Solid, despite it's story shortcomings.
F.E.A.R. 3 or "F.3.A.R." as some call it, is not nearly as great as it's predecessors. In 2005, F.E.A.R. showed us a new side of horror that hadn't been seen in most games around that time. Sure, Resident Evil 4 brought back the horror a bit, but with it's over the shoulder camera, and less of a focus on the "Survival Horror" elements that made the earlier games such a thrill, a lot of people, like myself, were starving for the next big scary game. Everyone even had mixed feelings on Silent Hill 4: The Room (I loved it, others hated it), but for about a good year, there really just wasn't anything in the scary department for gamers to be excited about.
The original F.E.A.R. stormed onto the pc gaming scene, hot of the wings of the success of other pc games like Half Life 2, and was a pretty successful game in it's own right. However, flash forward to 2011, and Alma's random appearances are just not that scary anymore.
Not to mention the entire overall plot of the F.E.A.R. franchise has become pretty convoluted at this point. If you played through F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, then you'll know that it ended on a pretty messed up note with (*SPOILER*) Sgt. Beckett being raped by Alma. Yeah, pretty messed up. So it's no surprise where F.E.A.R. 3 is going to start off. The bigger surprise though, is that you play as Point Man, the original protagonist from the original game. In fact, F.E.A.R. 3 is built almost entirely from the ground up as a co-operative experience. Problem is, developer Day 1 studios spent so much time building this aspect of the game, that they got lost on the whole plot of this game. But basically it boils down to, you and your brother, Fetell (the dude whose head you put a bullet in during the original F.E.A.R.) are teamed up in reaching Alma before she has this new child.
Co-operative is what makes this game a blast., but it's very obvious that everyone will want to play as Fetell. His absurd physic and mind control powers make him a blast to play, which is why it is too bad that the game hinders you from playing him until you beat it. But I guess the game would be a snap to play if you defeated it your first time as him, which makes sense. Point Man is still the same, with his heightened sense and reflexes, which allow him to go into a slow motion mode. What makes it more intriguing is that the developers decided to only give Point Man the ability to do this, but when he activates the power, it works for both you and Fetell. Pretty interesting.
Overall the game's story is short. On normal difficulty it took me about 5 hours, which is kind of disappointing considering the second game was twice this in length. The biggest downfall of this game though is that at at the end of the day, it offers no real legitimate scares. An Alma appearance has turned into a simple, "oh, she was here again" kind of feeling. There's no real weight to her random appearances anymore.
Day 1 Studios has done a good job at creating a decent first person shooter here, but they have also borrowed a lot of "Call of Duty" elements and even locales to make this game. Half of this game I felt more like I was playing the latest Modern Warfare then I was a F.E.A.R. game, yet I was always brought back to what I was playing by the presence of Fettel. I will commend Day 1 Studios for creating an absolutely fantastic cover system for this game though, as it works wonders. F.E.A.R. 3 also introduces a new "scoring" system, which allows you to rank up your single player character. While I felt this was pretty cool, I didn't realize until after the end of the game that if you are playing in co-op, you and your partner are actually competing to see who is the "favorite son". This is a cool concept, but damn, they should have told everyone.
I'll also commend Day 1 Studios for creating some mulliplayer modes that different themselves from the norm. Contractions is basically your average horde mode, with the difference being that Alma shows up to occasionally make things a pain for you. There's also another mode worth mentioning, Soul King, in which you compete at stealing the souls of pmc's. Pretty cool, and pretty different. But mulitplayer modes are always a huge gamble.
Overall, I honestly recommend that if you enjoyed the F.E.A.R. series, to give this one a go ahead. It's a fun experience, but please don't step into it alone. You'll find it much more enjoyable with a second player. It doesn't offer up the scares of the original two, but F.E.A.R. 3 does offer a decent cooperative experience in the drier months of gaming.
