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F.E.A.R. does not have a huge weapons selection and you can't carry everything at once, either. You must continually make choices about which three weapons you want to carry. Should you pick the Particle Accelerator to inflict damage from afar or take your chances with the rocket launcher instead? Will you back that up with a couple of pistols or a sub-machine gun? This is actually a good thing. Each of the weapons presented does have definite advantages and disadvantages. The particle weapon is a definite long-range sniper weapon, but fairly useless up close, where the opposite is true for the shotgun. There are plenty of weapons scattered about the place so should you wish to change your selection, there are opportunities to do so.

What F.E.A.R. also offers is a small set of hand-to-hand combat moves, in case you're in the middle of reloading when enemies come upon you and a "bullet time" mode that slows down game time for a bit enabling you to get out of tricky situations. I didn't use these features a lot, but they were handy to have in reserve a few times during the game and were quite effective.

While the game is hugely atmospheric and scary, thanks to some very well done set pieces, I did have an issue with the in-game plot development. The actual plot itself is done well and the atmosphere built around that is fantastic, but there were plot threads that I don't remember leading anywhere. During the game, the main character (i.e. you) has flashbacks or visions that show what happened before you arrived and these can easily startle you.

Going back to the confusing plot threads, as part of the game, you have to investigate the headquarters of a major technology manufacturer called Armachem (it's all very "Die Hard" and plays well) and your searches around their offices reveal something about a toxic contamination of the water supply (which eventually leads you to an area called Albany), but I'm not sure what that eventually had to do with the final outcome of the game (which, if you hadn't guessed by the brief story overview and the situations in the game thus far, is paranormal).

I can't remember if I was told how this all tied in or if it simply was never pulled together or indeed if I missed finding some information, but having completed the game, I can't figure it out (unless it was just a method to go from the office to the water treatment works). The same applies to the plot threads that indicate that your background is unknown. This latter thread was

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