F.E.A.R., pwn or groan?

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

I just got my PCG disk and played the First Encounter Assault Recon demo,

Personally I loved it, the bullet time was better than some I've seen, the weapons had a good feel to them...and that creepy girl:D

I enjoyed the visual style, most of what I've seen from monolith is pretty good looking (Tron 2.0, No one lives for ever 2)

My only gripes were, only three weapons, and no sprint support.

 

Has anyone else tried it, I'm guessing the demo's probably been on the web for a little while?

[stingerhs]

heck yes!!! and the multiplayer demo is being released later this week!! i'm definately looking forward to getting my frag count going.

 

but in my typical tradition of buying games, i'll probably wait for the reviews to start churning out before i buy it. *shrugs*

[Aash Li]

hmmm.... Game looks interesting going by the screenshots I saw. Whats it about, whats with the creepy girl? Zombies? Supernatural? What?

[RaV™]

Pretty neat, so i'm gonna go with pwn..

[stingerhs]

actually, Monolith has been very hush-hush about the storyline. all we know is that the gameplay is supposed to resemble that of a psychological thriller movie intermixed with your standard FPS elements. try the demo, and you'll understand what i mean.

 

as for the story, you play a character that's supposed to be some kind of super-soldier that's apart of a task force called First Encounter Assault Recon, or F.E.A.R., that deals with paranormal or other-worldly situations that require military intervention. the storyline that we know about begins when a psychotic telepath escapes from a prison by calling up a group of other supersoldiers that were designed to be controlled by him by the military. in simpler terms: the military surgically modified the main bad guy in order to make him telepathic, but in the process made him go insane. but they didn't realize exactly what they had done until after they had already placed a large number of other surgically modified super-soldiers under his telepathic command.

 

like any typical gaming storyline, you're team has been tasked with eliminating him in order to keep this secret military testing under wraps.

 

hope that helps out a bit. oh, and for now, nobody really has any clue as to what the freakishly wierd girl has to do with the story. we just know she's really freaky, and she's gonna be on the box's cover.

[Aash Li]

Yay! I love supernatural stuff. This game may very well be my first FPS... Its too bad it dont look like you can play a female chara though... >_>

[lukeiamyourdad]

You've never played an FPS before?!

 

 

FEAR looks like it will be the next big FPS to come out. This is the first game since Resident Evil and Silent Hill to give me the creeps.

[Aash Li]

Nope. FPS games just never interested me. I like RPGs and city builder games.

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

Ashley, GO BUY HALF LIFE, HALF LIFE 2, HALO, HALO 2, AND BATTLEFIELD 2

RIGHT NOW OR BE BANISHED FROM THE FORUM!!!!!!

There's others, but that's a good start:)

Don't worry about lack of female PC, I'm sure you'll eventually get your hide kicked by the "ring" girl.

 

"but in my typical tradition of buying games, i'll probably wait for the reviews to start churning out before i buy it. *shrugs*"

 

Always do the same myself, it's foolish not to, unless of course you see a little logo that says Valve or Bungie, cuz that's the only review you need:D

 

I still think it needed a sprint option, using cover and flanking was clumsy without it:(

[Aash Li]

Meh. I guess Ill be banned then. None of them really caught my interest. Even Republic Commando didnt hold my interest, but that is more because its a keyboard only game.

 

Unlike movies, I do pay attention to gaming reviews. With movies you only waste 8.50$ if you go see it and dont like it. I dont particularly like wasting 50$ for a game that sucks. >_>

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

Well, I didn't like RC either, Everybody assumes that every FPS is exactly the same as every other one, an incorect asumption:)

 

You could just download the demo, then either be like "nya nya nya, I hated it, I knew I was gonna hate it, now I hate you for making me play it"

or love it and beg for our merciful forgiveness and prey;) that we aren't in the mood for ragdoll physics:D

 

It doesn't take more than a few minutes to play.

And is definitely worth it, I didn't even realize the briefing wasn't a cutscene until I bumped my mouse:D

[Aash Li]

which one are you talking about? And all FPS games *are* the same in that youre in FP, instead of running around a little person in a screen like kotor or something.

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

I meant fear.

 

So, if I wasn't such a big K fan I could start ranting about how exactly stinkin same Kotor and World of Warcraft are!!!

[Aash Li]

And you would be correct. 3D rpgs are the same in that respect.

 

I might try the fear demo later.

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

Yup iz a good demo for sure.

 

I was being sarcastic, just because you look at a game the same way, doesn't make it the same, there are huge differences between them,

that's why it's important to get games based on quality, not point of view, if all you did was buy FPS or RPG, you'll end up with a lot of crap games, instead of having the best of all genres.

[Jackel]

Already put down a deposit on the limited editon of the game. Now to just get a comp that can run it.

[stingerhs]

@ Aash Li- well, being a FPS addict for about 7-9 years now, i can honestly tell you that a lot of FPS games vary quite a bit in the gameplay. some are the type where you run around killing everyone in sight, but those game have gone the way of the dinosaur for the most part. most single-player FPS have a variety of elements that make each one of them unique.

 

most of today's FPS follow the basic premise set up with the introduction of Half Life, and that premise is to vary the gameplay as much as possible that intermixes both combat and puzzle solving. most games tend to focus on the former, but games like Half Life and Half Life 2 definately introduce a number of creative and very unique puzzles that help to vary the gameplay quite a bit. in the case of games like the Halo series and the Half Life series, a great storyline also helps augment the gameplay quite a bit. Some FPS games have some unique additions like squad-based combat (a la Republic Commando or Rainbow Six) that help to vary the gameplay further and promote a more strategic approach to the combat.

 

as for Battlefield 2, well, thats much more of a multiplayer experience which is fun in its own right, but i'm thinking that its not entirely up your alley since you're a big RPG fan.

[Aash Li]

When I was younger, in the 90s, lol. All the FPS games all seemed like: "kill kill kill!! Mwhahahahahaha Testosterone!" And I was like, meh, this is a pointless game... *tosses out the cd* They were, like you said, kill everything in sight, which to me is fairly pointless for a game... there was nothing to make me want to get into the game. This is just observation, and personal opinion, not what Im saying how all of them are now/still (incase someone wants to unleash a FPSRULZJU!!!1 retort or something)

 

But I might just have to try Fear.

[montnoir]

If you're into RPG's and want to check out FPS, then try Deus Ex or Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines, those are FPS RPG's and also some of the best games ever made. Deus Ex, you can get for probably 1-5 american dollars and Bloodlines well that's less than a year old, but you'll still be able to get it for around the 10-15 dollar.

 

Deus Ex is sci-fi with a cyberpunk feel, superb story and great gameplay, but it's rather old.

 

vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines is about vampires (duh) so it's horror (duh) but the story is wonderful and the characters are as memorable and as vibrant as you've ever seen in a game and the action parts are solid... as well as character interaction, character management, story progression... Also it is a hybrid between FPS and 3-d person, you're free to choose which style fits you most.

 

Great games.

[Aash Li]

*tosses in a third (duh) for good measure.*

Ive heard lots about Dues Ex. and some about VtM the game, but VtM was one of those RPG I never got that much into.. do they have clans like in the tabletop game, or are yu stuck with "vampire" as your type?

[montnoir]

You can choose to play as any of the 7 Camarilla Clans, male or female. The Clans have kept their pnp characteristics and the gameplay sometimes differs. The story doesn't change much but a lot of the dialogues are gender and Clan dependent, there are even some Clan-specific quests and other Clan-specific goodies.

 

The difference from the tabletop game is in the vampiric Disciplines, they have been somewhat revamped *cough* for the game in order to work better with the game mechanics and to balance the gameplay.

 

Also you of course have different soulution possibilities for quests. Like: the violent solution, the social (persuade, seduce) solution or the sneaky/thievy solution.

 

On the bad side, is the part that you need a monster pc otherwise you'll get bad-stutter and loadtimes that will make you cry and a rather lengthy list of bugs... but the game is so solid that you'll probably hardly notice these things.

 

I really dig this game (and the only reason I admitted this was so I could throw in another "duh").

 

 

 

 

 

And since it's a discussion of FEAR, I thought I should try an on-topic pitch too. So I'll say that in FEAR, all the enemies I've seen in screenshots and gameplay movies seem to be these supersoldier-zombies in green-grey outfits. The diversity is somewhat "limited" (pardon my understatement). The level-design in the demo was - boring. I don't know what happened with Monolith... I mean, the demos for No One Lives Forever or Aliens VS Predator 2 BLEW MY MIND when I played them, but this... was boring. Granted the little girl freaked me out, but the little girl was all there was to it - green-grey enemies in dull level design with green-grey walls... I don't know. Monolith should have been able to do better... just my 2 cents.

[lukeiamyourdad]

green-grey enemies in dull level design with green-grey walls...

 

Uh, I think you have a color distinction problem. The grunts are indeed green-gray but there's the elite (the thing with the nail guns and big armor) who's more silver and who knows what that thing was that fell through the ceiling at the end, which seemed to be black or maybe green-grey...

I also noticed different colors for the walls then green-grey...

 

But nevertheless, that complaint could be directed at any FPS out there. German soldiers in Europe all had similar uniforms at x location during x season...etc. All headcrabs in HL2 looks the same...

 

Not liking the level design is one thing but saying something absolutely false about the demo is entirely different.

[stingerhs]

i agree. and besides, if your just in it for the graphics, well, i won't really go there. but come on, you didn't notice how intelligent the AI was and how much detail went into the psychotic/crap-your-pants sections were?? and whats wrong with having a neutral color scheme?? what are you looking for?? pink walls and drab colored enemies so they stand out better???

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

Ashley, if you have an xbox, you should try and rent Project Breakdown, it might be more up your alley, it's a Japanamerican hybrid style first person fighter/shooter with awesome story and immersion.

 

You might like deus ex as well (I only played the invisible war sequel) but it has an interesting story which branches at the end, and you can play any style you want, stealth, full auto, whatever, it's got good style too.

 

One thing you might want to look forward to is the upcoming RPG shooter Hellgate London, it looks sweet, you're like this modern day knight fightin demons and whatnot in a post apocalyptic London, you have to see the video for it:D

[Aash Li]

Totally divergent from the whole FPS/RPG games... I was watching Xplay tonite, and the reviewed some game from Japan where you play a cube, (in a cube world), and you eat other cube creatures and evolve. It looks like fun! And then theres the Hello Kitty game But probly not as fun as it looks. Ninja Gaiden Black actually looks like fun too.

 

I dont have an xbox, but Ive been considering getting one... or a ps2...