I first saw "FEAR 3" about a year ago. Back then, the developers made a big deal about the game's unique co-op mode, which allows you to play as two very different characters. They also said there would be ways to work together or backstab your buddy for your own personal gain. In a demo I played yesterday, I saw exactly what sort of cooperation and anti-cooperation they were talking about. Truth be told, it was a little underwhelming.
He Shoots And Scores
At the core of the "FEAR 3" campaign is a scoring system not unlike the one in "Call of Duty" multiplayer. Completing mini-challenges (get three headshots in 10 seconds, for example) will grant you points, and hitting certain point totals will allow you to rank up. New ranks unlock new powers and abilities, increasing the amount of grenades you can carry or the length of your slow down time, for example. I actually think this is a great idea, constantly rewarding the player with accomplishments beyond just simple achievements.
As For That Adversarial Co-op
But then we come to the whole "screw or help your buddy" concept and things get way less interesting. There are certain dead bodies scattered throughout the world. If you approach the dead body, you can create a psychic link, which grants you a bunch of bonus points. You can choose to share these points with the other player or secretly steal all the points for yourself. That's basically it.
The developers will argue that the adversarial concepts of the gameplay go deeper than these dead bodies, as one player could steal all the kills or assist the other player, but how is that different than any other co-op shooter? Basically the most you could ever do to the other player is steal a few points from them, which doesn't sound terribly nasty. Compare that to, say, force pushing someone off a building in "Crackdown 2." Very different games, granted, but that element of cataclysmic backstabbing just isn't allowed in "FEAR 3."
Who Doesn't Love A Bunch Of Shelves?
In addition to the underwhelming adversarial co-op elements, the level I played through had some of the worst design I've seen in a while. Set in a big box, Best Buy-inspired store, the level consisted of winding racks of shelves that you had to traverse using ladders as mini-bridges. Cookie cutter level design doesn't even begin to describe how dull it was. It was like someone designed the level using a rudimentary racing game track creator, stuck in a few turns, hit copy/paste four or five times, and called it a day. The "FEAR" games have always been linear, but they've generally done a good job of making you feel like you weren't in a strict point A to point B maze. This level, not so much.
As a big fan of the first "FEAR" and a moderate fan of the second, I do have some expectations for "FEAR 3." The new ranking system is a smart move in the right direction, and the addition of co-op is an absolute benefit, as both characters play very differently. But if you're expecting a ground-breaking shooter which re-writes the book on how co-op games are played, think again.
I'm also worried that, if this is the level being shown off to the press, what does the rest of the game have in store? Hopefully something a bit more interesting than dozens upon dozens of explorable shelving units.