Review: F.E.A.R 3

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 30 June 2011 12:59

Entertainment

Not sure how you should pronounce F3AR, the original title for this game.  F-thear perhaps?  Or maybe just stick to F.E.A.R 3.  Either way, the third (kinda) instalment of the F.E.A.R franchise is a satisfactory shooter with co-op play on its mind, but the thrill has gone in the story.

You see there is this kid, a little girl in the original game.  A kind of military paranormal secret experiment weapon, and as we all know from countless movies, military paranormal secret experiment weapons tend to go awry, causing mayhem and many an opportunity to set a first-person shooter game about.

F.E.A.R 3
	Developer	Day 1 Studios
	Publisher	Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
	Rating	MA 15+
Xbox 360, PC,  Reviewed on PS3

And so it has been for a number of iterations, mainly from developer Monolith who returned to the series in 2009 producing F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, a satisfying shooter experience.  Much of the things we had to say about that title can be carried over to this new version.  In terms of the majority of game-play, the weapons used and the diluting of the fear factor through familiarity, can be levelled at F.E.A.R 3.

This is not a criticism, by any stretch.   F.E.A.R 3 is a solid, fun shooter that unfortunately is just wheeling out the scares a little too much.  Fans of the series will already be aware of Alma (the little scary girl-weapon thing), her rise to woman-hood, her paranormal-psychic activity that is breaking the world apart and of course her offspring(!) Point Man and the deceased (yet still playable) Paxton Fettel - the main villain of the original game.

In this game we see another angle to the Alma/F.E.A.R story, playing initially as the taciturn, silent Point Man using conventional guns, the game moves through a series of settings that parallel the previous game, though not in a completely coherent way.  There is some story line about Point Man wanting to either join with or stop his 'mothers' psychic birth contractions destroying everything.

The ghostly Paxton Fettel is along for the ride with his own hidden agenda.  Basically the story feels confusingly contrived, an excuse to flit around to a number of locations and battle soldiers (of varying realities) and paranormals (as they are called in the game).  But that doesn't matter for the battles themselves are quite fun.

Carried over from the previous game is the excellent AI, it takes a number of missions before you will understand the rhythm of the Armacham soldiers moves as they out-flank, lob grenades and withdraw or shoot from cover as appropriate.  It is too bad the majority of level designs don't allow the AI to flex its muscle as much as it could.  The Paranormals and the Commanders, with their ability to appear from walls, and move behind you provide a different challenge again.

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