Monolith's magnum opus. Still unmatched in 2025.

R.I.P. Monolith
(1994-2025)

Almost everything I've said in my review still stands, so I've left it mostly unedited below.

What would you get if you put John Woo's movies and J-horror with a dash of Ghost in the Shell in a blender? You get a frantic shooter that is all about killing intelligent military clones and getting spooked by a little girl in a red dress and others every now and then, and that result is not only a game that holds up amazingly well eighteen TWENTY years since its release, but it's also, in my humble opinion, one of, if not the best first-person shooter I've ever played, PERIOD.

Great graphics and atmosphere for its time (and even now actually!), serviceable yet intriguing story and some of the best FPS combat to grace the platform thanks to a combination of the level design, particle effects, a solid arsenal of weapons (including one of the best shotguns in FPS history), THE FREAKING SLO-MO, and the excellent AI of the Replica soldiers that is still unmatched to this day make FEAR a timeless classic in the FPS genre and definitely a must-play for any shooter fan out there. Its first expansion, Extraction Point, also gets a recommendation from me as well.

That said, for some reason WB decided to make the first FEAR and its expansions only available for purchase on Steam through the complete pack which goes for 55 dollars when not on sale, an odd and anti-consumer decision considering the age of the game. If you want to get the game (which you should!), wait for a sale, look in key sites like Humble and Fanatical or buy a DRM-free copy from GOG. You can now buy it standalone through Steam, though I would still recommend getting it from GOG seeing as it would be put in their preservation program.

Monolith's magnum opus. Still unmatched in 2025. R.I.P. Monolith (1994-2025) Almost everything I've said in my review still stands, so I've left it mostly unedited below. What would you get if you put John Woo's movies and J-horror with a dash of Ghost in the Shell in a blender? You get a frantic shooter that is all about killing intelligent military clones and getting spooked by a little girl in a red dress and others every now and then, and that result is not only a game that holds up amazingly well [strike] eighteen [/strike] TWENTY years since its release, but it's also, in my humble opinion, one of, if not the best first-person shooter I've ever played, PERIOD. Great graphics and atmosphere for its time (and even now actually!), serviceable yet intriguing story and some of the best FPS combat to grace the platform thanks to a combination of the level design, particle effects, a solid arsenal of weapons (including one of the best shotguns in FPS history), THE FREAKING SLO-MO, and the excellent AI of the Replica soldiers that is still unmatched to this day make FEAR a timeless classic in the FPS genre and definitely a must-play for any shooter fan out there. Its first expansion, Extraction Point, also gets a recommendation from me as well. [strike] That said, for some reason WB decided to make the first FEAR and its expansions only available for purchase on Steam through the complete pack which goes for 55 dollars when not on sale, an odd and anti-consumer decision considering the age of the game. If you want to get the game (which you should!), wait for a sale, look in key sites like Humble and Fanatical or buy a DRM-free copy from GOG. [/strike] You can now buy it standalone through Steam, though I would still recommend getting it from GOG seeing as it would be put in their preservation program.