F.E.A.R. 3 Review (Konrad Bobrowitz)
The F.E.A.R. franchise is dead and the third game in the series has buried it ten feet under the ground. There is no way you can go back and fix this. The truth is, the game was rigged from the start.
F.E.A.R. 3 was made by Day 1 Studios which was surprisingly enough mainly comprised of Timegate ex-employees, which was a studio that worked on the original F.E.A.R.s expansions. The game is an absolute dumpsterfire but to understand why, a fair bit of expenation is needed. There is barely anything connecting this game to the first one and if the game had a different title and was a part of a different series, you wouldn't likely even realize it was supposed to be F.E.A.R. at one point. It tries to connect everything, all the plot holes, all the games together and finally wraping it up. It of course failed misearably.
The gameplay is literally Call of Duty now. Regenerating health, hiding and shooting from behind cover, heavy reliance on ADS etc. At least the HUD is less obnoxious than in F.E.A.R. 2, the physics finally exist again and enemies feel a bit better to kill, the feeling of shooting them is also better then in the second game since the particle effects and the debris have been ramped up but it's all too little too late. Especially if we take into consideration that the weapon arsenal is p*ss weak, with a pretty bad level design the game becomes a chore to play.
And only now am I mentioning the co-op. Oh god. The horror has basicly been erased from the franchise at this point. The co-op might not be mandatory but you are heavily incentivised to play it to get the "full" experience. What happens however is that when you play co-op, the horror goes away completely. And that's not to say that the game in single player has much to offer, it's still really weak. Co-op also works in a very wierd way. The one who hosts is always Point Man and the one who connects is always Paxton. But who cares about how it works if it doesn't work at all. The multiplayer aspect of the game is dead on all fronts and you will be hardly even able to play with a friend since the connection is busted. Not even John Carpenter directing the cutscenes could have saved this mess.
I can't recommend this game. Even though the argument could be made that everything can be fun with friends, in this case, I think eating sand alone in a sandbox would be more fun. Don't play this because the only thing you'll get is a headache.