This game I wouldn’t expect would make it on anyone’s Top Ten list. But for me, it was one of the most unique and terrifying experiences I’ve ever had playing a game.

F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon – PC

I have a feeling everyone who just read that is thinking I’m out of my mind. Let me justify.

I’ve played many games in the horror genre, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Doom, Dead Space and so on. All of which are fantastic games however, I found myself frequently frustrated with things such as controls, game mechanics and somewhat of an inability to keep me interested for long because I wasn’t able to progress. I finished a lot of them eventually but not right away.

FEAR I admit I started, played an hour and didn’t go back for a long while. Mostly because I was too lazy to switch from Mac to Windows and I needed a RAM upgrade. All that eventually happened and I played the game to the bitter end. But I honestly couldn’t play this game for more than a couple hours at a time because I found myself going mad from terror. FEAR literally scared the shit out of me. My heart was almost at the point of bursting from adrenaline and anxiety at some points in the game. I was often too scared to open a door out fear for what was behind it.

I can’t say many games have successfully done that to me. Dead Space comes to mind for a great deal of the game but towards the end I found myself expecting the scares. FEAR had me going to the very end. Introducing different factions, amazing lighting, monsters, and nothing’s more terrifying than a little girl who can turn a room full of men into nothing but red paste.

Aside from being scary as all hell, the game is also a fantastic shooter. Bullet time works incredibly well, a decent array of weapons that range from standard to, “Oh, shit!”, and never did I feel like the game was capable of progressing on without me like some shooters today.

This is honestly one of the best shooters I’ve played, the most terrifying game I’ve played and overall one of the best games I’ve played. It gets to sit in my top ten for that.

- Ryan