We all like surprises no matter how large or small. You know, on the surface, it looks mediocre however once opened, it’s a lot better than expected. This notion is how I felt about Fear: Perseus Mandate as on the surface, and actually advertised as a standalone expansion pack, placed me a quizzical belief that how pretentious developers TimeGate Studios can be. Well, once completed, it turned out to be a decent FPS worthy of the FEAR title as it kept that same ominous feel that the supernatural is always lurking about. However a little bit more visual polish / new gadgets can make this game almost as good as the original title.
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate takes place as the same time as FEAR – to be more precise, around near the end of FEAR. For spoiler reasons, I won’t go into too much details however I can say it’s all about the second FEAR team sent in to investigate Armacham's Perseus Project. This second F.E.A.R. team consists of Captain David Raynes, Lt. Steve Chen, and the unnamed F.E.A.R. Sergeant, which is you. Of course the events are not exactly what it seems however it does have a few good surprises and the finale is actually quite decent, to say the least.
The gameplay plays out as you expect from FEAR – that is intense battles, awesome AI (as they will stalk / surround you) and your slowmo ability. And thankfully so, the game explains well enough why you process this feature. Other features that plays well from the original game was there are laptops to find to enhance the storyline and boosters to locate. They are mostly easy to locate due to the game’s linear fashion however don’t let that deter you in any way. Thus you can say it took the strengths of FEAR and used them in this game. However just like the original, those laptops don’t possess much information other than ‘are you there?’ or ‘what’s going on?’ – I total missed opportunity to separate itself from the main game.
One of my major criticism from the original game was there was too much of nothing. I guess it adds suspension however it caused more aggravation than being in suspense. Perseus Mandate thankfully filled most of that gap thus making it feel like you are actually doing something rather than going from one room to the next; whether being in combat or the supernatural doing its stuff yet doesn’t overstay its usefulness. Also the locales differs so you not going to run into the same office room over and over again. Also it’s nice to see different viewpoints of the main city Fairport, chiefly the Auburn District yet, like I have mentioned before, it needs more lore.
Many of the new features arrived from the first expansion pack - Extraction Point, also developed by TimeGate Studios yet there are some more features added here namely the advanced rifle with a nightvision scope, a grenade launcher, and the lightning gun. The sad thing though is that you cannot locate ammo for these weapons so it’s basically once you find them, use it straight away. Besides, it seems that if you locate any of those new weapons, you know a big fight is going to happen. Also there’s a new group of enemy known as the nightcrawlers and I leave it at that.
Visually and soundwise, they both derived from the original Fear game thus sadly in the visual department, it’s lacking considerably considering it’s only been two years ago since Fear burst into the scene with its new Jupiter Extended (EX) engine. The details are not there anymore as most looks washed out – amazing how time moves on. Thankfully the sounds are still top notch as that dripping blood sounds still haunts me to this day. The musical scores are both from the expansion pack and the original game yet they still could have added one or two more additional scores. So it’s a lost opportunity here especially with the graphics – at least a bit of touch up would go pretty far.
Being a standalone expansion pack, the length is quite generous considering as it took me about ten hours to complete so it’s almost as long as the original Fear. In addition, once completed the game unlocks three bonus missions – these missions are not part of the main storyline and they are quite small in size. They are basically going from point A to point B and nuke anyone in between. So whilst Perseus Mandate is regarded as an expansion pack, you can almost say it’s another chapter in the Fear saga. However and unfortunately so, like the other expansion pack, it’s not regarded as canon. Yet they are regarded quite loosely, along with the Dark Horse comic book and the Alma interviews, form part of the Vivendi Timeline. Worth playing.