F.E.A.R. 3 not a scarily good shooter game

F.E.A.R. 3 (Warner Bros.; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; rated mature)

Some may think of the F.E.A.R. games as survival horror, but they really are more first-person shooters than anything, and that’s especially true of the third game in the franchise. Developed by Day 1 Studios, F.E.A.R. 3 is a tight shooter experience with good controls and a standard, if not outstanding, cover mechanism.

You play as Point Man, the protagonist of the first game, and in the opening sequence you are rescued from captivity by the spirit of Paxton Fettel, the brother you killed at the end of that first game. While Point Man uses guns and grenades to fight, Fettel is equipped with telekinesis and the ability to possess enemies, using their weapons against them or even blasting them apart from the inside. The brothers make for an interesting variation on two-player co-op in a FPS game, with each character having a different combat strategy than the other.

If you’re playing by yourself, after you’ve completed a level in the game you can play it again as Fettel, who can use telekinesis and possess enemies, which at least doubles the replayability of the game. You cannot switch back and forth between the two brothers in the middle of the game, however.

Opposing the brothers in F.E.A.R. 3 are soldiers bent on a cover-up, cultists caught up in the wave of paranormal activity in the city of Fairport, and creatures borne of the twisted psyche of the powerful psychic, Alma Wade, the mother of the two brothers and the woman whose tragic story is at the heart of the franchise… Read More [via straight]