Creepy atmosphere and horror
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“good shooter and exceptional at creating a good horror atmosphere”
Steam review · 5 h played ↗
F.E.A.R.
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 94%Very Positive · 94%Monolith Productions, Inc., Timegate2010Horror · FPS · Action
$9.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 1 h ago · Lowest we’ve seen since Oct 20, 2026: $1.99
The verdict
A landmark horror-tinged tactical shooter whose slow-mo gunplay and squad AI still impress, but it needs community patches on modern PCs. Skip it if you dislike repetitive corridors or tinkering.
Great for
Shooter fans who want satisfying bullet-time gunfights and smart enemies, and don't mind installing fan patches
Main risk
Runs at very low FPS or crashes on modern PCs without fan patches, then gets repetitive.
What players love
Smart, tactical enemy AI
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“they take cover, create cover, move between positions, flank you, throw grenades to force you out”
Steam review · 5.4 h played ↗
Satisfying slow-mo gunplay
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“The slow motion gunplay is some of the best ever designed and Alma is creepy af.”
Steam review · 10.4 h played ↗
Holds up visually and technically
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“Played this 20 freaking years after it was released and it's still fresh as it was back in 2005.”
Steam review · 12 h played ↗
Great weapons and gore physics
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“The weapon roster alone has the best shotgun ever, best nailgun ever, best frag grenades ever, and best sci-fi beam weapon ever.”
Steam review · 9.2 h played ↗
Excellent VR mod
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews
“Interestingly enough, it seems like the VR mod runs better than the game by itself.”
Steam review · 2.8 h played ↗
What players complain about
Poor performance on modern hardware
Mentioned in ~1 in 2 negative reviews
“drops to 20 FPS after every cutscene on hardware that has 128x the RAM required, and 250x the VRAM.”
Steam review · 0.5 h played ↗
Repetitive gameplay and bland levels
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“this game has one of the most agonizingly boring gameplay loops of enter room with enemies --> shoot them all --> enter room with the least scary horror cutscene --> go to new map”
Steam review · 3.4 h played ↗
Needs fan patches to work
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“It is irresponsible of the publishers to sell a license to software that requires community made mods to use.”
Steam review · 34.2 h played ↗
Bundle-only price gouging in past
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“Game used to be seperate from the FEAR complete pack and was $10. Then warner bros made it only available in the complete pack for $55.”
Steam review · 7.5 h played ↗
Overrated AI, not actually smart
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews
“The AI is mostly about smoke and mirrors voice lines rather than complexity.”
Steam review · 9.2 h played ↗
Horror isn't scary
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews
“shouldn't be labeled horror tbh.”
Steam review · 2.6 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Unknown17 GB
Minimum
OSWindows® XP, x64 or 2000 with latest service pack installed
ProcessorPentium® 4 1.7 GHz or equivalent processor
Memory512 MB of RAM or more
Graphics64 MB GeForce™ 4 Ti or Radeon® 9000 video card; Monitor that can display in 4:3 aspect ratio
Storage17 GB free Hard Drive Space for installation; Additional hard drive space for a swap file and saved game files
Recommended
ProcessorPentium® 4 3.0 GHz or equivalent processor
Memory1 GB RAM
GraphicsA 256 MB Radeon® 9800 Pro or GeForce™ 6600 or equivalent supported
OSWindows® XP, x64 or 2000 with latest service pack installed
ProcessorPentium® 4 1.7 GHz or equivalent processor
Memory512 MB of RAM or more
Graphics64 MB GeForce™ 4 Ti or Radeon® 9000 video card; Monitor that can display in 4:3 aspect ratio
Storage17 GB free Hard Drive Space for installation; Additional hard drive space for a swap file and saved game files
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