My new project: Tact, a simple chat app.

F.E.A.R. should have been called B.O.R.I.N.G.

June 01, 2006

Completed F.E.A.R.. Another of those “well yeah” type of shooters. Levels were a lot similar to Doom 3, but the gameplay was much less fun. I chose medium or hard as level, but other games call this “novice” or “rookie”. Not once did I get into a really difficult situation – there was always tons of ammo available and the enemies were not that hard either. There were one or two “big guys”, but no real big bosses in the middle or end.

Why do they have to make the levels so booooooring? Corridors after corridors after corridors. This applies to both Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. and many other “future-techno” type of games. Are they really competing for some “most boring level design of the year” award? I never saw it, but maybe it exists. Why not put in some more open-air fun with vehicles, big guns, long distances… I guess I like shooters that involve a bit more of an adventure element.

The puzzles and movements were really easy and the whole experience was totally linear. You just couldn’t go the wrong way. I guess that’s good because you can remain focused on shooting the bad guys, but at the same time it doesn’t really thrill or excite you.

The occasional psycho theme was a bit wacko and it could actually get you scared in some instances. Or at least it did get to me. Not that you couldn’t get sleep or anything, but there were a few “ugh” moments with the cutscenes with ghosts and blur and psycho theme. One interesting character was the transparent shadow warrior who you couldn’t shoot, but could only kick.

So… yeah. Whateva.