F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon

F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon is a horror first person shooter (FPS) that resembles a cross between Doom 3, Half-Life, and the Ring horror movies. Demons are replaced by cloned soldiers and the element of horror revolves around an image of a spectral girl always appearing when least expected for a few fleeting moments.

The player sets out as a member of a specialized strike force dealing with unknown threats. Initially, the player starts with mundane weapons, which are well presented, and progress gradually towards more sci-fi ones as the danger increases. The player can also call upon a bullet-time ability which slows down time around the player and is realised with impressive visual and aural effects by the game engine.

The game takes place in a certain multi-billion aerospace installation which has been hijacked by an elite team of cloned soldiers gone rogue and an unknown supernatural force (which is likely controlling or affecting them in some way). Both threats must be identified and countered.

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On August 17, 2006, F.E.A.R.’s multiplayer component was retitled F.E.A.R. Combat and made available for free download. During the next years, Monolith, Punkbuster, Sierra (Activision) and WBGames ended their support for the game, and the game home page stopped offering new CD keys. The F.E.A.R. Master Server was shut down by GameSpy on December 5, 2012, and, without the master server, the game could no longer start or connect to servers, and was effectively unplayable.

Since 2012, a group of FEAR players and supporters have created patches to fix game issues, issue new CD keys, and modify the game to use a different master server. The game is now playable using that master server, and players can create and join servers again.

The F.E.A.R. Combat game and community are hosted at https://fearcombat.org/.