F.E.A.R. 3

There are countless samey first-person shooters available on the market with very little to choose between them. One of F.E.A.R 3's greatest strengths is the fact that it offers something different to the standard carbon copy shooters. Instead, this game effectively combines the best elements of a shoot em' up game with scariest elements of horror games. However, there are still a few areas where this game is slightly unrefined which is a great shame.

If you are a follower of the F.E.A.R. series you will be aware that you play as the genetically modified Point Man. In the previous game the mysterious Alma becomes pregnant with the protagonists child. In this latest release it is your task to prevent the birth of this baby.

One of the best things about F.E.A.R. 3 is the varied gameplay. Throughout the game you are accompanied fellow Project Origin prototype Paxton Fettel. After having completed a level playing as Point Man you can then go back and play through the level as Fettel. This offers a totally new and original perspective on the game as Fettel is very different from Point Man. Better yet, you can play the campaign with a friend locally or online with one player playing as Point man and the other as Fettel - this makes for very entertaining co-op as you can use both character's strengths simultaneously.

F.E.A.R. 3 also has an excellent online multiplayer mode that is guaranteed to keep you entertained for hours and is truly a breath of fresh air in a crowded market. There are four different game modes which each allow a maximum of four players. For example in Soul King you are required to possess soldiers and zombies and the person who collects the most souls wins. Another of the multiplayer online game mode requires you to run away from an ominous cloud of smoke whilst evading and battling enemies making for exhilarating gameplay.

Essentially F.E.A.R. 3 is a first person shooter game. As well as the standard guns and explosives, playing as Point Man and Fettel you can also use their psychic powers to battle your way through hordes of creatures and monsters. The combination of supernatural powers and conventional weaponry makes this game thrilling and very different from other first person shooters.

The points system creates a progressive style of gameplay where players can achieve points in the online multiplayer, single player and co-op game modes. These points increase your level and can be used to unlock perks and new skills. This creates an addictive nature that has you replaying elements to try and beat your high score.

My only real complaint about the gameplay is that it is hard to throw grenades with any kind of accuracy - I regularly find myself overthrowing grenades which is slightly annoying. It is a niggling issue but it does not detract overly from the overall gaming experience.

Visually this game is not as refined as other, higher echelon, shooters such Call of Duty which is a shame as it holds back the game in some situations and detracts from the immersive horror. Although the voice acting can be slightly over the top in places, the sounds effects and music are good throughout and effectively add to the horror filled feeling of the game.

Overall, F.E.A.R. 3 has a lot going for it with its large variety of gameplay options that will provide hours of entertainment. Also, the unique style of this game cannot be overlooked with it seamlessly combining a horror game with a shooter game. It is a shame that the developers did not spend a little more time refining the faults in this game as it had the potential to be perfect. Still though, it is a superb horror and adrenalin filled ride that is guaranteed to provide you with hours of fun and is definitely worth purchasing.

Again i feel this will be yet another installment of fear that will be over looked by most people as its not cod or battlefield.I adored the first game as the ai was smart and fought hard to out flank and punish you.It was a corridor shooter but coupled with periods of calm,some eerie moments and intense slow mo fire fights it soon became the taker of many an hour i can tell you.Fear 2 was less sylish in my mind and did away with point man (main charecter in the first game)but it had some interesting story archs and the ending will go down in history as a real shocker. So on to fear 3 and ive only played the single player as of yet but i can tell you im hooked. Pointman returns with his brother who was the main bad guy in the first fear and who pointman shot in the head.The weopons are meaty and the slowmo gives you that super solder feel once again. The graphics have been brought up to date and the a.i. is once again sublime. The solders freak out when you start killing their commrades in bloody ways..my personal favorate is blowing an arm or leg off with the shotgun. I heard one of his squad say 'did you see that he blew his f?!kin arm off!'.Alma the spooky child/ghost is up to her old tricks and the feeling is that of being made uncomfortable rather than serious shocks and scares however there are tense leap out of your seat moments so it does the job of horror and fps well.

But it gets better in the one player stakes as when you complete a level or interval with pointman you are then able to redo the level with paxton his brother. Paxton if you remember is the now deceased psychic brother of pointman so he is a ghost...a spectre so how does that work then?. Paxton emites this red aura around him which doubles as a way to see a bit better in the dark (pointman has a gun mounted torch). The levels ar the same as before however there are much different ways of going about putting the enemies down. First there is the glowy fireball way which is the least effective but good if you get caught unawares. Theres the melee attack which is a sort of specral smack (pointman has a knife) and then theres the levitate enemies and this is where it gets fun. You can levitate an enemy and fling them around or by pulling the trigger button you can explode them into small meaty chunks which is gruesome to watch and i never get bored of listening to their screams before putting them out of their misery ha ha!.The last skill that paxton has is just awesome it works so well i had a moment the first time i used it.While you have your enemy levitated and under your power you can press y and possess them.You are then in controll of them as you take them over and with a sadistic chuckle from paxton you are free to exterminate your surroundings with whatever weopon the soilder has at the time.This process is smooth and a real hoot especially when you started fragging a near by solder who just outright panics.When the chap who you have possessed dies you appear as paxton again so it is wise to watch when you new meat suit is nearing death.Alternativly if you dont wait for the timer to run down (set limit on how long the possession takes place) you can force leave which ejects you out of the body in an exploison of blood.Surfice to say the possessed is now well and truly dead.

Look to sum up this is a real blast and an absolute hoot. The game is played through twice as you have two very different and very good charecters and thats even before you get to the multiplayer and co-op play.I cant wait to team up with someone online but like i said i havent tried it yet. I am appalled that there has only been one review of this game so far on amazon and that just goes to show that this game will get overlooked by most who are really missing out. It doesnt do anything new but what it does is so well done. I can only compare this to 2 games...my most recent fps purchase crysis 2 and its younger brother fear 2.Fear 3 is better than fear 2 PERIOD.Compared to crysis 2 fear 3 has a better story,better selection of weopons,smarter ai with a noticable difficulty scale and very important for me...a need to keep playing that bit longer.It makes you want more...crysis 2 although techniqually sound and a very good game just felt bland and you never warmed to the main charecter.The graphics in crysis 2 are far superior but that had open maps where as fear has always gone for a tight corridor intense uncomfortable feeling of somethings comming but what?
My advice dear reader is to get all three fear games but if like me you were waiting to get fear 3 then do as i did and take the plunge now...you will not regret it. If the multiplayer can give me the thrills of the single player then all my birthdays have indeed come at once.

I have to repeat, just why?. This game was made by developers Day 1 studios who also had a hand in developing the first Fear for consoles and various non canon spinoffs. The infinitely superior Fear 2 left us on a fantastic cliffhanger and had one of the best endings I've seen in a video game. Now we're presented with this confused mess, which seems to have only the most tenuous of links, a vastly inferior graphical style and a totally different feel to it's predecessors.

As a game in it's own right, it's verging on okay and certainly has it's moments, although the best ones are simply lifted from 1 and 2. Once again it's a third person shooter, the combat mechanics are smooth and the enemies frequent and occasionally challenging. As in 2 there is some combat involving vehicular play (mechs) and a few new types of new enemy are introduced. The first singleplayer run must be played as Pointman, protaganist from the first game. Once completed you then have the option to play again as dead brother Paxton Fettel utilising his psychic powers.

But for those that cared about the story, despite director John Carpenters reported involvement with the cut scenes, this is a disastrous cluster**** which makes very little sense and does nothing to satisfactorily expand on the Fear universe or the tale of Alma Wade.

Frankly I hope it gets declared as non canon like the other Fear offshoots, and dissapears into the black hole in which it belongs, so original developers Monolith can deliver a proper third installment to what was up until now a truly great franchise.