Following Monolith’s shock closure, GOG is providing 90% off its 2005 shooter FEAR and accelerating the sport’s preservation to recognise its doomed developer’s ‘contribution to gaming’

Yesterday, Warner Bros introduced it was closing Monolith Productions in a “strategic change of course”. A studio with a 30-year legacy, Monolith’s video games embody Blood, No One Lives Forever, Tron 2.0, Condemned: Criminal Origins, and extra lately its glorious Middle-earth tie-ins Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, which launched the exceptional Nemesis System. Amid the shock and anger at what appears an inexplicable choice, tributes have poured in for the studio and its unimaginable library of video games. Among these is a double-barrelled blast of affection from GOG, which has accelerated its preservation efforts for certainly one of Monolith’s greatest video games, in addition to providing it at a deep low cost for the following few days.

That recreation is FEAR Platinum, which bundles Monolith’s unbelievable shooter with its two expansions, Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate. Released in 2005, FEAR mixed eye-popping bullet-time motion with Japanese horror influences and among the greatest enemy AI ever dedicated to code. Its shotgun can be my second favorite weapon in any FPS, behind solely Unreal Tournament’s mighty flak cannon.

GOG commemorates FEAR in two methods. First, it is accelerating the sport’s inclusion into its preservation program, designed to make sure previous video games stay playable and appropriate on trendy techniques without end (or at the very least, so long as GOG is round). Posting on X, GOG defined that this inclusion into the preservation program had initially been “scheduled for a later timeframe”, however resulting from Monolith’s closure, it has opted to enrol the shooter into it by subsequent month “to correctly recognise Monolith’s contributions to gaming.”

Second, GOG is at present providing a 90% low cost on its present model of FEAR Platinum from now till Friday. This means it is at present obtainable for lower than a pound within the UK, and round a greenback within the US. I do not recall a lot about FEAR’s expansions, having not performed them since they have been launched. But I’ve returned to vanilla FEAR quite a few instances through the years, and it is an absolute must-play for any FPS fan, and simply price that worth by itself.

In its assertion, GOG additionally says this is not the one recreation from FEAR’s developer in line for the preservation program, with “different Monolith icons to affix finally as properly.” Currently, the one Monolith recreation within the preservation program is Middle-earth: Shadow of War, so GOG could possibly be referring to any of the others. But the probably candidates are Tron 2.0 and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, as these are each already obtainable on the GOG retailer.

Monolith’s present mission was a Wonder Woman recreation, which it started engaged on in 2021 after Warner Bros cancelled the mission the studio started after Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Like the Middle-earth video games, Wonder Woman would have used the Nemesis system, which Warner Bros patented after Shadow of Mordor launched, then proceeded to launch one recreation that used it in 11 years. Wonder Woman’s former narrative designer, G.D Annin, stated on Bluesky that the sport “was going to be AMAZING”, although studies from November final yr steered the mission was in bother, having been rebooted in 2024 and nonetheless years away from launch. While I personally haven’t got a lot funding in Wonder Woman as a personality, I undoubtedly would have performed the sport, as a result of it was being made by Monolith.