"A Sad End To A Pockmarked Franchise"
F.E.A.R. 3 is a catastrophic end to a franchise trying to figure out what its identity is. I enjoyed the first title a bunch, and praised its great shooting mechanics, awesome integration between AI and map design, and its decent horror/action aesthetic. The second title disappointed me, with its action taking a huge step back, but the horror was much more visceral and realized. I went into the third game hoping for a bounce back for the series, and was left completely shocked at the total change in tone compared to the other two games.
F.E.A.R. 3 is a completely action-oriented game, right from the get-go. This may sound intriguing to fans of the first title, but it actually turns out that it killed the franchise! That's right - F.E.A.R. 3 is the game that sold out the soul of the entire franchise! You could argue the second game was greatly disappointing on many levels, but at its core it still "tried" to be a F.E.A.R. game (even though it failed). With the tone of this title, its clear that there was no attempt to make this an actual F.E.A.R. game.
The story is complete garbage. You play as Point Man from the first game, and you are saved from captivity from your brother Paxton Fettel. yes, the same Paxton who was killed off in the first game. He's now magically alive (very vague unless you played the crummy F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn DLC), and you both are ... cool with each other? There's verbal jabs here and there, but now you both are working together. What is your goal? Its to stop Alma from giving birth to the rpe-child from F.E.A.R. 2 ! The story ends up really going nowhere, taking a lot of weird twists and turns, and ends on a horrible and confusing note. But at least the action-oriented gameplay was good, right?
Wrong. The action is very disappointing. This title plays like a generic AA shooter made by an obscure studio trying to capitalize on trends from the late 2000's / early 2010's shooter market. The gunplay feels "okay" at times, but the levels don't mesh well at ALL. There is one level where you must cross a huge bridge that definitely wasn't playtested properly, with all of the bugs, glitches, lack of true cover, and frustrating enemy placements.
The sound is decent, and the direction of the game's cutscenes are cool ... at least, camera-wise. The dialogue is very dry and amateurish, and no emotion is ever really evoked from any individual throughout the game. The colors are also very drab in this one, with a lot of blacks, grays, reds, oranges, and browns littering the screen over its 7+ hour runtime.
All in all, F.E.A.R. 3 is a complete failure for the franchise, and has likely doomed any real reboot / sequel from ever releasing. It is a generic action game surrounded by an awful plot, poor characters, boring levels, and crummy art design. I would Not Recommend this one to anyone, not even fans of the series. It psses all over what the first game stood for (and what the second "tried" to stand for), and leaves a hollow shell of a game in its wake. What a sad ending to a series that had so much potential...
Final Verdict: 3/10 (Poor)
F.E.A.R. 3 is a catastrophic end to a franchise trying to figure out what its identity is. I enjoyed the first title a bunch, and praised its great shooting mechanics, awesome integration between AI and map design, and its decent horror/action aesthetic. The second title disappointed me, with its action taking a huge step back, but the horror was much more visceral and realized. I went into the third game hoping for a bounce back for the series, and was left completely shocked at the total change in tone compared to the other two games.
F.E.A.R. 3 is a completely action-oriented game, right from the get-go. This may sound intriguing to fans of the first title, but it actually turns out that it killed the franchise! That's right - F.E.A.R. 3 is the game that sold out the soul of the entire franchise! You could argue the second game was greatly disappointing on many levels, but at its core it still "tried" to be a F.E.A.R. game (even though it failed). With the tone of this title, its clear that there was no attempt to make this an actual F.E.A.R. game.
The story is complete garbage. You play as Point Man from the first game, and you are saved from captivity from your brother Paxton Fettel. yes, the same Paxton who was killed off in the first game. He's now magically alive (very vague unless you played the crummy F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn DLC), and you both are ... cool with each other? There's verbal jabs here and there, but now you both are working together. What is your goal? Its to stop Alma from giving birth to the rpe-child from F.E.A.R. 2 ! The story ends up really going nowhere, taking a lot of weird twists and turns, and ends on a horrible and confusing note. But at least the action-oriented gameplay was good, right?
Wrong. The action is very disappointing. This title plays like a generic AA shooter made by an obscure studio trying to capitalize on trends from the late 2000's / early 2010's shooter market. The gunplay feels "okay" at times, but the levels don't mesh well at ALL. There is one level where you must cross a huge bridge that definitely wasn't playtested properly, with all of the bugs, glitches, lack of true cover, and frustrating enemy placements.
The sound is decent, and the direction of the game's cutscenes are cool ... at least, camera-wise. The dialogue is very dry and amateurish, and no emotion is ever really evoked from any individual throughout the game. The colors are also very drab in this one, with a lot of blacks, grays, reds, oranges, and browns littering the screen over its 7+ hour runtime.
All in all, F.E.A.R. 3 is a complete failure for the franchise, and has likely doomed any real reboot / sequel from ever releasing. It is a generic action game surrounded by an awful plot, poor characters, boring levels, and crummy art design. I would Not Recommend this one to anyone, not even fans of the series. It psses all over what the first game stood for (and what the second "tried" to stand for), and leaves a hollow shell of a game in its wake. What a sad ending to a series that had so much potential...
Final Verdict: 3/10 (Poor)