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It’s fair to say the Xbox 360 has been experiencing a bit of a purple patch lately what with the Christmas deluge delivering some serious AAA titles to the platform. It’s also fair to say some great titles have been horrifically overlooked as a result… It is in this category that F.E.A.R. resides. Ported directly from the highly regarded PC version that debuted over a year ago the Xbox 360 version of F.E.A.R. is both a highly enjoyable shooter that ticks all the necessary boxes, yet will go unnoticed to many due to other competition in this popular genre.

F.E.A.R stands for: First. Encounter. Assault. Recon an elite military unit dedicated to combating paranormal threats to national security. As the newest member of the team your character is tasked with locating and eliminating one Paxton Kettel, a powerful physic gone insane who has the ability to control a legion of soldiers through the power of his mind, and a man who also has a penchant for feasting on the faces of his fallen enemies. In addition to this we also see via the opening introductory sequence that he is a man tormented by a strange and scary young girl, all is possibly not as it seems? Similar to Monoliths own launch title Condemned the main story in F.E.A.R. unfolds with many set pieces and pure shock value moments that you’ll be kept on your toes simply because of the possibility that anything could be around the next corner.

This anticipation is well deserved as you frequently have paranormal encounters of varying degrees and all are brilliantly executed, like a plastic container being bumped off a shelf 10 feet away from you, or silhouettes appearing and then crumbling and dispersing like ashen paper. The list goes on, and some moments go as far as to bring you into another room or corridor that you can explore, almost like an interactive other worldly experience while only taking a fraction of a second in ‘real world’ time. Impressive lighting and particle effects give FEAR a shadowy and somewhat dark edge to the world that your character resides in, and nicely sets the tone for the paranormal encounters. FEAR isn’t brandished as a survival horror game, but it is genuinely frightening at times, more so that other titles claiming to achieve the same effect. You never feel secure in FEAR, and always have the sense that your next scare is just a few paces away. Rest assured that you will have a couple of pant changing moments.

As you wander through the various levels, you encounter lots of baddies hell bent on ensuring that you don’t succeed at your mission. The AI used in FEAR is nothing short of stunning. From the moment you are detected, they will use a range of tactics to eliminate you. On numerous occasions you will see them attempt to flank you, use grenades to flush you out, fire from the relative safety of an elevated position, fire from cover or even retreating upon your approach. In addition to this, you encounter different types of soldiers, and some specialty armored troops that require several shots to bring down. As a result of all this, battles can get quite intense, so you need some help when it all starts kicking off, and that takes the form of the slow motion, or slow-mo button. When this is used, the entire world your character resides in slows. This includes enemy movement, and even bullets heading your way take on a nice trail when slowed. In this mode, bullets are easy to dodge and enemy troops are easier to tag. You get about 30 seconds of slow-mo before the charge is expired, after which you are back to normal speed. Simply resting the feature allows it to recharge over time, and it proves to be invaluable in getting yourself out of the various jams that you frequently find yourself in. One criticism that can be made about combat in FEAR, which is also my own personal FPS pet peeve, is the vanishing corpse. An enemy will lie for about 30 seconds before vanishing. This is disappointing as the enemy death animations are varied, satisfying, and at times gruesome (point blank with a shotgun, enough said) that to then resort to the vanishing corpse seems lazy.

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