The F.E.A.R. games have an incredibly interesting relationship with Monolith Productions other big game series, Condemned. While Condemned was a more down to earth game with some quasi-supernatural elements to it, it focused more on creating an atmosphere of gripping terror and a lesser emphasis on the combat. F.E.A.R. on the other hand used its balls to the wall supernatural elements for jump scares to create a game with a huge focus on combat and occasionally an atmosphere of some unease. Even with creepy little girl Alma, they've always kind of lacked in the real scares department.

F.E.A.R. 3 or F3AR seems rather proud to continue this trend. Working as a cooperative game instead of the single-player gun fests we have gotten used to pushes the horror all the way down to the ground and it actually works really well.

Fa-Three-Ar tells us the story of the Point Man, on the run since the events of F.E.A.R., being rescued from Armacham by his brother Paxton Fettel. The two escape from what appears to be South America to hunt down their mother Alma. The two characters have an oddly toxic relationship, mostly due to Fettel being crazy / dead and the Point Man being mute. It sounds interesting, and it works as a good excuse to have the two work together, but the story (and the two endings) are both quite bland. If you were expecting any resolution to things like Genevieve Aristide's fate or Stokes from F.E.A.R. 2, well prepare to be disappointed; only Beckett is addressed.

But since this is mostly an action game how does the action hold up? Well it's pretty freaking awesome actually. All of the guns we've become used to throughout the F.E.A.R. games are here, notably the super awesome Penetrator, and you'll have your grenades and melee attacks to round things out. Also of note is the active cover system used in this game is an incredibly good first-person cover mechanic, giving you a lot of power to hide from your foes or to wait for your health to recharge before mantling over cover to slaughter your foes.

As is par for the course in the F.E.A.R. games the enemy A.I. is pretty damn smart, alternating between charging your position, flushing you out with grenades or flat out charging you when they think they have cover. This is doubly important thanks to the new mechanics working in your favor – they're not just ground beef for the grinder, they present a real threat. All of the above paired up with the co-op just rounds out the package.

Speaking of co-op this is where the game really excels. The Point Man uses his iconic slo-mo to obliterate his foes but Fettel is a truly interesting beast. He can levitate enemies, blast them with a powerful energy blast, throw explosives (ranging from fire extinguishers, barrels or even dropped grenades) and blast enemies with powerful melee attacks. That's all if you don't feel like possessing someone which enhances his deadliness even more.

When the two are paired up Fettel gains even more powers, such as the ability to cover the Point Man with a damage absorbing barrier, or unleashing shockwave blasts that destroy every enemy in the area. Oh and his possessing people? Yeah you can do that and then have the Point Man use slo-mo so that the two of you can gun down every enemy in a room in dramatic bullet time murder. And since there are even more enemies when playing in co-op you will have plenty of chances to brutalize foes.

There are some hiccups in this otherwise excellent game though, most of which are based around gameplay design decisions. As per every F.E.A.R. game there aren't a whole lot of different enemies, which is mostly fine. But there are some serious balancing issues at play here and they drag the game right down to the ground every now and again.

In addition every now and again the game creates a bit of a boss fight, throwing really tough enemies at you in succession or just swarming you with grunts. In these areas, which come with little warning, the difficulty spikes so severely that they can be nigh unwinnable if you don't prepare yourself properly. They try to balance it out by giving you a lot of weapons in these areas but if you don't come in at least semi-prepared it gets hellishly hard far too suddenly.