F.E.A.R. 3 First Impressions (SO no spoilers!)

mannaroth

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Aug 19, 2009
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To start I?ll say that the graphics are fine and I won?t really say anything more about it ,this game is basically made for online co-op which I will explain but if you don?t want to play online you will not get the full experience of this game and no I haven?t played online yet, I just wanted to try it before work. So as I mentioned before I have only played it for a few hours and beaten the first 2 intervals so there will not be spoilers really.

I am happy to say that the studios (Day One and Warner Brothers) listened to people?s problems with F.E.A.R. 2 and have tried to fix them. The AI is zounds better then it was, enemies are smart and will flank you, flush you out of locations with grenades and will hide in cover so you can?t hit them! For the most part? sometimes you can see the top of a head or a hand but that?s fine. The enemies are very smart in this one and you will have to look behind you constantly to avoid the enemy from flanking you. Early on you have to fight a mech and the enemy will use it as a distraction so they can come up behind you and shoot in the brain!

The cover system has been entirely redone pretty much being completely taken from the Killzone series which is fine because the first person cover based system in that game is awesome. So when you walk up to cover and press a button you will immediately hide out of sight and can pop out to make some kills and you will need to use this cover because the developers made the game very hard if you tried to not use the system. The cover works perfectly but don?t think that makes you invulnerable, many places for cover will break down because of enemy fire so you will have to go to other forms of cover to survive and enemies will try to move into positions where they can hit you by moving to the side so they can get around the cover you are in and luckily they have allowed you to turn around to shoot enemies without getting out of you precious cover.

The design of the game is decent with you going to drastically different settings including a shanty style slum, a warehouse, and a prison and that?s just the first 3 levels!!! I don?t like the gun designs for the most part though because many of them look like Wal-Mart kids toys especially the shotgun. Characters have been designed well ? not much else to say about it though.

So far my biggest problem with the game is that it is not scary enough. They may be because I?m not far in the game, but I?ve hardly seen Alma and nothing has even tried to scare me up until the third level when finally you see a monster. I think the reason why the horror aspect will lack in this game is because you are working with Fettel (possibly Alma too) and really that is what the horror has been about for the first 2 games.

Speaking of working with Fettel it?s time to discuss the online. I have not played the multiplayer modes so I can?t say what they are like I?m going to talk about the Co-Op in this. As I already said you really are meant to play the campaign with a friend on co-op. One player is the Point man and the other is Fettel and each has different skills and abilities such as slow-mo and possession. (Aww yeah) And there is a very competitive dynamic to the co-op campaign because there are achievements that both characters will need to get and they are divided into Aggression, Tactics, Aptitude and Psychic categories so each player will have to try and achieve these goals while the other wants them as well so people will compete for kills and to find hidden dead bodies for the psychic section. These goals give the player points that will cause them to rank up with each rank giving the player bonuses like higher max ammo, more health or special usage. It also forces you to change play styles to maximize rewards so you are constantly doing things differently and trying to use new weapons and skills. These are saved overtime so you are not getting the same ranks every game and you will get better the higher your rank becomes.

So far I am very impressed with the game and can?t wait to play more. I just hope the levels stay fresh, and that there is more horror!!! If you liked the F.E.A.R. series so far pick this up and you will be very satisfied.