SCORE:
Graphics: 6
Gameplay: 7
Sound: 5
Overall: 6
Pros: Well-designed maps, fun PvP.
Cons: Sound and visuals feel a bit outdated, PvE is uninspired and the game lacks atmosphere.
Those of you who are fans of horror games or passionate 1st-person shooter gamers most likely know the F.E.A.R. series already, the 3 horror FPS instalments of which revolve around a special assault team having to reveal the secrets behind a supernatural phenomenon, a paranormal little girl, and mysterious lab experiments.
Aeria Games wanted to make F.E.A.R. enthusiasts content by releasing F.E.A.R. Online, a new online shooter based on the franchise with a story-line paralleled to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. With Halloween in the air, we could think of a better moment to check out a scary horror first-person shooter, so here we are with a review on the series’ newest instalment. Does the game live up to its name? And will it be worth your time? Just carry on reading to find out.
Right from the start, F.E.A.R. Online tries to recreate the atmosphere of the single player games with a tutorial that appears to be pretty story-driven. A cut-scene showcases your character waking up in what seems like some sort of half-ruined hospital room where chaos rules and blood spills everywhere. While getting to grips with the ropes of movement and fighting controls and slaughtering the sporadic bad guys, you will notice Alma, the paranormal girl from the series, briefly emerging.
For it’s a 1st-person shooter, you may guess that controls are pretty regular, not differing that much from other shooters out there. Although they felt sufficiently precise, we just had the impression they were a bit awkward and slow and just a little less responsive than expected, which, of course, wasn’t anything that could spoil the entire gaming experience, yet navigating around and firing simply felt a bit more unnatural in comparison to any other shooter.
The tutorial playthrough completed, we were taken to the title's main menu, which enabled us to visit the shop, manage our inventory, select our preferred game mode, create customised matches, and so on. At was there that we learnt how to equip special skills, how to purchase or produce weapons and how to equip those. F.E.A.R. Online allows players to purchase weapons with in-game or premium currency or craft them from materials gained as rewards for completing matches. Match winners earn temporary pieces of gear as well as materials for completing different objectives in order to be rewarded with particular items. Levelling up will even grant greater rewards in form of new (temporary) weapons, which allows for trying them out in order to decide if you’re sufficiently satisfied in order to purchase them or not.
Equipped with our new -brand and only just crafted weapon, which was some kind of revolutionary pneumatic hammer capable of shooting blue arrows which enabled us to impale enemies to the walls (pretty cool), we went to have a look at the game mode selection screen, where three competitive PvP modes (Team Deathmatch, Demolition and Knife Fight) as well as three co-op scenario levels were on offer. We can’t say whether there will be additional ones to be unlocked when progressing through the game, for the time being, however, this selection appeared pretty restricted and sparse to us.
Not hesitating at all, we headed off into the 1st PvE scenario, which was categorised as "easy", in order to find out whether the co-op mode was capable of capturing and recreating the same feeling and atmosphere the single player campaigns of the previous games breathed, which unfortunately wasn’t the case.
For the 1st scenario, which takes players to a secret underground base, we were matched with three other players and had to reach the level’s end as we completed a number of objective-based missions. The progression is pretty linear, though, and there’s no intriguing plot that would include NPCs or cut-scenes. Instead, the “story” was just an uninspired and weak attempt of excusing the action, which only consisted of checkpoint-based arcade gameplay, plain and simple.
The AI isn't brilliant either, as enemies will simply move towards players, frantically swinging their melee weapons or simply firing off without any actual strategy. We moreover had a quite frustrating experience while we were dashing through a high-speed train on fire, firing at hordes of mutated engineers along our way, when we and our entire team died all of a sudden, with no reason being evident.
Only when playing the level once again (when players die and none of their team-mates is able to revive them, then that’s it, the mission is lost and they back at the main menu again), we realised a small on-screen message that time, which told us to not waste our time but run in order to not be killed by the flames. It was only then that we actually realised that the fire presented a concrete threat and that we had to just leap through the train, only firing at enemies to clear our way, if we wanted to come out alive. The issue was that the message was that tiny and the action that chaotic that neither us nor our (most likely equally nooby) team-mates paid attention to it when running the mission for the first time.
A further aspect that didn’t pleased us at all was that playing a PvE level requires a token, of which you are only provided with three per day, so that you have to purchase additional ones in the store...
So we ended up with any tokens left, not having managed to complete a single PvE scenario (we lost the last one since half of our team left in the middle of the game), and thought we should give the game’s PvP element a shot. We checked out all of the three available game modes - team deathmatch, demolition and knife fight - and have to admit that the PvP arenas are quite complex, well designed and present sufficient spots for trying out differing strategies.
Although just equipped with our starting weapon, we didn't had the impression the game was too unbalanced. Sure, we came across experienced players with advanced weapons, but still managed to rack up some kills, thus being able to support our team in demolition, where one team is tasked to place and detonate a bomb while the other has to protect the target points and defuse the bombs placed by their opponents. Knife fight actually was just another team deathmatch that only allows for using melee weapons. It's extremely chaotic and in our opinion pretty pointless, though maybe a nice and fun distraction from the more challenging game modes when you just want a laugh.
When it comes to visuals, F.E.A.R. Online is just sub-par in comparison to other recent F2P shooter MMOs out there. Whilst certainly polished, animations, textures and 3D models are too simple and in all honesty just feel old. The sound is uninspired and tedious as well, and all in all, we couldn’t help the feeling that developers didn't put too much effort into the game.
CONCLUSION
In spite of its name, F.E.A.R. Online doesn’t succeed in its main intention: to provide enthusiasts with an online title true to the F.E.A.R. franchise. The PvE is neither immersive nor creepy, there isn’t any gripping story, and the visuals are below average in comparison to other F2P shooters on the market. The game’s PvP element is what remains and what could be thrilling and fun to play. Yet in all honesty, there’s currently better stuff to be found on the market. In case you’re die-hard F.E.A.R. fans, you could give it a try, otherwise you could easily find something better to spend your time on.
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