As far as I'm concerned the definitive FEAR experience, amping up the horror and the action in equal amounts to craft a vulgar display of power which doesn't come at the cost of it's apocalyptically hopeless narrative.
It's more F.E.A.R., so that already elevates this above the average game, but if you cut the padding, the game would last like an hour at most. It constantly abuses the "The door is locked" or "Go turn the power back on" tropes to fill the gaps between the important story segments.
The thing is that the story doesn't develop into anything; it retcons one of the events from the original game by unironically doing a Somehow, Palpatine returned. It's the only relevant event from this DLC, and it's revealed at the beginning of the game. Everything after that point is redundant, as the characters are in the exact same position before and after the game.
As much as the story is lacking, this DLC greatly justifies its existence by improving some aspects from the original game. For example, there's far more level variety, like subways, city streets, sewers, parking lots, among others. Also, the invisible enemies have a bit more presence than in the first game, where they were very underutilized.
As I said, it's more F.E.A.R., and just with that, you should know if it's worth playing this. However, I feel that even with the improvements made to the base game, the original has more of an impact overall.
The thing is that the story doesn't develop into anything; it retcons one of the events from the original game by unironically doing a Somehow, Palpatine returned. It's the only relevant event from this DLC, and it's revealed at the beginning of the game. Everything after that point is redundant, as the characters are in the exact same position before and after the game.
As much as the story is lacking, this DLC greatly justifies its existence by improving some aspects from the original game. For example, there's far more level variety, like subways, city streets, sewers, parking lots, among others. Also, the invisible enemies have a bit more presence than in the first game, where they were very underutilized.
As I said, it's more F.E.A.R., and just with that, you should know if it's worth playing this. However, I feel that even with the improvements made to the base game, the original has more of an impact overall.
This expansion definitely amps up the horror