E3 2010: F.E.A.R. 3 Updated

There's certainly no shortage of great first-person shooters on display at this year's E3, and F.E.A.R. 3 is no exception. What's surprising to us is how far the game has come in just a few short months since our last extensive session with the game. In the current demonstration, the game's engine has come leaps and bounds, improving lighting, textures and generally building an atmosphere of intense horror and sudden bursts of high intensity action and gunplay.

Opening in a ruined apartment block, the demo was strictly co-op (though we're assured that the single player campaign is virtually identical in content to the co-op one). Paxton Fettel, now a ghost able to inhabit his enemies' bodies, is a strategic character to use. His ability to levitate enemies, keeping them immobile in the air, as well as telekinetically lift barrels and other deadly objects, makes him a powerful ally. In the context of the ruined apartment block, he was an interesting counterpoint to Point Man's straight-faced gunplay.

Mech you. Mech you very much.

As the pair worked their way through the cluttered and destroyed rooms, spaces littered with debris and lined with blood red scribbles of insanity, we also got our first real taste of what's being referred to as 'generative scares'. Essentially, this new AI system drives the constant push and pull of enemies in the world, ensuring you're never going to be able to predict the flow and spawn of F.E.A.R. 3's demonic horde. What began as innocent zombies running into Point Man's top-loading shotgun eventually gives away to more challenging demons who really underline the importance of co-operative paly.

For instance, as the duo exited the apartment for the first time and the military began its' offensive against you, it became critical to take different points, utilizing Fettel's telekinetic powers and inhabiting human forms along the way.

Once in a while, to keep the overarching story in focus, the perspective would jump locations into the warped 'Almaverse', where the location would skip ahead slightly, inserting strange props into the world like hospital beds and visions of horrific massacres, demonic constructions and Alma herself. Then, just as suddenly as the narrative shifted, the pace reverted back to head-on action.

Taking advantage of the environment is critical in co-op.

After commandeering two mechs, we finally got a chance to see the laser blaster, a devastating energy weapon that carved a swathe through the forest, igniting the trees and ravaging just about any fleshy foe unfortunate enough to fall within its range. It also underscored the good weapons balancing within F.E.A.R. 3; like the chaingun, there's the potential to overheat the weapon, requiring intelligent but sporadic use.

The forest at night also served to show off a greater environmental variance than in previous installments. Like the recently viewed train and bridge level, we're really starting to get a feel for the continuous flowing nature of the level designs as well as the branching structure. From the apartment to the forest, we were swept along to a full-scale battle that took us through a power station's external generators. Each generator needed to be taken offline - that is, shot to bits – before we could press on. Of course, as soon as we did so, the area filled with military, and once again we got a taste of F.E.A.R. 3's terrific tactical AI, which did its best to flank us, shoot from cover, dodge, roll and gain overall ground advantage.

As a shooter that truly appears to cater to co-op play as much as it does, F.E.A.R. 3's biggest question mark still hovers over the single player campaign. Can a game that appears to be so heavy on the action learn to take its foot off the gas? It remains to be seen. So far so good though for Alma and her two warped progeny in FEAR 3 at this year's E3. With a little more time to go before release, we're really looking forward to sitting down with the final game and putting the evil to rest once and for all.