FEATURES
F.E.A.R. 3 PC, PS3, Xbox 360
f.e.a.r. 3, alice: madness returns, shadows of the damned, army of darkness defense NINTH CIRCLE
DREADLINES
WB Games It’s been six years since the
last installment in the F.E.A.R. franchise, which is centred around a creepy little girl named
Alma whose arsenal of scary psychic powers have made a lot of gamers lose sleep at night. But F.E.A.R 3, featuring a storyline penned by horror legends John Carpenter and Steve Niles, takes us right back to the end of the previous outing, with Alma all grown up, very pregnant and incredibly pissed off. Players once again take on the persona of the Point Man
– a genetically enhanced super-soldier who makes Halo’s Master Chief look like a simpering schoolgirl – whose mis- sion is to find and kill Alma before she gives birth to her little bastard. Though it works incredibly well as a single-player,
first-person shooter, if you get too scared to go it alone you can always tap a buddy to go co-op with you as the ethereal Paxton Fettel (Point Man’s brother who was killed back in the original title). And whereas your arse- nal mostly consists of conventional weaponry, such as shotguns and machine guns, because Paxton is a ghost he doesn’t have such restrictions. You’ll be able to utilize his gruesome supernatural abilities to possess the bod- ies of enemies and fire psychic blasts that’ll liquefy them
00000 FEATURES EA
into a chunky red mist. (Paxton is also playable in single-player mode after you’ve completed the stage as Point Man.) Though the graphics seem dated at times, it’s
made up for in spurting blood, of which you’ll see bucketloads as you confront wave after wave of smart, scary enemies in close-quarters combat. You’ll also venture out into the open expanse of a ruined city, where you can climb into a mech-
HEADSHOTS: LOTS OF MULTI-PLAYER MODES, SCARY SOUNDTRACK, VERY GORY MISFIRES: STORYLINE HARD TO FOLLOW AT TIMES, ENTIRE CAMPAIGN ONLY LASTS APPROXIMATELY FIVE HOURS
ALICE: MADNESS RETURNS Xbox 360, PS3, PC
NINTH CIRCLE
anized suit of armour and swat helicopter gun- ships out of the sky. Make no mistake about it, this is a really scary
game replete with an understated, unnerving sound- track that ratchets the tension up so high that you’ll find yourself unloading clips of ammo into empty shadows just because you were certain that some- thing was hiding there waiting to pounce on you. And don’t be surprised if you find yourself sleep-
ing with the lights on, a weapon under your pillow and one eye open after playing.
ANDREW LEE DREADLINES If you’ve been wondering what lies down the rabbit hole, now we
know: lots of jumping. Alice: Madness Returns, the sequel to 2000’s American McGee’s Alice, is a tried-and-true platformer at heart, with precision leaping factoring largely into every absolutely gorgeous level. The game’s storyline features a slightly older Alice who’s still trying to uncover what happened the night her family died. The stakes are
raised even further by the evil Ruin and a (literal) train of corruption that is racing through Wonderland, turning whimsy and beauty into malevolence and devastation. As Alice, you must get to the root of what’s behind the Ruin by traversing through Wonderland’s many unusual regions, from the distressed steampunk platforms and factories of the Hatter’s Domain to the blood-spattered, corpse-strewn subterranean caves of the Vale of Doom. Jumping isn’t the only precision element to Madness Returns either; pretty much everything
requires careful care and attention, from sleuthing out lost memories and hidden loot (to up- grade your character and weapons), to navigating the riddle-filled world and fighting enemies.
00000 HEADSHOTS: IMMERSIVE SOUNDTRACK AND SOUND DESIGN, STELLAR GRAPHICS MISFIRES: VISUAL GLITCHES, INCONSISTENT AUTOSAVE SYSTEM RM66
Yes, even battle is a puzzle. You have four weapons – Vorpal Blade for quick melee attacks, Hobby Horse for strong ones, Pepper Grinder for fire power and an acid bomb-lobbing Teapot – but most enemies (and all bosses) require a particular weapon or weapon combo to be killed. This can get a little intense when you’re facing a mob of monsters (black seeping masses with doll appendages, fire-spewing wasps and sharp-clawed mutant crabs, among them) that all need to be dis- patched in different ways and in a very particular order. And no, but- ton-mashing won’t work. Even if platforming isn’t your favourite style of gameplay, the top-
notch artwork – which feels like a cross between Alice in Wonderland (from which it takes direct inspiration) and Terry Gilliam’s The Adven- tures of Baron Munchausen –makes it exhilarating to progress through nonetheless. Sadly, the game suffers from some visual glitches, an au- tosave system that is woefully inconsistent (sometimes respawning you near your point of death, other times taking you back to the be- ginning of an area), and a strict linear progression that hampers its re- play value. Ultimately, minor quibbles, and certainly nothing that should dissuade you from answering the call of the Cheshire Cat. MONICA S. KUEBLER
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