F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon is a survival horror first-person shooter developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi. It was released on October 17, 2005, for Windows, and ported by Day 1 Studios to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Timegate Studios has released two expansion packs, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point in October 2006, and F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate in November 2007. A direct sequel titled F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, was released in February 2009, and a second sequel, F.3.A.R., was released in June 2011, though it was developed by Day 1 Studios (now known as Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore), not by Monolith Productions.
The game's story revolves around a supernatural phenomenon, which F.E.A.R.�a fictional special forces team�is called to contain. The player assumes the role of F.E.A.R.'s Point Man, who possesses superhuman reflexes, and must uncover the secrets of a paranormal menace in the form of a little girl.
F.E.A.R. was well received by critics, scoring 89% on Game Rankings, and The New York Times calling it "as thrilling and involving as Half-Life." A "Director's Edition" DVD version of the game was also released. The DVD included a "Making of" documentary, a director's commentary, a short live-action prequel and the exclusive first episode of the promotional P.A.N.I.C.S. machinima. A related Dark Horse comic book was also packaged with the DVD. Along with the Director's Edition, F.E.A.R. Gold Edition was released. Gold Edition included the Director's Edition and Extraction Point. F.E.A.R. Platinum Edition features the original game and two expansion packs.
Gameplay
F.E.A.R. simulates combat from a first person perspective. The protagonist's body is fully present, allowing the player to see his or her character's torso and feet while looking down. Within scripted sequences, when rising from a lying position or fast-roping from a helicopter for example, or climbing ladders, the hands and legs of the protagonist can be seen performing the relevant actions.
A prominent gameplay element is "reflex time," 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 character's superhuman reflexes. Reflex time is represented by stylized visual effects, such as bullets in flight that cause air distortion or interact with the game's particle effects. F.E.A.R. lead designer Craig Hubbard stated that Monolith Productions' primary goal was "to make combat as intense as the tea house shootout at the beginning of John Woo's Hard-Boiled." He continued on to say that "defeating ... enemies ... with style" was crucial to this goal and that reflex time plays a large role in "making the player feel like they are an action movie hero."
Story
The story of F.E.A.R. is presented in such a way that only a few minor elements are revealed in the game's beginning, thus allowing players to experience the adventure as "... the hero in their own spine-tingling epic of action, tension and terror". The manual briefly mentions the player character's recent induction as "Point Man" to F.E.A.R., a secret special ops group of the U.S. government specialized in dealing with paranormal threats. The character's extraordinarily reactive reflexes are described as well, hinting that the government is interested in his abilities. When the game begins, the player witnesses a man named Paxton Fettel taking command of a battalion of telepathically controlled clone supersoldiers, seizing control of Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) headquarters, and killing all its occupants.
Now fully in control of the Point Man, the player attends a briefing held by Commissioner Rowdy Betters, in the company of his F.E.A.R. team-mates Spen Jankowski and Jin Sun-Kwon. The team's mission is to eliminate Fettel, operating in conjunction with Delta Force.
Fettel is located by means of a satellite tracking device and hunted by F.E.A.R. and Delta Force over several locations. While the villain evades capture by the special forces, the player witnesses unexplained, and occasionally life-threatening, paranormal phenomena, including hallucinations that frequently afflict him, all of which are centered around a red-dressed little girl named Alma. Laptops found in the course of the mission, remotely hacked by Commissioner Betters, provide details regarding the background story; the player learns how Fettel was raised to become a telepathic military commander, that he is the son of Alma, who is described as being a powerful psychic as part of Project Origin,and the existence of another child of Alma, who was born before Fettel.
All clues lead F.E.A.R. to believe Fettel is under control of Alma, who was locked in the Origin facility when ATC closed down the project owing to the danger the woman posed; Fettel is searching for that same facility to free his mother. The player takes the Point Man to the abandoned structure, fighting back both the clone soldiers and ATC guards, who have received orders to cover up the whole affair. When the protagonist comes to finally face Fettel, he is drawn into a hallucination where the player learns how the Point Man is Alma's first son and is thereafter enabled to kill Fettel himself. The story does not end here however, as Alma is nonetheless freed when her storage chamber is opened by ATC researcher and leader of Project Origin, Harlan Wade, who felt guilty over the company's treatment of Alma and who was actually her father. The player is then called to sabotage the structure's reactor, running a gauntlet against Alma's ghosts before the whole location explodes. In the aftermath of the detonation, a Delta Force Black Hawk helicopter extracts the Point Man from the rubble, rescuing him. While the player and the survivors of the F.E.A.R. team survey the results of the explosion from the helicopter, Alma makes one last sudden appearance over the side of the helicopter, preparing to pull herself up into the cabin: the destruction of the Origin facility has not stopped her quest to get closer to her son.
After the game's credits, the player can listen to a phone call between a mysterious senator and ATC president Aristide, which offers some further explanation: the woman considers the project under control and deems the "first prototype" (presumably a reference to the Point Man) a success.
There are few applications that offer a complete protection to your device. The 360 Mobile Security is one of these alternatives, because it attacks the most diverse types of viruses, monitors the apps before and during installation and even improves the system. Could have more? For sure, but it's a lot of stuff in one tool.
