I agree with the review, FEAR is one rockin' game :D

I totally agree with Speed. I'm running things at 1024*768, geforce 4 ti4600 and a P4 2,4 Ghz, and I still get decent framerates. Off course I don't expect the visual quality to be that of a high-end system. I'm just very satisfied to be able to play it, and while I may not have all the eye candy, I'm shitting my pants too :D

I didn't lie when I said FEAR was the most demanding game ever to grace a PC, at least on max settings. Just turn on Soft Shadowing and watch your framerates tumble to the ground (as in: cut in half). On the other hand, Soft Shadows don't give the graphics the big "oomph" like they did with Chronicles of Riddick. I turned them off, since the FPS-hit is too big for a minor graphical increase.

Well, it's running pretty well in 800x600 and medium details on my 2.6 Ghz, 512 Ram with Radeon 9600 Pro. Even then quite a neat looking game.

The gameplay itself is somewhat less imo, the scary part is as 'terrifying' as spotting the G-man during Half-Life 1 (just replace G with Alma), there is a certain tension for sure but it's never more than that since 99% of the time she doesn't hurt you or gives you the impression that she wants to. Best AI ever idd, but so little variation in environments and an endpart that really blowed in terms of challenge.

A good thing that the end of the story is pretty open-ended.

HL1 is an all-time classic (Opposing Force is even better though, imho), no doubt about that, but it sure as hell didn't have such a gripping storyline as FEAR.

Maybe I'm a wuss, but it really scared the shit out of me sometimes. Seeing The Ring the week before, probably didn't help either ;)

And the lack of variation in the environments didn't bother me at all. And about the endpart: I thought it was a welcome change to play a game that didn't end with the oblique bossfight. Besides, the game provides enough challenge in all that comes before it.

I honestly enjoyed FEAR. It was my pleasure to award it a 92.5% (a mark it definitely deserved) and I can honestly say I enjoyed FEAR a LOT more than Half-Life 2 (which in fact is a long-winded, overhyped physics demo).

Well, it's a matter of taste of course, even HL2 did it without a levelboss but it hadn't a satisfying challenge at the end either. What they throw at you at the end of FEAR is so... much more easy than the Replica squads. I love to have a climax in the story towards the end (as FEAR delivers that and HL2 really didn't) but also in terms of more show/things that happen. At least then you could have something worthy to end with (as you probably could have guessed by then that the plot wouldn't really end). I honestly thought I was playing Doom I all over again in that last half hour, not to mention who or what the fuck those things were and why they were there (they already showed up in some of the blurry scenes)? A bossfight isn't necessary but some better design is. It was as if Monolith thought; "yeah, just throw some flying zombies with no AI at all in there, maybe then the player won't notice all the same textures we used there."

I think it's great now to have a boss fight. Way too many shooters have the biggest baddest boss at the end of the game just to make it hard for you. It is interesting to see someone trying something new at least. And the ending of FEAR is great.

For the record: HL2 did have and end boss: the thing you needed to shoot orange orbs at :)

If the game has a good story the boss fight is just going through the motions. HL2 and Fear have the best stories out there (for fps). I wish their was a little more charicter developement but I think their on the right track. They just need to work on the dialouge a little. it's hard to take the game seriously at times, i don't have a problem with the language but it was a little excessive and akword at times. I'm still gonna play through it a couple more times