fear by way of paul w. s. anderson, for good and ill. i get the potentially misguided sense that timegate wanted to try putting their stamp on fear with an original scenario instead of crafting an epilogue as they had done in extraction point. the issue is that perseus mandate occupies a peculiar niche where it wouldn’t be unfair to accuse it of being more of the same, but at the same time its departures from convention are extremely contentious. PM is home to boss battles which are often pretty rough; arenas are now usually more open which, at its best, transforms fear from a methodical tactical shooter to a game of scrappy, active defence and precision of movement - i certainly felt like i was doing more running and jumping and platforming here in comparison to its predecessors, but many encounters are quite difficult owing to the nature of fears combat design not meshing well with this approach and they often feel one dimensional because the environments don’t give the artificial intelligence fear is known for a chance to shine. i also can’t ascribe much intentionality to it but i felt like this game tries to take reflex mode into account in a way its predecessors don’t? encounters have a way of extending for longer than you think and many of them are genuinely quite difficult without reflex - it’s a sensible subversion of a mechanic that often turned encounters on their head in the previous two games, but in practice it’s less interesting to manage as a resource than you’d hope.

further compounding these issues is that this is often an anonymous and lacklustre expansion. extraction point, while uneven, has some of fears absolute best environmental design and combat scenarios, making good on the taut blend of hyperviolence and horror the base game rooted itself in. extraction point - an expansion which essentially only plunges point man into further and further terror and solitude at breakneck speeds - eschews any semblance of storytelling in the best way, luxuriating in this almost cryostasis-esque willingness to bombard the player with suggestive imagery and creepy stings without much in the way of explanation. climaxes to intervals were often tense and isolating. it was excellent, so it’s what makes the choice to focus on a unique narrative here in perseus mandate a bit misguided, especially with a scenario as superfluous and unimportant as this one. it’s simply missing the forest for the trees - fear is at its best when it’s just a vibes based game where you trot with a shotgun in tow capable of making assailants instantly explode. sometimes there was 2005-ish horror because it kept things tense and interesting, but the storytelling itself is kind of just blase and it’s better served as a means to an end. even worse, fear and extraction point are both games that you look at and go, ‘yep, games didn’t need to look better than this.’ so it’s a goddamn tragedy that perseus mandate represents a massive visual downgrade in lighting and atmosphere - something about it just looks so much cheaper and duller than either of its predecessors.

expected this to be way worse than it actually was based on how people spoke about it but it’s mostly serviceable. scanned a youtube criticism where the guy was like ‘this has too many lame jump scares. fear was at its best when its horror was psychological…’ and i was like damn that’s stupid. i don’t know why everyone treats fears horror as a failing of the game when this is on the re4 wavelength of employing tension for further satisfaction. ‘wahhh how am i supposed to be scared if i can fight back and slow down time and do kung fu’ talk like this resulted in a pretty miserable decade for horror game output. enjoyed the new soundtrack - almost reminiscent of mgs1. if we’re powerscaling fear, perseus mandate guy might be SSS right? guy gets put through the fucking ringer and asks no questions, just shuts up and gets the job done, all without the benefit of point man’s genetic enhancements.