I’ve recently started replaying F.E.A.R, one of my favourite modern first-person shooters primarily because it gets a few things amazingly right, even if it gets so many other things incredibly wrong. I may or may not talk about these things at a later date.
Right now I want to talk about its silent protagonist. These occasionally work, generally in quirky action adventures where the writers can use it as part of the humour, but in a “serious” title like F.E.A.R, the PC’s lack of communication skills just boils my butter. Instead of immersing the player in their role like it’s meant to, all it really does is force a gigantic invisible wall between them and the game.
There is a scene early on in the game, for example, where the player is suddenly hit by bizarre hallucinations (or are they!) and is confronted by the very person their team was sent to hunt down and terminate WITHOUT PREJUDICE. Does the PC ever bother saying to his pal “Yo, dude, I just saw some whacked out shit, g”? No, apparently it wasn’t worth mentioning.
But Mister Freeman takes the cake, which I assure you is not a lie (ha ha, that was a reference to Portal!) He consistently demonstrates blatant anti-social behaviour, showing absolutely no compassion or providing support when people need it the most, especially towards Alyx, opting to throw things at her head instead.
But the clincher for me actually happened early on in the game when I came across a Resistance outpost. It had been attacked by the Combine, ransacked and wiped out. I heard a radio chattering away in a corner, so moved Freeman towards it. The voice on the other side was asking if we were okay, if anything had happened. Did Gordon answer their calls, perhaps warning them that the Combine are likely headed straight for them?
No, of course not, he just started throwing paint cans around the room.
What an enormous twat.
Valve have always attained that the player was supposed to feel like they’re Gordon. Clearly they don’t think much of their audience.
BONUS CONTENT:
A Buddhist walks up to a hotdog vendor and says “Make me one with everything.”
Also, Christian dubstep. FINALLY.
Wow, what a great selection of games!
