Review: FEAR 3

(Pictures are not mine)

Now I love supernatural thrillers. They always give you that feeling that everything around you in the dark is ready to grab you and take you to a lair of darkness. FEAR not only managed to give you scary feeling that made you ready to crap your pants, but it also added a high intense gameplay with it's first person shooter mechanics. FEAR 2 was even better as it took all the awesomeness of FEAR and made it a thousand times more cooler

Now we get to FEAR 3 and....I don't know what to say other then....why is this game so mediocre?

Seriously, I was all pumped up for this game! It was the final chapter between the abomination child known as Alma and her hatred for all life against her own child and silent protagonist The Point Man. Only I get what  feels like watch a Resident Evil movie, with disappointment and excitement on both ends

So how did this could have been awesome game fail at being completely awesome? Let's find out.

1. Graphics.

-The FEAR games have always been able to have a well blended graphics look combining horror, dream, and apocalyptic coloring and imaging well. FEAR 3, lacks this in the most basic detail. When I look at FEAR 1 and 2 I see better graphics and artwork then FEAR 3 does. Forget me if I'm wrong, but aren't sequals suppose to have better upgraded graphics rather then downgrading them? What's even worse is that most of the time I'm not scared.

-The point of a thriller game is to keep the player on their toes and with graphics you have to make the area look like something unnatural is around you. Dead bodies, blood, weird writing, strange liquid that kind of stuff should stick out in a way that makes the player cautious where he's going not bored! And this wouldn't be such a problem if it wasn't for the fact that it's all inconsistent. Some areas look like they should be in a FEAR game while others just look like the level designers decided to take some meshes and objects, put them together and just say "Hey, we got another area! Let's go to the next one." 

-The worst is the bridge level. Oh god, that just made me shake my head in disappointment. It's all red...that's it. Just plain stricken red there is barley any other color out there. I know Alma's giving birth and the end of the world is neigh, but couldn't you make the sky box and overall lighting for this level have a little bit more color? I'm not on mars for crying out loud even the buildings in the back are just poor deigned and not even close to realistic.

Scary graphics? Only to a three year old.

2. Controls

-Okay, here are some redeeming features. The controls are pretty much okay and play much like the first two games only with a few new features. You have the ability to attack and sprint at the same time with a powerful melee attack that is very fun to use and even more fun to see enemies fly off in the distance. Next is the cover system, it's not a new features, but it does handle differently. I kind of preferred the old one, but as far as it goes's its' not bad, but I didn't make much use of it and instead just sprinted everywhere while using bullet time.

-Now playing as you crazed homicidal dead brother on the other hand is a different story. It's completely new and unique with the ability to blow up your enemies with your hands as well as posses them so you can attack enemies with their weapons. I really preferred using Fettel then the Point Man because it gave a totally different experience then the Point Man's and it was really fun to use. 

So the controls are bloody awesome, but what about overall gameplay?

3. Gameplay

-First lets's talk about the single player mode. It's just...awful. I'm sorry, but I have to say that. It's too short, in my opinion, and I don't feel any real connection due to the games bad graphics and horrible story line. Not to mention the cutscene piss me off. What was great about the first two FEAR games was that all gameplay was done in first person mode as well as the cinematic. It gave FEAR the idea that all we were seeing was in the eyes of the protagonists. Now we have actual cinmatics that A. Don't look good and B. Ruin the overall mode of the game. Plus, the atmosphere is not even close to the scary supernatural feeling that both FEAR games gave us. It just feels like a regular shooter attempting to be scary, but is like watching a Rob Zombie film. All gore no scare. What's new is that it gives you a point system where if you do specific things, like achievements, you gain more power and enhanced abilities. Completely not needed for this kind of game and was just useless. 

-What really did well was the co-op mode. One player plays as the Point Man while the other plays as Fattel and this really works better in the game then just playing it as a single player. It offers two unique styles that have to work together in order to beat the level and requires good balance of teamwork to be utilized to the full extent. The points here make more sense as the two are trying to prove who is the better player and the fact that the one with the more points at the end get's their characters ending. 

-Multiplayer was something I thought FEAR lacked well in, but in this game it surprised me by being so damn good. This was the real shining point of the game instead of the single player which surprised me. Of all the modes only two stand out. The first, Soul King, is where all the players are specters and you win by collecting the most souls from fallen enemies while Soul Survivor is about one player being the specter and the others normal humans. It's really fun to play and I've played it multiple times all night having a blast. The second is F***ing Run and it's just like the title says. You and the other players must run away from a possed wall and other enemies that are out to kill you. Every time the wall comes closer to you, the controller shakes, the screen goes grey and the sound of  heartbeat makes you have one of the tensest moments in the game. 

The gameplay is just plain solid in most aspects, but that's where all the good times end.

4. Story

-The FEAR series is about Alma, a powerful psychic who was abused and experimented on by a military corporation known as Armacham. To make matters worse for her, they not only get her pregnant twice but also take the babies away to be used as test weapons. Both of which are Fettel and Point Man, which is discovered later in the game. After Alma is sealed away she uses her powers to control Fettel and reak revenge against the world of course because that's what happens when supernatural people get persecuted or hurt by normal humans. After killing your brother in the first game, but failing to stop your mother, the Point Man is captured by Armacham six months later but is saved by his ghost brother who reveals that even though you kill him the psycic link between you is still strong enough to give him some life in the world

-It turns out that Alma is pregnant after raping Michael Becket (Protagonist of the 2nd game) and is almost about to give birth which is causing more chaos to appear in the world, like old biblical doomsday bad. So now you and your brother now much reach Alma and stop her from destroying the world while also killing the abomination known as your new half baby brother. It sound interesting at first, but FEAR 3 fails at delivering it at all. It always jumped from cut scenes about the your past, which comes out of nowhere, to your brother talking to much in his bad attempt to make a demonic G-man voice. What was great about FEAR's storyline in the first two was that it was about finding out the truth of Alma and later Project Origin, but I guess they couldn't come up with anything to top this off in the third game which sucks.

 The story starts off good, but as it continues you just stop caring about it and just focus on getting to the end of the level. 

5. Characters

-Let's talk about characters...actually let's not. There really is nothing to talk about here if you've played the first two games. Alma is still the scary girl with god like powers, but doesn't appear in the shadows as often as the first two games, Fettel is still trying to be the G-man, the new bad guy is boring, and you the point man...you look like an Emo version of Nicholas Cage...

Creepy.

6. Sound

-It's...average....too average....

OVERALL: 3/5

The gameplay and controls are good, but the game fails in graphics, story, suspense, and the overall feeling that FEAR gives. It's a rental at best, but play the first two games first and then  play the third to judge. If you are going to buy let's hope you have a lot of online friends.

We are Gamers and we are legion.

Later