F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate Review (Revanchist1ab)
A fantastic additional campaign for the original F.E.A.R.
Perseus Mandate (PM) takes what made the original game great and distills it down into a campaign half the size. For the cost, its a great addition.
"If you wanted more F.E.A.R., this is it!"
Additions:
- NEW weapons (including some from Extraction Point).
- NEW enemies (including some from Extraction Point).
- NEW story
- NEW characters
- NEW levels
STORY:
Starting with the story, PM builds on what the strong narrative from the first game and builds the world with more connections and background, even giving hints to future plots. Altogether, it's a stronger showing than in the previous DLC campaign Extraction Point (EP) which had very little narrative and didn't build upon the F.E.A.R. universe in any meaningful way.
One detraction is that there is still far too little known about most characters. While PM did improve this, there should be a greater focus on chatter between characters which I will say was learned and improved on in F.E.A.R. 2.
GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay is as rock-solid as in the first game, but builds on the combat sandbox with more weapons, including some unique ones to vary up your playstyle. PM takes a lot of details and concepts created for EP and uses them far better, in my own opinion. (I still think you don't get nearly enough Slo-Mo time; and it should regen faster).
One thing I will say is that I wish there were more berserk style enemies to give you some unrestricted moments to really go all out. In addition, far too often, I have so much ammo and not enough enemies to use it on.
In addition to the new enemies from EP, PM adds a whole new mercenary faction which is far tougher and smarter than Armacham and the Replicants. They do a decent job of flanking and using their own tactics against you (something even modern games struggle with). I recommend setting the difficulty to "hard".
LEVELS:
The campaign levels are a big improvement on EP and give more variation in scenarios. At its core, it is still F.E.A.R. and is still limited by the engine, but the developers do a decent job with what they are working with. Not to spoil anything, but I did enjoy the few moments of "AHAH!" when I noticed one or two alleys and locations from the previous games. These are used extremely sparingly and are only used for moments of recognition for the player, not to reuse assets.
One critique I will give is that even though there is more background story-telling that was lacking in EP, certain levels, including the very last area, could have used more.
BONUS:
I'll list it here, but after completing the campaign, you gain access to 3 bonus time trials which include: clearing a building, a short wave defense, and a sprint challenge. All are decently fun and show this game's primary strength which is its combat.
IN DEFENSE OF:
Many have complained that this DLC had less Alma and spooky bits and was too focused on action. While I understand the critique, I believed this was for the best as the main character (the Sergeant) in this campaign is not Point Man and has no relation to Alma. There was no reason for her to ever take any interest in him. In my opinion, the scary moments (which really ramp up after the fourth (of seven) interval) are done well and bring a decent tension. I do agree that there is nowhere near as much "fear", but I believe the focus on story more than makes up for it.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Perseus Mandate provides a condensed experience of the original F.E.A.R. while providing new experiences in gameplay and narrative. 8/10
FUN FACT:
You can see how PM influenced future F.E.A.R. titles in that F.E.A.R. 2 uses much of the same story beats and concepts. In F2, you revisit the Replicant training facility, the concept of mercenaries is similar to the beefed up Armacham mercs, Armacham fights Replicants across the city, the infighting between the upper echelon of Armacham and the Senator returns, and Still Island (which is not named in PM) becomes the last destination. In F2, what was once a simple underground road tunnel is turned into a MASSIVE Sci-fi transport rail system.