FEAR was famous for its AI, the enemies flanking, shouting tactical orders at one another, using grenades to flush you out, and perforate you with their varied weaponry.
FEAR 3 keeps up the pressure with even better A.I. Allowing for many of the same tactics. However they seem to have, in order to accomodate console users, dumbed down the tactical options availible to you.
No longer can you manually press against a wall and lean out of cover, you can only press your face up against the now rather boring 'chest high walls'. You can lean out of, or pop out of cover up top, but doing so sticks half your body out, either way. So expect to get frustrated from the fact that even in cover, you can't pop in and out quite as easily.
This is somewhat offset by the reflex mode. Your character, known as Point Man, is well known for his incredible reflexes. This allows him to go into bullet time, blah blah blah, slow mo shootouts. Its well done, if a bit overused by now.
The weapons are varied, if following the standard FPS weapons list. Pistol, SMG, Shotgun, Assault rifle, Sniper Rifle, Special weapons, Rocket Launcher.
The game itself seems to have lost a bit of its uniqueness to the standard 'FPS Formula', its less 'how can we make a good game' and 'how can we make a game that rips off CoD as much as possible?' Complete to the insta-kill knife at a button press.
Gone are the armor and medkits, gone is the frantic moving from cover to cover, praying you get to that medkit before a bullet perforates your skull. Now you just get tunnel vision and the screen turns red. Though its hard to tell that, due to the fact that instead of the general gun metal grey and brown tint to everything. It has in its place an obnoxious red tint. I got used to it, after a while, but it got to me sometimes. Mind, its explained in story, but it doesn't change the fact that I spent most of the game staring at orange and red colors.
I can't finish the review without mentioning the co-op/competitive multiplayer, which I have sadly been unable to play at the time of this review. Though from what I can tell, while you and your friend work together to complete your goals, you are at all times in a competition, trying to gain more points than the other. Which ties into an RPG style system, giving you upgrades depending on how many tricks you can perform.
This can be a bit annoying as some abilities from the first FEAR are required to be unlocked. And no longer can you hunt around for health upgrades or reflex upgrades. Now you have to perform a 'psychic link' on random dead bodies. You get nothing out of it except for a piddling amount of points, no real reason to do so.
After completing each level, you are given the option to go back and play the game again, this time as Point Man's dead spirit brother, Paxton Fettel. He has a drasticly different playstyle, He has unlimited ammunition for his special abilities, but they are less powerful than most weaponry. He seems to have been designed as a very good assistant in the Co-op campaign, but playing him alone raises a lot of challenges....Until you posess an enemy. The posession mechanic is very well done. Fettel as a spirit ghost is able to leap into the bodies of enemies, taking their weapons and turning them on their allies. The offset of this, is that Fettal is only able to keep the body going for a certain amount of time, as being host to Fettal's powers will eventually cause the body to degrade to the point of destruction. The only downside is apparently enemies are able to magically tell that their buddy is now host to a being from beyond the grave, and immediatly turn their weapons on you.
The only other problem I have with Fettel is, he's supposed to be a psychic ghost, visible only to the point man. So why are the enemies able to see Fettel, and even worse, kill him with something so mundane as bullets? Balance most likely but still, it makes no sense. It could have been very well done, if Fettel's playstyle was much more sneaky and stealthy. Instead it seems to be the same gameplay as Pointman, just with barely different rules.
The AI is very nice tactically, but there are times that you get the feeling that in order to increase the challenge. they've fudged the AI a few cheats. For instance, in the original FEAR, you had the ability to sneak around to some extent. Now the AI seems to magically know where you are once combat begins. Oh sure, you might be able to sneak up on and kill one man, but immediately afterwards, the entire area knows where you are, and opens fire.
I played on the hardest difficulty on the first playthrough, mind. So I might be a bit off on the AI, and the AI in fact is very non-biased in normal difficulty.
The graphics are very nice, even on an older computer, I have an Nvidia 8800 GTS and it was very smooth, very nice looking, and it never chugged once.
Finally, how is the atmosphere? How are the scares?
The atmosphere of the game is very well done, you can let yourself be immersed into the game very easily, The level design is nice and varied, and I very rarely got lost. The scares are in general the 'pop out and go boo', but there are a few mind screws here and there. My one complaint storywise is that there are some scenes that could have easily been done via gameplay, but instead of that, it has a cutscene. Don't tell, show, or rather for video games, let the player do, don't show.
I do not rate games on a scale system, nor do I simply say 'its good' or 'its bad' or 'its decent'. I rate games on how much money the game itself would be worth.
Purchased value of this game: $44.99 off of Steam. (Pre-order deal)
Reccomended value: $30-35 dollars.
If you are able to immerse yourself in this game, it has some times where it shows a lot of creativity and thought. It also has some times that feels like its just going through the motions. The graphics are nice, the story is....a bit out there, and depending on what you enjoy/hate, could be dissappointing, or leave you chomping at the bit for more (Guess what I think!)
Its a decent game, but I'd suggest waiting a bit until it drops down in price a bit. There are much better titles out there, but then again there are also much worse. If you just want some good shooty action fun, this is a marvelous game. If you want a thrilling and deep storyline, you're better off somewhere else.
~
JZ
FEAR 3 keeps up the pressure with even better A.I. Allowing for many of the same tactics. However they seem to have, in order to accomodate console users, dumbed down the tactical options availible to you.
No longer can you manually press against a wall and lean out of cover, you can only press your face up against the now rather boring 'chest high walls'. You can lean out of, or pop out of cover up top, but doing so sticks half your body out, either way. So expect to get frustrated from the fact that even in cover, you can't pop in and out quite as easily.
This is somewhat offset by the reflex mode. Your character, known as Point Man, is well known for his incredible reflexes. This allows him to go into bullet time, blah blah blah, slow mo shootouts. Its well done, if a bit overused by now.
The weapons are varied, if following the standard FPS weapons list. Pistol, SMG, Shotgun, Assault rifle, Sniper Rifle, Special weapons, Rocket Launcher.
The game itself seems to have lost a bit of its uniqueness to the standard 'FPS Formula', its less 'how can we make a good game' and 'how can we make a game that rips off CoD as much as possible?' Complete to the insta-kill knife at a button press.
Gone are the armor and medkits, gone is the frantic moving from cover to cover, praying you get to that medkit before a bullet perforates your skull. Now you just get tunnel vision and the screen turns red. Though its hard to tell that, due to the fact that instead of the general gun metal grey and brown tint to everything. It has in its place an obnoxious red tint. I got used to it, after a while, but it got to me sometimes. Mind, its explained in story, but it doesn't change the fact that I spent most of the game staring at orange and red colors.
I can't finish the review without mentioning the co-op/competitive multiplayer, which I have sadly been unable to play at the time of this review. Though from what I can tell, while you and your friend work together to complete your goals, you are at all times in a competition, trying to gain more points than the other. Which ties into an RPG style system, giving you upgrades depending on how many tricks you can perform.
This can be a bit annoying as some abilities from the first FEAR are required to be unlocked. And no longer can you hunt around for health upgrades or reflex upgrades. Now you have to perform a 'psychic link' on random dead bodies. You get nothing out of it except for a piddling amount of points, no real reason to do so.
After completing each level, you are given the option to go back and play the game again, this time as Point Man's dead spirit brother, Paxton Fettel. He has a drasticly different playstyle, He has unlimited ammunition for his special abilities, but they are less powerful than most weaponry. He seems to have been designed as a very good assistant in the Co-op campaign, but playing him alone raises a lot of challenges....Until you posess an enemy. The posession mechanic is very well done. Fettel as a spirit ghost is able to leap into the bodies of enemies, taking their weapons and turning them on their allies. The offset of this, is that Fettal is only able to keep the body going for a certain amount of time, as being host to Fettal's powers will eventually cause the body to degrade to the point of destruction. The only downside is apparently enemies are able to magically tell that their buddy is now host to a being from beyond the grave, and immediatly turn their weapons on you.
The only other problem I have with Fettel is, he's supposed to be a psychic ghost, visible only to the point man. So why are the enemies able to see Fettel, and even worse, kill him with something so mundane as bullets? Balance most likely but still, it makes no sense. It could have been very well done, if Fettel's playstyle was much more sneaky and stealthy. Instead it seems to be the same gameplay as Pointman, just with barely different rules.
The AI is very nice tactically, but there are times that you get the feeling that in order to increase the challenge. they've fudged the AI a few cheats. For instance, in the original FEAR, you had the ability to sneak around to some extent. Now the AI seems to magically know where you are once combat begins. Oh sure, you might be able to sneak up on and kill one man, but immediately afterwards, the entire area knows where you are, and opens fire.
I played on the hardest difficulty on the first playthrough, mind. So I might be a bit off on the AI, and the AI in fact is very non-biased in normal difficulty.
The graphics are very nice, even on an older computer, I have an Nvidia 8800 GTS and it was very smooth, very nice looking, and it never chugged once.
Finally, how is the atmosphere? How are the scares?
The atmosphere of the game is very well done, you can let yourself be immersed into the game very easily, The level design is nice and varied, and I very rarely got lost. The scares are in general the 'pop out and go boo', but there are a few mind screws here and there. My one complaint storywise is that there are some scenes that could have easily been done via gameplay, but instead of that, it has a cutscene. Don't tell, show, or rather for video games, let the player do, don't show.
I do not rate games on a scale system, nor do I simply say 'its good' or 'its bad' or 'its decent'. I rate games on how much money the game itself would be worth.
Purchased value of this game: $44.99 off of Steam. (Pre-order deal)
Reccomended value: $30-35 dollars.
If you are able to immerse yourself in this game, it has some times where it shows a lot of creativity and thought. It also has some times that feels like its just going through the motions. The graphics are nice, the story is....a bit out there, and depending on what you enjoy/hate, could be dissappointing, or leave you chomping at the bit for more (Guess what I think!)
Its a decent game, but I'd suggest waiting a bit until it drops down in price a bit. There are much better titles out there, but then again there are also much worse. If you just want some good shooty action fun, this is a marvelous game. If you want a thrilling and deep storyline, you're better off somewhere else.
~
JZ
