***WARNING*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SCREENSHOTS OF AN UNUSUALLY VIOLENT NATURE.
Let me preface this with a moment of honesty. I was never really into the FEAR series. I tried the first one in a restaurant during lunch (no, really) and the second one as a demo at New York Comicon back in 2009. Both times I was underwhelmed with the experience. Not that they were bad, I just didn’t see what everybody loved about them. So when the third one came out accompanied by much eye-rolling and disgusted expectorations from fans, I figured that there would be little to like in it. And you know what? I was wrong. I enjoyed the hell out of this game.
If you love 'em, the mechs are back. If you don't love 'em, they aren't back that much.
There are several ways to play FEAR 3. You can play the main mission solo, you can play it coop with a friend, or you can play missions online (with a friend or publicly) which are the usual survive the horde rush and things. I played the single player for a few levels, but mainly focused on playing the main mission in coop with my fellow reviewer J-Man. We were both hesitant, as we had heard a lot of negative press about the coop experience. And the whole game as we played, blasting badguys, blowing them to pieces, rescuing one another, we both kept exclaiming that we don’t know what people are complaining about, this was incredibly fun. I would go so far as to say that it’s one of the most fun online coop FPS games I’ve ever played. I suppose that if you and your friend refuse to communicate (you grab the guy, I’ll shoot him) and work out your plans (I’m going left) or call for help, you won’t have fun in the game. But that’s not FEAR 3′s fault, that’s your fault. That said, like more and more games these days this really requires you to play with a headset, so just spend the $10 and buy an”el-cheapo” one.
Oh, sorry to interrupt, boys. I see you kept yourselves busy in my absence.
The storyline is silly, and is completely unnecessary to enjoy the game. That is a sentence you will rarely hear me use, as I love a good story. Here, the gameplay is so fun that it doesn’t matter. And in any case, the gameplay is fairly disconnected from the actual storyline. The story is all about Alma fighting and you and your dead brother trying to get back to her or something or other. But the gameplay itself involves running through corridors as people and monsters are trying to kill you. That’s about all you need to know. If it moves, kill it. I can see how this might upset people. If you’ve been a devoted follower of all things Alma and come in to this, you might be disappointed. But like a good movie which is a crappy adaption of a great book, you have to step back and say to yourself that even though you are sad that it isn’t what you expected, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t good in its own right.
The game is visually satisfying, although occasionally uses iconography we've seen before elsewhere.
As for the scary parts, it’s too heavy-handed. I will say that the first game had a much more subtle atmosphere. Here the atmosphere is done with very frequent, broad strokes. You know that every single time you climb across a narrow ledge, it’s going to give a lurch. The scares are jump scares, the same jump scares over and over, and eventually it just becomes annoying.
If it sounds as though I don’t like this game, that isn’t the case. I thoroughly enjoyed playing FEAR 3. It’s exactly what I want from an online coop. It is easy to connect to one another. It encourages you both to work together, but still compete. That is, at the end of every round, whoever gets the most points for performing various tricks and maneuvers is awarded being the favored son. In turn this changes the ending to the game, depending on how either of you played. It’s actually a coop game which integrates the coop experience into the storyline! Best of all, the two brothers have completely different skill sets and abilities. Neither one is superior to the other, they are just different. While the living brother can shoot guns and use bullet time, the ghostly brother can- well, do a lot of nasty stuff like picking people up and tearing them apart in the air and possess enemy soldiers. It means that whichever brother you choose leads to a completely different play style.
Bomb in the chest? Don't be silly, clearly he's dancing to Thriller!
It’s almost funny. Between you and your brother, you are an unstoppable killing machine. Why is the army only sending guys 5 or 6 at a time to try to take you down? That’s not a threat. That’s breakfast.
The gameplay is what makes this game shine. It is a linear run and gun corridor shooter, but between the two characters with completely different abilities, mechs, different environments, the variety of weapons and enemies, I never found myself growing bored or tired of the game. On completing the game, you unlock the ability to replay it again as the ghost brother. So even if you don’t play it coop, you can still try both sets of powers. On top of that, the game allows you to level up, becoming more powerful as you play. This is just an added incentive to replay the game, and something I appreciate.
Many of your enemies have different abilities. This guy, for example, has the ability to...carve his...own face...
FEAR 3 is for people who don’t mind a silly story so long as the game is fun. It is also for people looking for a great 2-player online coop experience. While there are some genuinely creepy moments, fear-hounds won’t find much in FEAR 3. That said, those of you looking for buckets of blood and creepy wall-writing with hidden shrines will appreciate it. This game does support both keyboard and controller, so you should feel free to use whatever control scheme you prefer.
-Broklynite