What Just Happened? The "F.E.A.R. 3" Review

I just played through the single player campaign of F.E.A.R. 3, or Eff-Three-Ar, and I have to tell you people something. It won't be along the lines of "Don't play it, it sucks." It's more along the lines of, "I've had all night to mull over what I just witnessed, and I still have no idea what the hell just happened." I can't even tell you if it was fun or not, because, I'm firmly split in the middle of whether the gameplay made it good or just plain mediocre. What I can tell you is this: It isn't F.E.A.R.

The first F.E.A.R. was about Point Man's journey to stopping the psychic terror called Alma from being unleashed upon a world by her son, Paxton Fettle. The second was about Alma luring Michael Becket to a trap so she could rape him and get pregnant. Logically, this one's about Alma getting ready to give birth... and that's the part that makes sense. Where it falls apart is the central narrative of Point Man teaming up with Paxton Fettle's ghost to find fellow F.E.A.R. operative Jin Sun-Kwon, so that they can kill Alma before she gives birth. Only Fettle doesn't actually want to kill Alma, despite saying so multiple times, and wants the family to be together, despite being killed by his brother and betrayed by his parents multiple times. Following you is Harlan Wade's memory, which manifests into a Silent Hill monster's lovechild with a Predator Alien, for some reason.

All of this comes to a head when you somehow end up in Harlan's house/lab, and destroy his memories, which causes you to fight... a giant Killer7 monster? The levels only have a little sense of cohesion, about two of them actually feeling connected, where the rest of the levels require a long distance transport, and lack any semblance of "why am I here?" up until the the level before the last. The last level just comes out of nowhere, and feels out of place in an action game, and more like a survival horror game. I seriously don't know how I ended up in the house other than magic, which makes even less sense.

That is, at least, until you realize that you may have seen this all before the series was even thought of. A child starts a nuclear blast, destroying a city, and sometime later, another person starts a mental connection with that person, only to end up dying at the hands of his "brother" who is getting advice from a woman who knows exactly what's going on. No joke, if you've watched or read Akira then you've played F.E.A.R. 3. The only difference is that Fettle wants to eat Alma... for some reason, and the story makes less sense. To think the George Takei was worried that Akira was going to be white washed.

At least the gameplay is pretty good. The most stand out thing in Point Man's campaign is a damn good cover system which lets you control how far out of cover you want to be to shoot, as well as rounding cover naturally. Then you get to Fettle's half of the game, and things start seeming like you're cheating. Fettle can possess people, levitate, and shoot out blasts. The problem is that if you possess someone, and start running low on health (or die), Fettle gets out, at full health, and can possess someone else at full health. You go from a challenge to God Mode. Fettle can also stay in a body indefinitely by killing people and absorbing their life force, while Point Man has to sit in cover and wait to recharge energy for his reflexes. It makes the game seem incredibly unbalanced to Fettle, especially in co-op mode.

In speaking of Co-Op mode, it's not exactly co-op. Yes, you work together, but who ever has the highest score, i.e. in game achievements (which ruin the feel of the game), ends up winning the game. This is troublesome when you consider that Fettle is so far out of balanced that unless a player holds back, Fettle will almost always win, which means you get the crappy ending. By crappy, I mean ending that comes so far out of left field that Dr. House would have more luck finding ten people with lupus before seeing how badly the game ends. Seriously, when the big, shocking reveal of what Fettle wants to do with Alma happened, I laughed at how ridiculous it was, not to mention out of character for Fettle.

Then again, I also had to laugh at the last boss, and the fact that the game disregards the first one's story, yet not the graphics engine. The graphics are dated, but not terrible. Guns have detail, but everything else looks pretty much the same as the first two games. Not every game can be L.A. Noire, but they could have updated the engine. With as bad as the story is, though, that's the least of its concerns.

F.E.A.R. 3 is a sad case of a good game with bad ideas and a ripoff story. The core game is good, but tired, made worse by the fact that the story makes little to no sense. Add to it the fact that the added bonus of playing co-op or as Fettle is unbalanced, and you have a game that needs more time in the oven. If you absolutely must play it, rent it or wait for it to drop. Just make sure you ignore the story.

Overall

C-

+Good gameplay
+ Cover system
- Story is incoherent...
- ...and is pretty much Akira
- Last boss is a push over...
- ... and has no place in the over arching story
- Fettle is really unbalanced.