An intoxicatingly visceral FPS experience, simply in a league of its own.
At some point later in the evening I sat down and started playing. Not more than 15-20 minutes into it did I get the **** scared out of me. You know what I'm talking about ... that tunnel corridor where the lights go out and you hear that little **** laugh ... a shadow scurrying across the wet concrete floor while my HUD flickers, "unknown entity".
If you've played this game you know that's an indicator in-game for anything that is of the paranormal. It's midnight where I'm at, in my own studio, alone - it's dark outside. In-game I'm trolling the basement of some light industrial facility in Auburn, Washington and I have no clue as to where I'm going. All I know is I feel like I'm there, and I'm scared. lol - mommy?
I turn off the game - head to bed and vow not to play this damned game late at night again. The next DAY I dig in and start enjoying the full-fledged FPS title. Amazing graphics, intuitive AI, demanding system requirements, not much of a story ... always chasing someone. All the good and some of the soso. But I had a great time overall.
F.E.A.R comes with tools to design your own content and levels - which I love. You can build single and multiplayer levels. Unfortunately the way Monolith released its tools made it difficult for people to get under the hood and really design solid single player levels. So most of the quality Mods out there are multi player levels.
I'm awaiting the expansion pack Extraction Point ... and will post with my thoughts on that as well. It's a different developer, so we'll see.
Let's hope they can get away from the cliche of the creepy little girl with hair in her face and focus more on the horror storytellying aspect. I love getting the **** scared out of me.