F.E.A.R. Preview

'What new devilry is this?'

Welcome to the preview of a game that features more blood than a B-production horror movie. I will be your guide in the next half an hour, so there are several simple rules that you must obey if you do not want this preview to turn into a bloody mess. First, there will be no questions - keep those for yourself; secondly, *I* am the only one armed here; and last, but not the least, partial nudity shall not be punished (Woohoo! -Ed). I don't know why I'm saying this, but I certainly do feel better now. So let us begin, shall we?

OK, OK, I'm convinced. I'm afraid.

This is the last time I'm taking part in an underground marathon with a huge gun on my back.

F.E.A.R. is the new shooter from Monolith, also known as the 'Guys Who Made No One Lives Forever.' Their new title puts you in the role of a member of F.E.A.R., an elite military unit. In case you're wondering, F.E.A.R. stands for First Encounter Assault and Recon, so hence the title. Anyway, it seems that a paramilitary force has infiltrated the multi-billion dollar aerospace compound and taken some hostages, so it's easy to guess what follows next - you are assigned the task of going to the 'scene of the crime', locating and eliminating the threat. According to the two most famous and widely known Murphy's laws, namely 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong' and 'If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway' - you discover that the radio communications are broken so, being cut off from the rest of the world, you must deal with the situation by yourself. To make things worse, it seems that the paramilitary force isn't the only threat that stands between you and your team's safety - does the word 'paranormal' imply anything to you?

Those who have answered 'no' will be tortured to death, while those who have answered 'yes' have probably read other F.E.A.R. previews or simply display a certain hint of intelligence. Well, here's the first rule of the Mission Went Wrong: mutilated human bodies lying in puddles of their own blood always signify the presence of an alien or paranormal entity. The other way of saying this is - boy, you're screwed. Not yet (you answer). I've got my loyal arsenal of killer heavy weaponry, so this is officially the moment when I go all crazy, take out my shotgun and start shooting around like a madman...

Well, not quite. First, you'll have to participate in a survival horror game where you will be required to think in order to stay alive. Apart from thinking, you'll also be granted some other spectacular abilities, such as the move in which you can leap into the air, jump on an enemy and take him down, or your ability to slow time, which for example makes it easier for you to dodge bullets (What? I can slow time? What the hell am I doing in the military then?! I'm taking a LONG vacation. -Ed). I guess this also slows calories as well, so any day now we should expect some medical team or other to announce the revolutionary news of finally being able to prevent obesity. Seems nutritionist gurus have never thought of sending obese people to Africa.

Anyway, you're not the only one with the bullet-time ability and some spectacular moves that are not often seen in shooters like this - the other members of your team seem to have an ace or two up their sleeve, so they can kick some serious ass too thanks to their own special abilities. Amen.

As you can see, F.E.A.R. isn't supposed to impress us with its story - after all, when you see one paramilitary force or a monster suffering from manic depression, you've seen them all. The forte of this game lies elsewhere - and that is the rather large arsenal of weapons, the need for a tactical approach, stunning visuals, some high-speed adrenaline shooting, as well as some supposedly highly intelligent monsters (I've heard they can do algebra, I swear!). Most importantly, this game will allow you to do the simplest thing imaginable - fight and shoot in an effort to unveil the mystery behind the strangely mutilated bodies. Haven't you heard curiosity killed the cat?

So, what will be at your disposal in F.E.A.R.? Seems your arsenal will be full of fancy hi-tech weapons (a fortune teller mentioned to me some missile launchers and sub-nuclear blasters), which are very effective in every possible sense of the word. This means that they are not only lethal, but you can also fire them off, then sit and enjoy the spectacular results of turning monsters into little freaky torches, running around and screaming in pain. That said, I'm going to write to Monolith straight away and demand that they include scenes like this in the game.

Do you have any idea how much this will cost me? Oh swell, my Chagall now looks like Swiss cheese!

This is by far the worst trip I've ever been on.

'Dear Monolith:'

(sometime later)

F.E.A.R. runs on a completely new engine that should provide a truly spectacular look to this title. This means we'll be able to observe all the gory and creepy scenes from this shooter/horror mix in hi-res, with incredible realism and authenticity. Just what I needed for my summer vacation! Apart from being dark and scary, F.E.A.R. will utilize all the modern tech features such as normal mapping and per-pixel shading, and it will also incorporate the famed Havok 2 physics engine that will provide - what else - a realistic physics model that should make the experience much more enjoyable.

Are you still not convinced? OK then, so how about this: you will also be a part of some frantic shotgun-riding car chases and helicopter crashes in real time. What say you? Ready to kill tons of unspeakably ugly monsters again?

On a more serious note, considering that Monolith is behind this project and having played NOLF (No One Lives Forever) and their version of Alien vs. Predator (we'll leave Shogo, TRON 2.0 and Blood out of this discussion), I am quite convinced that the storyline and the voice acting will be on a par with the frantic on-screen action. Monolith has proven that they're capable of making both lighthearted comedy shooters, and ones that are as close to the Resident Evil-like survival horror genre as FPS games get. If you take a closer look at some of the screenshots, you'll see a little girl that looks frightfully like the one from the Japanese horror classic, The Ring, one of the rare horror movies that can pride itself with a fantastically written storyline. Monolith themselves describe F.E.A.R. as a cross between The Ring and The Matrix, and bearing in mind their skill as a developer, I'm sure that the end result will be spectacular and intense in every sense of the word.