F.E.A.R. 3

I found Fear 2 to be an exciting roller coaster of a game with a lot of thrilling moments in its campaign and some genuine scares,. Fear 3 has a lot to live up to, especially considering the ending of Fear 2. However, it has not quite achieved this, but has done some interesting things in other areas of the game. Monolith are not developing it this time, with Day 1 Studios taking that role. 
  
 
Fear 3 puts you back in control of the Point Man from Fear 1. Its a bit of a jarring transition and early events do not have a direct link to Fear 2's conclusion. You begin the game with Point Man being beaten by his Armacham captors in a prison, until Paxton Fettel makes his ghostly return and helps Point Man escape his captivity. From here the story follows the brothers as they eventually attempt to reach Alma before she gives birth, battling through the forces of Armacham and Alma's monsters to do so. The story is a difficult one to follow, as much of it ignores Fear 2 until the final chapters and Fear 1 had an inconclusive ending for a direct sequel to pick up from. The events are good but the game is not very good at portraying its chain of events and some things seem to be very disjointed from each other. It is not fleshed out at all and is not made approachable for newcomers, and the ending can really leave the player confused as to what happened. The game has two endings, 1 for each brother, but neither are very satisfying or conclusive.   
 

 
 Fear 3 is a good looking game, though not extraordinary. It has crisp clean visuals, with plenty of nice lighting and smart use of darkness. Areas will be coated in copious amounts of blood at times, and the designs of the levels are generally pleasing and true to what that level is meant to be. The game avoids the constant office blocks of the first game, with some varied levels. You will play in a prison, a ruined mall and a slum among others. The game is not very colourful or bright, but it uses what assets it does have in an intelligent way. The character models look good, and are animated well. Its really gratifying to watch enemies go flying back after being shot with a shotgun blast like a rag doll. The series staple camera tricks for Alma's scenes are back again to good effect as well. Landscape backgrounds do look poor and I think the developers were probably hoping no one would be looking closely at them, but if a game like Bulletstorm can put so much effort into its back drops then why cant Fear 3. 

 
 The sound design in Fear 3 is very good. The music is excellent at setting a tone, and sound spikes are used to highlight the scare events when they happen. The weapons all sound satisfying to use, and the shouts of enemies are good. Voice acting is iffy, with Point Man being a mute, though Fettel is well done. The enemy soldiers all have basically the same voice actor which is noticeable after a while. The environmental all sound good but voicing, or lack of, really lets the game down. The sound is solid, its just not anything special.    

 
Fear 3 is a more action focused shooter than the previous games in the series. It does not return to the tactical roots of the first game, and is much more combat focused than Fear 2. It actually resembles Call of Duty at times, with fire fights against large groups of enemies being very regular. There is a cover system not unlike Killzone's one on the game.  Pointman can vault over obstacles and strafe around them to good effect. Enemies still have a good level of intelligence too and work together to try and take you down, via flanking manoeuvres and cleverly aimed grenades. The game controls smoothly and controls are responsive, but the scares and atmosphere have been heavily toned down. Fear 3 is not a scary game, with maybe 2 genuine jumps in the whole game. There are still mech sequences to break up the foot slogging, and the shooting is solid and perfectly serviceable, but the game feels really linear and by rote. Enemy variety is decent, but leans really heavily towards the common foot soldiers. Its also about a 5 hour campaign, spanning 8 levels. If this was the whole game I would be devastated, but Fear 3 has aspects that were lacking in the other Fear games that make it an interesting prospect.  

 
The entirety of the game can be played in co-op, 1 player as Point Man and the other as the far more interesting Fettel. While Point Man plays like any other shooting game main character, Fettel  can psychically control foes and even possess their bodies to turn them against their former allies. His telekinesis abilities almost make it feel like you are playing an entirely different game, though sadly you only unlock him for single-player after beating each stage of the game. The game has a scoring system that  sees you earning points for performing certain actions throughout the game, and you can then check your skills against the rest of the world via the leaderboards. This actually helps the game maintain a level of fun that might have otherwise been lost, as you strive to snag headshots, cover-based kills or slow motion moves. Snagging an especially skilful chain of events feels worthwhile, and there are times when you find yourself planning out your next scoring attempt rather than following the story. Whether that speaks volumes about the plot or the strength of the scoring system is open to interpretation. Your points also help to rank up your character and give them access to new skills and enhanced healing and secondary abilities. Fear 3 is a really good game structurally for co-op play, and I appreciate a game that is great for playing with a single friend.   

 

  
Fear 3 also has some meaningful multiplayer modes that draw from the lore of the franchise rather than just ramming another deathmatch variant into the game, like Dead Space 2 and Bioshock 2 did. There are 4 game modes. Contractions is basically horde mode, as you face progressively tougher waves of enemies and try to survive as a team. Fucking Run  has players working together to escape a creeping wall of death, while killing foes that get in your way. It’s a clever idea and one that can be great fun assuming you get a well co-ordinated team together, as one death means game over, which can lead to frustration if you are with random folk.   Soul King sees all four players start as spectres, with the remit being to possess enemies and kill other foes and players to amass points.  Soul Survivor sees just one player acting as a spectre in a bid to possess foes in a bid to kill off rival players and turn them into ghosts as well.  Keep in mind that as a Warner Brothers published game, Fear 3 has an online pass requirement to play its multiplayer sections. 

 
Fear 3 is fine from a technical perspective, with well polished gameplay and short load times. The pacing could be better, and strangely the strong aspects of Fear 2 are not as good here while the awful multiplayer of Fear 2 has been massively improved here. Fear 3 is a great co-op game and has a really fun multiplayer helping. Unfortunately, the lack of frightening atmosphere or strong narrative really will disappoint fans of the series. Its quite telling that Monolith are not the developer on this game, and a terrible last boss only helps to strengthen the disappointment I feel on this front. The games presentation is fine, but too much has been streamlined for it to provide the same thrills that Fear 2 did.  The multiplayer is the saving grace, with some interesting modes and maps, but that has always been a secondary feature to the main event and on that front, Fear 3 is good but not great. Fear 3 is a solid game, but as a sequel it is a bit of a let down. 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Pros:  

• Refined reactive controls
• Good cover system for a first person shooter
• Some decent level variation
• Plenty of blood and dark atmosphere
• Interesting weapon selection
• Co-op is great and really well done, with proper gameplay differences between the 2 characters
• Multiplayer is not just a ramshackle deathmatch mode, but lore based and fun to play

 
Cons: 

• Not scary or even a real horror game anymore
• Really bad last boss fight
• Story is disjointed and a bit confusing
• Fails to answer all our questions about the events of the series 
• Too much focus on normal soldier enemies
• Campaign is a bit short
• Online pass
• You call this a game manual

 
Wtf: 

• Where did the hobo cultists get the suicide bombs from

Score: 

• 6/10

Not enough scares and story elements to satisfy fans of the series.