Perseus Mandate is the second and last expansion pack released for Fear. In it, we no longer play as the Pointman; instead we take on the role of a nameless soldier assigned to a second FEAR squad. One of the first things you will notice is that this is far better suited to modern hardware as it both supports widescreen resolutions and runs without a hitch with no need to download a patch or tweaking an INI file. That is a positive impression that will quickly dissipate as you jump into the game proper and are tossed into an environment that looks far worse than anything even the base campaign had. Not only are we back to having everything in the color gray, but they have also done an astoundingly lousy job with the lighting.
This takes place around the same time the events of the base campaign are happening and eventually leads past that story then into that of the first DLC, Extraction Point. Our job, along of that of our two comrades in arms, is to investigate the ATC corporation after they opened fire on the first team. We are airdropped into an aqueduct and are immediately assaulted by the Replica clone forces. You and your team must fight back against their unrelenting advance, which is where something becomes quite evident. Not only do the dull, linear environments make for poor arenas, but the AI is far wonkier. They lack the dynamic intelligence this series is known for, and have lost any sense of self-preservation or tactics as they confusedly stand out in the open, alternating between shooting you and your equally confounded squad. Soon after, you will find yourself in a bland, overdrawn sewer level.
It is a much easier experience than the first expansion pack that was also made by the same studio. Extraction Point felt like an escalation from the countless firefights we’ve previously had and featured a ton of unique battles that upped the ante, both supernatural in nature and not. Perseus Mandate, on the other hand, feels much more in tune with the base campaign. For the most part, all they did was introduce a new faction whose grunt soldiers carry a very similar machine-gun to the Replicas, only it does a heck of a lot more damage. Other than that, these grunts whom you will spend the bulk of your journey fighting are exactly the same as fighting replicas, barring the higher damage output. Fear’s combat is fun, I honestly wouldn’t mind if that was just the case, but most of the arenas you’ll be fighting in do not let the AI shine and causes most encounters to become duller than anything before it as a result.
Most of the other new enemies are only notable in that they have more health and carry deadlier weapons. This approach to try to increase the difficulty is a far cry to their previous attempt that focused on wide-open arenas and larger enemy counts to keep you on the move. While story-wise, it makes sense that it starts off rather tame; it never really gets going to Extraction Point levels of bombastic, well thought out encounters. The single new enemy that isn’t just a bullet sponge variant of an existing foe are the Nightcrawler Elites. They possess slow-motion abilities the same as you do and are quite adept at dodging gunfire. Not only that, they are significantly faster than you and are near supernaturally athletic as they wall-run & jump around the place. To further increase their deadliness, they are capable of throwing both grenades and turrets. These Elites have truly earned that name and are a nice addition to the long line of people that would like nothing more than to parade your bullet filled corpse.
After the first few starting levels, things start to become a lot more competently made. The opening environments are by far the worst and make a terrible first impression. It has several bright spots throughout, yet for the most part, it remains inferior to both the base campaign and Extraction Point. Quite a bit of it I would consider passably enjoyable if not for one key factor. And that is the high degree of filler meant to lengthen this expansion. Often times, I found myself thinking that this has gotten pretty darn good, only for it to throw bland encounter after bland encounter until I reach something interesting again. Rinse and repeat. It nearly felt like they only finished some parts of the expansion before being rushed to get it done and decided to connect the completed sections with soulless stretches of filler. That would explain the consistently poor lighting, which they had handled so well in the last expansion. The thing with this theory is that Perseus Mandate released over a year after it, so who can say.
All of the weapons make a return, and to top off that already considerable arsenal, we get three new guns. The first we’ll encounter is a grenade launcher. It finally gives us a more moderate option to the triple-burst rocket launcher, and thanks to its arc upon firing, that makes it perfect to nail enemies behind cover. Its grenade can be bounced off surfaces and detonates either upon impacting a foe or after a few seconds. This allows you to easily dominate fights if you make good projectile calculations, yet it can be just as dangerous to you if it explodes nearby. The next gun you’ll encounter is the Advanced Rifle. It is carried by the grunts of the new faction called the Nightcrawlers and is a pretty boring weapon with an annoyingly hard to see through scope thanks to the red tint. Finally, you have the Lightning Arc. It fires an incredibly powerful jolt of electricity at nearby foes and can chain into other enemies if close enough. This is not a weapon you should let an enemy fire off as you can not dodge it.
One thing I did enjoy about Perseus Mandate that the other campaigns didn’t have much of is the factions fighting each other. The ATC, Replica, and Nightcrawlers are just as hostile to each other as they are to you. This can lead to some interesting situations like when you see a couple of grunts trying to fight off a mech, and you take advantage of that until only a few remain to unleash your firepower towards the bigger threat. It is not common, but it is always pretty cool when you hear a full-blown firefight occurring without your involvement. This time around, the supernatural isn’t as big as a threat towards you. The horror is a lot more subdued, but when it occurs, it is typically more effective than that of the base game. Since this expansion is a lot stingier when it comes to its more powerful guns than Extraction Point, it does not suffer as much from the three weapon limit and having to waste rare ammo on apparitions. Chances are that you will always have an Advanced Rifle since they are so abundant now, for better or worse.
When it comes to the story-line is where it drops the ball once more. It is neat seeing the events we previously put in motion through a different perspective, yet that is about all the praise I can give it. It is a pretty uninspired plot, and worse is that there are far too many glaring omissions from issues it itself brings. Why do we and several other random blokes have the ability to slow time? Why does Alma not brutally murder us like everyone else? What’s with it going full sci-fi on some occasions? Not that it matters much, considering neither expansion is cannon. Still, one can’t help to think it seems hacked together as Fettel all but buys you a drink as he tells you his life story instead of finding out by piecing it together yourself via phone recordings or laptop data. One can’t help but to pick it apart as you trudge through all the filler and let your mind wander off. It’s a bizarre thing when you realize that you’re bored in a Fear title. Even odder still when you consider that this same studio brought us the high point of the series with Extraction Point and now brings it to its lowest point with this.
After you finish the five-hour campaign, you will unlock three bonus missions. These are brief and task you with reaching the end as quick as you can. It may sound unimpressive, yet they are pretty darn fun while they last, and you scramble to get better weapons as you zoom throughout the level, rarely keeping your finger off the trigger. These arenas are quite solid too. A good deal better than most found in the campaign. Perseus Mandate is a weird beast. I don’t hate it, and while bored at times, it does have its moments. It is ultimately just an okay experience that was stretched out far too thin for what was on offer. The problem with that is that neither Fear nor its first expansion was merely okay. From the atmosphere to combat, both do a much better job. It makes going through this a near pointless endeavor for anyone other than the biggest Fear fans. This did not feel like it was meant to be a low effort cash crab, yet the end result for whatever reason is not up to par. As divisive as Fear 2 is, I recommend ignoring this entirely and playing that if you want to continue the series as both feature very similar plot-lines.
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