Keeping with the Resident Evil 4 story from yesterday, I can’t believe I missed news on the other big-name action/horror video game coming out next month: F.E.A.R.
Voted the “Best Action Game of E3” (the Electronic Entertainment Expo, for the uninitiated), F.E.A.R. — First Encounter Assault and Recon — is a first-person close-quarters combat game for the PC. The story begins when a paramilitary force infiltrates a multi-billion dollar aerospace compound, and the government responds by sending in Special Forces. The group loses contact with the government when an eerie signal interrupts radio communications…and when that interference subsides moments later, the team has been wiped out. You play as a member of a classified strike team created to deal with threats no one else can handle. The mission is simple: eliminate the intruders at any cost, determine the origin of the signal, and contain the potential crisis before it gets out of control. Needless to say, there’s more to the game than this.
For those of you who have managed to snag the demo (read: get it), you know that the game plays like HALF-LIFE 2 mixed in with SILENT HILL surroundings: Awesome animation and direction, with dark environments, little to no noise, and hallucinations of truly disturbing stuff. Top it off with a creepy ghost in the form of a little girl, whose abrupt appearances and ghostly giggling has you firing off rounds and emptying your bladder (not necessarily in that order). The engine is absolutely gorgeous, with awesome flexibility for optimal framerates and graphical beauty.
The game will hit store shelves October 11th in two forms: the Orginal Game on CD-ROM, and a Director’s Edition DVD, which includes the game on DVD-ROM, a comic from Dark Horse, a “Making-of” documentary video and more. Leave your lights on for this one, folks.