junior
10-29-2006, 09:31 PM
FEAR, the game I reviewed here nearly a year ago, has a new expansion out called Extraction Point. The expansion is by Timegate, though Monolith (the people who created the original game) supposedly provided some input. Unfortunately, I have my doubts about the amount of input they provided. But more on that later.
Some spoilers for anyone who hasn't played FEAR yet, but it's been nearly a year since it came out so I don't think this should be an issue.
The game picks up with the last few scenes from the first game. The game then starts next to the wreckage of a helicopter which has crashed into an abandoned apartment building. Holiday, the Delta Force member, and Jin, your fellow team member, are on the floor above you, and tell you they'll attempt to link up with you. Your orders are to head to the extraction point at a nearby hospital where you, Jin, and the surviving Delta Force members (i.e. all of the ones you never met, plus Holiday) will be pulled out of the city.
Fettel is dead, so his clone army is no longer a threat. Or is it? Anyone who's glanced at the box knows that Replica soldiers are your primary opponent in this game, and before you get very far Fettel's status suddenly becomes a great big question mark and his replica unit reactivates. Alma's also acting oddly. And there are new supernatural opponents to deal with. And finally, where is everyone? As Holiday comments shortly after the expansion pack starts, you're in the middle of a huge city but no one's around. And even if people got spooked by what you did at the end of FEAR, there still hasn't been enough time to evacuate the city.
The expansion pack adds a few new enemies. There's a new heavy armor-type replica, with a shield on it's left arm to help protect it from incoming fire. And there's also a new supernatural enemy that's different from the wraiths that appeared in the first game.
New equipment includes a portable gatling-style 'minigun' (easily my favorite weapon), a laser carbine (which I didn't really use), and deployable turrets. The latter are used more or less like grenades, except that instead of blowing up when you throw them they deploy a small automatic gun that's more of a distraction than a real danger. Still, the turrets are hard to hit and tend to keep enemy attention focused on the turret instead of you.
One of the chief complaints about the first game was the lack of variety in the environments. Fortunately, this has been dealt with to a certain extent, and you'll find yourself in a lot more areas - starting with the church you enter as soon as you exit the derelict apartment building.
Also, as opposed to the first game, you're not alone 100% of the time. Admittedly, you're alone most of the time. But you don't always fight alone.
Lots of fun, and so far so good.
There are, unfortunately, a few complaints...
First of all, the expansion is, in my opinion, just a little bit short. Time to finish is about four hours. IMO, it should have been a couple of hours longer.
Second is the treatment of your friends. I've checked the official forum for this expansion, and the GameFAQ forum for it, and I've found pretty much a concensus that no one is happy with the way that your friends in this game are treated. And, in fact, there's a great deal of annoyance on the part of the players. I don't want to say more because it risks spoiling things, though I wish I could.
Third, regarding the story...
there is no closure in this story, and none of the questions raised by the expansion pack are answered. People have made guesses based on what's going on, but there's not really any way to figure out if the guesses are accurate or not.
The rights to FEAR are kind of in an odd state. Vivendi owns the rights to the game name. But Monolith gets the rights to all of the characters. And Monolith was purchased by Warner Brothers while FEAR was in the middle of production, which means that Vivendi and Monolith won't be working together on a sequel (and Monolith has one in the works). There's a line of thought circulating that this odd situation might be what prompted some of the more unpopular decisions regarding the expansion pack. The thought is that Timegate was setting things up for Vivendi's use of the name, and as a Monolith might ignore the expansion pack.
Finally, something of an addendum to my review that I posted nearly a year ago...
Back when I posted that review, I had a so-so video card and FEAR is a pretty high-spec game.
I've corrected that issue...
I'm currently running a GeForce 6800 GT with 256 MB RAM on the board, and this game is BEAUTIFUL.
Usually, that is.
The environments are sharply defined (possibly a bit TOO sharply in the case of shadows, but that's presumeably something for the game artists to deal with). Weapons fire that misses blows gouges out of the walls and floor, and a room that's suffered a firefight looks like it. The one exception is that when I set off a large group of explosions (for instance, if I blow up a gas cannister and there are a few more within range of the blast that also explode), then the fps drops dramatically for about a second. But other than that, the game runs great.
Some spoilers for anyone who hasn't played FEAR yet, but it's been nearly a year since it came out so I don't think this should be an issue.
The game picks up with the last few scenes from the first game. The game then starts next to the wreckage of a helicopter which has crashed into an abandoned apartment building. Holiday, the Delta Force member, and Jin, your fellow team member, are on the floor above you, and tell you they'll attempt to link up with you. Your orders are to head to the extraction point at a nearby hospital where you, Jin, and the surviving Delta Force members (i.e. all of the ones you never met, plus Holiday) will be pulled out of the city.
Fettel is dead, so his clone army is no longer a threat. Or is it? Anyone who's glanced at the box knows that Replica soldiers are your primary opponent in this game, and before you get very far Fettel's status suddenly becomes a great big question mark and his replica unit reactivates. Alma's also acting oddly. And there are new supernatural opponents to deal with. And finally, where is everyone? As Holiday comments shortly after the expansion pack starts, you're in the middle of a huge city but no one's around. And even if people got spooked by what you did at the end of FEAR, there still hasn't been enough time to evacuate the city.
The expansion pack adds a few new enemies. There's a new heavy armor-type replica, with a shield on it's left arm to help protect it from incoming fire. And there's also a new supernatural enemy that's different from the wraiths that appeared in the first game.
New equipment includes a portable gatling-style 'minigun' (easily my favorite weapon), a laser carbine (which I didn't really use), and deployable turrets. The latter are used more or less like grenades, except that instead of blowing up when you throw them they deploy a small automatic gun that's more of a distraction than a real danger. Still, the turrets are hard to hit and tend to keep enemy attention focused on the turret instead of you.
One of the chief complaints about the first game was the lack of variety in the environments. Fortunately, this has been dealt with to a certain extent, and you'll find yourself in a lot more areas - starting with the church you enter as soon as you exit the derelict apartment building.
Also, as opposed to the first game, you're not alone 100% of the time. Admittedly, you're alone most of the time. But you don't always fight alone.
Lots of fun, and so far so good.
There are, unfortunately, a few complaints...
First of all, the expansion is, in my opinion, just a little bit short. Time to finish is about four hours. IMO, it should have been a couple of hours longer.
Second is the treatment of your friends. I've checked the official forum for this expansion, and the GameFAQ forum for it, and I've found pretty much a concensus that no one is happy with the way that your friends in this game are treated. And, in fact, there's a great deal of annoyance on the part of the players. I don't want to say more because it risks spoiling things, though I wish I could.
Third, regarding the story...
there is no closure in this story, and none of the questions raised by the expansion pack are answered. People have made guesses based on what's going on, but there's not really any way to figure out if the guesses are accurate or not.
The rights to FEAR are kind of in an odd state. Vivendi owns the rights to the game name. But Monolith gets the rights to all of the characters. And Monolith was purchased by Warner Brothers while FEAR was in the middle of production, which means that Vivendi and Monolith won't be working together on a sequel (and Monolith has one in the works). There's a line of thought circulating that this odd situation might be what prompted some of the more unpopular decisions regarding the expansion pack. The thought is that Timegate was setting things up for Vivendi's use of the name, and as a Monolith might ignore the expansion pack.
Finally, something of an addendum to my review that I posted nearly a year ago...
Back when I posted that review, I had a so-so video card and FEAR is a pretty high-spec game.
I've corrected that issue...
I'm currently running a GeForce 6800 GT with 256 MB RAM on the board, and this game is BEAUTIFUL.
Usually, that is.
The environments are sharply defined (possibly a bit TOO sharply in the case of shadows, but that's presumeably something for the game artists to deal with). Weapons fire that misses blows gouges out of the walls and floor, and a room that's suffered a firefight looks like it. The one exception is that when I set off a large group of explosions (for instance, if I blow up a gas cannister and there are a few more within range of the blast that also explode), then the fps drops dramatically for about a second. But other than that, the game runs great.