Gamer Recon: F.E.A.R.

rating-4.5fearGamer Recon is where I play a game for little while and then set my judgment upon it. Keep in mind that just because a game might be awesome or sucks in the first couple of hours doesn't mean it is awesome or sucks overall.

Game Type: First-Person Shooter
Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Vivendi Games, Day 1 Studios, Monolith Productions
Recon Time: About 2 hours

If you've played F.E.A.R. for the PC, you'd be well aware that it's the best FPS since FarCry. Then it was decided to port it over to the Xbox 360. In many cases, ports such as this lick some nasty ass. I'm please to report that that isn't the case here. To put it simply, F.E.A.R. rocks!

At no point in my first 2 hours playing this great game was I dissatisfied. The action is smooth and heavy. Everything flows nicely and the AI is actually rather devious. The weapons are great and the sounds they make cause me to be very happy. There are frantic moments, but that's a good thing. I read somewhere that changing weapons was clunky or something like that, but I found changing weapons to be a breeze.

Along with all this frenetic combat we are served an excellent story in which you play a guy uncovering a big ol' mystery. As it says in the Wikipedia entry on F.E.A.R.:

"F.E.A.R.'s story details the events following a paranormal crisis that the special forces team 'First Encounter Assault Recon' is called to contain. The player assumes the role of the First Encounter Assault Recon 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 in the form of a mysterious little girl."

That pretty much sums up the story for you. And it's done well, too. The "horror-flash" bits are a nice touch and remind me a lot of The Suffering (which is good). The voice acting is top-notch and like I said: Action. Lots of good action.

The only thing that I was a little "meh" about was the "lightning reflexes" feature. You know, ye olde bullet-time gimmick. I mean, it's executed nicely and everything, but I found little use for it.  I'm sure it becomes more valuable later in the game.

Overall, playing this game for a couple of hours was a great experience. This is probably one of the best console FPS games I've ever played, and I totally plan on playing it some more. Based on what I've seen so far, I have to heavily  recommend this game, especially for you folks out there that are looking for something to hold you over 'yill Halo 3.

And no, I haven't done multiplayer yet, but I hear it's pretty alright.

So, yeah, get this game, dammit.

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