E3 2006: 'FEAR' (Xbox 360) - Impressions

FEAR has become a popular first person shooter on the PC as of recent, thanks to its highly detailed graphics, creepy psychological thriller narrative, intelligent enemy AI, and lots of slow motion/bullet time gun wielding action. Well, everyone's PC can't run a game of this caliber, so thankfully FEAR is heading to the Xbox 360 with its same brand of fun.

I haven't ever gotten my hands on the PC version of FEAR, but I have seen it run on G4 television shows, and I can say now that FEAR on the Xbox 360 comes pretty close to recreating the graphical power of the PC. It isn't exactly the same, but it is like Half-Life 2 on the Xbox – it might not be as pretty as its PC counterpart, but it still looks good enough to make you forget that issue.

The first thing I noticed was the challenge of the game, as enemies took quite a lot to bring down and the enemies were extremely smart. Just like in real life, enemy intelligence differs from one person to the next, so some enemies would hide and shoot at me from cover, others would try to sneak around me, and some ran headfirst at me. People complain when enemy AI does that bull charge straight at someone, but when it is done in a game like this, where that makes up only a small percentage of the enemy population, it feels realistic and natural to me.

The weapons are typical for a first person shooter, because these things never really change, so you'll have the same shotguns and machine guns you've wielded one hundred times over.

The bullet time feature of FEAR was my single favorite aspect of the preview, because it is just so cool. I mean, it is cool even when you just see it in action, but when you finally get to wield it, the effect becomes even more amazing. The bullet time feature is like Master Chief's shield in Halo, as it will gradually recharge over time, so if it is a harrowing battle and you find yourself out of this juice, your best course of action is to probably get away from the situation, rest up, then charge back in. In bullet time, you move almost as fast as you do normally in the game, though you are slowed down a bit. Thankfully, the enemies are slowed down even more, and it is during this time where you can actually avoid enemy bullets (actually seeing them flying through the air I'm talking about) and pepper the enemies full of your own. I don't know what it is, but it is just extremely rewarding to go into bullet time, blast an enemy in the legs with the shotgun, and watch as they crumple over as the shotgun blast knocks the legs right out from under them.

I guess I could say I felt the gameplay was a tad on the hard side, but really, challenge shouldn't ever be a negative, unless of course it is just frustrating like Ninja Gaiden could be at certain moments. FEAR, on the other hand, just feels like an old school challenge that seems as if it will be rewarding once you finally do complete a task. I've been wanting to play FEAR on the PC for quite some time, but now I'm over that and eagerly waiting for this game to hit the Xbox 360.