F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate

Perseus Mandate really had me scratching my head. You see, the first game (you know, F.E.A.R.) was a full-tilt action extravaganza complete with some genuine thrills and scares. In fact it was voted scariest game of the year for 2005 (I think). The game introduced us to the F.E.A.R. team as they and you (the newest member) took on a seriously depraved dude named Paxton Fettel and his army of clone soldiers, who happen to be under his mental control. And then there was the disturbing little girl named Alma, who had such horrific mental powers she was locked in a containment vault hundreds of feet underground and put through the paces by a shadowy government-funded project. Her powers were so horrible that even after her death she managed to mess with the living (including your character), which resulted in quite a few deaths. So, even though there were some unresolved plot points by the end of the game, my thoughts were that the F.E.A.R. team would be called in to other occult-type situations with things that go bump in the night. It was kind of like the Jericho squad (from the game Jericho) only the good folks at F.E.A.R. thought of it first.  

Instead ... This stand alone/add-on title is more of the same from the first title. Only you no longer play the same character. Instead you play as a member of another squad of F.E.A.R. operatives, who is running around the Armacham complex trying to catch Paxton Fettel. So, unlike the success of the Half-Life add-on titles, Perseus Mandate is more of a rehash of a far better game. Let me explain.

F.E.A.R. worked because you simply had no idea what was going to happen next. One moment you are running around the sewers and offices of a mysterious complex with clones and unnatural things trying to kill you, the next you are pulled into an ether otherworld where a creepy little girl stalks you and attempts to turn you into a burnt piece of meat. You never quite knew if your sanity was failing or if outside forces were making people dissolve into ash right in front of you. The game was great. But now, with Perseus Mandate, that magic is not there. You run into Paxton and Alma, but there is no mystery anymore, and you really only see them in a cameo experience really. The game took all the things that made it creepy and interesting to begin with, and put none of it in this title. Even the desperate feeling that I had playing the original, like I was walking to my death every corner of the game, was completely absent this time.

This feeling of graphic deja vu is only worsened when you realize the scares and snappy plot movement is pretty much non-existant in this installment. I guess I was expecting the visuals to be updated and the developers to throw some real scares at me this time. I mean after all, we have all played through the first game and now know what to expect from the creepy noises and jump-at-you scares. Simply put, there isn't anything in this title that got me feeling all creeped out. Towards the beginning of the game a mysterious knife is thrown at your character and the throwee is nowhere to be found, I thought to myself, "cool" but then, that's it. There is a whole mess loads of fire fights with the enemy clones (whom I am sure I killed in the first game) and then there is the slow-motion trick that was explained in the first game as being a special talent only that character possessed. But hmmpff, the scares and thrills are just not there.

The graphics engine Perseus Mandate is built on is showing its age. In a time when eye candy is everything, the look and style of Mandate is that of a direct copy of a game that was made two ago, an eternity in the gaming industry. The set pieces are drab and more of the same from the first title. Pipes are everywhere, chain link fences, sewers, rusty ladders, non-descript doors and everything else that you remember. The enemy A.I. is still a booger and the game allows you to choose from several difficulty levels and you can count on being filleted several times, so get your slo-mo on and whup up on them nasties. I will say the developers did come up with a couple of new visuals in the form of a few new weapons and a new baddie (the Nightcrawler) who is next to impossible to kill. Honestly, you put so many bullets into this thing that it almost seems out of place compared to the difficulty to kill other things in this game. But other than that, the game's visuals just don't cut it. There wasn't too much slowdown in the game, but when I compared this title to the Orange Box, there is no putting them in the same category, which just blew me away considering the load times that this title has. Why didn't they use the Unreal 3 engine? It's working for pretty much any mega title going right now; alas, we will never know.

The sound effects are rehashed from the first game and yes, the machine guns sound real loud, just like the explosions. The eerie ambience/music wasn't so creepy this go around and I know the soldiers are all clones so that explains why they sound the same on the radios, but do they all only know three phrases? 

Gameplay: 7.0
The game controls fine, and you can zoom in for kills with the right weapon, but you still have to reconfigure the keys to your liking so you can play the darn thing with some effectiveness. Jump, kill, run, kill, shoot, kill. 

Graphics: 6.0
The looks are dated and the rehashed look and feel of the entire game is nowhere new and exciting.  

Sounds: 5.5
The same sounds, voices and explosions. Time to do some serious updating.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
All things aside, the game does provide some serious challenges. I liked how the A.I. really works well within the game even though it can be beaten in about six hours.

Concept: 6.0
I said it above, the game should be putting the F.E.A.R. squad into different situations each new title, not dealing with the same problems that the first squad couldn't put to bed.

Overall: 6.3
F.E.A.R. doesn't deliver this time around, the looks are fading and the sounds aren't at all new and fresh. If they needed to make another game about the same situation, then why not make it from one of the clones' perspectives.