"Thanks to everyone, I was able to leave the pizzeria I worked at for a long time. I'm doing this full time, now." Probably one of the most heartwarming phrases I've heard on UA-cam.
My favorite thing about FEAR is some of the accidental worldbuilding done through throwaway dialogue lines. The best is probably in the briefing of the first game. When Betters, your commanding officer, describes the "military clones led by a psychic commander", your squad lead Jankowski interjects with "This is why no one takes us seriously. _Military clones?_" As if mass cloning of soldiers is more outlandish than psychic powers in this world. When combined with the one-line intro stating FEAR was formed to "combat paranormal threats to national security", it seems to imply that psychic powers are a recognized, real (if uncommon) thing in FEAR's world, something which goes utterly unremarked by the rest of the game. It's a fascinating implication that serves as the entrance to a rabbit hole of speculation about what society in FEAR's world looks like. I'd imagine it's almost like a precursor to Shadowrun, if Armacham's borderline megacorp status is any indication.
38:42 Ooh boy when he finishes listing all the good reviews and then starts ramping up how much he disagrees... I get so hyped. Then you look at the video chapters in the description and see Fear 3 has the longest by far... Hooo boy you know something good's about go do down
The fear 3 and fear online segments are probably the funniest bits on this channel. Hearing someone point out all the ridiculous decisions in those games is just great lol
You are by far the finest video game reviewer I have seen on UA-cam. Actually, in my opinion, on the internet. And I have seen most. The depth of your content always entertains and enlightens me and even when I disagree with you-which is not too often-I find you support your opinions solidly. It's not just a series of pointless adjectives. Excellent work, Noah. I look forward to seeing new videos from you every time I log on.
Over the past few years I've realized so may "critique" channels are absolute fluff that I'd put on in the background. These are video essays. Truly Edit:spellling
I think I liked Mandalores idea of what the F.E.A.R games shouldve been. The Fear team itself (ironically the element that takes the back seat despite being the literal title) dealing with various supernatural elements throughout the world, with nods to armachams dealings and even alma her self creeping up here and there as shes linked with the player. The supernatural is something unknown and also untapped in videogames, we couldve dealt with ghosts, vampires ect without it being schlocky or even a Hellboy ripoff, but Alma became the be all end all of everything in the world. To me canonically, most of the Fear team died in Extraction point, you'd get a new squad and could go from there.....
+A Jaded Lizard Starting from scratch would bean that even the good entries in the series would be retconned. I don't want this to happen. Fear 2 was basically a reboot that retconned the addons of the first game. Fear 3 seemed to not give a damn about what Reborn did. There are two possiblities where I would like the series to be rebooted. Don't touch the first game and continue from the addons. Or don't touch the first and second game and continue from the DLC (for real this time). In any case, remove F3AR from the series and make a REAL FEAR 3. From which point would you rather have FEAR continue?
***** Honestly, I'd rather they take the approach Capcom did with Resident Evil; they remade the first game in 2002 so it better tied in with the sequels. I'd love it if they remade FEAR with more modern graphics and combat (like iron sights; leave the AI alone though). I agree, I can't really think of anything I'd change for either game, but I'd like it if they restored some of the cut content from the first game (you can see a lot of this on the wiki) as well as retconning the expansions into the main game (PERSUES Mandate just works with the others, and you can handwave Extraction Point as being one giant hallucination, which is honestly the only way it makes sense anyway).
I would prefer it if there was a fan made sequal to fear 2 that took a diffrent direction than what was done with F3AR. Stokes remarks that "I hope its not one of those horror movie things were she reads your mind and uses your darkest fears against you". That begs the question...was stokes REALLY shot at the end and was Alma REALLY pregnant..or was that all a halucination. They also forgot that one of the intel items you pick up states that if you dont fully charge the machine before engaging the system theres a telepathic power surge that could kill anyone in the room.
Yes and no. I'd really like to know what Monolith had planned to do in FEAR 3, since it can't possibly have been as bad as the actual game. I'd rather start from the beginning and flesh some things out, as well as strengthen continuity between FEAR and Project ORIGIN (such as having DEN MOTHER in contact with HARBINGER for the first portion of game). I'd also like to make it a bit more clear Alma is manipulating Fettel into getting revenge on her own family (there's no reasoFo to kill Alice, who genuinely didn't know anything; I'd like him to be genuinely confused and lost when you kill him as it finally dawns on him he's just been a pawn when the Point Man finally kills him). I'd also use Holiday, Pasilaqua (or however you spell that dude's name), Jin, and Manny more than they were in their respective games. For FEAR, my idea would be a more "complete" campaign tying into both DLCs: Jankowski is partnered with you for a lot longer and you also fight alongside both DELTA personnel and ATC Security in a few missions (I had an idea for a new character in that role who's been protecting the staff at ATC headquarters from the Replica forcing attacking the building; he's slowly starting to figure our what's going on but isn't antagonistic). FEAR Bravo team is introduced after the Black Ops soldiers murder Aldus Bishop but rather than having a stand alone campaign the game just alternates between them from that point on, with Bravo team managing to be extracted near the end of the game and the epilogue cutscene mentioning their desire to go back into Fair Port to rescue other survivors. You can tie Extraction Point into the end game of the campaign by shortening it a bit and making Fettel more obviously a puppet of Alma rather than his own person at that point. (That way, Reborn makes a lot more sense). At the end of the game, the Point Man is rescued by Pasilaqua, only for him to be killed by Black Ops soldiers under Vanek, who take the Point Man prisoner. FEAR 2 would still overlap briefly with the first game and you'd actually play one mission from the perspective of Beckett alongside Bravo Team early in the game. Honestly, I feel like FEAR 2 stands on its own very well, so I wouldn't make many changes to its campaign, apart from making Foxtrot 813 a playable character in-game, and having you fight enemies other than ATC and Replicas (I like the idea of the first game featuring Bravo fighting alongside Fair Port PD and the regular Army, since it mentions both were present). As Beckett, you'd encounter what looks like a Replica Civil War, which is in reality Foxtrot slowly coming into his own as Paxton Fettel 2.0, and his soldiers are ultimately able to wipe out Alma's Replicas, due in part to her fixation on Becket himself. For this game I'd expand the back stories of Dark Signal, giving each soldier more personality (and remove some ambiguous things, like making Keagan a legitimate dick rather than his spotty characterization from the game). FEAR 3 would scrap the entire idiotic co-op mechanic from F3AR, and remove Fettel as a playable character. The campaign would shift between different characters: Beckett, who escapes from an ATC-run prison facility alongside Holiday before linking up with Bravo Team (both thought they were rescuing the Point Man), the Point Man himself (who has escaped ATC on his own and is beginning to manifest powers similar to his mother and brother), and Stokes, who has been captured by Alma and is more or less trapped between worlds as a result. I haven't thought much beyond planning, but this is more or less how I'd tell the story.
A Jaded Lizard He ate his victims in order to "learn their secrets". He didn't kill Alice Wade for the fun of it, he was in the process of eating her to gain more information (which is how he knew about the task force conducting the research on Auburn)
fartzinwind Actually, for a pizza job, it was great. The general manager was this guy named Jim, and Jim had worked *at that exact location* for 26 years-- he knew damn well the job was tedious and awful, he hated it too, but they paid him almost 100k a year for his expertise so he had the golden handcuffs on. That was his managerial style, though-- "Do the job I pay you for and I'll never make you pretend to like it." And we got to listen to whatever music we wanted over the stereo-- I used to make nine hour playlists and soundtrack my whole shift. Being respected as a human being makes a bad job tolerable, and even if it was a shitty job, it was a great employer. And I got cash tips every week and a couple hours paid vacation every check (which piles up after a while). Oh, and it's delicious pizza. I ate it literally every day for almost five years and still like it.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais Wow! I work a shitty convenience store job that's almost the precise opposite of that. I hope I can break free and do something compelling someday soon.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais I relate to jobs being tolerable because the people you are with. I worked in Yahoo! Mail abuse. There isn't much lower than dealing with thousands of email reports of He said She said arguments over wooden nickles, someone dropping an F bomb, or Harry Potter. Occasionally we also had to investigate child porn being circulated through accounts... Not a fun job. There was a free coffee shop though, we got free beer and food constantly, and a nice little inexpensive cafeteria. Best breakfast burritos ever came out of that cafeteria. The people I worked with, with one exception, were all great. Yahoo wasn't too bad, just that job was not something one should do for a long period of time. It drains your soul and faith in humanity.
I only just discovered your channel like two weeks ago, and was sad to see that you don't have all that many videos. I've already gone through them all, so I'm like a kid on Christmas when you put out a new one. Freaking love channels like this, keep up the good work! And in relation to the video, it makes me happy to see someone giving F.E.A.R (mainly the first one) the credit it deserves. Such an underrated shooter that is still more fun, more challenging, and more competently designed than many shooters today. It's amazing that we have enemy A.I in 2015 that pale in comparison to that found in the first game. Definitely one of my all time favorite shooters. 2 and 3 not so much, but decent games with their own merits.
Cheers good sir, i love every video you release, the quality and research you put into EVERYTHING is astoundingly impressive. Its a pleasure sitting back and listening to a thorough retrospective on any franchise. A TON more people need to see your channel! Keep up the great work!
Honestly, looking back to the franchise, the more surprising thing is not that the franchise went to shit, but instead that FEAR 1 was a really solid game. There's very little to FEAR besides gunning down soldiers in empty hallways, so the fact that they were able to give it enough magic to make it work it's actually pretty surprising in retrospect. And once that little magic was lost in the sequels it put focus on the empty shooter it should have been
Just wanted to applaud your writing instincts on this one. The 2:02 "didn't you say this game was clever?" line came at the *exact* moment my eyes were glazing over and I was thinking 'eh, maybe I should watch another video'. Good job.
And the weapons are absolutely amazing. While some take obvious inspiration from real world weapons, others like the repeater cannon are incredible fun to mess with.
I still remember specific moments from my first playthrough of F.E.A.R 1. I wasn't ready for such an intense first player shooter experience. The combat, gore, horror and intensity was so much more polished and gripping than anything else. I still remember playing the elevator section where quite a few regular soldiers and a few of those huge dudes all come out of elevators (were they waiting in there or did they literally all arrive at the same time? Idk, ghosts) at the same time and it's a goddamn intense gunfight. I remember lobbing a grenade over a desk towards them and when it blew up, a ton of blood along with an arm flew up and sloppily fell on the desk then the ground in front of me. That was just a moment where I was like "Holy shit, this game is so intense, and SO FUCKIN DOPE. " lol
DukeoftheAges That is a wave game, are you seriosuly trying to compare AI in a wave surivival game with a normal FPS? Yes, they are bad because they are programmed to rush you.
An important thing to note about that IGN review was that I remember him being much more positive about the games' multiplayer component than the singl... I mean co-op mode. The multiplayer was actually fantastic, F**king run was a completely original and incredibly fun mode which is an inverse of the typical horde mode that was really popular at the time. Instead of holding up in a building fighting off waves of enemies, you run from a giant death wall while being thrown into those same waves of enemies. It feels like you're in a meat grinder, desperately and terrifyingly pushing your way through heaps of garbage in an attempt to escape. I really enjoyed it, while the co-op was a tangled mess of tired cliches, the multiplayer was actually unique. It's a shame the servers are dead now. :(
Dalton Siler I might be mistaken but I don't recall having bullet-time in multiplayer. The first one I remember doing it in a competitive sense was Max Payne 3, which had enemies looking at you go into slow motion instead of the everyone in the entire match. I'm probably mistaken on that as well however.
Cero Ashura Yep, very similar actually. Monolith developed, first game very charismatic and interesting, second game a disaster with fucking Dragonball Z powers.
Cero Ashura It certainly had it's moments, that rabid bear chase was pretty great, and it improved some aspects of the design. But overall, I hated it.
***** The power didn't show up untill the last 3 chapters. It was also heavily implied to exist in the first game. We all knew Ethan's voicebox had something strange going on for it. The character redesign was really solid. Atleast Rosa stopped being a porker, as expected of FBI-esque agents.
Cero Ashura It's easy to tell that Condemned 2 and FEAR 2 were made in the same era and with the same "action-packed sequel" mentality. I actually recall reading somewhere that FEAR 2's final fight scene would have implemented a "psychic scream" attack, but due to rushed development this was disregarded. The emphasis on action made more sense in FEAR, though, since it already was a frenetic shooter while Condemned lent itself better to a slower, methodical pace.
For some reason, your videos have become my “next auto play.” I’ve always enjoyed your writing, but binging on you - man, you are a hell of a writer. You see something in games - their loops, their potential, their strengths and shortcomings - that I cannot see. Well, could not see. I don’t have any desire to play any of these, but I definitely up for another of your meditations.
Great discussion and great video. It's a shame that such an outstanding game with promise to be a great franchise slowly dwindled into a forgettable experience. FEAR 2 was a different but welcome experience that was fun in its own right, but failed to live up to the original. FEAR 3 was, as you stated, absolutely awful. There was one outstandingly terrifying level in the department store with the static TV maze, but that's about it. Gameplay and story stupidity aside, the addition of STICKY COVER in a FIRST PERSON SHOOTER was mystifying. It really did seem like they set out to extract good ideas from other games in isolation (co-op campaign, memorable missions, score challenges, etc) and put them together in a package that was less than the sum of its parts with the FEAR branding on it. It's almost akin to Call of Duty making a basketball game.
F.E.A.R. 3 was the nail in the coffin for the series. F.E.A.R. Online was a couple of graverobbers breaking open the casket and stealing its gold fillings. Great review as always, Noah. Although I'm sure you're tired of requests by now, I'd like to throw in a suggestion for either the Max Payne or Hitman games, if I could.
Imbacore What I also can't stand in ANY franchise, not just this one, is how much the Coop is forced uppon us. If you want a COOP game, make a coop game. But never capitalize uppon a pre-existing title to sell your coop game better. It will only ruin the title.
***** I had no qualms about that. I think it would have been perfectly okay IF they kept the theme found in the first game. I wrote a review about it: imbacore.blogspot.com/2011/07/fear-3-review-players-feedback.html
Imbacore Nice and in depth review and I definately agree for the most part. And as a casual gamer myself I can definately support those points. However, I'm not just a casual gamer but also a FEAR fan. And as a FEAR fan this game is definately an insult because of it's misguided and uninspired attempts. Even in a vacuum this game is not even scary when it tries to be. If there is one word that could describe this game it would be "forced".
***** Yep, I attacked that bit too and even was fortunate to have captured a screen where Fettel was doing a thumbs down at those canine spirit thingamajigs. My caption reads: "Even Paxton gives the game's horror aspects a thumbs-down." And yes, for the most part, the co-op modes do entertain but the co-op campaign mode really destroyed FEAR 3. Here's an excerpt from my review: "Unfortunately the above features do introduce several problems. The 'Divergent Co-op' and the 'Favorite Son' systems necessitate that the campaign be short enough so that two players can finish a playthrough at a reasonable amount of time. There’s just little point in the latter if players make the campaign an on-and-off affair; chances are, later sessions will be played with different friends, making the system a detached, impersonal event. Thus, FEAR 3 is only 4-7 hours long, depending on the difficulty and the gameplay preferred by the participating players---players who prefer a run-and-gun style while playing on 'Easy' should blaze through the campaign while tactically-inclined, cover-hugging players on 'Insane' would beat the playthrough in 7-8 hours. Compared to its prequels, FEAR 3’s cut-down campaign is a jarring shock."
Fear 3 left a weird taste for me after playing it, but I did find some enjoyment while playing Fettel. This has nothing to do with being a FEAR game though. I started to see a patters in newly released games that are supposed to be part of a pre-existing franchise. One of the most common things that ruins a franchise is coop. The first FEAR game was subtle. It made the paranormal moments all the more memorable. The story is only told if the player wants it to be told, which I always did. I like exploration and uncovering conspiracy. The AI is also the reason why I rarely find a game so fun to play like this one. The graphics also still hold up even to this day. Extraction Point was the logical next step. There was no more conspiracy to uncover, no more secrets to look for, no story to be told. It was only about survival. It it sure delivered some memorable moments. Still, I missed the search for answers and conspiracy from the main game. But the bigger focus on the horror made up for it. Perseus Mandate brought back the search for answers, but it was uninspired and unfulfilling. Retelling the same story didn't help either. Still it had some good moments and I still had a good time playing this game. FEAR 2 basically took the first addon, mixed it with the second, while actually continuing the story. When it comes to uncovering secrets, I preferred the phone massages and notebooks from the original game, but reading notes was fine too. The action didn't feel the same as it did in the original game and the addons, but had it's own merit and it was still enjoyable. It didn't know how to properly use the horror most of the time though. Reborn was cool, but way too damn short. Which is why it left a sense of disappointment for me. But nowhere near as disappointing as the apparent finale. FEAR 3 was in the wrong hands. And the story, characters and gameplay suffered from this. As I explained above, adding coop kills a franchise. It's a fate that I've seen other franchises suffer from aswell. F3AR uses the branding elements of FEAR and the action gameplay focus of Call of Duty games to sell itself. This way it was at least a solid shooter that can be played once in a while. And like I said, Fettel is fun to play. However, as an entry in the FEAR franchise it's insulting. Horror is also used wrong. Horror is supposed to be subtle in order to be effective. It's supposed to go under your skin. Extraction Point used FEAR's horror approach and doubled it. Perseus Mandate halfed it, which is why it's less effective. FEAR 2 is trying to be cool rather than being scary and it sure was cool. Yet there is still a sense of subtlety. Fear 3 however is trying to be scary by being too bloody and goes over the top and in your face. My FEAR scale would be the following: FEAR 10/10 Extraction Point 9/10 FEAR 2 Project Origin 8/10 Perseus Mandate 7/10 FEAR 3 5/10
Man, I love that your channel has been seeing so much success. Your style of video is rare in the field of games critics, even among youtube critics, and it's been a real joy to watch the channel grow over the last year or so. Your videos are so fair too, you give genuine praise whenever even the worst games do something right. It's really refreshing to see.
Noah, you make the most informative and intriguing gaming videos on UA-cam. The effort you put into these shows and honestly your channel kicks the crap out of almost all other gaming channels. Considering the level of detail, its amazing you put out videos as often as you do. Keep it up!
FO4 AI and damage model are shit! New Vegas actually packed a punch, shoot a raider with a .50 and his chest will EXPLODE! But in FO4 they just take bullets like its nothing and run at you like retards.
To be fair this is Bethesda we are talking about. They may be good environmental designers but they can't code good AI (or collision detection for that matter. Lost count how many times my shots got blocked by absolutely nothing) to save their lives.
Noah, I know you are a real world man with real world responsibilities - but Jesus Christ! I could watch these in-depth reviews every day. Keep up the good work!
Monolith has been one of my favorite developers since NOLF. Even today I really respect enjoy the Mordor games. FEAR is a game a come back to at least once a year if not more. Great video
I am more than happy to support you on Patreon, Noah. I've been following you since your first 2 videos and I've loved the quality of the content you produce ever since. I'll be getting paid tomorrow Thursday, so count me in, dude.
Vitalii Vlasov along with Al Russel, all those people make up my 'Primetime' collection. UA-cam just announced they're removing it too, so RIP easy access to fantastic games analysts. edit: also check out Cee Marshall. reminds me of Btongue quite a bit
Congrats on moving on from the pizzeria! I hope you have a truly smooth and comfortable transition. I appreciate these videos a lot. Fortunately for me we play a lot of the same series it would seem, so I'm not going to bother leaving a request. Good luck brother!
The best part of the video was when you said you left your pizza job to do this full-time. That is absolutely fantastic! Not to say stable jobs are the worst, but it's great to know if you can sustain yourself making content that you enjoy. F.E.A.R. was an absolute favorite of mine. Though I never got around to playing 2 or 3, the 1st game and its expansions were solid enough to make me excited any time someone discussed the franchise. While it's nice to know I didn't miss out on much with the 3rd game, it sucks that such a memorable franchise for me became such a self-defeating mess. Awesome work as always!
I find it so weird how there are videos and trailers for the fear games that have millions of views, but the games are rarely brought up now anymore, which is sad because they're good games (except the 3rd game)
being a huge fan of the first FEAR(plus extraction point.. which to me, is where fear ends) I saw this video and thought "an hour long video of some dude talking about the fear franchise? i'll probably make to the 15 minute mark before moving on to some videos of fat people falling down". but I stand corrected, I watched the entire video, and enjoyed it immensely. I have no idea why.. I already had a fair comprehension of the franchise, having played all the games multiple times, paying attention to every little detail.. but I guess I like seeing what other people have to say about it.. and your take on it was very concise. plus, it gave me something to watch while I ate my pizza at 5am.
I honestly sympathized with Alma in the original FEAR. She has an honestly tragic back story that I felt was well communicated in FEAR's listening-to-office-phone-calls way. Honestly, this game series would have been so much better if went beyond her to other threats or actually committed to treating her like an apocalyptic presence. Instead, she turns into this ghost/not-ghost that runs around stalking some dude and and dying from childbirth, because a ghost/not-ghost dying from childbirth is a thing.
This is the first time I have watched one of your videos and I have to say your presentation was awesome. You got to the point without rambling but still took time to make sure we (the viewers) understood what you were talking about. Also your voice is great for this kind of thing.
I love your commentary. It's well thought out yet spoken understandably, and just when some people might start to feel bogged down by the wording you dumb things down into one sentence, sometimes even a quote from the game, that sums up what you elaborated on so well I just want to keep listening. I try to do that when I talk to people and while I'm not saying I'm bad at it you handle it so well in your reviews and retrospectives I just can't help but comment on how well implemented the humor is. Another well made video, Noah.I'll be waiting patiently for the next.
"F.E.A.R 2 wants to be cool way more than it wants to be scary; WAY more". That's the same problem that has spread through countless other horror franchises in gaming. Dead Space, Resident Evil, Silent Hill and the list goes on; so many AAA franchises butchered into action fests to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. You know the genre is in trouble when the best horror experiences in gaming are confined to indie games like Slender and Amnesia.
I realize this is hardly related, but this video reminded me a bit of how Crysis changed over time. Original game was solid and had a lot of good ideas, it got a decent expansion but then subsequent installments moved away from what made the original work so well, and the series sort of lost its identity. Would be interesting to see you take a look at those games.
All of your insights are really great to listen to while I'm at the warehouse unloading packages from trailers. I learn quite a bit about the aspects and aesthetics of games from your work. Thank you so much.
Ok, so my dad was a producer on FEAR and a director of development on FEAR 2. From what he has told me, the reason FEAR 2 is more of an action focused game is because the lead level designer had a lot power over the project. To elaborate, I'm going to have to circle back to FEAR and explain so of what was going on during development. See, the lead designer and the lead producer were very much inspired by half-life. So they wanted to have FEAR be paced and structured in the organic way that Half-life was. However, the lead level designer was inspired by games such as Gears of War, games that were more cinematic and directed experiences. This lead to them fighting, to the point that they could barely even work together. This is partly both why A) the dlcs were given to different studios,and B) Why the level design of the first game is more limited. When FEAR 2 came along, the lead level designer got to have more power over the project, resulting in him being able to create the more directed, action focused game that he wanted. Moral of the story: Political infighting can tear apart projects if you are not careful
FEAR 1 looks right up my alley, thanks for the recommendation! (Though I wish I could buy it by itself instead of in some big "FEAR Franchise" pack on Steam)
I haven't watched this yet, but the level of excitement I have because you're covering this series surprised even myself. I always look forward to your videos!
I had to say that, if it weren't for you, i'll never had think about re-buying F.E.A.R or ever play the sequel. Thanks Noah, that was a really good overall analisis of the franchise.
Ugh the visuals in FEAR 1 are still fucking awesome, the gunplay is just amazing with all the particle effects and the way bodies react when hit by bullets.
A modern rerelease of FEAR would be it's only real chance of returning in any form. I really liked the original FEAR particularly for its world building and aesthetics. You say they were drab, I found them pretty interesting dispite the simplicity, the architectual attention to detail and level design really made the game memorable for me. The moody atmosphere of the urban decay levels were amazing, it felt like an actual, abandoned city block left to rot now crawling with clone soldiers and a creepy ghost girl. With stuff like the phone recordings and visual references it dots around, it built a nice world, an intiguing horror sci fi world that I wish could be expanded upon properly, but it never did. Fear 2 wasnt bad but it kinda took away the eerie subtleness the first one had. and about Fear 3, hey the mech sections were good, at least! I kinda wish those mech piloting mechanics were made as its own game instead.
You should've mentioned F.E.A.R. Combat imo. Anyway good vid, well put. The original F.E.A.R. is so good, I still love it, I wish I could erase my memory to replay it again like the first time I did.
Noah, I'd love to see some casual vlog-style videos similar to PBS Game/Show's "thoughts on". I know you may not have the camera equipment to optimally do those kind of projects, but I'd love to hear your perspective on gaming developments. In the mean-time, I love you're work and I hope you find well deserved success with YT/Patreon. Best wishes
I heavily recommend playing the first game on the hardest difficulty setting without slomo (unbind the key) It's one of the most outrageously satisfying experiences I have had in all my gaming years. It's a monolithic testament to how well crafted all of it's elements are. Fourteen years on and only a handful of shooters can match it's quality.
Glad to hear you're working harder on your channel, and thanks for doing FEAR man! I love these games, and I was eager to hear a thoughtful retrospective on it!
Once again, quality work. I remember playing F.E.A.R. back when it came out. It was such an incredibly moody and dark game, nothing I had encountered before. I never picked up the later titles, and it's sad to see the franchise go down the drain so hard. Anyway, good job on the video! Waiting eagerly for your next one.
Excellent. I just replayed the series over the past 2 years and thought about doing a video on them. I liked how you linked that paper by Jeff Orkin as well. Fascinating stuff.
That's great news about you being able to do this full time now, can't wait to follow your hopefully very successful career in game critiques/reviews/whatever the fuck you decide to do, honestly I'd watch anything you put out.
This is going to make my sunday morning. Your videos are very entertaining, educational and are well thought out. Thank you for that, please keep doing this! =D
Congrats man! I really enjoy your content. you really put a lot of effort into this and it shows. No one on the entirety of youtube will cover an entire series in such in depth detail as you do. On top of that, you make sure the info or personal opinion is contextual and relevant... you don't just list everyone who worked on it and what their mothers do for a living lol. I've been a huge fan of mostly all of the games you've covered and I still ended up learning a lot. I can't afford to do any patreon help but I am a musician with semi frequent access to a recording studio. I'd like some jams and tunes for maybe an intro or outro peice for your videos. Would that be something you'd be interested in? I won't ask for any money or anything like that. I know how unreasonable and aggravating it is to find music that's not copyright claimed so we can make one that's drm free. Just an idea :/ Sorry for the rambling on lol. Congrats again on the independence and I can't wait to see some more of your work. Oh and also, do you have a list of series' or ip's you're going to do videos on? Primarily horror stuff is my sort of thing. The guys over at Twin Perfect did the best Silent Hill documentary I've ever seen
Coming back to this, I think one of the franchise's missteps was fixating on the Alma Wade stuff after the first game. The story of Alma, the evil corporation, the clones, and Alma's offspring was thoroughly told in the first game (and to a certain extent the expansions). In my view, FEAR needed to return to find new stories to tell. It's especially galling, because the very premise of the original game _invites_ being about more than one specific spooky ghost girl. The F.E.A.R. team was designed to be a special forces team that deals with the supernatural. Which implies there was enough spooky stuff happening in the world of FEAR to justify the team's existence. Subsequent games should have been about other missions, other antagonists, other spooks. Make it about more than just the same story retread over and over.
Thank you so much for addressing the A.I. in the first game, I'm always shocked by how realistically they react to situations when I play it, they really are a technical achievement.
The thing that pisses me off most about Fear 3 is probably its sheer disdain for Fear 2 - tongue barely in cheek - it kills the protag from that game in ridiculously gory fashion, it somehow thought it was undoing the damage that game did to the franchise... while killing the fucking franchise as it did it. I don't understand that ridiculous level of hubris with so little to back it up. Fear 1 was not done justice by ANY of its sequels.
I played through the third game Cooperatively with a friend and I had quite a lot of fun in that, neither of us played through the first two to completion but I'm pretty sure that helped to make our experience in the third game better. I feel really bad for anyone who kept an eye on the series from the first game onwards, they just sat back and watched the series nosedive from well-done horror and genuinely intense combat to.. whatever Fear 3 (Or F.3.A.R.) turned into. But like I said in the first paragraph I had some fun with it, the gameplay mechanics with Fettel were fun to play around with. If the game wasn't set in the Fear series I think it could've been a lot better. They could've abandoned the whole Alma raping your character thing from the second game and done something that was less ridiculous instead. But thanks for the retrospective Noah, I thoroughly enjoyed it! I would *love* to see a retrospective on the Dead Space series sometime!
A friend and I played FEAR 3 just because we love the FEAR games so much. It was dumb. Incredibly dumb. The fun we had was how ridiculous the campaign is when you have 2 people playing. Whoever thought FEAR needed Co-op was a fucking idiot. Any tension the game could've had is ruined when my friend is next to me slide kicking shit and making me laugh. There was a moment in FEAR 3 where there is a "creepy" baby carriage sitting in the middle of a hallway making creepy crying baby noises. My friend then did a slide kick into it and launched it at Mach 5 into the wall. While I found it to be completely hilarious it ruins any kind of tension the game could even have had. And holy shit were you so right about the Rio de Janeiro level. It was so bad and not even CLOSE to what a FEAR game should be. We didn't even end up finishing the game. It went from mild fun to just boring tedium. Thank you so much for doing this video though Noah! The first FEAR is still one of my favorite shooters ever and as always your Retrospectives are fantastically done! Can not wait until your next video!
LovablePWNER "There was a moment in FEAR 3 where there is a "creepy" baby carriage sitting in the middle of a hallway making creepy crying baby noises. My friend then did a slide kick into it and launched it at Mach 5 into the wall" I'm fucking dead hahahha
***** I get ya man. I just think the lighting and the atmosphere were better in the first game. I do think FEAR 2 is fun but the one thing that I selfishly don't like is how wimpy they made the shotgun feel in FEAR 2. That FEAR 1 shotgun was such a beast and it just is not as good in FEAR 2.
"Thanks to everyone, I was able to leave the pizzeria I worked at for a long time. I'm doing this full time, now."
Probably one of the most heartwarming phrases I've heard on UA-cam.
You missed a golden opportunity to use F.E.A.R. as a acronym for Franchise Examination And Retrospective. I expected better from you Mr. Gervais.
***** When possible, I always preference references to former Presidents.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais Okay a Frankie Roosevelt reference gets you off the hook this time.
The Jovian this is too much hahaha
@@broadcaststsatic Ask not what Donkey Kong Country can do for you...
@@Ventilator313 r o f l
My favorite thing about FEAR is some of the accidental worldbuilding done through throwaway dialogue lines. The best is probably in the briefing of the first game. When Betters, your commanding officer, describes the "military clones led by a psychic commander", your squad lead Jankowski interjects with "This is why no one takes us seriously. _Military clones?_" As if mass cloning of soldiers is more outlandish than psychic powers in this world. When combined with the one-line intro stating FEAR was formed to "combat paranormal threats to national security", it seems to imply that psychic powers are a recognized, real (if uncommon) thing in FEAR's world, something which goes utterly unremarked by the rest of the game. It's a fascinating implication that serves as the entrance to a rabbit hole of speculation about what society in FEAR's world looks like. I'd imagine it's almost like a precursor to Shadowrun, if Armacham's borderline megacorp status is any indication.
Y'know, what's sad is that the first FEAR game worked just fine on consoles. They didn't need to slow it down for the sequels.
The first F.E.A.R. plays fine in the 360, F.E.A.R. Files struggles a bit. I only play the franchise in the 360 btw
@@MrTheclassicsgames I had a great time with the games on 360, too :D
@@MrTheclassicsgames wtf is fear files?
38:42 Ooh boy when he finishes listing all the good reviews and then starts ramping up how much he disagrees... I get so hyped. Then you look at the video chapters in the description and see Fear 3 has the longest by far... Hooo boy you know something good's about go do down
it deserved it.
The fear 3 and fear online segments are probably the funniest bits on this channel. Hearing someone point out all the ridiculous decisions in those games is just great lol
"It not only fails as a game, it fails as software" is probably one of the best insults aimed at video games I ever heard in my life.
In the MandaloreGaming review for F.E.A.R.2:
_"Beckett is no more a character than the syringe that gave Alma her first two kids.."_
*GAH-DAYUM*
You are by far the finest video game reviewer I have seen on UA-cam. Actually, in my opinion, on the internet. And I have seen most. The depth of your content always entertains and enlightens me and even when I disagree with you-which is not too often-I find you support your opinions solidly. It's not just a series of pointless adjectives. Excellent work, Noah. I look forward to seeing new videos from you every time I log on.
Over the past few years I've realized so may "critique" channels are absolute fluff that I'd put on in the background. These are video essays. Truly
Edit:spellling
I think I liked Mandalores idea of what the F.E.A.R games shouldve been. The Fear team itself (ironically the element that takes the back seat despite being the literal title) dealing with various supernatural elements throughout the world, with nods to armachams dealings and even alma her self creeping up here and there as shes linked with the player. The supernatural is something unknown and also untapped in videogames, we couldve dealt with ghosts, vampires ect without it being schlocky or even a Hellboy ripoff, but Alma became the be all end all of everything in the world. To me canonically, most of the Fear team died in Extraction point, you'd get a new squad and could go from there.....
I'd honestly love a reboot of FEAR. Just start from scratch, and not let anyone involved with F3AR anywhere near it.
+A Jaded Lizard Starting from scratch would bean that even the good entries in the series would be retconned. I don't want this to happen. Fear 2 was basically a reboot that retconned the addons of the first game. Fear 3 seemed to not give a damn about what Reborn did. There are two possiblities where I would like the series to be rebooted. Don't touch the first game and continue from the addons. Or don't touch the first and second game and continue from the DLC (for real this time). In any case, remove F3AR from the series and make a REAL FEAR 3.
From which point would you rather have FEAR continue?
*****
Honestly, I'd rather they take the approach Capcom did with Resident Evil; they remade the first game in 2002 so it better tied in with the sequels. I'd love it if they remade FEAR with more modern graphics and combat (like iron sights; leave the AI alone though). I agree, I can't really think of anything I'd change for either game, but I'd like it if they restored some of the cut content from the first game (you can see a lot of this on the wiki) as well as retconning the expansions into the main game (PERSUES Mandate just works with the others, and you can handwave Extraction Point as being one giant hallucination, which is honestly the only way it makes sense anyway).
I would prefer it if there was a fan made sequal to fear 2 that took a diffrent direction than what was done with F3AR. Stokes remarks that "I hope its not one of those horror movie things were she reads your mind and uses your darkest fears against you". That begs the question...was stokes REALLY shot at the end and was Alma REALLY pregnant..or was that all a halucination. They also forgot that one of the intel items you pick up states that if you dont fully charge the machine before engaging the system theres a telepathic power surge that could kill anyone in the room.
Yes and no. I'd really like to know what Monolith had planned to do in FEAR 3, since it can't possibly have been as bad as the actual game.
I'd rather start from the beginning and flesh some things out, as well as strengthen continuity between FEAR and Project ORIGIN (such as having DEN MOTHER in contact with HARBINGER for the first portion of game). I'd also like to make it a bit more clear Alma is manipulating Fettel into getting revenge on her own family (there's no reasoFo to kill Alice, who genuinely didn't know anything; I'd like him to be genuinely confused and lost when you kill him as it finally dawns on him he's just been a pawn when the Point Man finally kills him). I'd also use Holiday, Pasilaqua (or however you spell that dude's name), Jin, and Manny more than they were in their respective games.
For FEAR, my idea would be a more "complete" campaign tying into both DLCs: Jankowski is partnered with you for a lot longer and you also fight alongside both DELTA personnel and ATC Security in a few missions (I had an idea for a new character in that role who's been protecting the staff at ATC headquarters from the Replica forcing attacking the building; he's slowly starting to figure our what's going on but isn't antagonistic). FEAR Bravo team is introduced after the Black Ops soldiers murder Aldus Bishop but rather than having a stand alone campaign the game just alternates between them from that point on, with Bravo team managing to be extracted near the end of the game and the epilogue cutscene mentioning their desire to go back into Fair Port to rescue other survivors. You can tie Extraction Point into the end game of the campaign by shortening it a bit and making Fettel more obviously a puppet of Alma rather than his own person at that point. (That way, Reborn makes a lot more sense). At the end of the game, the Point Man is rescued by Pasilaqua, only for him to be killed by Black Ops soldiers under Vanek, who take the Point Man prisoner.
FEAR 2 would still overlap briefly with the first game and you'd actually play one mission from the perspective of Beckett alongside Bravo Team early in the game. Honestly, I feel like FEAR 2 stands on its own very well, so I wouldn't make many changes to its campaign, apart from making Foxtrot 813 a playable character in-game, and having you fight enemies other than ATC and Replicas (I like the idea of the first game featuring Bravo fighting alongside Fair Port PD and the regular Army, since it mentions both were present). As Beckett, you'd encounter what looks like a Replica Civil War, which is in reality Foxtrot slowly coming into his own as Paxton Fettel 2.0, and his soldiers are ultimately able to wipe out Alma's Replicas, due in part to her fixation on Becket himself. For this game I'd expand the back stories of Dark Signal, giving each soldier more personality (and remove some ambiguous things, like making Keagan a legitimate dick rather than his spotty characterization from the game).
FEAR 3 would scrap the entire idiotic co-op mechanic from F3AR, and remove Fettel as a playable character. The campaign would shift between different characters: Beckett, who escapes from an ATC-run prison facility alongside Holiday before linking up with Bravo Team (both thought they were rescuing the Point Man), the Point Man himself (who has escaped ATC on his own and is beginning to manifest powers similar to his mother and brother), and Stokes, who has been captured by Alma and is more or less trapped between worlds as a result. I haven't thought much beyond planning, but this is more or less how I'd tell the story.
A Jaded Lizard
He ate his victims in order to "learn their secrets". He didn't kill Alice Wade for the fun of it, he was in the process of eating her to gain more information (which is how he knew about the task force conducting the research on Auburn)
I loved FEAR and FEAR 2.
I know a lot of people didn't like FEAR 2, but I did enjoy it.
"it's not post apocalyptic is ghost apocalyptic" genius
It's wonderful that you can do this full time!
***** Wonder if the pizza place was even any good.
fartzinwind I wonder if he spat in his last order.
fartzinwind Actually, for a pizza job, it was great. The general manager was this guy named Jim, and Jim had worked *at that exact location* for 26 years-- he knew damn well the job was tedious and awful, he hated it too, but they paid him almost 100k a year for his expertise so he had the golden handcuffs on. That was his managerial style, though-- "Do the job I pay you for and I'll never make you pretend to like it." And we got to listen to whatever music we wanted over the stereo-- I used to make nine hour playlists and soundtrack my whole shift.
Being respected as a human being makes a bad job tolerable, and even if it was a shitty job, it was a great employer. And I got cash tips every week and a couple hours paid vacation every check (which piles up after a while).
Oh, and it's delicious pizza. I ate it literally every day for almost five years and still like it.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais Wow! I work a shitty convenience store job that's almost the precise opposite of that. I hope I can break free and do something compelling someday soon.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais I relate to jobs being tolerable because the people you are with. I worked in Yahoo! Mail abuse. There isn't much lower than dealing with thousands of email reports of He said She said arguments over wooden nickles, someone dropping an F bomb, or Harry Potter. Occasionally we also had to investigate child porn being circulated through accounts... Not a fun job. There was a free coffee shop though, we got free beer and food constantly, and a nice little inexpensive cafeteria. Best breakfast burritos ever came out of that cafeteria. The people I worked with, with one exception, were all great. Yahoo wasn't too bad, just that job was not something one should do for a long period of time. It drains your soul and faith in humanity.
I only just discovered your channel like two weeks ago, and was sad to see that you don't have all that many videos. I've already gone through them all, so I'm like a kid on Christmas when you put out a new one. Freaking love channels like this, keep up the good work!
And in relation to the video, it makes me happy to see someone giving F.E.A.R (mainly the first one) the credit it deserves. Such an underrated shooter that is still more fun, more challenging, and more competently designed than many shooters today. It's amazing that we have enemy A.I in 2015 that pale in comparison to that found in the first game. Definitely one of my all time favorite shooters. 2 and 3 not so much, but decent games with their own merits.
Visually, this game looks like the prerendered cutscenes you'd find in PS1 era games.
And I love it.
+P4INKiller spot on, m8
Look no further than the first Dino Crisis videoclips
+P4INKiller It is a game that looks good from a distance, so long as you don't get up too close and look too long, it will treat ya good.
Cheers good sir, i love every video you release, the quality and research you put into EVERYTHING is astoundingly impressive.
Its a pleasure sitting back and listening to a thorough retrospective on any franchise.
A TON more people need to see your channel!
Keep up the great work!
Honestly, looking back to the franchise, the more surprising thing is not that the franchise went to shit, but instead that FEAR 1 was a really solid game. There's very little to FEAR besides gunning down soldiers in empty hallways, so the fact that they were able to give it enough magic to make it work it's actually pretty surprising in retrospect. And once that little magic was lost in the sequels it put focus on the empty shooter it should have been
Just wanted to applaud your writing instincts on this one. The 2:02 "didn't you say this game was clever?" line came at the *exact* moment my eyes were glazing over and I was thinking 'eh, maybe I should watch another video'. Good job.
I'm glad more people are mentioning the STALKER series in these comments sections. That would make a splendid Genre Orphans video.
I'm still playing FEAR 1 because it was indeed epic, the gunfights were excellent.
And the weapons are absolutely amazing. While some take obvious inspiration from real world weapons, others like the repeater cannon are incredible fun to mess with.
I still remember specific moments from my first playthrough of F.E.A.R 1. I wasn't ready for such an intense first player shooter experience. The combat, gore, horror and intensity was so much more polished and gripping than anything else. I still remember playing the elevator section where quite a few regular soldiers and a few of those huge dudes all come out of elevators (were they waiting in there or did they literally all arrive at the same time? Idk, ghosts) at the same time and it's a goddamn intense gunfight. I remember lobbing a grenade over a desk towards them and when it blew up, a ton of blood along with an arm flew up and sloppily fell on the desk then the ground in front of me. That was just a moment where I was like "Holy shit, this game is so intense, and SO FUCKIN DOPE. " lol
F.E.A.R has better A.I than many, many "modern" games...
***** actually... yes, well damn.. that is true, maybe Unreal Tournament bots come close, but they are nowhere nearly as adaptive.
+wizzzer1337 FEAR still has best gunplay I've ever seen in a FPS game. Killing Floor 2 might finally surpass it though.
Can you give an example other than COD or battlefield.
kf2 is pretty damn bad.
DukeoftheAges
That is a wave game, are you seriosuly trying to compare AI in a wave surivival game with a normal FPS? Yes, they are bad because they are programmed to rush you.
An important thing to note about that IGN review was that I remember him being much more positive about the games' multiplayer component than the singl... I mean co-op mode.
The multiplayer was actually fantastic, F**king run was a completely original and incredibly fun mode which is an inverse of the typical horde mode that was really popular at the time. Instead of holding up in a building fighting off waves of enemies, you run from a giant death wall while being thrown into those same waves of enemies.
It feels like you're in a meat grinder, desperately and terrifyingly pushing your way through heaps of garbage in an attempt to escape. I really enjoyed it, while the co-op was a tangled mess of tired cliches, the multiplayer was actually unique. It's a shame the servers are dead now. :(
I never played F.E.A.R 3 but wasnt it one of the first games that incorporated bullet-time in multiplayer sessions?
Dalton Siler I might be mistaken but I don't recall having bullet-time in multiplayer. The first one I remember doing it in a competitive sense was Max Payne 3, which had enemies looking at you go into slow motion instead of the everyone in the entire match. I'm probably mistaken on that as well however.
***** Killing Floor.
BeardyDuck True, but it was activated on headshots, it's not it's own mechanic, rather used to let you admire your kill.
***** Also Zed time is made for harder difficulties, you need those extra seconds to kill small shit.
Man, I would love to see a Condemned retrospective. Might be a tad too similar to your FEAR video though. Great work nonetheless.
Cero Ashura Yep, very similar actually. Monolith developed, first game very charismatic and interesting, second game a disaster with fucking Dragonball Z powers.
*****
Condemned: Blood Shot was no disaster. The game improved upon the detective parts, improved the brawling and even improved the games esthetics.
Cero Ashura It certainly had it's moments, that rabid bear chase was pretty great, and it improved some aspects of the design. But overall, I hated it.
*****
The power didn't show up untill the last 3 chapters. It was also heavily implied to exist in the first game. We all knew Ethan's voicebox had something strange going on for it.
The character redesign was really solid. Atleast Rosa stopped being a porker, as expected of FBI-esque agents.
Cero Ashura
It's easy to tell that Condemned 2 and FEAR 2 were made in the same era and with the same "action-packed sequel" mentality. I actually recall reading somewhere that FEAR 2's final fight scene would have implemented a "psychic scream" attack, but due to rushed development this was disregarded.
The emphasis on action made more sense in FEAR, though, since it already was a frenetic shooter while Condemned lent itself better to a slower, methodical pace.
For some reason, your videos have become my “next auto play.” I’ve always enjoyed your writing, but binging on you - man, you are a hell of a writer.
You see something in games - their loops, their potential, their strengths and shortcomings - that I cannot see. Well, could not see.
I don’t have any desire to play any of these, but I definitely up for another of your meditations.
Great discussion and great video. It's a shame that such an outstanding game with promise to be a great franchise slowly dwindled into a forgettable experience. FEAR 2 was a different but welcome experience that was fun in its own right, but failed to live up to the original.
FEAR 3 was, as you stated, absolutely awful. There was one outstandingly terrifying level in the department store with the static TV maze, but that's about it. Gameplay and story stupidity aside, the addition of STICKY COVER in a FIRST PERSON SHOOTER was mystifying. It really did seem like they set out to extract good ideas from other games in isolation (co-op campaign, memorable missions, score challenges, etc) and put them together in a package that was less than the sum of its parts with the FEAR branding on it.
It's almost akin to Call of Duty making a basketball game.
F.E.A.R. 3 was the nail in the coffin for the series. F.E.A.R. Online was a couple of graverobbers breaking open the casket and stealing its gold fillings. Great review as always, Noah. Although I'm sure you're tired of requests by now, I'd like to throw in a suggestion for either the Max Payne or Hitman games, if I could.
I can enjoy FEAR 3 as an action game, but that only goes so far. It's still just Call of Duty at it's core, in the FEAR setting.
***** Zactly what I thought of it. It's a good solid shooter, it has FEAR assets, but it isn't a FEAR game.
Imbacore What I also can't stand in ANY franchise, not just this one, is how much the Coop is forced uppon us. If you want a COOP game, make a coop game. But never capitalize uppon a pre-existing title to sell your coop game better. It will only ruin the title.
***** I had no qualms about that. I think it would have been perfectly okay IF they kept the theme found in the first game. I wrote a review about it: imbacore.blogspot.com/2011/07/fear-3-review-players-feedback.html
Imbacore
Nice and in depth review and I definately agree for the most part. And as a casual gamer myself I can definately support those points. However, I'm not just a casual gamer but also a FEAR fan. And as a FEAR fan this game is definately an insult because of it's misguided and uninspired attempts. Even in a vacuum this game is not even scary when it tries to be. If there is one word that could describe this game it would be "forced".
***** Yep, I attacked that bit too and even was fortunate to have captured a screen where Fettel was doing a thumbs down at those canine spirit thingamajigs. My caption reads: "Even Paxton gives the game's horror aspects a thumbs-down."
And yes, for the most part, the co-op modes do entertain but the co-op campaign mode really destroyed FEAR 3. Here's an excerpt from my review:
"Unfortunately the above features do introduce several problems. The 'Divergent Co-op' and the 'Favorite Son' systems necessitate that the campaign be short enough so that two players can finish a playthrough at a reasonable amount of time. There’s just little point in the latter if players make the campaign an on-and-off affair; chances are, later sessions will be played with different friends, making the system a detached, impersonal event. Thus, FEAR 3 is only 4-7 hours long, depending on the difficulty and the gameplay preferred by the participating players---players who prefer a run-and-gun style while playing on 'Easy' should blaze through the campaign while tactically-inclined, cover-hugging players on 'Insane' would beat the playthrough in 7-8 hours. Compared to its prequels, FEAR 3’s cut-down campaign is a jarring shock."
Noah I am extremely glad to see these coming as often as they are
I wish I had found out about you earlier, you're a really good critic and every minute of your content is top notch.
Fear 3 left a weird taste for me after playing it, but I did find some enjoyment while playing Fettel. This has nothing to do with being a FEAR game though. I started to see a patters in newly released games that are supposed to be part of a pre-existing franchise. One of the most common things that ruins a franchise is coop.
The first FEAR game was subtle. It made the paranormal moments all the more memorable. The story is only told if the player wants it to be told, which I always did. I like exploration and uncovering conspiracy. The AI is also the reason why I rarely find a game so fun to play like this one. The graphics also still hold up even to this day.
Extraction Point was the logical next step. There was no more conspiracy to uncover, no more secrets to look for, no story to be told. It was only about survival. It it sure delivered some memorable moments. Still, I missed the search for answers and conspiracy from the main game. But the bigger focus on the horror made up for it.
Perseus Mandate brought back the search for answers, but it was uninspired and unfulfilling. Retelling the same story didn't help either. Still it had some good moments and I still had a good time
playing this game.
FEAR 2 basically took the first addon, mixed it with the second, while actually continuing the story. When it comes to uncovering secrets, I preferred the phone massages and notebooks from the original game, but reading notes was fine too. The action didn't feel the same as it did in the original game and the addons, but had it's own merit and it was still enjoyable. It didn't know how to properly use the horror most of the time though.
Reborn was cool, but way too damn short. Which is why it left a sense of disappointment for me. But nowhere near as disappointing as the apparent finale.
FEAR 3 was in the wrong hands. And the story, characters and gameplay suffered from this. As I explained above, adding coop kills a franchise. It's a fate that I've seen other franchises suffer from aswell. F3AR uses the branding elements of FEAR and the action gameplay focus of Call of Duty games to sell itself. This way it was at least a solid shooter that can be played once in a while. And like I said, Fettel is fun to play. However, as an entry in the FEAR franchise it's insulting.
Horror is also used wrong. Horror is supposed to be subtle in order to be effective. It's supposed to go under your skin.
Extraction Point used FEAR's horror approach and doubled it.
Perseus Mandate halfed it, which is why it's less effective.
FEAR 2 is trying to be cool rather than being scary and it sure was cool. Yet there is still a sense of subtlety.
Fear 3 however is trying to be scary by being too bloody and goes over the top and in your face.
My FEAR scale would be the following:
FEAR 10/10
Extraction Point 9/10
FEAR 2 Project Origin 8/10
Perseus Mandate 7/10
FEAR 3 5/10
50:40 NOAH CALDWELL-GERVAIS has alerted the horde.
Man, I love that your channel has been seeing so much success. Your style of video is rare in the field of games critics, even among youtube critics, and it's been a real joy to watch the channel grow over the last year or so. Your videos are so fair too, you give genuine praise whenever even the worst games do something right. It's really refreshing to see.
Doesn't release videos that often but when he does it is done well. Excellent Video Noah
Noah, you make the most informative and intriguing gaming videos on UA-cam. The effort you put into these shows and honestly your channel kicks the crap out of almost all other gaming channels. Considering the level of detail, its amazing you put out videos as often as you do. Keep it up!
Fear's AI is still better than FO4's xD
FO4 AI and damage model are shit! New Vegas actually packed a punch, shoot a raider with a .50 and his chest will EXPLODE! But in FO4 they just take bullets like its nothing and run at you like retards.
To be fair this is Bethesda we are talking about. They may be good environmental designers but they can't code good AI (or collision detection for that matter. Lost count how many times my shots got blocked by absolutely nothing) to save their lives.
Huh? It's not supposed to be a shooter, where you aim, you hit; shots connect or miss by a dice roll, just like in any pen and paper RPG.
Noah, I know you are a real world man with real world responsibilities - but Jesus Christ! I could watch these in-depth reviews every day. Keep up the good work!
Monolith has been one of my favorite developers since NOLF. Even today I really respect enjoy the Mordor games. FEAR is a game a come back to at least once a year if not more. Great video
Have you played Blood before? It's their finest shooter in my opnion, and the most greatest pure gameplay fps ever made
I have played blood. But call me crazy its not my favorite game of theirs.@@drakep.5857
I am more than happy to support you on Patreon, Noah. I've been following you since your first 2 videos and I've loved the quality of the content you produce ever since. I'll be getting paid tomorrow Thursday, so count me in, dude.
I found this gem of a channel today and thank god
"Ghost rape is a bad idea."
> (X) Doubt
On a more serious note, hearing you say this channel helped you quit your pizza job warms my heart every time.
Noah and Matthewmatosis, saving games journalism one upload a time. Looking forward to the next upload Noah, keep it real.
***** Matthew and Noah aren't journalists. They're critics!
George Weidman of Super Bunnyhop fame is right up your alley!
El Mooo
you're both right. I went on a weidman and campster spree before seeing this new upload, so my choice of words was misplaced. Cheers!
Also Errant Signal, MrBtongue.
Vitalii Vlasov along with Al Russel, all those people make up my 'Primetime' collection. UA-cam just announced they're removing it too, so RIP easy access to fantastic games analysts.
edit: also check out Cee Marshall. reminds me of Btongue quite a bit
Congrats on moving on from the pizzeria! I hope you have a truly smooth and comfortable transition. I appreciate these videos a lot. Fortunately for me we play a lot of the same series it would seem, so I'm not going to bother leaving a request. Good luck brother!
The best part of the video was when you said you left your pizza job to do this full-time. That is absolutely fantastic! Not to say stable jobs are the worst, but it's great to know if you can sustain yourself making content that you enjoy.
F.E.A.R. was an absolute favorite of mine. Though I never got around to playing 2 or 3, the 1st game and its expansions were solid enough to make me excited any time someone discussed the franchise. While it's nice to know I didn't miss out on much with the 3rd game, it sucks that such a memorable franchise for me became such a self-defeating mess.
Awesome work as always!
I find it so weird how there are videos and trailers for the fear games that have millions of views, but the games are rarely brought up now anymore, which is sad because they're good games (except the 3rd game)
being a huge fan of the first FEAR(plus extraction point.. which to me, is where fear ends) I saw this video and thought "an hour long video of some dude talking about the fear franchise? i'll probably make to the 15 minute mark before moving on to some videos of fat people falling down". but I stand corrected, I watched the entire video, and enjoyed it immensely. I have no idea why.. I already had a fair comprehension of the franchise, having played all the games multiple times, paying attention to every little detail.. but I guess I like seeing what other people have to say about it.. and your take on it was very concise. plus, it gave me something to watch while I ate my pizza at 5am.
I honestly sympathized with Alma in the original FEAR. She has an honestly tragic back story that I felt was well communicated in FEAR's listening-to-office-phone-calls way. Honestly, this game series would have been so much better if went beyond her to other threats or actually committed to treating her like an apocalyptic presence. Instead, she turns into this ghost/not-ghost that runs around stalking some dude and and dying from childbirth, because a ghost/not-ghost dying from childbirth is a thing.
I really didn't like that outline around F.E.A.R. 2 and Reborn's HUD, I get that it's meant to be futuristic but it's just intrusive in my opinion.
I think what you said during the middle of the FEAR 3 retrospective sums that game up quite well, "Fuck that."
This is the first time I have watched one of your videos and I have to say your presentation was awesome. You got to the point without rambling but still took time to make sure we (the viewers) understood what you were talking about. Also your voice is great for this kind of thing.
I love your commentary. It's well thought out yet spoken understandably, and just when some people might start to feel bogged down by the wording you dumb things down into one sentence, sometimes even a quote from the game, that sums up what you elaborated on so well I just want to keep listening. I try to do that when I talk to people and while I'm not saying I'm bad at it you handle it so well in your reviews and retrospectives I just can't help but comment on how well implemented the humor is. Another well made video, Noah.I'll be waiting patiently for the next.
"F.E.A.R 2 wants to be cool way more than it wants to be scary; WAY more". That's the same problem that has spread through countless other horror franchises in gaming. Dead Space, Resident Evil, Silent Hill and the list goes on; so many AAA franchises butchered into action fests to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. You know the genre is in trouble when the best horror experiences in gaming are confined to indie games like Slender and Amnesia.
Slender and amnesia? Time flies so fast
I realize this is hardly related, but this video reminded me a bit of how Crysis changed over time. Original game was solid and had a lot of good ideas, it got a decent expansion but then subsequent installments moved away from what made the original work so well, and the series sort of lost its identity. Would be interesting to see you take a look at those games.
All of your insights are really great to listen to while I'm at the warehouse unloading packages from trailers. I learn quite a bit about the aspects and aesthetics of games from your work. Thank you so much.
Ok, so my dad was a producer on FEAR and a director of development on FEAR 2. From what he has told me, the reason FEAR 2 is more of an action focused game is because the lead level designer had a lot power over the project. To elaborate, I'm going to have to circle back to FEAR and explain so of what was going on during development. See, the lead designer and the lead producer were very much inspired by half-life. So they wanted to have FEAR be paced and structured in the organic way that Half-life was. However, the lead level designer was inspired by games such as Gears of War, games that were more cinematic and directed experiences. This lead to them fighting, to the point that they could barely even work together. This is partly both why A) the dlcs were given to different studios,and B) Why the level design of the first game is more limited. When FEAR 2 came along, the lead level designer got to have more power over the project, resulting in him being able to create the more directed, action focused game that he wanted. Moral of the story: Political infighting can tear apart projects if you are not careful
just found this channel and I'm binging the hell outnof it.
Me too. Not a good time to have exams when you find a channel like this.
FEAR 1 looks right up my alley, thanks for the recommendation! (Though I wish I could buy it by itself instead of in some big "FEAR Franchise" pack on Steam)
I haven't watched this yet, but the level of excitement I have because you're covering this series surprised even myself. I always look forward to your videos!
I literally laughed out loud when you mentioned Alma's "ghost contractions" in FEAR 3.
I had to say that, if it weren't for you, i'll never had think about re-buying F.E.A.R or ever play the sequel. Thanks Noah, that was a really good overall analisis of the franchise.
Ugh the visuals in FEAR 1 are still fucking awesome, the gunplay is just amazing with all the particle effects and the way bodies react when hit by bullets.
A modern rerelease of FEAR would be it's only real chance of returning in any form. I really liked the original FEAR particularly for its world building and aesthetics. You say they were drab, I found them pretty interesting dispite the simplicity, the architectual attention to detail and level design really made the game memorable for me.
The moody atmosphere of the urban decay levels were amazing, it felt like an actual, abandoned city block left to rot now crawling with clone soldiers and a creepy ghost girl. With stuff like the phone recordings and visual references it dots around, it built a nice world, an intiguing horror sci fi world that I wish could be expanded upon properly, but it never did. Fear 2 wasnt bad but it kinda took away the eerie subtleness the first one had.
and about Fear 3, hey the mech sections were good, at least! I kinda wish those mech piloting mechanics were made as its own game instead.
a remaster of FEAR could be cool, though it would have to be very carefully done
You should've mentioned F.E.A.R. Combat imo. Anyway good vid, well put. The original F.E.A.R. is so good, I still love it, I wish I could erase my memory to replay it again like the first time I did.
when he explains the plot of FEAR 2 it makes me realize its virtually the same thing as Resident Evil 2
I hope you keep making these retrospectives. Almost every one I watch makes me want to go back and play it again :)
Noah, I'd love to see some casual vlog-style videos similar to PBS Game/Show's "thoughts on". I know you may not have the camera equipment to optimally do those kind of projects, but I'd love to hear your perspective on gaming developments. In the mean-time, I love you're work and I hope you find well deserved success with YT/Patreon. Best wishes
Man, I love the effort you put in any of your videos covering every little detail without caring about the duration, keep up the good work!
I just finished the F.E.A.R. series itself and seeing this in my subscriptions list made my day, thank you for your amazing work!
I heavily recommend playing the first game on the hardest difficulty setting without slomo (unbind the key) It's one of the most outrageously satisfying experiences I have had in all my gaming years.
It's a monolithic testament to how well crafted all of it's elements are. Fourteen years on and only a handful of shooters can match it's quality.
This is one of the best channels on UA-cam, you make the world a better place
Glad to hear you're working harder on your channel, and thanks for doing FEAR man! I love these games, and I was eager to hear a thoughtful retrospective on it!
Once again, quality work. I remember playing F.E.A.R. back when it came out. It was such an incredibly moody and dark game, nothing I had encountered before. I never picked up the later titles, and it's sad to see the franchise go down the drain so hard.
Anyway, good job on the video! Waiting eagerly for your next one.
Great choice, Noah. :) Wonderful work as always. Cheers!
Excellent. I just replayed the series over the past 2 years and thought about doing a video on them. I liked how you linked that paper by Jeff Orkin as well. Fascinating stuff.
Awesome!!! As a big fan of the series it's vindicating to see someone as thorough as you pick it apart. Keep up the great work. :)
From hunted to hunter is exactly how I felt playing F.E.A.R.
Absolute classic
Watching this having finalized one of my scripts has confirmed everything I wanted to say. Excellent video!
Could you do a video for the far cry series telling how the franchise has changed with each release, in terms of game play and story telling.
That's great news about you being able to do this full time now, can't wait to follow your hopefully very successful career in game critiques/reviews/whatever the fuck you decide to do, honestly I'd watch anything you put out.
This is going to make my sunday morning.
Your videos are very entertaining, educational and are well thought out.
Thank you for that, please keep doing this! =D
Great video! I'm so glad other people appreciate this series (especially the first one) as much as I do!
Congrats man! I really enjoy your content. you really put a lot of effort into this and it shows. No one on the entirety of youtube will cover an entire series in such in depth detail as you do. On top of that, you make sure the info or personal opinion is contextual and relevant... you don't just list everyone who worked on it and what their mothers do for a living lol. I've been a huge fan of mostly all of the games you've covered and I still ended up learning a lot.
I can't afford to do any patreon help but I am a musician with semi frequent access to a recording studio. I'd like some jams and tunes for maybe an intro or outro peice for your videos. Would that be something you'd be interested in? I won't ask for any money or anything like that. I know how unreasonable and aggravating it is to find music that's not copyright claimed so we can make one that's drm free. Just an idea :/
Sorry for the rambling on lol. Congrats again on the independence and I can't wait to see some more of your work. Oh and also, do you have a list of series' or ip's you're going to do videos on? Primarily horror stuff is my sort of thing. The guys over at Twin Perfect did the best Silent Hill documentary I've ever seen
Will you do a Dead Space retrospective?
I love these retrospectives so much, you go so in depth it's scary! but so good. Keep doing these please!
What the fuck John Carpenter
Coming back to this, I think one of the franchise's missteps was fixating on the Alma Wade stuff after the first game. The story of Alma, the evil corporation, the clones, and Alma's offspring was thoroughly told in the first game (and to a certain extent the expansions). In my view, FEAR needed to return to find new stories to tell.
It's especially galling, because the very premise of the original game _invites_ being about more than one specific spooky ghost girl. The F.E.A.R. team was designed to be a special forces team that deals with the supernatural. Which implies there was enough spooky stuff happening in the world of FEAR to justify the team's existence. Subsequent games should have been about other missions, other antagonists, other spooks. Make it about more than just the same story retread over and over.
Thank you so much for addressing the A.I. in the first game, I'm always shocked by how realistically they react to situations when I play it, they really are a technical achievement.
I did not expect to get both fear 2, fear 3 AND colin moriarty dunks in the same video.
I kinda figured you'd end up doing a retrospective for FEAR. Thank goodness!
I love your videos, Noah. They're long and detailed, but they fly by.
Fear is fantastic and made for PCs primarily. Fear 2 is decent Console game but noticeably inferior to the original. Fear 3 is trash.
Can you do same retrospective video with S.T.A.L.K.E.R series ?
I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game, I'd love to see more up to date versions in future.
The thing that pisses me off most about Fear 3 is probably its sheer disdain for Fear 2 - tongue barely in cheek - it kills the protag from that game in ridiculously gory fashion, it somehow thought it was undoing the damage that game did to the franchise... while killing the fucking franchise as it did it. I don't understand that ridiculous level of hubris with so little to back it up. Fear 1 was not done justice by ANY of its sequels.
I was shocked, but I liked how fear 2 ended. It shows how innocent Alma is, and it's cute how she and Becket are now together. ^^
It's 1 am....Should I go to bed? Nope I have an hour long video game review to look at
When you said "floor ghost", I immediately thought of the Stretches from Mario.
I played through the third game Cooperatively with a friend and I had quite a lot of fun in that, neither of us played through the first two to completion but I'm pretty sure that helped to make our experience in the third game better.
I feel really bad for anyone who kept an eye on the series from the first game onwards, they just sat back and watched the series nosedive from well-done horror and genuinely intense combat to.. whatever Fear 3 (Or F.3.A.R.) turned into.
But like I said in the first paragraph I had some fun with it, the gameplay mechanics with Fettel were fun to play around with. If the game wasn't set in the Fear series I think it could've been a lot better. They could've abandoned the whole Alma raping your character thing from the second game and done something that was less ridiculous instead.
But thanks for the retrospective Noah, I thoroughly enjoyed it! I would *love* to see a retrospective on the Dead Space series sometime!
A friend and I played FEAR 3 just because we love the FEAR games so much. It was dumb. Incredibly dumb. The fun we had was how ridiculous the campaign is when you have 2 people playing. Whoever thought FEAR needed Co-op was a fucking idiot. Any tension the game could've had is ruined when my friend is next to me slide kicking shit and making me laugh. There was a moment in FEAR 3 where there is a "creepy" baby carriage sitting in the middle of a hallway making creepy crying baby noises. My friend then did a slide kick into it and launched it at Mach 5 into the wall. While I found it to be completely hilarious it ruins any kind of tension the game could even have had.
And holy shit were you so right about the Rio de Janeiro level. It was so bad and not even CLOSE to what a FEAR game should be. We didn't even end up finishing the game. It went from mild fun to just boring tedium.
Thank you so much for doing this video though Noah! The first FEAR is still one of my favorite shooters ever and as always your Retrospectives are fantastically done! Can not wait until your next video!
LovablePWNER "There was a moment in FEAR 3 where there is a "creepy" baby carriage sitting in the middle of a hallway making creepy crying baby noises. My
friend then did a slide kick into it and launched it at Mach 5 into the
wall"
I'm fucking dead hahahha
If you want to experience what ever tention this game has to offer, then play single player without coop. But temper your expectations.
***** Yeah but then I don't really think FEAR 2 was as good as FEAR 1.
***** I get ya man. I just think the lighting and the atmosphere were better in the first game. I do think FEAR 2 is fun but the one thing that I selfishly don't like is how wimpy they made the shotgun feel in FEAR 2. That FEAR 1 shotgun was such a beast and it just is not as good in FEAR 2.
***** Yeah its god awful in FEAR 3.
The first Fear is an incredibly influential FPS that didn't sell at hit numbers, just like Doom 3
Thank you for all your hard work and top notch content,man!
Your videos are my favourite things to watch on youtube!
You are awsome!