Although I am in school this summer, I am only taking one class. This gives me plenty of time for games, and it has been quite nice. In the past few weeks I have finished up Just Cause 2 (impressions below), the first chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, and this past weekend I decided to check out the first expansion pack to F.E.A.R., entitled Extraction Point. This was prompted by a sudden appearance of the F.E.A.R. games on Steam.

I quite enjoyed the original F.E.A.R. when it came out in 2005, and its AI and slow motion effects are in many ways still top notch. The story was never especially compelling, but it is not often that an expansion pack can actually detract from the original game. This unfortunately was my impression of the expansion pack, which starts where the original game left off. Players are put back in the role of the F.E.A.R. Point Man and are tasked with… well, they just have to do more of the same stuff they did in F.E.A.R., namely shoot stuff and get spooked by ghoulies. The antagonist is inexplicably back from the dead, deaths of primary characters are entirely meaningless and predictable, and there is no more explanation as to the protagonist’s origins, motivations, or loyalties. Why does Point Man, a nameless and voiceless proxy, merely get a few scares from Alma and Paxton Fettle when so many others are just outright killed in horrible, gruesome ways? I can’t say this game can answer that. That is unfortunate, seeing as how the other expansion pack, as well as the sequel, F.E.A.R. 2, do not deal with the same set of characters.

The only positive aspect is the gameplay, which was vintage F.E.A.R.. A couple new weapons and enemy types were thrown in as well, but their influence was minimal. The expansion did seem to be a bit more difficult than the original, but the comparison may not be fair because it has been several years since I last played it.

Grade: C+