A must play for everyone who loves clever and fun gunfights in a scary and depressing atmosphere. Better than Crysis 2.
Disclaimer: this review contains comparisons with Crysis 2. If you don't feel like reading how bad your favorite game is, just skip it :)
Let's first say that unlike what you may read on certain reviews, this game is scary as hell. The atmosphere is dark and creepy, there are a lot of dark locations, basements, old houses with spooky sounds (like footsteps on the floor above you) and blood and gore everywhere. Not sure what people miss on that front - maybe the shock scares when something jumps out of the corner. In fact the game got these too, even if not that often as in the first one; but this is good, as this is really a cheap approach that can get boring pretty quickly.
Story wise the game is almost flawless. Can't help but compare to Crysis 2, which was so boring in terms of story, that I found myself skipping cut scenes pretty early. This is unlikely to happen in F.E.A.R. 3. The biblical story of the two brothers is fresh and interesting and the Call of Juarez-like option to play with each one of them is neat and provides certain replay value. I couldn't say the characters of the two brothers were very deep, but they are deep enough to create *some* player-character connection, which is pretty rare for a FPS these days.
In terms of graphics the game is just right. Nothing revolutionary but not the Crysis 2 type of disappointment either. No exaggerated colors or motion blur to hide mediocre visuals. Voice acting and sound is also fine, but the music (where available) was not very impressive.
Even if F.E.A.R. 3 is a console port, the game certainly felt almost like a genuine PC game. Much, much, much better than Crysis 2 - no invisible walls, quick reaction to mouse/keyboard activity and you can jump on objects or crouch under them if they *look* like allowing you to. The game is still very linear, but unlike Crysis 2 it does not pretend to be something else by promising you freedom (i.e. no "you'll-play-in-downtown-New-York" kind of lies).
Fights are pretty engaging, weapons feel strong and causing impact. The AI is one of the best ever - it really makes you think tactically, change weapons and move a lot. There's a lot of fun involved in almost every gunfight. Some of the "boss" fights were somewhat hard, but overall the game is a note easier than it should have been. On "normal" difficulty I almost found no need to use the slow time option and on some levels it felt completely unnecessary.
Overall F3AR is great. It really is a step forward for the series and even for the genre (at least in terms of AI). It is beyond me how come Crysis 2 gets better score on GS when it is obviously worse in every aspect, except for the fun during gunfights maybe. Fortunately for me I don't chose games based on scores, so I couldn't really miss this one.
It is a must play for everyone who loves clever and fun gunfights in a depressing atmosphere, occasional scares and pretty satisfying story.
