but I'd give it a go if I had the chance, based on comments like yours and others.

Really? What has your actual play of Gears suggested to you?  Now you got me curious  

Quote from: SpikeReally? What has your actual play of Gears suggested to you?  Now you got me curious  

It's unspeakably repetitive, the controls and gameplay mechanics are awkward and annoying, the art style is awful, with characters that would look exaggerated standing next to WH40k Space Marines, and the lauded graphics are in large part parlor tricks and not all that impressive in person, especially on an SDTV.

Biggest disappointment of the year for me frankly.  I'd been looking forward to it just because of the Epic name, but what I got was a big let down compared to the brilliance of the Unreal series.

I'm with J: Gears just wasn't that impressive.  The designs were beyond overdone and the gameplay (except for a couple of standout moments) reminded a little too much of "HALO-killer" Killswitch.

I think the most fun my friends and I had with Gears was when we sat around and traded UT quotes.

Ugh. Sounds unappealing (except for the part of the exaggerated character models... but I'm stupid for anything that compares to Space Marines )

I haven't gotten back to Fear yet, my 360 seems to hate disks, I always get 'dirty' messages when I play the second time. :confused:

I rented Gears over the weekend I got my Box but I really thought it was briliant with fantastic graohics and a good push on varying the gameplay whilst the demo of FEAR I played was very much same old same old.

Quote from: Garry GI rented Gears over the weekend I got my Box but I really thought it was briliant with fantastic graohics and a good push on varying the gameplay whilst the demo of FEAR I played was very much same old same old.

I don't know what was in the demo, Garry. If it was just shooting stuff up, i can understand, as the real selling point isn't the game play per se, it's the masterful way the game creeps up your spine and sinks ice cold fingers into your skull to yank your brain out and show it to you...

A demo, I suspect, doesn't really capture the ratcheting tension or the masterfully timed moments of sheer panic that have nothing to do with badguys shooting at you...

FEAR had some very solid bits to it. I really did have a problem with the levels. They're all bland and basic (I think "unfinished" is right. I'd add "uninspired").

But the ghost-bits are scary and the game's pacing and tempo is good. The badguys are moderately well organized. If only they had some more interesting and prettier levels!

-Marco

I've completed both FEAR and Gears of War The former was good creepy fun (actually made me jump a few times) and a solid FPS to boot. Not exactly innovative, but a good solid game I'd not hesitate to recommend. Gears was on an entirely different level: innovative gameplay, stunning graphics and set-pieces, and infuriating AI (both in terms of enemy strategy and colleague stupidity). And, of course, pathetically, horribly, desperately short. WTF? That's the end? BOLLOX! I think I was only disappointed by Gears three times: in that damned vehicle bit with the light cannon (in casual, just drive); in the (literally) railroaded mines; and by the shortness of the game. Playing back through it again on Hardcore was really really good fun - the most fun I've had with console gaming since Halo, really.

And on that note...me mate across the road has loaned me Lost Planet. BYEEEEE!!!

- Q

I have a problem with my 360 spitting out games after I've run them once. It's sort of weird that way so I haven't gotten back into Fear as much as I would have liked.

I was, however, playing Bulletwitch, and I can tell you the game is somewhat enjoyable ass.  For a third person shooter it's incredibly clunky at times. You have to pull the fuken trigger twice to shoot a motherfucker, never mind if you get hit you essentially stop what you are doing completely.  I won't even get into the hell that is the save points...