FEAR is a fascinating game, particularly due to the fact it’s the first game that’s been inspired by the films of Hideo Nikata such as Ringu and Dark Water, using subtle effects to frighten the player into submission. FEAR is a very scary game for those that haven’t experienced the pyschological horror genre.

Of course FEAR isn’t the first game to scare gamers. We started off with Alone in the Dark which was far ahead of its time, and managed to capture terror, if not out and out fear, in the game by putting the player into all sorts of trouble. How we laughed.

Then came Resident Evil which built upon the horror genre, and called it survival horror and the rest is history, of course. The only game that I can actually remember that made me scared as much as seeing one of Nikata’s films, was Clive Barker’s Undying, a brilliant game, which offered more than it’s own fair share of scares and shlock.

So now the FPS genre is being introduced to games that instill fear, in a market that is saturated with “me toos” and “another generic FPS”. Thanks to Ubisoft and Crytek, and their superb efforts they brought us Far Cry with intelligent AI and stunning water physics, and one tense jungle.

FEAR takes over from all these games and introduces the sort of hand sweating tension you might have experienced walking down a dark alley one night, hearing bottles fall over and only knowing the vague direction the footsteps are coming from. This is FEAR.

To say FEAR has taken FPS games to another level is quite an understatement. FEAR captures real world physics and uses them to scare the hell out of you. When you fire that nail gun at the wall simply because you knocked a bottle over that bounced along the floor, you know you’re hooked.

The story is pants, but it involves a Sadako/Ringu style story. A young girl is the source of strange other worldy events, causing an entire shutdown ofa facility which a prisoner now has a hold of super troopers. You’re the man they’ve chosen to bring in and save the world, and boy is it not your day.

FEAR manages to encapsulate the right amount of tension and break neck fire fights, along with the perfect amount of spooks to create a game that lives and breathes atmosphere. The truth is although you can play this game on lower systems, this game will not scare you in the least mostly because the realism is removed and replaced with bad looking textures. Play the game maxed out and you have a photorealistic journey into one of the best looking games to date.

The graphics in FEAR are simply astonishing. Sure, mostly it’s office buildings and facilities, but the level of details is exquiste. The same is true of the water effects, which are stunning. Then of course come the physics which also depend on what you play the game on. Play it on a low end system and the AI will not be able to throw a bookshelf over for cover. Play on a higher end system and you will have yourself the firefights you’ve dreamt about in your John Woo directed fantasies.

Will FEAR be remembered in a few years time when it’s eclipsed by other titles, the answer is most likely a no. But for now, as things stand, it’s perhaps the most intense First Person Shooter there is out there.

Verdict: A satisfying mix of horror and action in a benchmarking FPS game