F.E.A.R 3 Review

[Harmony Descent]

-**[Warning: The following review contains huge spoilers and strong language! If you are anti-verbal on subjects, or are not attoned to spoilers, do not continue reading further. Viewer descretion is advised!]**-

The popular military-horror franchise emerges with another entry to the series! I, for one, am a fan of the F.E.A.R. series due to the fact that it's mostly adrenaline-rush mixed with some good "jump" moments and LOADS of action. My first thoughts of the series didn't have that much of an "UMPH" as I started to aquire once I began to look more into the game. I saw a few screenshots of the game; they were good, dark-shading cells, and had a somewhat dark theme to them -- sparked my attention. As I continued to do some research on the game, I noticed a lot of people claimed it to be "One of the freakiest games of the year" and such. Needless to say, I brushed it off like swiping off invisible debris on your outfit like a pimp (Not to say that I was though). A year or so went by and I bought one of the first few Xbox 360s to come out, and I bought F.E.A.R. as one of my starting titles. It started off pretty cool, had some badass scenes, a few scary ones here and there, but once I was sent off into my first mission, like they say in war or in other military instillations: "The shit has/is about to hit the fan." I can recount NUMEROUS amounts of times when it had my heart jump a bit and had me stop and look around a second time to make sure nothing was going to come up, gang-rape me to my nerves -- needless to say, there were A BUNCH of those times!

Times went on and I bought the next two continuations to F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate. In my opinion, Extraction Point was better. Why? Had awesome scares, loads of gunfights, still had the dark vibe, and was flat-out BADASS! Now, Perseus Mandate was another story (For everyone to know, I played these at night, lights OFF, and with Turtle Beach headphones; the way the series was MEANT to be played). The scares in that game had parts where you had to lower the volume because the hilucinations were EXTREMELY LOUD! I had to pause the game and remove my headphones at one point because my ears began to ring -- it's THAT loud! Graphic-wise, not so great. I would say Perseus Mandate was the worst out of the F.E.A.R saga. Although some may disagree, I still believe Perseus Mandate COULD have been better.

Then, F.E.A.R. 2 came out a few years later. Like always, I was hyped for it. I expected to play as the same guy from the last series, Point Man, but I played as another guy named "Becket." It was a serious, "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!" moment with me since I was playing a guy that ACTUALLY HAD A FUCKING NAME! Anyways, the game was interesting: Had a few good scares, but not that many that made me pause the game, throw my controller down in a fit of convulsion, and run to the bathroom foaming from the mouth while pissing millions of gallons into my toilet. No. It was more action than scares, and FUCKED UP! I mean, you were put through tests to be the next super soldier, or what ever they were doing, and you always were caught up in situations where you had to stop and say, "What... In the FUCK am I doing? Why are they doing this and WHY am I being tested on?!?!?"

Long story cut short, Alma, the center-character to the whole F.E.A.R. thing, rapes Becket after you are strapped down into a chamber while fighting off a paranormal experience, all the while you don't realize she's screwing you until it's all over and she walks up to you, takes your hand and puts it to her swollen belly.

My reaction:

WHAT THE FUUUUCK!?!?!??!?

Ok, now, the years is 2011 and F.E.A.R. 3, or F.3.A.R., comes out and it already had some criticism -- mainly due to the fact that it was labeled "F.3.A.R." I tossed it aside knowing, hey, there's been other games with the saaaaame thing going on. Knock on wood: Driv3r, or Driver 3? Anyways, I enjoyed the game. Some of the reviews I've seen complained about the scares not being as amped as they were from the original series, and all I have to say to that is "BIG-FUCKING-WHOOP!" Not all sequels are SUPPOSE to be as good as the original! It's hard to find games these days that have sequels that better than their fucking predecesores!!! I played the game for two and a half days and beat it with Point Man -- I'll just throw this out there that Point Man DOES NOT TALK! I wasn't expected him to speak since he didn't in the first installment(s), and I was glad he didn't in this one. I also found that Paxton Fettel in this game to be more badass and sinister than he was in F.E.A.R. Mainly because he wants to get to Alma to save the child she's having and to just kill anything that stands in his way. Point Man, on the other hand, wants to help some of the people and come to Alma like Fettel does, but has other plans. Just to also throw this out there, NINE MONTHS have passed since the first game in the games storyline.

If you chose Point Man as your main character throughout the game, which is your starting character by-the-way, you shoot Fettel in the head three times, he burns away, and you take Alma's child while she too burns away. Cradled in your arms, you walk out of the room with the baby crying.

If you chose Fettel, you possess Point Man and savagely take out Alma's baby before she has to the chance to give birth, and set it aside for now. He tells her he would treat it like it were his own and jumps onto Alma, Viciously eating her while she screamed in terror and agony.

Alright, time for the rundown:

Graphics:

It's what you would expect from a next-gen game: good detail on the characters and enemies, nice environment designs, and few good scenaries to stop and look at even though majority of what you're looking at is either blown the fuck up or is on fire. Like previous titles, there was blood. I mean, A LOT of blood! Not as much as Splatterhouse blood, but you get the idea. But, this entry had more than the others had. I would walk around inside buildings and you wouldn't even IMAGINE how many times there were blood puddles on the floor, weird paintings and stuff drawn onto the wall with what looked like blood, and body parts flying off if you shot at them enough times. Word of warning: If you use the sniper rifle on ANY enemy, a cloud of blood will fly out from them. Headshots are a must see since the enemies will sometimes stiffly stagger and swing their arms like they're trying to give you one last bitch-slap before they're lights-out.

GAMEPLAY:

Similar to F.E.A.R. 2, but modified a bit. It seemed a bit more realistic whenever you walked and ran as apposed to most FPS titles. You had a pretty nice cover system, which I took advantage of, but got pissed off more than enough times that the enemy had PIN-POINT ACCURACY! I would be standing, or running for that matter, and every fucking bullet landed on its mark! I was like, "C'MON! Lemme get off a few rounds with--- ARRRRGGHH!!!" The mech, or battlesuit, levels were pretty brief, but awesome. It was only until you were faced with other mech suits that you were all, "Ohhhhhh shiiiiiiit," and had to either backpeddel or strafe while firing at the same time to the opposing mech. Also, like other traditional FPS's these days, you had regenerating health. If you got shot at, your screen would become more redder and veins would envelop around the center of the screen while the sound dulled. Eventually, if you're dumb enough to stay out and continued to be shot at, your screen goes blood red and your character topples over while you have a choice to either restart from the last checkpoint, restart the entire level, change the difficulty, or return to the main menu. After you get over your massive orgasm of frustration and tearing your room apart from becoming cheaply killed, you realize the game is still going and you're having the time of your life! If not, then you should play something else.

STORY:

Overall, it ties in a few plot holes here and there, but there were a few that kind of stuck out to me. For starters, is Alma finally dead? We know she is if you do Paxton Fettel's ending. But I mean, is she REALLY finished with her paranormal crap? How in the fuck does a dead psychokinetic girl get pregnant and somehow gives birth? Does that make any fucking sense? Really?!?!? Dead people fucking people still alive and they, themselves, "somehow" become reborn and give birth??? WHAT THE HELLL!?!?!?!?!?!

FINAL VERDICT:

Considering the fact that I had a lot of fun playing this game, the replay value is still there like it should be, and I had my fair share of WHATTHEFUCK, and random laugh moments, I would give this a solid 8.75/10. I love the game, don't get me wrong, it's just that there some parts they needed to fix and to straighten out before I can give this a 9. But, the main thing that stands out was the fact that Alma is dead and SOMEHOW is pregnant from raping Becket, and turns around having a baby. Seriously, guys, REALLY?!?! That doesn't make any sense... But, whatever, I loved the game and I'm still going to play this game again.

A must for people who have a nack for jump scares and major "WTF" moments.