I finished F.E.A.R. a couple of months ago and have had this review in the queue since then. I really want to play it again, but I am afraid of how it will perform on my Radeon 9800 and brand new Dell 20.1 widescreen monitor.

Positives

• Great enemy artificial intelligence, the enemy ai in F.E.A.R. was probably the best in any PC FPS I have played. The enemies continually surprised me by flanking, hiding, retreating and owning me when appropriate.
• Great story, and a great payoff at the end. The story is told through phone messages, downloaded PC information and telekenetic flashbacks and all comes together in the end. There was a point where I started to doubt the game, but the end became one of the best single player experiences I have ever had. Wow.
• Good looking engine, lighting, debris from gun shots.
• Animation, and location based injuries from gun shots.
• Awesome melee attacks.

Negatives

• You are always on your own, your teammates appear for a story break, but then you are usually off on your own again.
• Big time system requirements.
• The automatic guns didn’t feel too much different from one another, and didn’t have a single shot setting.
• What you do leading up to the ending made no sense, I was just pushing buttons, and pulling levers because they were there.