Frankly Excellent Action Romp

In a better timeline, we’d be praising F.E.A.R. for being the pivotal first-person shooter that changed the genre, becoming the template that others would try to build on or supplant for multiple console generations. Instead, that accolade went to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, leaving so much of FEAR’s systems and ideas to gathering dust . It’s crazy to think that this game just celebrated its 20th birthday; it feels as fresh and technologically impressive today as it did in 2005, and you could release it now without anyone really batting an eye.

It’s not just a pretty tech demo, though. A small but very insistent minority has been rightfully singing the praises of F.E.A.R.‘s gunplay and well-executed story for two decades now. It’s not uncommon to find at least one person chiming in to declare for F.E.A.R. when the discussion of best single-player FPS campaigns is brought up. Having now played it through for the first time? I am strongly considering adding my voice to that chorus, because no first-person shooter outside of DOOM Eternal has given me such a rush. Imagine a game where just about every combat encounter feels like the lobby shootout from The Matrix, or the teahouse shootout from John Woo’s seminal Hard Boiled. Then imagine that same game managing to perfectly balance this action hero fantasy with chilling horror that instantly puts you right back in your place, showing you just how powerless you are.

That’s F.E.A.R. It is awesome, and I love it. 

So I’m pleased to introduce it as the Skydive podcast’s episode for October 2025! Join the Skybox editing team as we dig into Monolith Productions’ FPS/Horror masterpiece, as we bullet time our way through a small army of telepathically controlled clone super soldiers while running in terror from a spooky child. Experience my shock to learn that you can replace your pistol with a different weapon first-hand, because I never thought to replace it (and probably never would, even now that I know!), as well as our collective agreement that we’re on Team Alma. As always, here’s a brief introduction from the rest of the Skydive quartet:

Brian: I first played F.E.A.R. during a time in my life when I was hungry for anything the FPS genre could give me, from the Wolvenstein reboot on 360 to Red Faction, Unreal Tournament, Metroid Prime, and Dark Forces. I got pretty far in it, but never finished it until now. Unfortunately, that means the scares didn’t land for me this time, but the thrill of running into a battle, popping slow-mo, and absolutely styling on my enemies never faded. The dual-pistols, shotgun, and Type-7 join my pantheon of the greatest guns in gaming, and Alma stands virtually alone atop a mountain of horror game characters, despite a relatively sparse number of lines and total screentime. 

I’m incredibly pleased we decided to play through it during the Halloween season, the year of its 20th anniversary. It deserves all the credit it gets, and then some. Play it and Extraction Point if you haven’t.

Lucas: I don’t like shooters much, but F.E.A.R. is one I had sought out and played on my own prior to this little exercise. I like horror, especially Japanese horror, and learning about a shooter that played with those ideas in a sort of genre mashup was intriguing. As it turns out,  F.E.A.R. is great, and while I don’t exactly have a list of great shooters, it would certainly be on it if I did. It’s a well-crafted mix of genre, both in terms of the story and how it’s presented, and the video gamey parts that define the space we’re occupying here. Check out the episode for more insights from yours truly, and the rest of this fine crew.

Will: I wrote about F.E.A.R.’s 20th anniversary, and why it remains a classic as both a horror game and a shooter, for Rolling Stone in October, so instead of repeating myself I’ll leave you with a short excerpt from that piece:

“Fear is a basic human emotion,” a voice intones in the first trailer for F.E.A.R.. “What frightens you more: the evil you know, or the evil you don’t know?” The evil you know could be a lot of things: Armacham Technology Corporation, Paxton Fettel, the clone super soldiers he commands. But the evil you don’t know is clear: Alma — the little girl in the red dress on the cover of the game. She’s the source of F.E.A.R.’s greatest frights. 

Alma may be terrifying, but she’s a victim: a child who was experimented on by a corporation and then murdered when she could no longer be controlled. Most of this isn’t spelled out in cinematics or open dialogue; it’s hidden on computer files scattered throughout the game, in voicemails, stuff that’s very easy to miss. And in the 20 years since F.E.A.R.’s release on PC, Alma is remembered as little more than the monster. She shouldn’t be — that isn’t what the game is really about.

You can read the entire thing here. If you haven’t played it, I cannot recommend F.E.A.R. (and its first expansion pack, Extraction Point) enough.

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