This paranormal-themed sequel is a solid shooter, but it lacks the horror and mystery that haunted the original
Contains: Strong Bloody Violence and Infrequent Strong Horror
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F.E.A.R. 3 is a paranormal horror First-person shooter that continues the story from the conclusion of F.E.A.R. 2 and brings back both the protagonist and antagonist from the original.
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STORY - 3/5
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F.E.A.R. 3 continues right where F.E.A.R. 2's dreadful conclusion resulted in Alma becoming pregnant, but instead of playing as Michael Becket like last time, you return to the protagonist from F.E.A.R. known as Point Man. Alma's paranormal power is growing and spilling from her realm into reality along with the creatures that are infested deep within that 'otherworld', ultimately condemning humanity unless she and the birth of something that could cause a catastrophe in biblical proportions can be thwarted. Alma's rage is drowning the city in a mass of blood and destruction, engulfing everyone in an uncontrollable vortex of violent energy and destroying as she pleases with telekinetic abilities for whatever provokes the inner demon of this particularly disturbed little girl. Point Man sets out to save a squad mate, and in the process must form an uneasy alliance with his telepathic, cannibalistic brother Paxton Fettel who he put a bullet in the head and ultimately killed him. Except their psychic link never broke, and he returns again. Alma's supernatural agony repeatedly rocks the now ravaged city as she attempts to secure the survival of her bloodline and reunite her family, while Armacham's security force remains focused on eliminating all evidence of the events of the city.
With horror direction from the 'master of the macabre' John Carpenter (assisting on the cutscenes) and a particularly sharp script from writer Steve Niles, F.E.A.R. 3's story certainly improves upon it's predecessor which proved poor. It's not as mysterious as the first game, and doesn't qualify as an insatiable piece of writing, but it does have some chilling lines spoken from Fettel as he constantly implies his death by Point Man's hands from the original with devious wit, and expresses his grim pleasure in pausing to say "Say hello to mother"; and overall the feud between them is interesting to watch play out as the story develops and the tension grows on their alliance.
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CHARACTERS - 3/5
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Alma has been insidious throughout the series, unleashing a wrath of gore and destruction upon anyone who stands in her way (whether innocent or enemy) and on the city that the game is set. Her presence isn't seen or felt as frequently as previous games (it doesn't help that the game is more action than horror though) but she still has the potential to send chills up your spine if the atmosphere builds right and the audio brings in some key notes that are familiar to fans of the series. Paxton Fettel returns and is as chilling as ever, delivering his lines smartly and eerily in the hope of livening the mystery at the soul of the story that has since fallen flat since F.E.A.R. You play as the genetically designed super soldier Point Man from the first game, and like the last time you tested his reflexes and blew away bad guys, he is silent, and merely watches his brother do the talking and the storytelling and only steps in with physical responses during cinematics. There is certainly a twisted brotherly bond between the two brothers, and this is established immediately, and remains throughout cinematics.
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GAMEPLAY - 3/5
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The first thing you'll realise shortly into the experience is that this first-person shooter follow-up loses the balance between kinetic action and psychological horror that the first game succeeded so well with. While it certainly does include horror sections, there is far too much focus on shooting normal enemies in open environments; and F.E.A.R. 3 shows more promise when it gets under your skin in atmospheric portions of the indoor based levels, but sadly it's infrequent opposed to the violent action which eventually gets stale towards the end. But if there is one element that is worthy of the action-packed shootouts, it's the gunplay. Courtesy of your unnaturally fast reflexes, the edge you have in combat is needed against the numerous fierce opponents you have to face. The slow motion ability is so frequently injected into modern games now that you would expect the effect of instigating it here yet again to wear dry, but staying true to the franchise it lives up to expectation and delivers in many gruelling battles. Highly commendable is the solid gunplay with perfect hit detection as you drill through your enemies with bullets, even making the bullet penetration a little more fancy with use of slow mo at intervals when your meter isn't empty. You'll leave a mutilated path of bodies in your wake, with flesh and blood splattered from visceral violence all over the surface and conjoined environment, skin and muscle ripped from opponents skulls if you made the suffering quick with a headshot, or even a dismembered limb sprawled across the area due to the force you hit them with.
Saying the action was fast-paced and constantly rewarding would be overrating it however. Outdoor bouts of action are more-or-less contrived each time and soon become predictable due to the conveniently placed pieces of cover and the typical entrances from a group of hostiles that make a shootout feel more like an arcade training session with live ammunition and meaningful aggressors with the use of a fancy mechanic rather than a tense firefight where the conclusion could sway either way. Further degrading the shootouts is the weapons which are basically modified or remodelled versions from previous games or are generally uninteresting in ability which has been used better elsewhere. Even the occasional mech sequences feel tedious once you've entered them once and unleashed infinite rockets upon opponents, and as you near the end of the campaign boredom will set in as each shootout develops similarly as before. An interesting implementation throughout gameplay though, is a ranking system. There are lots of various in-game challenges that encourage variety and are reset after each chapter is completed, and include things like: Getting a certain amount of kills with a weapon, Staying in cover for a specific amount of time, Killing a required amount of enemies in slow motion, and finding dead bodies to initiate a psychic link. There are lots, and each one is shown on the screen as you near completing it, and each time you hit a milestone within that category until you finally get a load of points from doing it. The points all go towards increasing your rank, and at each rank you get an upgrade of some sort that varies from how quick your health regenerates and increased slow mo time.
Ultimately, F.E.A.R. 3's gameplay consists mostly of predictable shooter clichés with solid gunplay, and generic level design makes everything seem unspectacular even though the core shooting mechanics are so satisfying and the blood spraying in slow motion is unique and gratifying to witness. Opting for a bigger emphasis on shooting outside rather than engaging paranormal scenes in the confines of a building with bloody imagery splattered about to cause discomfort was the wrong decision, and if not for the story and characters the F.E.A.R. name would surely be lost as this shooter doesn't contain much strong horror to fear.
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GRAPHICS - 3/5
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Technically, F.E.A.R. 3 is fine; Artistically it's rather lacklustre; And visually it could be better.
Outdoor environments are average to look at, but indoor environments prove the polar opposite and look creepy and packed with grisly detail and this is where you wish much of the gameplay would take place unlike the exterior of a destroyed city which looks largely unimpressive.
There aren't much better sights or delights within F.E.A.R. 3 than exploding enemies into lots of bloody chunks and smearing their insides on the grimy interior of a building with the raw power of a shotgun blast, and given the opportunities that arise, the colour red is something you'll see and spill a lot.
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SOUND - 5/5
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F.E.A.R. 3 has a quite remarkable sound design that nails every intention with conviction, and compels in equal measure for both aspects of the horror and action that is delivered on the screen. Intense and creepy sums up the two sides of the audio department in F.E.A.R. 3 for both action and horror respectively, and while the game fails to be truly scary and create a sense of dread, the audio build-up comes as close as possible to succeeding where the gameplay department falters. Paxton Fettel is the strongest character in the game, and is voiced brilliantly, speaking so casually and with a cold-blooded chilling edge that makes him the cruel antagonist you remember him by as he laughs demonically at his own lines. Overall the sound design is superb, with great sound effects, intense music and convincing voice acting.
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CONTROLS - 2/5
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The unusual control scheme reminiscent of previous game's hasn't been addressed in this second sequel with any helpful improvements, but instead proves clumsy and is difficult to get used to even when you near the end of the game. Changing weapons feels complicated as the common button to do so is instead slow motion, and throwing a grenade is always something that can get mixed up with shooting enemies, and you'll soon find that the control configurations are unnecessarily problematic.
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ATMOSPHERE - 3/5
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Induces occasional doses of nervous tension into the pit of your stomach, but never the claustrophobic discomfort you had to endure frequently in the original, and typically in this sequel there is far too much pulse pounding action than atmospheric horror levels with the potential to make your flesh crawl and your heart pound deeply in the silence that accompanies the darkness. Lots of gruesome imagery and some spooky occult-like symbols written in blood covers the walls in the atmospheric horror sequences, and forces courage to proceed forward as you await something aggressively evil around the next corner, unsure whether it'll be hurled in your face via a ghostly vision or physically and menacingly pace sharply towards you with ravenous intent that demands quick reactions and precise accuracy to evade certain injury and a horrible fate. When F.E.A.R. 3 attempts to be scary it mildly succeeds in making you feel nervous, but these instances are rare, and it fails to be truly terrifying like you'd hope.
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ENEMY AI - 3/5
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There isn't much enemy variety from either human or paranormal threats that you encounter and at best they are adequate adversaries. The soldiers you face show some signs of high intelligence, but also some noteworthy dumb intelligence to point out that enables you to either exploit the weaknesses, or get frustrated as they surround you. They'll communicate well during combat, alerting others about your current position and occasionally what weapon you have equipped and also notify you on your numbers by shouting that you've wiped out most of the squad giving you a momentary chance to relax as you blast away the last couple remaining enemies in the area. They get to cover well and frequently, and show some good animations for believable transitions around the environment as they react to your flashlight to prevent a surprise attack on their position. If you stay in cover however and refuse to poke your gun out for some blind fire attacks, enemies tend to swarm on your position to try and get you in their sights and don't hesitate when directly next to you to stand still and unload bullets into you. This could be seen as an attempt to be clever but it can be frustrating and vital to your progress, as is the case when they try and flush you out of cover by launching grenades perfectly at your feet.
The otherworldly creatures that you encounter provide some more tense encounters due to their volatile behaviour, relentless attitude and reluctance to stay dead. In some cases, even dismembered limbs won't stop the crazy foes from trying to eat your face or smack you with a crowbar, and when inserting several of these deformities into the vicinity with bombs strapped to their chest, the tension is raised even higher as you fight them off in large numbers to survive.
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LENGTH - 2/5
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The 8 intervals in F.E.A.R. 3 won't take more than 7 hours to complete, which is even more of a disappointment that it's action orientated and a massive imbalance over horror portions of the game.
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REPLAY VALUE - 2/5
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Once you've completed the game, there is definitely replay value. Going through the single player campaign as Point Man reveals that there is two conclusions to see, a good ending and an evil ending (I'll leave that for you to figure out). Finishing each mission as Point Man unlocks that level to be played as Paxton Fettel, allowing you to experience true paranormal abilities such as possession and telekinesis aswell as unlocking another conclusion to events in the plot. Cooperative play is available aswell, and the ending will be determined based on who scored more points for each of the different categories (Psychic, Aggression etc.)
If you are expecting paralysing paranormal horror, then play through the original, because while F.E.A.R. 3 excels at generating an unnerving atmosphere with some well produced, unsettling visual effects, the game hardly creates a sense of dread as you approach the end of a corridor, and usually pokes a clichéd face or figure in your face, rather than blood-curdling and haunting visions that could leave you shell-shocked. Or, in some instances the soundtrack builds up dramatically and then nothing occurs when you expect it to, which is even more of a letdown than having a repetitive jump scare.
More action than horror may benefit some players, but when you look back many years at the first F.E.A.R. game, there was a tremendous emphasis on psychological horror with a perfect balance of thrilling set piece shootouts, where prolonged, terrifying ordeals with Alma's scary figure haunted you purposefully with intermittent bursts of kinetic firefights; and F.E.A.R. 3 doesn't offer lots of menacing horror moments, and when it does, in most instances it fails to be truly frightening like you hope. It's claimed that F.E.A.R. 3 has an unscripted scare system that generates random horror sequences (brief psychological images mainly) differently on subsequent playthroughs, though this fact hardly changes the fact that these aren't scary and you'll hardly notice if you do decide to go through the game again. However, those intent on seeing both sides of the story through the eyes of each brother will relish in playing as Fettel in each mission once you've completed them as Point Man, giving you new abilities to kill enemies and see a slightly different conclusion to the story.
John Carpenter and Steve Niles's participation on the project didn't quite produce the result you would have hoped for or expected, but F.E.A.R. 3 still is enjoyable as a solid shooter; just not living up to expectation as a successful horror game.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 7/10
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Good Points: In-game challenges encourage variety during combat, Intense audio for both action and horror sequences, Horror direction from John Carpenter and Steve Niles, Gunplay is solid and bloody, Indoor levels look decent and have some spooky imagery.
Bad Points: Lacklustre outdoor environments, Predictable shooter clichés, Fails to be truly terrifying, Far-too-familiar weapons selection, Massively disappointing imbalance of action over horror.