One thing that is very fucking annoying is people talking about FEAR's combat and AI. I swear people have been brainwashed into thinking the combat is good, yes the VFX is good, how dust kicks up and bullet holes everywhere is great but thats not combat. Go and play it at the hardest difficulty, and you'll start to notice how shit the shotgun is, how shit the rifles feel, how all the enemies just have that bullet spongy feeling even on easy mode. Besides the pretty effects, the gun play itself feels bland. The AI isn't smart, even the devs admitted that. The reason why people think the AI is smart, is because of the voice lines. I remember watching a video about it where the devs said that the AI will shout out "behind the sofa" or "behind (cover)" but thats just it, they're just shouting a voice line and nothing more. There isn't anything special in the code that tells the NPC "Use suppression fire and have two replicas move up to flank", even the fucking NPC don't react to their squad mates, in their code its just that NPC and the PC.
I do think FEAR is okay, I'll reply it maybe once every two or three years when its around spooky season. But I really do think it has a cult following because FPS games these days lack a real single player mode that isn't just a long winded tutorial getting you ready for MP (COD, Halo) and even then the guns lack any real VFX.
TL;DR: You've been groomed by the Jewish Cabal of YouTube into thinking FEAR is the greatest shooter in history.