In the demo you're sent to a abandoned water treatment plant whilst tracking suspect Paxton Fettel. It's not long before you encounter enemies and the over-the-top action begins. You will have an advantage against your opponents thanks to a Matrix-style Bullet-time which you can use by pressing the Left Bumper. This makes it much easier to take out enemies but you only have the ability for a limited time.
There are 8 different weapons in the demo: a Pistol, a Machine Gun, an Assault Rifle, a Nail Gun, a Shotgun, a Particle Rifle, Frag Grenades and Proximity Grenades. You can cycle through your rifles using the Right Bumper (you fire them with the Right-Trigger) and cycle through grenades using Up on the D-Pad (you throw them with the Left-Trigger). You can also use various melee attacks; you can hit enemies with your weapons (by pressing B) or use a leaping kick attack (by pressing A then B). The result is a combination of shooting and hand to hand combat that is just thrilling.
The Nail Gun was quite an amusing weapon as it disabled enemies by 'pegging' them to the wall. The Particle Rifle also has some entertaining effects as it would fire acidic plasma, roasting enemies and leaving a chargrilled skeleton. The ability to peak around corners is included in the port (Using either left of right on the D-Pad), allowing you check what's around the corner or to make sure you're always behind cover when attacking enemies.
On a normal TV, the graphics occasionally looked better than the PC Version and I didn't notice any lack of graphical polish. The enhanced lighting effects really made a difference to the atmosphere of the gameplay, and it often felt quite spooky. The framerate was quite smooth, but there were times when it disrupted the gameplay (I'm sure it will be sorted out in the finished product).
After getting a taste of things to come, I'm really quite excited about F.E.A.R on the Xbox 360. I haven't been able to play F.E.A.R on the PC since my PC couldn't handle the 'demanding' graphics, so F.E.A.R going to be quite a new experience for me.
I downloaded the Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Commented Demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace, and I was very impressed. The graphics and physics were absolutely amazing, I can't wait to see more of it later this year.
