F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate Is one of the most forgettable PC expansions for any high quality game in recent memory. The original F.E.A.R Gripped fans with its creepy effects, flashy fire fights and impressive enemy AI, Perseus Mandate shows just how badly the engine has aged and gives the feeling the developers were out for a quick buck on this one.

Perseus Mandate manages to do everything F.E.A.R did over two years ago. Since it was done two years ago the player is left unimpressed and bored throughout the game as it reuses most of F.E.A.Rs old tricks, unfortunately it does not even reuse them terribly well. The player is virtually slapped in the face with how little new content there is and though there is about 8 hours of game play, it gets boring awfully fast. As the disjointed and lackluster story progresses throughout the game you may be left with a feeling of deja vu. The story felt very similar to the originals only this time it feels much more tacked together and rushed. You are given new F.E.A.R agents to learn about in the story, but you are never really made to care about them. It feels like an attempt is not even made by the developers to bring players into the game and story at all.

The graphics, though slightly above average when the first game came out, are very below average by today’s standards. The F.E.A.R engine has not aged well at all in a relatively short period of time. Players are met with more of the same again, stuffy office buildings leading to courtyards where the obligatory big fire fights happen. There are of course more sewers to wade through, dark tunnels underground and of course badly lit basements and corridors to navigate. While the bad lighting was creepy in the first F.E.A.R it just seems frustrating and over done in Perseus Mandate. Models are laughably bad when compared to the likes of Half Life 2 or Call of Duty 4.

As stated above the creepy elements that gripped and teased players in the original F.E.A.R are present again, only this time they are not as well done as before. This again adds to the whole overall feeling that the game was tacked together to make a quick buck rather then to give the fans something truly new and exciting. Players are met with the same old, triggered lights falling, ghostly attackers from out of view, transitions to hallways full of blood and of course the old dark figures disappearing into ash trick. All these were done and done well in F.E.A.R, in Perseus Mandate they are done lazily. Players can come to expect where they will happen and will soon feel they are just an annoyance rather then a compelling story and game feature.