I went into this game with rather unsure expectations. I had high hopes for F.E.A.R. 3 and was worried that this game was going to let me down. Turns out I was completely wrong.
This is probably the first 'survival horror' game I've played and beaten on my own. I've always had a bit of a fear when it comes to horror games but generally have no problem battling it out with a partner in some sort of co-op game. I really had no idea what to expect so I played the game on medium but may go back one day to battle it out in impossible, mostly because this ties into my only flaw I personally had with the game. I just found it to be a little too easy. Of course without knowing how hard the other higher difficulties are personally I'm not going to give that flaw much weight, but for now, that was really the only problem I had with the game.
Controls
Don't think I had any problems when it came to the controls. The one thing I did notice though was that I seemed to have problems at times rotating my cutter from the horizontal to vertical or vice versa. Nothing major but it was sometimes annoying in the heat of battle trying to adjust my shot and it just didn't seem to want to at times.
Gameplay
I was actually surprised with the amount of upgrading was available to you. I like that each gun was upgradable and you had a bit of a say in what exactly was upgraded. I like the use of the store and mostly the ability to sell so that if you felt like you were well off you could sell some spare heals, ammo supply packs to get yourself more power nodes. As I said earlier I did feel like on medium the game was just fairly easy. I completed the game with 2 deaths to actual creatures, about 4 or 5 times to 1 shot environmental deaths (3 of which was the same puzzle that I just wasn't figuring out lol.) Also I 99% of the time did not use the stasis ability, I think I used it 3 times on enemies other than the required times to progress. So I can't really imagine how much easier the game is when you've got stasis at your side, but I feel like I'd be heavily thankful to have it in impossible. I like the puzzles that were in the game, nothing that would really ever have you stuck (except that one part that killed me 3 times, damn I'm salty.) but enough to not make the game feel completely auto pilot. The mechanics behind shooting the enemy in different places for different effects will always be a plus to me, one of the big things I love about the Resident Evil games. All in all I had a lot of fun even though I was pretty terrified and played at a snails pace.
Design and Music
Music-wise there wasn't much other than the music to let you know there is an enemy still lurking around but it was still good and kept me on edge. Now the design felt great, I was truly terrified for most of this play though. The developers really messed with you with the lighting and atmosphere to make you really never feel safe. Even in areas that were completely lit up and looking like a nice little safe area, you knew there was something waiting to jump out at you, it was just a matter of when. Chapter 10 was easily the most atmospheric to me, partially because I have a bigger fear of monsters that are more humanly related or supernatural and just because of how much tension the whole chapter has. I don't know if it was just because how I took it but it was also the longest chapter and I couldn't wait to finish it so I could finally calm down.
Story
Although rather predictable, it did keep me interested. Leave it to the game to cause me to jump at the start of almost every time I got a message from my crew mates. I honestly didn't get myself too into the story because I didn't bother with any of the audio or text logs.. But I have good reason. I was scared, and when I'm cowering and trying to stay alive, the last thing I need is my concentration being focused on reading a text log or an audio log chatting in my ear while I'm trying to hear my impending doom creep up behind me. Also the way the game ended.. Of course scared me and even more so has me incredibly terrified for what to expect in the next game.
Overall
I'm really glad that this game blew my expectations away because F.E.A.R. just left a bad taste in my mouth. The game is excellently creepy and atmospheric and it just overall really fun to play. It seems to have that perfect blend of survival horror, action shooter, and minor RPG elements with the store and upgrade system. There is very few games that I tend to go back and play but this might be one of them and it's also got me terrifyingly excited to play the next game as well as to co-op with my friend in the 3rd one.
8.5/10
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