F.E.A.R. (video game)

F.E.A.R. redirects here. For the single by British musician, Ian Brown, see F.E.A.R. (single).

F.E.A.R.
File:FEAR box art.png
Developer(s)	Monolith Productions
Publisher(s)	Vivendi Universal
Engine	Lithtech: Jupiter EX
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	October 18, 2005 (NA)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is a horror themed first-person shooter computer game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi Universal. It was released on October 18, 2005 for Windows with a single player demo released on August 5, 2005, and a multiplayer demo on September 29 of the same year.

A special "Director's Edition" DVD was also published, enriched by the inclusion of a "making of" documentary, a director's commentary, a short live-action prequel and related Dark Horse comic book, and the exclusive first episode of the promotional P.A.N.I.C.S. machinima.

Features

The game is notable for its innovative features, the first being reflex time which has been called "SlowMo". The effect is very much like the "bullet time" effect seen in the Max Payne series, with the exception that F.E.A.R. utilizes a first-person perspective, and is used to simulate the player character's super-human reflexes.

F.E.A.R. also touts an advanced artificial intelligence, allowing computer-controlled characters a large degree of action, especially if compared with scripted routines: when playing it is not unusual to notice various opponents acting as a team, taking back routes to surprise the player, taking cover if under fire or covering the advance of their allies.

Martial arts moves have been introduced for hand-to-hand combat: the player can use specific combinations of keys to obtain a number of different moves in addition to the use of weapons for mêlée purposes as seen in other games like Halo.

The game's horror element includes allusions to Japanese-style horror movies such as The Ring and computer games such as Thief: Deadly Shadows, with reference to its level "The Shalebridge Cradle". This is apparent in that F.E.A.R. uses the idea of a terrifying little girl, instead of the more obvious first person perspective scare tactics used in horror-survival games such as Doom. Admittedly, this concept is relatively common in horror films.

Gameplay

Like the vast majority of modern FPS games, F.E.A.R. features both a singleplayer mode and a multiplayer mode for LAN or online play. In singleplayer mode, the player takes control of the F.E.A.R. team's newest recruit and leads him through the game's story. Gameplay does not rely on complex puzzles often seen in Half-Life, but rather on level exploration and the firefights against the computer-controlled soldiers. The levels themselves are quite linear in structure, there's rarely more than a single route to reach a specific location and there is only one way to complete each level.

Multiplayer in F.E.A.R. relies on the usual gameplay modes popularized by previous titles, such as Deathmatch, Team deathmatch, Capture the flag and Last man standing. The most innovative element introduced by F.E.A.R. is the usage of the "SlowMo" effect, thus game modes with the bullet time-like effect appear alongside the usual modes: SlowMo Deathmatch, SlowMo Team deathmatch and SlowMo Capture the flag. Unlike the singleplayer mode where the player can activate the SlowMo feature whenever they want, in multiplayer a power-up must be collected to enable the special feature. Since there is only one such power-up on each level, acquiring it gives a player, or their team, a serious advantage over their opponents.

Atmosphere

The entire game takes place approximately over a single night, starting at dusk and ending the next day, hence providing a conveniently dark atmosphere reliant entirely upon artificial lighting. This reliance is further exploited to provide a feeling of horror: as the game renders shadows in real-time, a light source that is moving, damaged, or hit will cause shadows to dance wildly over surfaces and cause disorientation, especially if the effect is sudden and presented suggestively in the game as a supernatural phenomenon. Often, this is used to keep the player wondering whether an effect was due to supernatural forces or can be explained rationally, thereby enhancing dramatic tension.

The levels of the game take place primarily indoors and even the outdoor areas are small and narrow to provide a feeling of no escape. Passing through certain areas will trigger scripted hallucinatory sequences that include childish laughter, unearthly whispers, voices from nowhere, simulated projections of Alma and Paxton, visions of recent events, and also include full-blown virtual sequences, always of a medical facility, burning and blood-drenched. The music changes appropriately to suit the sequences as needed.

The more expressive sequences are not without prior warning. The sudden music shift and a new dream-like quality of the view are obvious signs that a sequence is occurring. Edges of objects and persons become extremely blurred, phantom light sources may appear, all existing lighting becomes abnormal, and colors become dull and washed-out. Basic surprise sequences such as sudden appearances often occur with no warning signs in order to preserve their shock value.

The game further improves immersiveness by providing a fully-present body for the protagonist, which is different from the more basic representations found in most other first person shooters. Looking down, a player can see the protagonist's torso and feet; during scripted sequences, such as the protagonist's rising from a lying position or his rappeling down a length of rope, the hands and legs of the protagonist can be seen performing the relevant actions. However, it should be noted that no movement whatsoever is observable during certain actions such as using computers and opening doors.

Story

Inside one of ATC installations, a lone man is knelt inside his cell. Suddenly he has a vision of a little girl who softly whispers to him: "Kill them... kill them all!". The man screams, the echo of his voice seemingly awakening an army of soldiers nearby. The vision of the little girl springs the cell's door open, the former prisoner taking control of the soldiers and quickly killing all ATC personnel they run into.

The F.E.A.R. team is put into action after a phone call between a mysterious senator and ATC president Genevieve Aristide. Commissioner Betters briefs the "New Guy", a new F.E.A.R. operative, and veterans Jankowski and Jin Sun-Kwon about the new threat: Paxton Fettel, a telepathic commander controlling a battalion of clone supersoldiers has escaped ATC custody. F.E.A.R.'s mission is to kill Fettel, thus severing the mind link between him and the soldiers.

The "New Guy" and Jankowski go to the abandoned Auburn district guided by a satellite tracking device implanted into Fettel's head. The villain however is able to slip past the "New Guy" and leaves behind the corpse of Charles Habegger, a former ATC employee. With help from the Delta Force, the "New Guy" and Jankowski are flown to the city's water treatment facility where Fettel and his men have been located. Once there, an unexplained paranormal phenomenon seems to kill all the Delta operatives and Jankowski disappears. Only the "New Guy" survives and he hunts down the clone soldiers rear guard until he stumbles into the dying ATC employee Bill Moody: the man warns him that Fettel would be better off not finding a mysterious person named Alma.

Meanwhile Fettel has escaped to the ATC HQ, now under his soldiers' control. The "New Guy" follows him to this location where he has to contend with both the clone soldiers and various ATC secret weapons. He is also duped twice by ATC engineer Mapes, who appears to be following his own secret agenda. Nonetheless the "New Guy" is able to rescue ATC employees Aldus Bishop and Alice Wade, the latter daughter of ATC top researcher Harlan Wade. Meanwhile, thanks to scattered evidence and Better's help, some of the details behind the mystery start to be uncovered: Fettel is looking for Alma, a person who was implicated with ATC's Origin project. To find her Fettel must find Harlan Wade who knows the location of the Origin's facility.

Clues left by Wade himself lead the "New Guy" to an underground facility at Auburn. As all details finally click into place, it turns out that Alma was Harlan Wade's daughter and that she was gifted with powerful psychic powers, that were fed by negative emotions. ATC thought they could use her to create a psychic commander for their army of cloned troopers. Alma was impregnated with the prototypes, genetically-engineered from her own DNA, and kept in an induced coma for the rest of the project, giving birth to the prototypes during artificially-stimulated labour. Alma's first son was deemed a "failure", while the second, Paxton Fettel, was raised and trained to control the soldiers. Alma, who was enrolled into the project by force, tried to get her revenge from ATC by linking her mind with Fettel's when he was ten. This triggered what researchers dubbed a "Synchronicity Event", during whose intercourse Fettel "went crazy", and killed several people. Following this incident, Origin was shut down and the facility sealed, leaving Alma behind to die. Years later, after Genevieve Aristide reopened the Origin facility, Alma was able to synchronize again with her son, leading to the present situation where Fettel is trying to reach the location of his mother to free her.

In the final showdown the "New Guy", who appears to be Alma's first son, catches up with Fettel, who triggers a series of hallucinations in the "New Guy," informing him of his past and his connection to Alma. The "New Guy" witnesses forgotten memories of his own birth and fights off Paxton's telepathic attacks, finally reaching a hallucination where he stands face to face with Paxton Fettel in the same room and posture he was in during the opening cutscene and credits. The sequence ends only when the "New Guy" kills him, thus completing his mission and stopping the clone soldiers. Harlan Wade who was hiding at the Origin facility manages to open the cryo-chamber where Alma's body was stored and is killed by Alma herself, who materializes outside the now opened chamber. To prevent Alma from leaving the facility, the "New Guy" sabotages the installation's reactor, leading to the destruction of the Origin facility along with the entire Auburn district. By a sort of miracle the "New Guy" escapes death during the explosion and is recovered by a Delta Force Black Hawk. At a couple hundred feet however, in a final scene, a bloody, naked Alma appears over the side of the helicopter, preparing to pull herself up into the cabin: it seems that something is still unfinished in her restless soul...

After the game credits, there a phone call explaining that the project is now under control, and that the first prototype is a success. Template:Endspoiler It had also been noted that several months after F.E.A.R. was realeased that Monolith would annouce more sequels for F.E.A.R being realsed althought Monolith has said the sequel will not likely contain the name of F.E.A.R. 2.

Engine technology

Main article: Lithtech.

F.E.A.R. is the first game to be released that was developed using the newest iteration of Monolith's Lithtech engine. Codenamed "Jupiter EX", the F.E.A.R. engine is driven by an all-new DirectX 9 renderer and has seen major advancements from its direct precursor "Jupiter". The new engine includes Havok physics that lets the game portray realistic physics. In addition to Havok's character dynamics, Jupiter EX includes the Havok "Vehicle Kit", which adds support for common vehicle behavior. Volumetric lighting and lightmapping are included with the addition of a per-pixel lighting model to allow complex lighting effects to be developed. Vertex, pixel, and high-level shaders, including a host of additional special effects are also featured in Jupiter EX.

Characters and organizations

Main article: List of F.E.A.R. characters & organizations.

Throughout the game the player will come across, and eventually interact with, a number of different characters from various organizations. Some of them are allies or friendlies, like the F.E.A.R. and Delta Force team members, while others will be plainly hostile or try to sabotage the player's progress, like Fettel's soldiers and some ATC personnel.

Arsenal

Main article: List of F.E.A.R. weapons.

The weaponry available in the game is mostly based on real-life equivalents, though the token overpowered weapons of first person shooters, such as rocket launchers, are present as well.

References to popular media

F.E.A.R. pays many homages to a number of different movies and computer games throughout the game. Various references to Office Space can be found, such as the ATC logo resembling the film's "Initech" logo or the presence of a sheet that says "TPS REPORT" on the desk. There is also a cube in an office, later in the game, that is a direct replica of Milton's (character from Office Space), complete with a red Swing Line stapler, radio and many boxes of files. The notable science fiction movie THX 1138 is referred to by the presence of many "8311 XHT" fume hoods throughout the game's levels, and the music heard in the elevator scene with Alice Wade seems to be the same from The Blues Brothers when the protagonists are using an elevator.

As well as this, the story of F.E.A.R. borrows extensively from two Japanese films: Akira and Ringu (or The Ring). The debt owed to The Ring is obvious throughout the entirety of the game, especially in the design of Alma herself, her menacing walking and crawling animations and the way in which her long hair constantly covers her eyes. The Akira references are most obvious at the end of the game, when both storyline and stylistic influences become apparent. In particular, the styling of Alma's cryo chamber, and the long inclinator ride down towards it are obvious borrowings. It must be noted that the ending of the game has more in common with the Anime version of Akira than the Manga version.

Some game references are from Monolith's previous game Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, like the Armacham name and a few weapons. It's even possible to listen to the Shogo theme song in one of the offices. Also, Shogo's desktop icon is seen in most of the laptops. Monolith's No One Lives Forever is also paid homage by the presence of "Heater And Refrigerator Maintenance" signs, referring to the H.A.R.M. organization from the above mentioned game. Names of F.E.A.R. characters appear in other computer games: "Leo Jankowski" is also the name of a character in Deus Ex: Invisible War, while "SFOD Coordinator A. Shepherd" might be a reference to Half-Life: Opposing Force main character Adrian Shephard. Dr. Green, a scientest interviewing Alma in the "prequel" is a possible reference to Dr. Colette Green in another Half-Life game, Half-Life: Decay

F.E.A.R. references Doom directly through it's "kfa" cheat, with its similarity to Doom's "idkfa" cheat; this could also be a small in-joke regarding Doom, like the "mpkfa" cheat found in Shogo. Finally, the vending machines displaying "Fizzy Cola" also appear in Monolith's Condemned: Criminal Origins and No One Lives Forever.

Director's Cut contents

Alongside the "basic" F.E.A.R. version, a "Director's Cut" edition of the game has been released with a number of extra features. The Director's edition comes on a single DVD disc, rather than the 5 CDs of the basic edition, and contains the following:

• Comic book: a special F.E.A.R. comic book from Dark Horse Entertainment whose contents help clarify a number of plot elements depicted in the game. It should be noted this item was not included in the DVD edition published in some countries (e.g. Italy).

• Prequel movie: a series of live action vignettes filmed as a prequel to the events in the game. The movie centers on an interview with Alma conducted by Dr. Green: the ATC scientist initially tries to develop a rapport with her interviewee, but gives up when Alma is clearly unreceptive to her questions and, in the end, she is slowly driven insane by Alma's psychic powers.

• Making of F.E.A.R.: a documentary with interviews to Monolith and VU employees who talk about the developement of the various elements of F.E.A.R., such as game AI, music accompaniment, quality testing and marketing. Between interviews game footage from F.E.A.R. is shown along with some scenes removed from of the game.

• Developers' commentary: another documentary where F.E.A.R. developers at Monolith describe some "behind the scenes" facts about the game. Among these a planned car chase sequence that was later dropped, the presence of a second bad guy, Conrad Krieg, whose traits and jacket were later integrated into Fettel, and the game's intro music which was supposed to be simply a placeholder piece, but became official when the developers found it really suited the initial scene.

• F.E.A.R. Machinima: the exlusive Episode 0 of the F.E.A.R. machinima P.A.N.I.C.S., created by "Rooster Teeth Productions", authors of the well known Halo machinima "Red vs Blue". This episode presents the members of a Special Operations team about to investigate some mysterious happenings.

Trivia

• At some point during the game's development, John Mulkey, the lead level designer, told a colleague he saw a shadow in the restroom mirror at the office. The colleague investigated and would only agree that the atmosphere was "creepy", as there was one non-working light and a flickering one. John Mulkey insists that he saw it and though no one seems to believe him, they don't go to that restroom much anymore.

• The original E3 video, in which Alma slaughters a team of three in a corridor, was placed at the beginning of the "water purification plant" level of F.E.A.R. final build.

• As very prominent product placement, some laptops in the game bear the Alienware logo and name. Additional non-ingame advertising includes the SoBe No Fear energy drink, the Masters of Horror TV series, the Sound Blaster X-Fi card, the D-Link DGL-4300 router and a F.E.A.R.-specific Alienware rebate ad.

• The game contains a number of "funny" objects scattered through its levels: in the Vault facility both a "Remember/its Quantity/Quality/Safety/In that order" sign and a photocopy of somebody's buttocks can be found.

• There is an office where a radio plays a news segment about a totally chromed motorcycle entering the freeway, blinding all the drivers and causing a large accident. The radio voice signs off as "Radio Free Chronus". In the same office there is a white board with a drawing of a cowboy on a horse, with names such as "tex.abc" and "chaps.dtx" with arrows drawn, this is also seen in Shogo. Among other things, there is a sign on the whiteboard that says "Sheepskin Vent".

Reaction

On February 2, 2006, the game won the "Best Graphics" and "Best Technology" awards at the 2006 Imagina Games Awards. [1]

On December 20, 2005, the game won "Best Story" in GameSpy's Game of the Year 2005 Awards.

Reviews

Publication	Score	Comments	Review Link
GameSpy	4.5 out of 5	Editor's Choice	[2]
Gamespot	9.1 out of 10	Editor's Choice	[3]
PC Gamer magazine	92%
Maximum PC magazine	8 out of 10		[4]
Joystiq	8.5 out of 10		[5]

External links

• Official F.E.A.R. website
• Official F.E.A.R. community website
• F.E.A.R. Wiki at FEARgame.net
• F.E.A.R. at IGN
• F.E.A.R. at MobyGames
• F.E.A.R. Tweak Guide
• F.E.A.R. fan fiction contest at The Horror Channel
• Interview with John Carpenter about F.E.A.R. at The Horror Channel