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Should You Get
Fear 3
If you're like me, you want to know how a story ends, even if it's not a particularly
deep and compelling story. I've played the most grind-y, old-school, bare-bones RPGs
to completion just because I wanted to see the story, such as it was, come to an end.
So I was ready to see how Fear 3 would bring Alma's story to completion. Would she get
her revenge? Be vindicated? Redeemed? Would ArmaCham get what was coming to them? What
strange places would I go, what weird things would I see?
And the answer was... nothing much.
The first game was a decent enough shooter. It was a great foray into a new genre: action-horror.
They did a good job blending the spooky supernatural elements with the action and it was a satisfying
game to play. The story was actually interesting to me. It was fascinating the way the horror
slowly turned from the supernatural elements to the horror of human greed and cruelty as
you slowly uncovered the mystry behind the paranormal events taking place. It worked
and had a lot of potential and it ended on a great cliffhanger.
That game did a great job building Alma up as this incredible supernatural threat, instilling
horror at her power and vengeance, but also sympathy at her story. You were fighting against
her, but at the same time, you were rooting for her, just a little.
The second game was very good-looking and improved upon the basic controls of the first
game significantly. The environments were diverse and detailed, the presentation was
cinematic, and it introduced an interesting science fiction element to the series- I was
intrigued by the contrast of people piloting giant mechs one moment and seeing visions
and ghosts the next. The horror element didn't seem as strong when I played, but nonetheless
had some really excellent moments.
Fear 3 takes all of that and tosses it out the window.
The combat is passable. It probably feels less satisfying for the simple reason that
I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT'S GOING ON. The game's story is a huge departure from the narrative
and tone of it predecessors and never takes the time to clearly establish the motives
or goals of the characters. Alma in particular has been a mystery: what does she want? Why
are Point Man and Paxton Fettel now allies? Why is the protagonist from the second game
killed (by psychic explosion no less) for information he would have given freely? How
in the world did we even get to this place from where we were last? WHATS GOING ON!?
The environments lack the diversity of the previous game- and while the graphical quality
has no doubt improved, most of the environments never really struck me as visually memorable.
One wonderful exception is the supermarket level: it absolutely oozes atmosphere. Filled
with people driven insane by Alma's psychic emanations, it's spooky, well-laid out, does
some great things stylistically, and tops the rest of the game overall. It is the model
the rest of the game SHOULD have followed, and I was very disappointed to see me expectatios
dashed.
To be honest, the impression I received is that the game was rushed and possibly meddled
in by management. Whatever criticisms we coud level at the previous two games regarding
how well they do what they set out to, I could always tell that passion went into them, the
the developers were genuinely trying to make something great. Fear 3 feels like the passion
disappeared about a quarter of the way through. Most of the environment seems bland, the story
makes no sense, is poorly presented, and tanks everything intriguing introduced in the previous
games, and of all things, they introduced a co-op mode and a score system, disrupting
the immersion of whatever horror atmosphere MIGHT have been there. Above all else, Fear
3 fails to implement the pacing, atmosphere, and suspense that made its predecessors effective,
opting for the most part to rush you from one gunfight to another.
Altogether, Fear 3 is a big disappointment. You should play it only if you want to see
a promising gameplay formula and storyline crash and burn. Otherwise, I'd stay away.