FEAR 3 (F.3.A.R.) is about to evolve the paranormal horror franchise in a new first-person shooter, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be recalling the jumps, scares, and sudden starts that the previous shockers presented, and start make excuses to leave and visit the bathroom…

Now, I really enjoy an atmospheric game, and the appeal of titles such as FEAR, Condemned, and Aliens vs Predator just draw me like a moth to a flame.  I’m sure one day this will prove to be my undoing.  But of course this is a long way since my days of cowering behind the couch when the ‘Daleks’ turned up in ‘Doctor Who’.  Ah yes, the fond memories of my early twenty-something years… (ahem) anyway…

F.3.A.R. was announced on April 8, 2010 and is stated to include horror master John Carpenter helping on the cinematics.  Whilst originally scheduled for a 2010 release, then delayed to March 2011,  it is now expected to be released in May 2011. Previously, the F.E.A.R. Pointman and his squad were tasked to stop an unknown man who had taken control over a  unit of Replicas at the Armacham research facility in the city of Fairport.  During the mission, the Pointman learns that the very people he has been ordered to take out are his telepathic murdering brother, Paxton Fettel, and his creepy-ass mother, Alma Wade — both genetically engineered ‘disaster-pieces’ of Armacham Technology Corp’s  paranormal experiments.  Uh-oh.  But rather admirably, the Pointman continued with his mission to stop the targets at any cost.  Sadly, the F.E.A.R. team’s plans fail at the cost of destroying the city, its inhabitants and almost all of the Pointman’s squad mates.  Ah.

So how do you make a co-op game scary?  I expect you’d lose that alone-in-the-dark feeling where you are always questioning that shadow in the

room with you, but maybe if it’s tackled like a paranormal good-cop/bad-cop detective thriller, it might just work.  As a big admirer of the first game, I am curious to see how the co-op side develops.  I do think it’s unfair of the developer to assume responsibility onto the players to flesh out an alternative way of playing Fettel, and ensure more than just a buddy-system shooter game.  It needs to be so much more than that, and it’s possible that the real character of Fettel will only come to light when played as an AI partner rather than in a co-op mode, but I’ll try not to cast unjustified assumptions too early in advance.   Hopefully this game will still leave the players feeling the hair raising on the back of their necks and the tention rising at every corner…

Are you a F.E.A.R. thrill-seeker?  What are your thoughts on a co-operative play horror game?  The words on everyone’s lips – ‘Will it work?’

This entry was posted on Monday, March 21st, 2011 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Game Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.