Part of the soldiers’ effectiveness comes from their deadly weapons. Fortunately, to combat these minions, FEAR lets you share their arsenal. It spans a good range and include pistols (elevated by the ability to duel wield), machine guns, a shotgun, some scoped weapons, and a couple heavier options. Impressively, each instrument of destruction is effective and what three the player chooses to carry at any given time will end up being a matter of personal preference. However, some weapons are more likely to appeal to you than others. One of these is the best designed shotgun since Half-Life. Its power is evident when fired as the blast booms with bass. The force of the shot causes a bubble of distortion around the barrel and the visceral feeling is completed by chunks of debris flying out of the environment and arms flying off your enemies. Another extremely well designed weapon is the Penetrator, which is essentially a high caliber automatic rifle that sounds like a amplified nail gun and has the additional fun factor of nailing opponents to whatever they’re unfortunate enough to be standing in front of. These two are highlights of a weapon lineup that avoids any dead weight.
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| Tough men and steel boxes | Drop the kids off at the pool |
FEAR includes other violent options including three types of grenades. Continuing a recent FPS trend, it allows you to use any of them while you still have your main weapon equipped with the exception of the remote mines which (Surprise!) require the use of a remote. Another excellent feature that all modern shooters should have is melee attacks, which FEAR takes to the next level. I get frustrated in games that don’t allow me to bash my enemies in the face when clips run dry, so I was pleased that this game has more than just the butt-of-the-rifle melee option. Because your character is a highly trained military commando, it makes sense that he can throw punches, perform flying kicks, and Pelé the crap out of people with vicious slide tackles. That last move is especially effective, but it is odd that super-clone-soldiers are killed by it and not crippled or maybe just mildly annoyed. These martial arts are a useful supplement, but most players will find that they often don’t want to get close enough to use them.
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| Melee like Peleé |
Also aiding your sense of self-preservation is body armor that reduces the amount of damage you take from enemy attacks and your health regenerates up to a certain threshold (25 points on the moderate difficulty level.) You may also carry ten medkits that can be instantly accessed in the heat of battle. This system strikes a balance between fully regenerating health and the need to back track in a level to pick up health that you didn’t need when you first found it. To be honest, the environments were a little too conveniently stocked with medkits, armor, and weaponry. I know the cloned troops have set up shop, but if they were serious about defending a place then storing extra supplies in open unguarded areas would probably not be the best plan.
