The Good + Killing nazi scum never gets old + The wheelchair level is cool + Great graphics + Excellent soundtrack + Good voice acting + Satisfying gunplay + Dual wield different weapons + Weapon upgrades + Lean around corners + Manual/Quicksave + Auto pickups + Secrets The Bad - Terrible story with one of the worst twists ever - Child and spousal abuse - Animal cruelty - Eye rolling (toilet) humor - BJ is a Negative Nancy all the time - More cutscenes than gameplay - Character models look worse - Every action still requires pressing 'E' - All enemies are bullet sponges - Stealth is ridiculously hard - Still can't carry or hide bodies - The game relies too much on Nazi commanders - Headshots aren't a one-hit kill anymore - Having only 50 hp for half the game - Extreme difficulty spikes - Terrible hit detection - Can't climb down ladders - Confusing level design - Easy to get lost in Eva's Hammer - The Courtroom level - Grace The Ugly - Texture pop-in because of Megatextures - The sound mixing is all effed up - I just didn't have much fun
The Good + Still enough nazi cannon fodder + Veryt satisfying gunplay + Sawn off shotgun, groovy! + Dual wielding + No carry weapon limit + More action orientated gameplay + TOB at times feels like a reboot of RTCW + No 3rd person cutscenes like in TNO + Good graphics and soundtrack + Great voice acting + Nazis still speak German + Lean around corners + Play Wolfenstein 3D + Secrets The Bad - The story is even more generic and bland than TNO - BJ's still an idiot who keeps walking into every nazi trap - When shit hits the fan, every enemy on the map magically knows your position - Zombies feel out of place and are boring enemies - Bullet sponge boss fights are still a thing - The game sure loves to take your weapons away - At times slightly confusing level design - Every action requires pressing 'E' - Useless power armor - No auto pickups - Wonky stealth - Still can't hide bodies - No music volume slider - Checkpoint saves The Ugly - The first chapter's forced stealth - BJ sometimes refuses to climb ladders (known bug)
The Good + Killing nazi scum never gets old + Satisfying gunplay + Dual wielding + No carry weapon limit + Go in with guns blazing or take the stealthy route + Gameplay is comparable to Metro 2033/LL + Good graphics and soundtrack + Good voice acting + Nazis speak German + Likable side characters + Lean around corners + Play Wolfenstein 3D at homebase + Secrets The Bad - Generic and cliched story - BJ is a moron who keeps getting captured - BJ's mumbling in-game is sometimes hard to hear - Too much hand holding (you're never alone) - Too many cutscenes - Annoying puzzles - Pacing issues - No auto pickups - Every action requires pressing 'E' - Forced stealth sections - Can't hide bodies - Weapons reset with each new level - Weapon size's too big (taking up 1/3rd of the screen) - Bullet sponge boss fights - No music volume slider - No quicksaves The Ugly - Game is locked to 60 FPS - Texture pop-in because of Megatextures
The Good: + Great 'old school' graphics + Good sfx and music + Weapons feel punchy and responsive + Chainsaw locks onto enemies + Taunt your foes The Bad: - Extremely dumb enemy AI - Almost every enemy is a bullet sponge - Cluttered levels making it hard to run and gun - Annoying portal puzzle halfway grinds the game to a halt - Takes away your arsenal with every new episode - Too easy, even on higher difficulty modes - Purging gets repetitive really fast - Floaty controls and movement - Plasma rifle is crap The Ugly: - FPS drops (can be fixed by tweaking the engine.ini file)
The Good: + Unique art style reminiscent of the Moebius comics + Dreamy soundtrack by Japanese Breakfast + Huge open world to explore + Total freedom (travel where ever you want) + Lots of secret areas and collectibles + Non-violent gameplay + Gliding is fun + Challenging puzzles and platforming + No time limit for finishing quests + Upgrade your clothes, gear and stamina + Fast travel The Bad: - Very poorly optimized - Sluggish controls - Audio & video stuttering - Frame drops - Too many fetch quests - Too many empty and lifeless areas - Annoying climbing and platforming puzzles - Bad camera viewpoint in tight spaces - A bit confusing at times (what to do, where to go?) - Simoon (Sable's jetbike) doesn't always appear when called - Mouse cursor sometimes disappears from the menu - Repetitive in-game music - No mini-map The Ugly: - More bugs than Postal 3 and STALKER Clear Sky combined - Shedworks seem to have given up on updating the game - Corrupted saves making you lose hours of gameplay
The Good: + Beautiful graphics + Amazing soundtrack + Touching story + Challenging gameplay + Decent length + Generous save system The Bad: - Floaty controls - Too much bloom - A lot of trial and error - Bad wall jump mechanics - Too much backtracking - At times infuriatingly difficult - Especially the rising water level... - Timed events The Ugly: - Can't rebind controls!
The Good: + Unmatched atmosphere + Still the best game of the three + Made for PC players, not console peasants + Interesting storyline (based on 'Roadside Picnic' and 'Stalker (1979)') + A-Life system makes every encounter play out differently + Free-roaming (go where you want to go without any limitation) + Explore real locations like Pripyat, Red Forest and the Chernobyl NPP + Creepy underground labs (X18, X16, X10) + Haunting musical score by MooZe + No hand holding + Nights are terrifying + Semi-realistic shooting mechanics + Different types of ammunition + Inventory and weapon management + Weapons degradation + Faction reputation system + Use artifacts for special perks + Find secret stashes + Many side quests + Multiple endings + Manual saves + Infinitely moddable + Active mod community The Bad: - Needs the ZRP mod for the best experience - Can be confusing for new players - First few hubs can be extremely difficult - Beginning weapons are trash - Weapons and suits repair require a mod - Vanilla graphics are a bit outdated now - Terrible stealth mechanics - Some enemies have x-ray vision - Loading between hubs - Forgetting to save regularly! The Ugly: - Extremely buggy on release - Random freezes and CTD's - X-Ray Engine causes micro-stutter
The Good: + The most stable release + Still amazingly atmospheric + A-Life system makes every encounter different + Three large hubs to explore freely + Spooky underground levels (Underpass, X8) + Semi-realistic shooting mechanics + Upgrade your weapons and suits + Order special weapons from Nimble + Faction reputation system + Use artifacts for special perks + Finally added places to sleep + Finally added Chimeras and Burers + Find companions to travel with + Fast travel + Blowouts + Side quests + Multiple endings + Infinitely moddable + Active mod community The Bad: - Weakest story of the three - Can be confusing for new players - Graphics are worse than ShoC and CS - Grating English voice overs (Howdy ho! Hey bro!) - A bit short compared to the previous two games - Can't freely explore the Pripyat Underpass after finishing it - Waiting time for a blowout to reside is too long - Needs a mod to make bandits aggressive again - Some enemies are real bullet sponges - No randomized anomalies anymore - Can't sell damaged weapons - Not totally bug free - No new weapons The Ugly: - Random CTD's
The Good: + Shooting enemies 'John Woo Style' is still fun + Cool new enemies like the Remnant and Abomination + More colorful graphics and scenery variation + Wade Elementary is genuinely creepy + Control an overpowered mech + Carry 4 weapons instead of 3 + Bloodier than F.E.A.R. + Flashlight stays on + Aim down sights + Cook grenades + Good soundtrack + F.E.A.R. Reborn DLC The Bad: - Suffers heavily from 'Consolitis' - Bad story (Ghost Alma wants a baby and needs Becket's man juice, wtf) - Environment isn't nearly as destructable as in F.E.A.R. - Worse particle effects and volumetric lighting - Bright colors make the graphics look a bit cartoony - Enemies glow in the dark when using slo-mo - Enemy A.I. feels dumbed down to appease console players - Enemies don't talk as much as in the first game - QTE's for boss fights (mash 'E' button) - Melee system like dropkicks and slides are hit-or-miss - Weak weapons that sound like pea shooters - Terrible combat shotgun and useless flamethrower - Predictable white noise and flashlight stutter to announce spooky stuff - PDA updates on-screen getting in your line of sight - Can't use scroll button to read messages in PDA - Using the cover system is pretty useless - Especially since there's no leaning - Annoying on-screen hud - No manual saves The Ugly: - GOG version has game breaking bugs not present in the Steam version - Can't bind mouse buttons 4 and 5 without a community fix (https://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/xmousebuttoncontrol.htm) - Can't disable mouse acceleration without a community fix (https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/932-fear-2-mouse-fix/)
The Good: + Fantastic 'John Woo Style' shooting + Dual wield pistols like a boss + Impressive enemy A.I. + Interesting story with a twist + Creepy atmosphere heavily inspired by Japanese horror + Great particle effects and volumetric lighting + Semi-destructible environments + One of the best shotguns in an FPS ever + Slide and dropkick enemies + Still looks pretty good today + Lean around corners + Manual saves + Two expansion packs The Bad: - Very linear - Boring environments - Easy to miss the spooky stuff - Lame jump scares - Annoying hitscanning security bots - Unsatisfying ending The Ugly: - Needs a community fix to work properly FPS fix: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/789-directinput-fps-fix/
