Sierra Entertainment just announced that the multiplayer component from the award winning PC title F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon), has been renamed F.E.A.R. Combat, and will be made available to the public as a free download on Thursday August 17th, 2006.

F.E.A.R. Combat is the complete multiplayer component of F.E.A.R. and includes all the updates, additional official maps and additional official game modes all in one downloadable file. F.E.A.R. Combat users will be able to play against the owners of the retail version of F.E.A.R. as well as the other freebie F.E.A.R. Combat users.

Features include 10 multiplayer game modes, 19 multiplayer maps, 12 different weapons, Punkbuster support (anti cheat code) and the capability to download user generated content.

To play F.E.A.R. Combat, simply go to www.joinfear.com and register to obtain your free, Combat keycode, which you then use once the component comes available and you download and install it.

A sci-fi/horror shooter, F.E.A.R is widely regarded as one of the best games of 2005. Evergeek scored it a 4.75 out of five. Read the review.