The third game in the F.E.A.R. franchise is just a month or so away, and to prepare fans who may have forgotten the steps leading up to the events in the third game, or to entice new gamers looking for something a bit more “unusual” in their first-person shooters, Warner Bros. and developer Day 1 Studios have released a trailer highlighting some of the key moments in the past two games.
If you aren’t familiar with the series, it is a first-person shooter set in a survival horror world, and it is kind of messed up. In the first game, you play as “Point Man,” a member of the unfortunately named First Encounter Assault Recon, or F.E.A.R., team. Someone really should have checked that acronym. In what would have been a massively ironic twist in real life, the F.E.A.R. team is assaulted with images of horror and a battalion of frightening supersoldiers, controlled by Paxton Fettel, who is also a cannibal, just for good measure.
But at the heart of the terror is Alma, an extremely powerful and disturbed psychic that has been held prisoner for decades as scientists experimented on her. It did nothing to help her temperament, and when she escapes, all hell breaks loose, in a literal sense.
If you plan on playing the first two games, beware as I’m about to reveal spoilers: it turns out that Fettel and Point Man were brothers, and Alma was their mother (twist!), which gave them both powers beyond normal men. It did not, however, give them the power to avoid shots to the head, as Point Man puts one in his brother’s dome. The second game switches characters to a Delta Force soldier who is trying to stop Alma, but inadvertently impregnates her—yeah, it is kinda messed up.
The third game puts you back in control of Point Man, who is joined—somewhat surprisingly—by his brother Fettel, despite being slightly dead. The psychic link between the two remains, and the brothers begin the search for their dear old–mostly insane–mommy, Alma.
The real catch of F.E.A.R. 3, or F.3.A.R. as the cool kids are calling it, is that you will be able to play the game solo or with a friend, but the character you use will have radically different abilities. If you play as Point Man, you will play as a more or less traditional FPS character. You have a few enhanced abilities to add a bit of spice, but it is fairly straight-forward. With Fettel, you are technically playing as a dead guy, which makes your attacks weaker since you don’t have a physical form. You can attack with psychic blasts, but the real gimmick is that you can possess enemy soldiers and use them like a standard FPS character for a limited time.
The campaign will offer co-op gameplay, as well as single player with Fettel controlled by the AI, plus there will be several online multiplayer modes.
Check out the video and look for F.3.A.R. on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 24.
[Warning: The following trailer may not be suitable for all ages]
