F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon is a 2005 first-person shooter psychological horror video game for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi Universal Games, the Windows version was released worldwide in October 2005. The Xbox and PlayStation versions were ported by Day 1 Studios and released in October 2006 and April 2007, respectively. Two standalone expansion packs were released for the Windows and Xbox 360 versions of the game, both developed by TimeGate Studios; F.E.A.R. Extraction Point (2006) and F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate (2007). Released on Windows in March 2007, F.E.A.R. Gold Edition includes all the content from the Director's Edition plus Extraction Point, while F.E.A.R. Platinum Collection, released for Windows in November 2007, includes the Director's Edition, Extraction Point, and Perseus Mandate. Neither expansion is now considered canon, as the Monolith-developed F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin ignores the events of both.
The game's story revolves around the fictional F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) unit, an elite group in the United States Army tasked with investigating supernatural phenomena. When a mysterious paramilitary force infiltrates a multi-billion dollar aerospace compound, taking hostages but issuing no demands, the government responds by sending in a Special Forces team only to have them obliterated. Live footage of the massacre shows an inexplicable wave of destruction tearing the soldiers apart. With no other recourse, the elite F.E.A.R. team is assembled to deal with the extraordinary circumstances. They are given one simple mission: evaluate the threat and eliminate the intruders at any cost. The player takes on the role of the unit's newest recruit, Point Man, a man with a dark past and extremely short reaction time, leading the character through countless firefights and witnessing paranormal manifestations conjured up by a mysterious little girl dressed in red.
Although the atmosphere of the game was heavily influenced by Japanese horror, Monolith's primary goal with F.E.A.R. was to make the player feel like the hero of an action film. To this end, they combined a slow-motion technique called "reflex time", a semi-destructible environment, and a highly detailed particle system in an attempt to create as immersive an environment as possible. Another vital element in this is the game's AI, with Monolith employing a never-before-used technique to give hostile NPCs an unusually broad range of actions in response to what the player is doing. This results in NPCs who can also work as a team, such as performing flanking maneuvers, laying down suppressive fire, and attempting to retreat when under heavy fire.
Upon its initial Windows release, F.E.A.R. was very well received, with the AI garnering particular praise. Critics also lauded the graphics, atmosphere, sound design, music, and combat mechanics. Common points of criticism were a lack of enemy variety, a weak plot, and repetitive level design. The Xbox 360 version was also well received, but the PlayStation 3 version met with mixed reviews, with many critics unimpressed with the port's technical issues and graphical inferiority. It was a commercial success, selling over three million units worldwide across all three systems.
Gameplay
F.E.A.R. is a first-person shooter in which the player's arsenal includes handguns (which the player can dual wield), an assault rifle, submachine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle, nail gun, repeating cannon, rocket launcher, and particle beam. Each weapon differs in terms of accuracy, range, rate of fire, damage, and weight. The player also has access to three different types of explosive – frag grenades, proximity grenades, and remote bombs. The player can carry five of each type and can carry all three at once (allowing for up to 15 explosives), but only one type may be equipped at any one time. Additionally, when using the remote bombs, the player must holster their weapon. The butts of all firearms can be used in close combat; lighter weapons, although less powerful, allow the player to move around more quickly and increase the chances of a successful melee attack. Movement speed is maximized if a player holsters their weapon, which allows them to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
thumb|Point Man uses reflex time in the PC version of the game. Note the visual distortions representing the bullet trails.
A prominent gameplay element in F.E.A.R. is "reflex time"; an ability which slows down the game world while still allowing the player to aim and react at normal speeds. This effect is used to simulate the player character's superhuman reflexes, and is represented by stylized visual effects, such as bullets in flight that cause air distortion or interact with the game's particle system.
Reflex time is an important element of the game's combat mechanics insofar as F.E.A.R.s artificial intelligence allows hostile NPCs an unusually large range of action; enemies can duck to travel under crawlspaces, jump through windows, vault over railings, climb ladders, and push over large objects to create cover, all in reaction to what the player is doing at any given moment. Various opponents may also act as a team, taking back routes to flank the player, using suppressive fire, taking cover and often falling back if under fire, alerting one another as to the player's location, and giving one another orders (which may, or may not, be followed).
Multiplayer
The game's multiplayer can support up to 16 players, and initially featured deathmatch, team deathmatch, elimination, team elimination, and capture the flag. "Control" and "Conquer All" games were added later as free downloadable content. Also added at a later date were game types specifically designed to allow players to use reflex time; SlowMo deathmatch, team SlowMo deathmatch, and SlowMo capture the flag. Multiple new maps were made available for the Xbox 360 version throughout 2007, with the release of three major map packs; Nightmare, Synchronicity, and Bonus.
In August 2006, F.E.A.R.s multiplayer component was re-released on PC as a free download under the name F.E.A.R. Combat. Incorporating the latest multiplayer patches, all ten gameplay modes, and all nineteen maps, F.E.A.R. Combat was compatible with the original PC retail edition's multiplayer, meaning those with only the download could play with those who own the full game.
Plot
In 2002, the elite United States Army unit F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) was founded to "combat paranormal threats to national security". The game is set in 2025 in the fictional city of Fairport and begins as the unit is joined by a newly assigned Sergeant (referred to only as Point Man). At a facility owned by Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC), a psychic operative named Paxton Fettel has gone rogue. Officially an aerospace manufacturer and medical research company, in reality, ATC are a hugely powerful private military company dabbling in cryogenics, nuclear technology, cloning, and telepathy. They were attempting to develop a unit of telepathically controlled clone soldiers (known as Replicas), and Fettel was their commander. However, he has now used the Replicas to seize control of the facility. The mission of the three-person F.E.A.R. team (Point Man, LT. Spencer Jankowski, and technical officer Jin Sun-Kwon) is to eliminate Fettel, which will automatically shut down the Replicas.
As the mission progresses, Jankowski disappears and Point Man begins to have powerful hallucinations, implying that he has a deeper connection to Fettel. Point Man witnesses Fettel interrogating a worker, and later finds the mutilated worker who mentions a girl named "Alma" before dying. Despite being unable to locate Jankowski, F.E.A.R. is redeployed to ATC headquarters, where a Delta Force recon team has dropped out of contact.
Point Man learns that Fettel's brain waves during his revolt were identical to those during the "first synchronicity event", which happened when he was ten and resulted in the termination of "Project Origin". This time, however, Fettel is infinitely more dangerous. Meanwhile, Point Man finds that the Delta recon team have been massacred. He then encounters an ATC survivor, Aldus Bishop, who tells F.E.A.R. that the Replicas were looking for Harlan Wade, a senior ATC researcher. A Delta Force team led by Sgt. Douglas Holiday is sent in to extract Bishop. They get him to a helicopter, but as he is boarding, he is shot by ATC security. Point Man subsequently learns that Fettel was the "second prototype" resulting from Project Origin. Shortly thereafter, Fettel tells Point Man "a war is coming. I've seen it in my dreams. Fires sweeping over the earth. Bodies in the streets. Cities turned to dust. Retaliation."
Point Man subsequently learns that the prototypes were created from the genetic code of a female psychic named Alma, who gave physical birth to both prototypes from within an induced coma. He also learns about the "synchronicity event" – despite being in a coma, Alma formed a telepathic link with Fettel, and began influencing his actions, leading to several deaths. In the Origin facility, Point Man discovers that Alma was only eight when she was brought into Origin, 15 when the first prototype was born, and she is the girl in the red dress. He also learns that Wade is planning on freeing Alma from stasis in the Origin facility, even though she officially died in 2005. After her death, the facility was sealed until 2025, when it was reopened (over Wade's objections) with an eye to possibly restarting the project. Moments later, Fettel experienced the second synchronicity event. Point Man then has an hallucination in which Fettel tells him that they are brothers, both born of Alma – Point Man is the first prototype. Finding Fettel, he shoots him in the head, rendering the Replicas dormant. He then witnesses Wade, who is revealed to be Alma's father, releasing her from stasis. She immediately kills him, and Point Man heads to the facility's nuclear reactor core, overloading it.
As the facility explodes, Point Man escapes and is picked up by a Delta Force helicopter, on board of which are Holiday and Jin. As it flies over the mushroom cloud, the helicopter loses power, and Alma pulls herself up into the cabin. The game then cuts to black. After the credits, we hear a phone call between an unnamed senator and Genevieve Aristide, president of ATC. She assures him that Project Origin is secure and Fettel has been neutralised. As he complains about how indiscreet the cleanup has been, she points out, "there is some good news, however. The first prototype was a complete success."
Development
Conception
Although it was known from late 2003 that Monolith Productions was working with Vivendi on a new title, nothing was officially revealed until May 2004, when a single screenshot from the new game was published in Vivendi's weekly newsletter. Written above the picture was, "They say bullets taste like chicken," and written below was, "Hope you're hungry." Vivendi promised that more would be revealed in a few days, at the upcoming E3. F.E.A.R. was formally announced at E3, with the reveal of the game's title, a trailer, a brief plot outline, the genre (first-person shooter), the platform (PC), the release date (fourth quarter of 2005), and the probable rating (M). The following day, a non-playable demo was made available to journalists.
Development had begun with the game tentatively titled Signal. Writer, director, and lead designer Craig Hubbard stated that the game "evolved out of a concept we started developing right after Shogo". It was this ambition which led to the development of reflex time; Hubbard said he wanted "to make combat as intense as the tea house shootout at the beginning of John Woo's Hard Boiled", and defeating "enemies with style" was crucial to this. In a 2008 interview with IGN promoting F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, he explained,
Another key influence was the Wachowskis' The Matrix (1999). In particular, the lobby scene was the team's initial point of reference for how the game's combat should look and feel. With these influences in mind, and wanting to create as immersive an experience as possible, reflex time came to play a key role in the game's combat mechanics. Hubbard states, "it was a conscious decision not to give the player an identity. We wanted players to be able to become the protagonist without any reminders that they're supposed to be someone else."
Atmosphere
As well as its core first-person shooter gameplay, F.E.A.R. is also a psychological horror, and was specifically influenced by Japanese horror, with Stephens citing films such as Hideo Nakata's Ringu (1998), the Pang brothers' The Eye (2002), Takashi Shimizu's Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), and Nakata's Dark Water (2002). Lead level designer John Mulkey states that "creating expectation and then messing with that expectation is extremely important". With this in mind, he attempted to strike a balance with the narrative elements of F.E.A.R., giving players "enough clues so that [they] can form [their] own theories about what's going on, but ideally [they will] be left with some uncertainty". Hubbard, however, explains that Alma "was born out of a tradition of eerie, faceless female ghosts" and not "as an answer to any specific movie character".
In relation to the game's villain, Paxton Fettel, producer Craig Hewitt has explained that initially there were two villains, but they were ultimately merged. Driven by a DirectX 9 renderer, "Jupiter EX" has major advancements over its direct precursor, "Jupiter", and features both Havok physics and the Havok "Vehicle Kit", which adds support for common vehicle behavior (a feature which goes unused in F.E.A.R., as no vehicles appear outside of scripted sequences).
Graphically, F.E.A.R. uses normal mapping, bump mapping, and parallax mapping to give textures a more realistic appearance; the latter is used extensively to give the appearance of depth to flat bullet hole sprites on walls. It also uses volumetric lighting, lightmapping, and a per-pixel lighting model, which allows for complex lighting effects. Vertex, pixel, and high-level shaders are also featured in the game. GOAP is a STRIPS-based architecture that allows NPCs more autonomy than simply reacting to the player. Instead, they decide on a goal from a list of options and plan how best to reach that goal. Usually, the FSM controls all NPC behavior by way of a list of possible states, with A* planning the paths. In F.E.A.R., however, the FSM has only three states ("GoTo", "Animate", and "UseSmartObject"), and A* is used to plan sequences of action as well as to plan paths. In essence, this means that A* navigates the FSM, selects the state, selects when to initiate a state transition, and selects what parameters to fulfil in each state (e.g. it doesn't just initiate a transition into the GoTo state, it also specifies a location and, upon reaching that location, it specifies to transition to the animation state and what animation to play).
The logic determining when to transition from one state to another usually has to be specified manually by a programmer, meaning goals have a hard-coded and unalterable plan. In F.E.A.R., however, GOAP handles this, with the planning system deciding how best to achieve any of the 70 available goals, using any combination of the 120 actions encoded in the game.
The AI must make these decisions almost instantly, as GOAP is designed so that each choice is complete by the time the next frame starts. When the AI is searching through the available actions within the state-space, it must constantly reevaluate this process based on what is happening in the game world. and earned the #2 ranking on AIGameDev's "Most Influential AI Games" in 2007. The GOAP system went on to be used in games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007), Just Cause 2 (2010), Transformers: War for Cybertron (2010), F.E.A.R. 3 (2011), and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011), as well as subsequent Monolith games, such as Condemned 2: Bloodshot (2008), F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (2009), Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014), and Middle-earth: Shadow of War (2017). The game's showing at E3 garnered it the Game Critics Award for "Best Action Game". A single-player demo was released to the public in August. The following week, Vivendi allowed journalists to play through the first four levels of the game, unabridged, which generated even more positive reaction than their previous hands-on experiences. A multiplayer demo was released in September. A week before release, Vivendi had film director John Carpenter attend a number of media events, giving his thoughts on the game, of which he said, it was "as close as I've ever come to playing a movie."
P.A.N.I.C.S.
In the lead-up to the game's release in October 2005, episodes were released online of a comedy miniseries created by Rooster Teeth and distributed by BeSeen Communications. P.A.N.I.C.S. (People Acting Normal In Crazy-Ass Situations) is a parody of F.E.A.R., produced primarily by way of the machinima technique of synchronizing footage created by a game engine (in this case, the LithTech Jupiter EX) to pre-recorded dialogue and audio effects. Vivendi commissioned Rooster Teeth and BeSeen to make the series as a viral marketing campaign, with Lori Inman, Vivendi's Senior Brand Manager, stating, "with F.E.A.R. we knew we had a very special title combining a cutting edge FPS engine with a spine-tingling storyline. We liked the idea of creating a humorous viral machinima series that would entertain fans and showcase the spectacular visuals and character animations offered in the game."
The mini-series consists of five episodes, each running between three and four minutes. Four episodes were released in the weeks prior to the game's launch ("Enter Frank" on September 30, "Who Wants the Wing?" on October 1, "The Writing on the Walls" on October 10, and "All Things Must Come to an End......" on October 19). A fifth episode – Episode #0, set moments before "Enter Frank" – was included with F.E.A.R. Director's Edition. The story centers on Frank, a new recruit into Bravo Team, a special military group formed to battle supernatural enemies. As the series begins, Bravo Team has been sent into a military facility to investigate reports of paranormal activity. As team members start dying in horrific fashion, Frank is incredulous to learn his teammates don't believe in the paranormal and keep coming up with increasingly ridiculous explanations for what is happening.
Alma Interview and comic
Included with the Director's Edition of the game were the Alma Interview prequel and the Dark Horse comic prequel.
"Alma Interview" is a series of four snippets from an interview between ATC employee Dr. Green and the seven-year-old Alma in the lead-up to her being placed in Project Origin. In the first clip, as Wade observes from behind a one-way mirror, Green tries to strike up a rapport with Alma by telling her about her own daughter and telling her she's pretty, but Alma refuses to speak. In the second clip, Green is distracted by a voice seemingly coming from a vent, and when she turns around, Alma disappears. Green sees Alma's reflection in the mirror, and when she turns around again, Alma is back in the room. In the third clip, Green tries threatening Alma, telling her that if she doesn't cooperate, she will be placed back in her cell. Alma responds by telepathically forcing Green to draw a disturbing picture of a child surrounded by blackness. In the fourth clip, Alma asks Green, "do you like to play games?" When Green says no, Alma says, "I have a game", and Green finds herself suddenly trapped in a vent. When she just as quickly finds herself back in the room, she demands that Wade let her out, but he ignores her. Alma then asks Green, "Who are they? I see them when I close my eyes. They say they know you. They say you made them. They say you're going to kill me." As a terrified Green tries frantically to open the door, Alma dances around her, before sitting back down. In the observation room, Wade doesn't react to anything he sees.
Written by Alden Freewater with art by Edwin David, the Dark Horse comic takes place moments before the game begins and expands on the game's opening cutscene. At ATC headquarters, as Alma telepathically contacts Fettel, a new recruit to the security detail is learning about Fettel and the Replicas. One of the employees explains that ATC is worried about a second synchronicity event; in the previous one, Fettel's "brainwaves changed, like someone else had entered his mind." The team then see Alma in the corridor near Fettel's room and send the new recruit to investigate. Meanwhile, Fettel promises Alma that he'll find her no matter what, and the door to his cell blasts open. When the recruit arrives, Alma kills him as Fettel leaves his cell. The Replicas then activate and open fire, killing everyone they encounter. Fettel approaches an employee and demands to know where Alma is. When the man says he doesn't know, Fettel replies, "your tongue can lie, but your flesh will tell me everything." He then takes out a knife and begins to cut and consume part of the man.
Ports
The Xbox 360 port was announced in May 2006. Vivendi revealed that the game would be shown later that month at E3 and that the port was being handled by Day 1 Studios rather than original developers Monolith, who were now owned by Warner Bros. New to this version of the game was an "Instant Action" mode for single-player. In this mode, players are dropped into a modified level and must get to a designated point as quickly as possible while simultaneously killing as many enemies as possible and being as accurate as possible. At the end of the level, the game uploads players' stats to a global leaderboard on Xbox Live. Graphically, the Xbox 360 version was equivalent to the PC version on maximum settings and Day 1 also increased the native resolution to 720p and added high dynamic range lighting, an advanced particle system, and HD textures. The Xbox version also features an exclusive bonus level not found in the PC original, which depicts Holiday's attempt to extract Bishop from ATC headquarters. This version also features a new weapon – dual wielded automatic handguns.
The PlayStation 3 port was announced in August 2006, with Vivendi revealing it would be one of the console's launch titles, scheduled for North American release on November 17. Like the Xbox 360 version, the PlayStation 3 port was developed by Day 1 Studios. This port features the same Instant Action mode from the Xbox 360 version. It also has its own exclusive additional weapon (a street sweeper shotgun) and bonus mission, which depicts the Delta Force recon team's journey through ATC headquarters prior to encountering Alma. In February, they announced it had been pushed back to April.
In relation to the additional content in the two ports, and why it differed from system to system, producer Rob Loftus explained, "we wanted everybody to feel like they got something special. But at the same time, we didn't want to put more content in one version and have the other version suffer for it." The following month, he reiterated, "the two ports were done outside of Monolith and from a Monolith perspective we feel they didn't do everything that they could of achieved."
Reception
The initial PC release received "generally favorable reviews", and holds a score of 88 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 57 reviews.
;Xbox 360
Like the PC version, the Xbox 360 port received "generally favorable reviews", and holds a score of 85 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 44 reviews. By the time the game was released on PlayStation 3 in April 2007, the combined worldwide sales of the PC and Xbox 360 versions was over two million units. The PlayStation 3 version itself was the console's best selling title in April, moving 45,864 units in North America.
F.E.A.R. won Computer Games Magazines 2005 "Best Sound Effects" award, and was a runner-up for their list of the year's 10 best PC games. It won 2005's "Best Action Game" from both the Game Critics Awards and PC Gamer US. GameSpy awarded it their 2005 "Best Story" award. In GameSpots 2005 annual awards, it won "Best AI" At the 4th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards in 2006, it shared the "Best Use of Multi-Channel Surround" with Call of Duty 2. At the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, it was nominated for Computer Game of the Year, First-Person Action Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!Publication or ceremony
!Award
!Result
!
|-
|rowspan="2"|2005
|rowspan="2"|Computer Games Magazine
|Best Sound Effects
|
|rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| The game was first shown at E3 2006.
Perseus Mandate
Also developed by TimeGate, the second standalone expansion, F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, was announced for PC in July 2007 and first shown at E3 that year. It is not a narrative a sequel to Extraction Point, but is instead a sidequel to both the base game and the first expansion, focusing on a different three-man F.E.A.R. squad.
F.E.A.R. Files
F.E.A.R. Files was announced for Xbox 360 in July 2007, containing both Extraction Point (which had hitherto only been available for PC) and Perseus Mandate. As well as the two standalone expansions, F.E.A.R. Files also includes eight new instant action maps and five new multiplayer maps. The complete F.E.A.R. series was released on Steam in July 2012, with the Platinum Collection only available as part of the bundle. The Platinum Collection was released on GOG.com in February 2015. In November 2021, the F.E.A.R. franchise was added to Microsoft's backward compatibility program, making the games playable on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
Sequel and canonicity
In February 2006, Monolith confirmed they would be making a sequel to the original game, explaining that because Vivendi owned the rights to the F.E.A.R. name, the sequel would come under a different title. Up to September 2008, the sequel was to be called simply Project Origin, but that month, Monolith and Warner regained the rights to the F.E.A.R. name, allowing them to name the game F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. In December 2008, it was confirmed that despite initial reports that Monolith had approved the story for the two expansions and that that story was in line with their plans for a sequel, Project Origin would in fact ignore the events of both Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate and instead serve as a direct sequel to the original game. Project Origins lead artist, Dave Matthews, explained that the expansions