F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon is a horror first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi Universal Games and Warner Bros. Games. It was released on October 17, 2005, for Microsoft Windows, and ported by Day 1 Studios to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Plot
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.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Creepy environments and terrifying ambient soundtrack.
 * 2) The AI is a good example of emergent behavior, which is a relatively simple set of rules intended for a limited set of functions actually provides for more complex behavior than intended. Specifically, the A.I. is programmed for a limited number of simple behaviors: moving in coordinated squads, providing covering fire, seeking cover, and repositioning itself based on the player's movement and position. The A.I. isn't actually programmed to flank or circle behind the player, but its tendency to seek cover and reposition itself based on the player's movements results in flanking and circling behaviors occurring naturally without "conscious" effort on the A.I.'s part (mostly due to the A.I.'s high mobility combined with its preference for seeking lateral cover rather than charging the player directly). In fact, the A.I. of the Replica Soldiers was toted as perhaps the best enemy A.I. seen in a FPS game to date, and it still holds up more than a decade later.
 * 3) Great use of special effects and physics for a game of its time.
 * 4) Interesting plot.
 * 5) Multiple action and terror filled scenarios, or intervals as called in the game.
 * 6) The main protagonist can use his special reflexes such as the "slow-mo" ability (similar to the "bullet time" feature from Max Payne) and gain an advantage in battle.
 * 7) Wide variety of enemies, from human enemy soldiers to robotic foes and evil manifestations.
 * 8) Collect several boosters hidden through every interval to enhance health and the player´s ability to slowdown time.
 * 9) Many weapons to use, from simple handguns to rocket launchers and particle weapons. The VK-12 combat shotgun (Franchi SPAS-12) is an excellent choice.
 * 10) The game blends perfectly FPS gameplay with horror elements.
 * 11) The game spawned two DLCs which are very good and add more to the game´s plot.
 * 12) Great graphics, with nice shaders and lightning effects, especially for 2005 standards.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) An abrupt and unsatisfying ending.
 * 2) While the AI is amazing it has it's flaws. The AI is not designed to fight one another (which only happens twice); in spite of their ability to recognize and actively avoid regular grenades, they are completely blind to mines or remote bombs set by the player, even if you plant them in full view of the entire squad; and they don't consistently know how to deal with transparent but bulletproof surfaces, often causing them to simply stare you down through them if there isn't an immediately-obvious way to navigate around it from their position.
 * 3) The game lacks any bonus features, and thus it has very low replay value.
 * 4) The PlayStation 3 got a better exclusive weapon than the Xbox 360 version (an automatic shotgun that didn't sacrifice any of the existing weapon's range or power, rather than a dinky machine pistol that sacrificed power and accuracy for fire rate and capacity, and took over half the spawns of the more useful RPL), but was otherwise an incredibly unrefined and choppy rushjob of a port even compared to the 360 version, which itself had problems compared to the PC original, and was pretty much abandoned after release (the PS3 never even got either expansion). It may have even been partially responsible for the PS3's early bad reputation, with several review sites blaming the poor performance of the port on the PS3's "inferior" hardware, despite the PS3 actually being the most technically-capable console of that generation.
 * 5) Like Crysis, the PC port was very intensive.
 * 6) Sadly as good as the two DLCs are, they are considered non-canon.
 * 7) The Heavy Armor fought in Extraction Point 's Interval 03 - Terminus is the single most frustrating enemy in the entire game. The high health it has as a Heavy Armor would be bad enough even if he were equipped with a regular weapon like the Penetrator most other Heavy Armors use - no, this one decides to come at you with a MOD-3 multi rocket launcher. Not just any MOD-3, either, but one artificially overpowered to the point you're not surviving even the splash damage of more than a single rocket unless you are at full health and armor. And depending on your weapons, you may be set for a long fight if you try to engage at a safe distance.
 * 8) Depending on how you see it, the graphics don’t really hold up well by today’s standards, looking more like a game from the sixth generation of consoles than that of a seventh generation console game.

Reception
F.E.A.R. was well received by critics, scoring 89% on GameRankings and it is considered one of the scariest video games ever made, as well as one of the most significant FPS games ever made.