F.E.A.R 3
Release Date: Sep 30,2010
F.E.A.R 3 Preview
There's certainly no shortage of great first-person shooters on display at this year's E3, and F.E.A.R. 3 is no exception. What's surprising to us is how far the game has come in just a few short months since our last extensive session with the game. In the current demonstration, the game's engine has come leaps and bounds, improving lighting, textures and generally building an atmosphere of intense horror and sudden bursts of high intensity action and gunplay.
Opening in a ruined apartment block, the demo was strictly co-op (though we're assured that the single player campaign is virtually identical in content to the co-op one). Paxton Fettel, now a ghost able to inhabit his enemies' bodies, is a strategic character to use. His ability to levitate enemies, keeping them immobile in the air, as well as telekinetically lift barrels and other deadly objects, makes him a powerful ally. In the context of the ruined apartment block, he was an interesting counterpoint to Point Man's straight-faced gunplay.
As the pair worked their way through the cluttered and destroyed rooms, spaces littered with debris and lined with blood red scribbles of insanity, we also got our first real taste of what's being referred to as 'generative scares'. Essentially, this new AI system drives the constant push and pull of enemies in the world, ensuring you're never going to be able to predict the flow and spawn of F.E.A.R. 3's demonic horde. What began as innocent zombies running into Point Man's top-loading shotgun eventually gives away to more challenging demons who really underline the importance of co-operative paly.
For instance, as the duo exited the apartment for the first time and the military began its' offensive against you, it became critical to take different points, utilizing Fettel's telekinetic powers and inhabiting human forms along the way.
Once in a while, to keep the overarching story in focus, the perspective would jump locations into the warped 'Almaverse', where the location would skip ahead slightly, inserting strange props into the world like hospital beds and visions of horrific massacres, demonic constructions and Alma herself. Then, just as suddenly as the narrative shifted, the pace reverted back to head-on action.
After commandeering two mechs, we finally got a chance to see the laser blaster, a devastating energy weapon that carved a swathe through the forest, igniting the trees and ravaging just about any fleshy foe unfortunate enough to fall within its range. It also underscored the good weapons balancing within F.E.A.R. 3; like the chaingun, there's the potential to overheat the weapon, requiring intelligent but sporadic use.
F.E.A.R 3 Screenshots
F.E.A.R 3 Features
- F.3.A.R delivers all the hallmarks that define the F.E.A.R. brand: terrifying paranormal horror, frenetic combat, and a dramatic storyline.
- F.3.A.R. evolves the brand, introducing Divergent Co-op: deep, social gameplay that gives players distinctly different abilities that affect their own play as well as the experience of gamers they are playing with...or against.
- Legendary horror film director John Carpenter and horror writer Steve Niles provide their expertise and guidance to take F.3.A.R.'s intensity to the next level.
- Proprietary technology creates random scare events to increase the feeling of isolation and unpredicatability when playing alone or with a friend, and offers new experiences each time gamers play through.
- The game world is tainted by the Almaverse, the alternate dimension where Alma’s psychic essence subsists. New sinister and fantastical enemy creatures birthed in Alma's warped mind spill into reality and intensify the panic.
- Active 360 degree cover, evolutionary slow-mo modes, phasing portal systems and best in class mech combat aid players in facing an army of soldiers and paranormal enemies.
Watch F.E.A.R Trailers
