Chilling experiences in video games are few and far between. Many games offer the occasional scare or jump, but truly scary games are a rare beast. One of these mythical encounters was with the PC game F.E.A.R. which offered a tight single player campaign that doled out breakneck first person shooting and heart-stopping scares in equal measure. F.E.A.R. 2 offered more of the same, and while it was an entirely enjoyable game, it never reached the lofty heights of the original. Now with the release of F.E.A.R. 3, has the series regained the impact of the first instalment or further degraded the name of the once undisputed king of scares?
This latest offering continues the tale of brothers Point Man and Paxton Fettel, the hero and villain of the first game, though this time they are working together. As Paxton was killed by Point Man in the first game, he is now a spectre who follows your progress, offering creepy perspective and guidance when needed. The goal of both brothers is to reach their downright disturbing mother, Alma, before she gives birth. That is about the extent of the story, which is unfortunate as the previous two games had a much more involved (and at times convoluted) plot.
Luckily playing F.E.A.R. 3 is great. The controls are tight and there is an excellent cover system that is not only a nice addition, but a necessary one. The reason for this is the enemy AI is excellent. On normal difficulty, soldiers, mechs and monsters will actively search you out, attempt to flank you and use grenades to chase you out of cover. Each of your foes (especially the mechs) take a significant amount of damage to take down, so fire fights often become tense struggles for survival and are very rarely a walk in the park. Point Man once again has access to his “bullet-time” mode. Using this feature at the appropriate moment is an important strategy in taking on some of the tougher enemies and without it death is almost a certainty.
To mix things up, once you have completed a level as Point Man, you can tackle it as Paxton, the ghostly brother, really changing up the way you play the game. As Paxton you can possesses enemy soldiers and use psychic powers to hold, shoot and crush enemies with your mind. Playing as Paxton is a very different experience to Point Man as your powers are prolonged by killing enemies and collecting their souls. So instead of the tactical cover shooting of Point Man you are encouraged to rush amongst the enemies to create chaos and further enhance your psychic abilities.
F.E.A.R. 3 uses an interesting achievement based system to give you something to aim for in each level. Tasks such as using bullet time for a certain period or making a certain number of headshots are rewarded with experience, which levels up your character, giving it new and improved abilities. While these abilities are not required to finish the game, they offer significant assistance and some interesting new ways to kill in combat. You will need to play through more than once to fully level up, so there is a large carrot dangling for all of you O.C.D. sufferers and completionists out there.
Of course the big drawcard with two different characters is co-op and this is where the real joy lies. In both online and split screen, the two play styles complement each other well. With a friend of equal ability, you can have a lot of fun mixing up how you take on the enemies and approach combat situations in interesting and unique ways. This co-op focus carries on to the multiplayer component, with most modes being team based. The highlight here is the amusingly titled “Fucking Run” where a team of 2-4 must press through a level being chased by a wall of death. If any player is touched by the wall then the match is over. This forces you to work together, helping and reviving each other as you press through hordes of enemies. The “Lone Ranger” style of player need not apply. Other modes include a nice take on Horde from Gears of War called Contractions and a mode where one player, as a ghost, must possess his team mates to create an unstoppable team of phantasms called Soul Survivor. Finally, the only competitive mode in the game is called Soul King and the objective is to make more kills than your opponents while possessing enemy AI soldiers. The catch here is you can steal another player’s kills by slaying them, thus earning all the points that they had collected.
The focus on co-op and team play leads to the game’s biggest problem. It is not scary. The first two games were frightening ordeals, with tight, eerie environments and a highly tense atmosphere, making the slightest flash of Alma a shock. In F.E.A.R. 3, with the open and co-op inspired levels, there just isn’t the atmosphere to generate the scares. This is a major disappointment and if you were looking forward to staying up late, putting the headphones on and turning off the lights, you need not bother as there is nothing to be afraid of here.
If this leaves you in somewhat of a pickle, know that F.E.A.R. 3 has great gameplay, awesome shooting mechanics and a nice variety of play types (including some first rate mech levels). On top of this, throw in some fine multiplayer modes and you should be on a winner. But these pluses would fit in to almost any quality first person shooter and what a FEAR game really needs is, well… fear. Unfortunately F.E.A.R. 3 fails to hit the mark in this regard.
