old but gold

This might be the best game ever, not sure

if you can get it to run properly

I was born the year this game came out, and usually older titles don't hold my attention as they are outdated or clunky. F.E.A.R, however is very clearly high quality compared to countless new releases. Namely, the enemy AI. I love the way enemies ambush, corner and rush you. Their voicelines are immersive and give you an idea of their actions before they perform them. If a bot yells "Suppressing fire!" it will then start shooting at your general area, you know not to peek. If I corner an enemy, and they're trying to escape, they'll shout "Where do I go?!" The enemy soldiers feel so lifelike compared to most shooters, which makes every combat encounter exciting. And that's quite important when 80% of your game is shooting bad guys.

Apart from the firefights, the horror and story elements are pretty well done too. The ending climax was very good. My only gripe is that the voice acting isn't fantastic, and some side characters seem to exist for no reason, with zero development or focus throughout the game.

Environments are super detailed and cleverly designed. Gunfights feel very natural, opposite to a CoD shooting gallery. There were a couple of times where I got a little stuck, but I never spent more than a couple minutes searching before finding the way forward.

Weapons are fun, and each feel unique. I only wish the scoped rifle spawned more often, it was the coolest gun by far.

The biggest issue is that the game's stability has held up badly and I got some bad lag on my first launch. However there is a very simple file fix that you can download. Either way, it's still a detriment as that shouldn't be part of the out-of-box experience.

Overall an 8/10 game even being 20 years old. Recommend for anyone into shooters, and moreso if you prefer singleplayer titles.