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> Results: F.E.A.R Perseus Mandate
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The ESRB Says
Blood and Gore: GamerDad blew enemies to pieces, reduced them to skeletons, and watches body parts fly. Intense Violence: The intensity of the original FEAR games remains relentless. Strong Language: Constant use of the 'F' and 'S' words as well as the usual sprinkling of 'hell' and 'damn'. When F.E.A.R arrived two years ago it was amazing - combining the shooter gameplay derived from the tremendous No One Lives Forever games with a story steeped in horror and the paranormal, it delivered a little bit of everything to shooter fans. The first expansion came a year ago - Extraction Point - and didn't bring much new with it, but was still a nice helping of tight shooter goodness. We are now two years past the original game and this new expansion simply represents more or the same again - solid gameplay, repeated hallway shooters with occasional breakout fights, and a graphics engine that has not aged gracefully at all. While the shooter elements are still fun and engaging and there are some interesting fights and scares, it is really time for someone to drop a really big bomb on Armachem and put the whole place out of our misery. The story puts you in the role of a Sargent in a second F.E.A.R. team sent in after the initial group that was looking into Project Origin. Your squad is under orders to figure out what is happening at Armachem and look into Project Perseus. You see some familiar faces - Alma and Paxton Fettel, and even references to the character you played in the original games. Indeed, much of the game feels familiar - and that is because this expansion plays like a cut-and-past of the original game tweaked to give a different perspective and somewhat different setting. Most of the weaponry is the same, and the fierce and intense firefights remain extremely well done. However, I was somewhat disappointed by the use of space in this game - the original would raise the tension by having you walk through an empty room after a quick skirmish after a huge fight ... you really never knew what was coming next. Perseus Mandate has a few empty rooms strung together and then a few full rooms and each time you enter a room with enemies they start chattering away - I cannot remember a single time getting surprised by enemies. But while this is the worst part of the F.E.A.R. franchise, the shooter gameplay remains solid and competes nicely against other new shooters coming out this fall. So if you loved the gameplay in the original you will have fun this time around as well - just keep your expectations fairly low and you will be nicely entertained.  
As I said in my reviews of F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. Extraction Point , I have always enjoyed how well the games have played on the double meaning of the title word - F.E.A.R. stands for First Encounter Assault and Reconnaissance. The word the acronym spells out 'fear' means "an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. That remains in this expansion - this is once again a horror-game level experience, with all of the horrible visuals to go along with it. I made it very clear in the original review that this isn't a game for kids - and this expansion continues the trend of assaulting the gamer with plenty of horrific images, including watching some of your squad mates die in terrible ways. Blood-stained rooms, body parts everywhere, and watching enemies and allies alike getting eviscerated are commonplace in this game. Even without getting to the liberal use of strong language it is clear that this is a game meant for Adults only.
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