F.E.A.R. Extraction Point

"Harder, Darker, Shorter, Dumber... Better?"

Let me begin by saying that I'm aware dumber isn't a word. Secondly, better? In a word: no.

F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point begins just before the end of the original F.E.A.R, retelling the ending for those who forgot (who could?). Your character opens his eyes, only to be greeted by the sight of a crashed helicopter, the one you, Jin, & Holiday escaped on. Jin is a little banged up, and Holiday is just fine, and communication between your team and F.E.A.R. headquarters (Betters) is severed for unknown reasons. And thus, begins your mission to make it to the Extraction Point with your fellow F.E.A.R. operative and SFOD-D homie (Holiday).

Graphics
In a word: fantastic. If you thought the original F.E.A.R. was amazing, you'll be leaving with the same feeling after playing EP. This time around, the graphics are really put to use, with more than just an Office Building, Warehouse, & Apartment Complex setting. As usual, graphical effects are unbelievable, mostly utilized for the hallucination moments in the game. One such instance had the hallway you're standing in break apart, pillar by pillar, floating into the sky, and being surrounded by fire. Amazing!

Another instance showing the graphical and technical prowess of the development team was walking towards a locked door (the only place to go), turning around and being in a COMPLETELY different room with no hiccups or lag whatsoever (to indicate that it's being loaded). Unbelievable!

Unfortunately, the game does suffer from being extremely, EXTREMELY dark (as hinted at in the title of this review). Your flashlight will be on for a good 80% of the game. It's a bit annoying, but adds to the scare factor substantially.

Regardless, the game is a marvel to look at, and is incredibly pleasing on the eyes, as it always was.

Graphics: 10

Sound
One of the shining spots in the original F.E.A.R., along with graphics, was clearly the sound of the game (shout to my friend Terry Jones, Software Engineer for Monolith!). The ambiance was always something to write home about, with the sounds generally creeping you out every corner.

Extraction Point basically recycles a good amount of the ambiance found in the original, but there's plenty of new stuff in there. It's really something you need to hear for yourself, with all the sound settings turned up.

Sound: 10

Gameplay
If you've played the original, it's basically the same. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? This time around, you have three new weapons (a laser carbine, a minigun, and deployable turrets), two new enemies (but a variety of weapon changes here and there for older enemy models), and a great variety of environments to do battle in. Of course, all the environments are urban, but there's no complaints there. If I wanted to battle on alien ships, I'd stick to Prey.

Anyway, there's not much more new to it than that. I played the game in High Difficulty (as I always do in FPS games), and I noticed that the enemies were significantly tougher than their F.E.A.R. counterparts on the same difficulty level (I played through F.E.A.R. just before I installed EP, so I would know). Whereas in the original if I walked into a room with a few enemies patrolling, I'd have a second or two to get back out of sight before they see me. Not the case in EP. If I walk in for a second, they've seen me and are hell bent on getting me killed. They're still amazing shots, and moreso with grenades. Really difficult, but I'd rather have a challenge than a pushover. Don't you agree?

A complaint about the gameplay is the decision to bring back the ghost monsters from the end of F.E.A.R. fairly early in the game and basically throughout. As if they weren't annoying enough in the end of F.E.A.R., this time around you have to use the weapons you're actually saving up to dispose of em (in F.E.A.R., you knew the game was coming to an end so rationing bullets didn't matter a bit). Ugh.

Gameplay: 9

Story
I know what you're thinking... 10, 10, 9... where does that final 8 come from? Well, right here my friends. The story is the weakest point of Extraction Point. This is extremely disappointing, considering the masterfully told story present in the original F.E.A.R. Whereas in F.E.A.R., story was told through voicemail messages and laptops found at people's desks, and then basically unraveled in detail at the final two intervals... EP is completely different. Yeah, there's voicemail messages and laptops in EP, but they're nothing more than "Hey, I'm coming to get you, I hope you're okay!" messages, and cheap scares (and in the case of the laptops, paperweights).

There is no story to speak of, basically. Paxton Fettel is back from the dead inexplicably, communication with F.E.A.R. headquarters is severed from your team inexplicably.... get my drift? Everything goes by UNEXPLAINED. Just when you think you've reached the point in the game where everything would be explained (as it was in F.E.AR.), more unexplained crap gets shoved in your mouth. What the hell?? It makes no sense, and basically negates everything you've accomplished up until that point. It's extremely disheartening and a slap in the face, in my opinion.

Damn you, TimeGate!!! Here's hoping Monolith will fix the story up with the true sequel.

Story: 4

I wanted to love this game... I really did. Halfway into the game, I did just that. But it was at the point in the game where key characters started dying for no reason but a cheap thrill, and the lack of any real story, and the feeling of "Congratulations, you've accomplished nothing" throughout that made me give the game an 8. If it wasn't for that, this expansion could've ranked up there with the Half-Life 2 expansion as one of the better ones ever created.

Too bad.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/26/06