When I first played the F.E.A.R. singleplayer Demo i didn't know what happened to me! The graphics, The A.I., The Game..
In my opinion one of the most important things in 3D shooters is the story of the character you play.
F.E.A.R. has a great story but also very vague if i can call it that... i bet most people won't understand the story untill they've finished the game two times or more. If i would tell you the whole story i would ruïn the game so i'm not gonna spoil the fun for the people that haven't played the game yet, i'm only telling you that you live in the story of the game and when you''ve (almost) finished the game, things get more clear. If you play the game a second time you probably understand the whole thing a bit better.
The only thing you'll have to know:
You're a member of an Elite-Team called: F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon). A guy named Paxton Fettel has escaped and is possessed by an evil spirit. Fettel is the leader of a battalion human cloons who immediately do what he tells them to. Offcourse a lot of **** is going on and you're the man (or woman?) to fix it.
First thing you'll notice in the game are the stunning graphics in F.E.A.R. . Great artwork and Texturing but also the light effects etc. . I won't have to tell you , you need a high-end computer to play the game and to enjoy everything of it.
The most important part of a game: Gameplay. Well i can tell you that F.E.A.R. has a fantastic gameplay , one i did not see too many lately.
The best thing in F.E.A.R. probably is the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) . Enemy troops crawl, jump, dodge and lean behind corners. This is nothing really new but the way it's done is amazing. What is new is the fact that troops really work together to finish you off; Enemy troops communicate together which you obviously can hear so you know what they'll plan to do or how many of their squad are still alive. Also i won't wait for them to come to you because they probably throw a grenade and you best know what's good for you.
Basically the enemies do everything you expect them to do if you were in the same situation, i can explain tons of other things but i don't think you're really waiting for all of that.
Besides the A.I. the shooting part is also very good. There are no guns that are really special just the normal kind and some new ones.
The gore in the game is also nicely done, nothing really special but because the game is rendered so well it comes out very nice.
One other thing for the gameplay part is that you feel like you control the character you play, since you never see his face you never know how you really look so it could be you! ;)
Sound couldn't really have been better. The ambient sound and the creepy ghost sounds are really amazing.
Well what i can tell you about the value of the game. Well the game is not very short for a shooter and you will play it for 10-15 hours i think. After that you probably will play it another time on a higher level. However i must admit that even on the hardest level in the game the game could be easily beaten by an average/good player.
F.E.A.R. is a great game and i really enjoyed playing it. Everything is just so good that other 3D shooters are not that special anymore. Only bad thing is that the difficulty could 've been harder.