	F.E.A.R. Files
	Developer: F.E.A.R. Files Publisher: Vivendi Release Date: Out Now Players: 1, 2-16 online	Words By:
The original F.E.A.R. got a respectable 7/10 score from us and we praised it for scaring the shi… our pants off regularly by using a terrifying little girl (Alma) and lots of cool paranormal effects, whilst criticising it for looking well… kind of “last-gen”. This 2-game standalone add on uses the same engine, and frankly it hasn’t aged well, especially as we’ve recently been exposed to the visual delights of first person shooters of the calibre of Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. F.E.A.R. stands for First Encounter Assault Recon (no, really) and both new chapters in the story (“Extraction Point” and “Perseus Mandate”) follow on from the events in the first game. You play different characters in the two stories but they do kind of “cross paths” as you revisit areas, sometimes heading the opposite way. F.E.A.R. Extraction Point starts off where the original game ended – with a BIG bang. In Perseus Mandate the assault recon team returns to battle Alma (who has now escaped) and her paranormal minions across a destroyed city. As a F.E.A.R. soldier you have a special ability; you can slow down time, giving you a huge advantage when sneaking up on enemies or in gun fights. This works a lot like good old Max Payne’s bullet time, or a bit like Timeshift - only less so. You have a limited amount of slo-mo time (yes you have a gauge) and can enhance it (as well as your health bar) as you find hypos throughout the levels. You’ll often be able to trigger slo-mo, run around and flank a couple of enemies and shoot, punch or kick three shades of crap out of them before they even knew you were there – very cool indeed. F.E.A.R. Files’ physics and ragdoll effects really start to shine during these moments as you punch-kick an enemy around one of the many, many offices, scattering the desk’s paraphernalia all over – in fact the game looks at its best in slo-mo. Ah yes, the offices and endless corridors… There were a LOT of offices in the original F.E.A.R., and there are plenty more in Files. In fact, David Brent would feel right at home here. Fortunately the new games venture outside out a bit more often, and some locations are actually quite sizeable. The developers, Monolith, obviously thought that previous locations were a bit claustrophobic too. As well as kicking ass all over the place you obviously get to shoot some as well, and F.E.A.R. Files has some seriously cool weapons that allow you to splatter some nice blood effects around – you can dual-wield pistols and there’s a nice variation between small arms and heavy weapons, some way, waaaay too powerful for the restricted spaces in which you fight. The lovely Particle weapon is a favourite, it has a telescopic zoom mode and it instantly fries any normal human enemy it hits reducing them to smouldering bones – nice! The best of the new weapons include a minigun and a laser rifle. My other favoured weapon is called the ‘Penetrator’ – initially unimpressive with its smallish magazine and single shot with a quiet report, you soon realize that it can actually nail enemies to the wall – again, this is a nice, if disappointingly bloodless touch – the shotgun and machine guns produce plenty of gore, but a nail through the helmet (ouchy) doesn't. You also get a selection of grenades and remote mines – all of which come in handy along the way. F.E.A.R. Files has a decent enough multiplayer mode too, and surprisingly the slo-mo ability from the campaign mode is present and correct. It works in a similar way to Far Cry Instincts’ Predator mode, in which you can pick up the slo-mo power up and trigger it when you want, but you immediately become a marked man and your position can be seen by everyone else in the game, so your slo-mo ability may give you a distinct advantage, but they should be able to see you coming. It lends an interesting tactical edge to what might have otherwise been ‘just another’ deathmatch game. Again further surprise, all the detail, physics and damage to scenery is also a feature of the multiplayer game – and shootouts can be a thrilling hail of bullets, flames, dust, debris and blood, lots of blood. There’s also a feature I haven’t seen in a multiplayer console game before - the spectator mode allows you to not only follow a particular player, but also control the camera completely freely and zoom around and explore the map as you wish. You get a decent set of options (ranked or quick match, custom match, create a match, elimination, slo-mo deathmatch, slo-mo CTF, team deathmatch, team elimination, leaderboards etc) and they all play well. The complex but compact maps allow for some hectic and action-packed fragging, but although it plays well enough, it isn’t going to keep anyone away from Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 for long. No 360 game can get by without decent looks and F.E.A.R. Files kind of loses the plot here – the character models are poor with basic animation and with some levels lacking texture and colour, it looks strictly last-gen… until the bullets start to fly. At this point wonderful Havok physics kick into action, and added to its own plastered on, but top-notch visual effects, a game that looks like it could run happily on the PS2 suddenly becomes one that continuously makes you go “wow!” – at least till the novelty wears off – it’s not quite the one-trick pony that Max Payne was, but with its nightmare sequences, psychological mind terrors and general scare tactics comes across like some kind hybrid of Max Payne, Deus Ex and Monolith’s very own Condemned – but when you boil it all down it’s not quite as good as any of them. F.E.A.R. Files’ linear levels and mostly confined interiors (that still include too many identical offices by far) never allow it to feel like any more than a solid, but low budget and small scale sci-fi schlock-horror, and as with the original game, its biggest problem is that there are a few genuine blockbusters around at the moment.

Best Bits
- 2 stories in one
- Amazing slow-motion effects and physics
- Some good, scary moments
- Some cool weapons and in-game action
- Some smart AI

Worst Bits
- Mostly claustrophobic levels
- Gets samey quickly
- Graphically unimpressive at times


by: Diddly