Poll: Fear is 13 years old

[BFG10K]

I just finished replaying Extraction Point and enjoyed it a lot. This is one of the last FPSes made during the golden era of PC gaming. I ran it at “only” 2560x1440 with 2xTrSS as performance isn’t as good as the base game:

Spoiler

• Really good lighting without needing HDR or bloom. Still looks good even today.
• Surfaces like concrete, painted walls, tiles, and hospital bedsheets look extremely realistic.
• Very immersive first person views and physics. It actually feels like it’s you when you climb ladders, fire guns, perform martial arts, and see your shadow silhouette in realtime on the walls.
• Realistic sparks, smoke, concrete pieces, and other particle effects.
• Satisfying guns that feel solid and hefty without being overpowered.
• Excellent AI capable of squad tactics, flanking, using cover, and making relevant on-topic comments as the battle unfolds in real-time.
• Meticulous and detailed level design always keeps things interesting to look at, even mundane areas such as boilers and supply closets.

My favorite is the original game and I really liked the two expansions as well. Perseus Mandate in particular is longer than a lot of full games.

I was disappointed by the second game. They dumbed down the AI, level design, and the guns felt like plastic toys.

The third game was pretty good, though the two weapon limit curtailed your shooting options somewhat. It did come close to the feel of the first in terms of level design.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I only ever played the first one about half way thru. It was overly repetitive. I never understood all the love for it, but hey.

 

[BSim500]

I just finished replaying Extraction Point and enjoyed it a lot. This is one of the last FPSes made during the golden era of PC gaming. I ran it at “only” 2560x1440 with 2xTrSS as performance isn’t as good as the base game:

I replayed FEAR 1 last year. Great game. A little repetitive, but as you said AI is good and it (along with Unreal 1) highlighted how good "base lighting" effects can be without drowning everything in "glowing fog" or blur shaders. I've always enjoyed the feel of Lithtech engine games.

 

[Zenoth]

I finished the first one years ago, it was alright. The A.I. was indeed pretty good, still has some of the best A.I. in FPS gaming to this day. I also liked the shooting in general. However, the story and overall setting / context and theme (horror / supernatural-oriented stuff) just wasn't my cup of tea. I've just never really been into horror / jump scare type of games. I've liked some every now and then, sure, like a bunch of the Resident Evil and both the first and second Silent Hill games; but in general... nah, can't take them seriously or they aren't engaging enough. When FEAR 1 came out initially I was interested mostly because it was a "FPS" game, but the truth is that only the shooting portions kept me going; I really didn't care much about the story or the characters. It was a bit intriguing at first but then all I wanted was more firefights against that good A.I. and that was about it. I did complete it but I never touched it since.

It was the retail version, too. However, a couple of years later I remember buying some digital pack that contained all the FEAR games on Steam (FEAR 1, Extraction Point, Perseus Mandate, 2 and 3). I can't recall why I bought it though, since I never actually wanted to play the following titles. So it might have been because the pack contained other games by the developers and/or publishers and it just so happened that the full FEAR collection was part of it... it's the only thing I can think of. To this day, even though I have all of them on Steam I still only played the original, one playthrough and that was it. My backlog of unplayed games on Steam is enormous, so before I ever (maybe) decide to try the other ones in the franchise it might take a little while, to say the least.

 

[EXCellR8]

first by a long shot, second I liked parts of but then the third... what happened?

 

[shortylickens]

first by a long shot, second I liked parts of but then the third... what happened?

they stopped focusing on story and put more effort into graphics.

 

[EXCellR8]

yea that's a shame as the first and, to lesser extent, the sequel i found to be rather intriguing in the story department. it was also a great-looking game for its time.

 

[Igo69]

Fun games especially the 1st and its expansions.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Loved Fear, Loved Fear 2 even more, Fear 3 just felt like a COD clone with a terrible story. Never bothered finishing it.

 

[Mai72]

Played the first one on Xbox. Loved it, but I'm sure it's much better on PC.

 

[Arshad Hussain]

I loved playing FEAR 2 it was one heck of a game, graphics were just evolved A.I was strong and gameplay was sturdy.

 

[UberNeuman]

Loved Fear, still play it once a year - even with the logitech usb bug, I use the workaround for that. The expansions paks I haven't replayed those in years, as the same with Fear 2.

Fear 3 is just garbage - never finished one play through of it.

 

[Stuka87]

I only ever played the first one. It was decent, I actually didn't know they had made more than just the one sequel.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I loved all of them until they added QTEs. Then I stopped caring.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The first game was a pretty good benchmark for its time to compare various PC configurations and GPUs.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I liked fear. i played it at least 5 years ago . The story and the gameplay was great, the only bad thing happening was that at one level, the AI was able to see through walls. I was hiding behind buildings and the AI new exactly where i was and not only dead. At a few moments, i saw rifles sticking through the concrete walls and shooting me. That was no fun. But besides that incident, the game and the ambiance were very good.

I do find it strange that a game that old is still in the vicinity of 55 euro/ dollars today on steam.
Ignoring the summer sale prices.

 

[BSim500]

I do find it strange that a game that old is still in the vicinity of 55 euro/ dollars today on steam. Ignoring the summer sale prices.

Sounds like a mistake. GOG's FEAR 1 Platinum is $10 base price down to $2.50 in previous 75% off sales.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Sounds like a mistake. GOG's FEAR 1 Platinum is $10 base price down to $2.50 in previous 75% off sales.

I just checked. Fear on steam is normally sold for 54.99 euro and is now sold for 13.74 euro.
I guess if they would put the game on sale that they would have checked the price for the game.
I mean, they have to calculate the discount factor.
It is 75% cheaper.

 

[BSim500]

I just checked. Fear on steam is normally sold for 54.99 euro and is now sold for 13.74 euro.
I guess if they would put the game on sale that they would have checked the price for the game.
I mean, they have to calculate the discount factor.
It is 75% cheaper.

That's what I meant, maybe there was some miscommunication:-

Developer : "Put it up for €14. We're also happy to accept sale discounts up to -75%"
Valve : "They said they want it €14 on -75% sale, so that means we need to quadruple that..."

Edit: I just checked my GOG receipts, and I bought it back in 2016 Fall Sale for £2.05 (£8.19 - 75%), so something's way off there.

 

[William Gaatjes]

That's what I meant, maybe there was some miscommunication:-

Developer : "Put it up for €14. We're also happy to accept sale discounts up to -75%"
Valve : "They said they want it €14 on -75% sale, so that means we need to quadruple that..."

Edit: I just checked my GOG receipts, and I bought it back in 2016 Fall Sale for £2.05 (£8.19 - 75%), so something's way off there.

Well, i guess we got each other wrong in communication.
The thing is, i have been checking the price for fear for about two months now.
It has been 54.99 euro for a long time.
I own the game fear, i have it on dvd. But the installation software wants to install gamespy and such software. I do not want that. That is why i was checking this game out.

 

[BSim500]

The thing is, i have been checking the price for fear for about two months now. It has been 54.99 euro for a long time.
I own the game fear, i have it on dvd. But the installation software wants to install gamespy and such software. I do not want that. That is why i was checking this game out.

You could always ask Steam support if there's a pricing error. It certainly shouldn't be that high. Alternatively, if you can wait a couple of months, it'll probably come around again in 2018 GOG Fall Sale for around €2.30 DRM-Free (no Gamespy or SecuROM and includes both expansions).

 

[William Gaatjes]

You could always ask Steam support if there's a pricing error. It certainly shouldn't be that high. Alternatively, if you can wait a couple of months, it'll probably come around again in 2018 GOG Fall Sale for around €2.30 DRM-Free (no Gamespy or SecuROM and includes both expansions).

Wauw, i have to keep that in mind.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I just bought fear 2 at steam. I hope it will be as fun as when i played fear a few years ago.

 

[DigDog]

I bought it used on dvd for £4 back in 2007 or so (mine had SecuRom on it ..PITA to get it out)
1. Loved the guns, shooting, mayhem in general.
2. Best grenades of any fps.
3. Pretty decent AI
4. Love that you can look down and see your feet.
5. Loved the jumpscares.

Story itself was meh, strongly reminiscent of Akira, if abridged.
Visuals were decent, environments were *very* repetitive. Still a very strong title even today, actually, i did a playthrough of 1, pm, ep, just this year. The engines has its limits, specially on stealth.
I did play 2 which was a decent shooter but nothing special.