Sierra Entertainment announced today that the multiplayer portion of its highly acclaimed first-person shooter, F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon), will be released for free online starting August 17. The game will be titled F.E.A.R. Combat, and it will require users to register for a keycode on the official website.

"We had a good multiplayer component and we spent the last eight months building it up, but most people know F.E.A.R. as a single-player game. There’s a hardcore group of F.E.A.R. multiplayer fans, and we’d like to expose the multiplayer component to the widest possible audience as possible."

Combat will include all the multiplayer features of the retail version of F.E.A.R. as well as the ability to play against retail version owners. All of the updates, game modes, weapons, maps, and anti-cheating software will be available. User-made content will also be available for use.

F.E.A.R. was released in October 2005 and was developed by Monolith Productions. It is currently being developed for the Xbox 360 by Day 1 Productions of MechAssault fame.

[via F.E.A.R. Official Site]