Culture

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC. 3/5.

What have we learned, class? Yes. That's right. It can be tough to frighten a supernatural super-soldier wielding a trans-dimensional plasma cannon. Everything about F.E.A.R. 3 (and, to a some-what lesser extent, its predecessors), from its buddy-buddy co-operative mode to the visceral empowering combat, could not have further undermined the horror implied by the plot and atmospheric environments if it had been designed that way.
 
The combat in F.E.A.R 3 (Or F.3.A.R. - First Encounter Assault Recon is the original, and the still the best, clumsy-acronym-shooter) is too good. Too satisfying. Between slow motion boots to the face, and sliding acrobatically along the floor for a takedown, you barely surface long enough to pay attention to whatever unsettling alien texture the designers have used to paint the game's aggressively linear corridors.
 
There's craftsmanship and detail in the environments too. So that's a shame. I enjoyed the remarkable decomposing heads. Those were fun. But to what end? The creepy moments are so clearly supposed to be creepy moments: discrete, compartmentalised encounters which are completely non-interactive, save your movement through the creep-corridor. Resident Evil 4 was scary because it constantly held you on the edge of your ammo supply and a single chainsaw-wielding foe could brutally decapitate you if he got anywhere close. But here you know exactly what can kill you and what can't.
 
The plot is utterly unfathomable if you haven't played the first two games. If you have, you can follow it. In theory. But you'd have to try quite hard. Alma, the Japanese horror-inspired dark haired little girl is back. And the story is told in a series of interruptive cutscenes.
 
Both components of F.3.A.R. - the core mechanics themselves and their context – are good. But they cancel each other out, leaving gamesdom with what amounts to yet another pretty good corridor shooter.