By Jim Rossignol on October 15th, 2010 at 4:18 pm.
Fear 3 has mechs in, and developers Day 1 are keen for us to get to know them a bit better. Don’t worry about the mechs looking all big and scary, they’re almost entirely friendly! They’re called the PA (Power Armor), which we first saw in FEAR1, and EPA (Enhanced Power Armor), which we first saw in FEAR2 (I think), and they both just want to be piloted by a single, caring pilot. They’re also both going to feature heavily in this game, as you can see in the trailer below. Day 1 have sent out a bunch of details about the history and use of mechs, the rambling from which I will spare you, but essentially it suggests that there will be some more depth to what these suits can do, particularly in co-op, in addition to some new features for both PA and EPA. It’s not clear exactly what this will amount to in the game itself, but it’s a tantalising mention, especially with regard to co-op use. Hell, I’ve not been particularly interested in Fear 3 up to this point but, well, maybe…
15/10/2010 at 16:23 Dominic White says:
The FEAR series is caught in a really weird place now, as they’re trying to simultaneously make things more badass AND more scary at the same time, and only half-achieving the former.
That said, the mechs in FEAR 2 were a lot of fun. You only got to drive them for two levels, but it felt like you were suddenly ED-209 in a world full of expendable fodder. Whole platoons of enemies got mulched beneath your thundering cannons and unlimited squirrely spread-missiles.
Of course, that’s also the least scary thing ever, so…
15/10/2010 at 16:37 Jake says:
It’s a bit like the films Alien and Aliens, the more guns and general badassery you add to something the less scary it gets. Not necessarily a bad though, but I wouldn’t pin much hope on it being scary. I think you really need to be a bit more vulnerable for that.
I am pretty interested in anything with an emphasis on a co-op mode though, especially an asymmetrical co-op – where you compliment each others abilities mean – I love that stuff. I’ll keep an eye on it even though I didn’t really like FEAR and I didn’t play FEAR2.
16/10/2010 at 00:43 ScubaMonster says:
I agree with the Aliens analogy. In the first film, the alien was basically a creature hunting them down that was unstoppable. In the second, you had tons of aliens dying left and right, so as individuals, they didn’t seem nearly as formidable as in Alien, and Alien 3. That being said, Aliens was a really kick ass movie. It was more intense than the others, but it was going for a different angle.
16/10/2010 at 01:57 Tacroy says:
Yeah, the only way to really pull off a mixture of badass + scary game would be to basically smush two games together – sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you can mow enemies down like no other. HL2 is the only game that’s really pulled this off that I know of.
16/10/2010 at 03:45 Thants says:
Deadspace did a good job of being both badass and scary.
16/10/2010 at 17:45 Dhatz says:
Think same could be said about Predator/Predators. And Dead Space wasn’t good at anything, I wish the franchise a swift death(but it’s not top of my kill-list).
15/10/2010 at 16:29 SquareWheel says:
Maybe we’ll get to see Alma in a bikini this time around.
16/10/2010 at 01:49 Matt says:
Ewww…
16/10/2010 at 02:25 Corrupt_Tiki says:
Y’know, I’m just taking a stab in the dark here, but if you were to google ‘Alma Hentai Porn’ I bet you’d get at least a couple of hits…
15/10/2010 at 16:29 Zogtee says:
Yeah, the FEAR games are now so far away from what they were originally made out to be, ie SWAT meets the X-Files. The mecha levels were fun, absolutely, but they belong in a different game.
15/10/2010 at 17:46 DrGonzo says:
More like John Woo meets X-files I would say.
16/10/2010 at 01:04 poop says:
a paranormal swat team game is a really cool premise and is about a billion times more creative than diving sideways in slow motion in offices and watching little girls walk from the left side of the screen to the right
stupid, stupid monolith >:(
16/10/2010 at 17:47 Dhatz says:
There was a game with psi-cop/SWAT(I only noticed one such a game) and it was giant fail of course.
15/10/2010 at 16:30 Nick says:
I think the stompy mechs in FEAR2 had the most satisfying sound effects ever.
15/10/2010 at 17:36 BAReFOOt says:
Please all, stop calling every armored suit a “mech”. These are not mechs!
A real mech has one distinct feature: The ability to run in one direction, while having the torso twisted in another one. And possibly even the head in yet another one.
This is a huge difference, as it changes the entire gameplay. You can now, for example, circle someone, while constantly pointing your weapons at him. Without the poor makeshift that is strafing. (Which still exists additionally in mechs.)
Yes, I miss that feature. Big time. Every shooter should have it.
15/10/2010 at 17:50 DrGonzo says:
Not true at all. The difference between a mech and powered armour is apparently just that a mech has a cockpit, whereas powered armour you wear. Also, it’s fictional, the developers call them mechs so they are mechs.
15/10/2010 at 18:17 Nick says:
Stop making up definitions.
15/10/2010 at 21:19 The Tupper says:
I adore it when someone uses an admonishing sentence such as the one above beginning with:
“These are not mechs! A real mech has one distinct feature…”
Class. You don’t get that kinda discourse outside of the gaming world.
16/10/2010 at 00:56 Kast says:
“It’s a mythological creature, I can calls it what I wants!”
Personally, I follow DrGonzo’s way of thinking.
16/10/2010 at 01:57 Spacewalk says:
A mech’s distinct feature is that it is mechanical.
16/10/2010 at 17:52 Dhatz says:
Altgough I agree that mech must have it’s artificial limbs physically unconnected to operator limbs, there are hybrids, as seen in Masamune Shirow’s work (Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell).
15/10/2010 at 16:33 Kazang says:
Dammit Jim your robot fetish will end us all!
15/10/2010 at 19:33 Unaco says:
Yeah Jim… is some stompy Mech action all it takes to get you turned on…. to a game? Me too actually. Unfortunately, the use of the number 3 in place of the letter E in the title of this game is an immediate and irreversible turn off for myself.
16/10/2010 at 01:52 Matt says:
So you skipped Driv3r as well, then?
15/10/2010 at 16:38 tomwaitsfornoman says:
S.H.O.G.O. Mobile Armor Division 2: Be Probably a Little Anxious Maybe
16/10/2010 at 17:24 Eclipse says:
I’d love a SHOGO 2 so much D:
Monolith, get back to shogo… and Blood 3 thank you
15/10/2010 at 16:43 TWeaK says:
Oh I see what you did there with that title.
15/10/2010 at 16:48 kupocake says:
Without commenting on the content of this game whatsoever, I think it’s probably not very controversial to say that this game is going to bomb hard. The beginning of 2011 is far too full for it.
15/10/2010 at 16:50 Zyrxil says:
Does anyone remember when FEAR was ostensibly a horror game?
15/10/2010 at 17:04 Dominic White says:
No, but I remember the first game, which was primarily a Die Hard-ish run and gun shooter where you cut a bloody path through a hojillion faceless minions, punctuated occasionally by heavily telegraphed ‘scary’ scenes.
The series has always leaned more heavily towards the action side of things, with the horror being a plot-framing device. The lean has turned into a complete sideways plummet now.
15/10/2010 at 17:30 Navagon says:
No. FEAR has always been horror themed. Sort of like Halloween candy.
15/10/2010 at 17:51 DrGonzo says:
Nah, Dom is right. Condemened is what happens when they make a primarily horror themed game. They know how to scare the crap out of you, but in FEAR they wanted it to be an action game interspersed with scary bits.
15/10/2010 at 17:52 DrGonzo says:
Nah, Dom is right. Condemned is what happens when they make a primarily horror themed game. They know how to scare the crap out of you, but in FEAR they wanted it to be an action game interspersed with scary bits.
15/10/2010 at 21:21 The Tupper says:
The first FEAR scared the shit outta me…
15/10/2010 at 16:55 013X says:
Mechs in FEAR 2 multiplayer were a real fun!
15/10/2010 at 16:57 W Main says:
Why do they need mechs? It makes no sense. It was one of the really weird moments in FEAR 2 for me. I suddenly found myself piloting a Mech and my attitude to it was “Wha? Why?!”
I agree that FEAR’s in a weird position. I think it forgot somewhere along the line what it was trying to achieve, and is now trying to be part horror, part fps, part mechwarrior.
15/10/2010 at 17:20 Spoon says:
They should just quit fooling themselves and make SHOGO 2.
15/10/2010 at 17:34 Navagon says:
That might well be what Monolith are doing now. Or No One Lives Forever 3. News of either would please me.
15/10/2010 at 17:57 DrGonzo says:
I would rather a Condemned 3 personally. Or something original.
16/10/2010 at 00:17 Navagon says:
Condemned was excellent and everything I wanted FEAR to be. But Condemned 3? How about Condemned 2 first?
Oh wait yeah, that’s right. Quickly forgotten generic console shooter. Why would we want a third one again?
16/10/2010 at 00:36 Jake says:
The combat in Condemned was pretty good, I can’t think of many first-person games with good melee. Although the game should really have been called Condemned: Attack of the Endless Hobos. I didn’t play the second one as the plot began to go just a wee bit ridiculous near the end of C:AotEH. It’s a shame as Condemned was on the way to greatness, it just got sidetracked I think. If they had made the investigating a lot better, ditched some of the crappier plot elements and added a bit more variety to the game rather than ‘wherever you go, there are angry hobos’ it could have been really quite good. So with that in mind, I would be interested in Condemned 3.
Also I quite liked the voice acting, you always sounded so bored and irritated, like butchering 20 hobos with a fire axe was a bit tedious, and now you have to answer the damn phone, then maybe get a sandwich. I really killed a lot of people with a fire axe in that game, basically you stop being a cop and start being an axe-murderer and it doesn’t phase anyone.
16/10/2010 at 16:23 MrBRAD! says:
Pfffft, bugger you guys. We need Claw 2.
15/10/2010 at 17:32 hamster says:
FEAR 1 was designed along a similar vein to Condemned, where they had the whole quiet, empty, dark, industrial complex thing with a general sense of foreboding and sporadic bursts of immediate danger (replica soldiers, deranged hobos etc.) Visually and just as a whole, atmospherically, both games nailed it in my opinion…the environments and the narrative felt fairly authentic (the key to horror). Of course there was the slow mo stuff but it still made sense within the game world.
FEAR 2 added pilotable mechs and in my opinion, made all the Replicas look REALLY ugly with the retro-futuristic rectangular visors and all (even the MECH has those damn visors). That, in addition to complaints about poor A.I and boring enemies, managed to put me off from even trying the game.
Fast forward now to FEAR 3. *ahem* I mean F3AR. Notice how the “3″ in F3AR look like balls when viewed sideways. I think that’s some pretty strong foreshadowing here. Something about the game sucking balls….? No…that can’t be it.
Last plea: please bring back Monolith to do FEAR. If not, just get DAY 1 OUTTA there and have them work on something else NOLF.
15/10/2010 at 17:33 Navagon says:
I’m one of those people that actually quite liked the second game. But to be honest, I’m not predicting high sales or indeed review scores for this one. Even if the only complaint that can be levelled against it is that it’s more of the same. It’s simply a well that has already run dry and has been abandoned by those who dug it.
15/10/2010 at 17:51 Furybrood says:
It’s very unfortunate to see the direction this series has taken. The first game was extremely good and I couldn’t wait for the second one. I actually thought the 2nd one was pretty good despite the fact that it was an obvious console port. “F3AR” is just completely ridiculous. Showing the face of “point man” is a terrible move. He’s supposed to be a very mysterious character.
15/10/2010 at 18:01 BigJonno says:
Not enough games have power armour. I don’t just mean in a “your spess mereene’s armour is powered” kinda way, but games that make you feel like you’re inside something powerful that takes some level of training to use.
15/10/2010 at 19:35 Unaco says:
Clearly you haven’t experienced the joy that is “Forklift Simulator 2009″!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH8bcIdlhQw
15/10/2010 at 19:33 Lucas says:
I’m dying for Fear 3 to come out so RPS can stop posting about it. It was such a relief when Mafia 2 dropped off the radar, and I’m very excited that Fallout New Vegas is not being subjected to complete pre-release overexposure. Aside from the odd interesting announcement, we’re really all here for RPS quality writing about games they play, and to relate the same ourselves. Hype sucks, so please spare us.
Lost Planet 2 has kickass powered armor. Lots of it, in lots of interesting configurations, with lots of weapons you can attach, and lots of things to shoot and blow up. You can play it now, or very soon.
15/10/2010 at 19:57 steggieav says:
Hey Monolith, remember when you actually made a scary game? Condemned: Criminal Origins (and to a lesser extent, the sequel)? Maybe you could look back and learn something from that one.
15/10/2010 at 20:12 DeepSleeper says:
Thanks, man. Now FE4R will have Homeless Hobo Alma to deal with.
16/10/2010 at 00:19 Jason Moyer says:
Maybe they’ll add “PRESS X TO SOLVE CRIME” to it, as well.
16/10/2010 at 03:09 Matt says:
Hey now, pressing X to solve crimes is a hard day’s work for a police detective.
15/10/2010 at 20:02 Andrew says:
FEAR 3 or F3AR is in danger of loosing its soul and as a result its fanbase.
To me FEAR was not just about the scary stuff, but mostly about the great unique shootouts against great AI opponents. Fear 1 I played twice, Fear 2 I played only about 30% and I fear that I won’t play FEAR 3 at all.
15/10/2010 at 21:53 TSA says:
That’s all well and good, but where’s Blood 3?
16/10/2010 at 00:17 Bruce Willis says:
One very important thing for a game to be scary is feeling helpless.
Walking around in a fucking mech doesn’t sound helpless to me.
16/10/2010 at 08:19 Spacewalk says:
What if it doesn’t have power steering?
16/10/2010 at 01:13 poop says:
wait is isn’t actually a monolith game
what are those guys doing now?
16/10/2010 at 03:12 Matt says:
Captain Claw 2
16/10/2010 at 08:14 poop says:
will captain claw be the game to finally usurp fart cops as top FPS?
16/10/2010 at 18:43 Hegg says:
alma + bump + bikini = /barf
18/10/2010 at 19:50 Santander02 says:
Me thinks Monolith should just make SHOGO 2 already
19/10/2010 at 04:44 sneakers jordan says:
your post are very interesting
it is also helpful for me
thanks for sharing
look forward more posts