If like me, you plan to buy F.E.A.R. 3 having ignored the negative reviews on F.E.A.R. 2 and loved it, then you are likely to be disappointed. I couldn't be bothered finishing F.E.A.R. 3, after getting about halfway through. On the surface, it is another F.E.A.R. game, a lot like 2, and when I started playing I actually wondered what people were on about in the other reviews. The horror is there, weak as it ever was in this series. Certain mechanics are similar too, you've still got slow motion, grenades, and a sliding kick. As you keep playing however, it starts to sink in that it really IS more like Call of Duty or some other, more plain, FPS game. It is very watered down, even though a lot of elements from F.E.A.R. 2 are still present. It's also difficult, in a boring way. The health bar is gone, replaced by a regenerating health system. Quicksaves are also gone. Those changes alone make the game something of a headache to play, but overall it is still "ok". There are plenty of other, better, FPS games and I recommend playing one of those instead.
I don't normally play point and click games, but this one was quite entertaining. The story starts out slow and picks up later, and it's a nice change from typical game stories - it is more like a novel. The puzzles are mostly logical, as long as you remember to use the phone and revisit areas and people. It should be said that the game *does* run on modern computers, maybe other people had problems with specific hardware or drivers. The game crashed only once for me and otherwise worked "out of the box". Save often to avoid losing progress.
It's about as interesting as artsy animations set to orchestral music. If you're into those, you'll probably like this.
If you can't stomach a sappy father-son story, give this one a miss, because the store page description is too true. It's not too badly written, so if that's what you're into, it might be worth a try. Personally I found myself ignoring the story towards the end of the game because I had ceased to care. The best aspect of the game is the scenery, it's very beautiful and I often found myself stopping to stare at my screen. I feel like this carries the game, since the gameplay gets very repetitive and tedious after a while. I often found myself backtracking or wandering around with no clue of where to go.
