F.E.A.R it. Again.

I started playing the second F.E.A.R expansion yesterday. Cryptically titled "Perseus Mandate", it seems to have very little relevance to anything.
Heck, in my post the other day about the other expansion, I even pointed out that the expansions are disregarded by the sequel that I plan on playing at some point. So, the first question is, why bother?

This would be because, as much as the prior playtime angered me, I was intrigued. It did leave off with your character having just taken a helicopter explosion to the face, then turn to see the entire city in flames. Kind of an interesting hook to continue playing - even if all the gameplay that lead up to it was boring as hell.

So I began the Perseus Mandate. And it seems the chapter or so I have played has been totally NOT worth it, as predicted.

For starters, you start playing as an entirely different character, from another F.E.A.R squad. This means that the hook of the nameless character I have been dragging from one empty warehouse to another being left alone on top of the hospital with fire everywhere has been instantly removed, in favour of giving me a new, slightly less nameless guy, with a full squad.

And why does this new guy just happen to have the same slo-mo bullet time power that the other guy, who reportedly has this power because he's "special"? As a good friend of mine pointed out in his blog - once everybody has superpowers, they're not superpowers anymore. They become typical. Normal.

Not to mention that the enemies and locations are - again - identical to the two games prior. Generic clone soldiers, generic not-so-clone soldiers, and the ninjas. Admittedly, the creepout sessions have gotten more disturbing, but this seems to be through virtue of simply having lots more gore and death involved, than being suspenseful in their own right.

Oh, and the game seems to have had most of the first chapter in well lit areas. Brightly lit places tend to not be scary. And the ninjas attacked again - way too early. And in a well lit room. Sure, they're still hard to see since they've stolen OTACON's stealth camo, but they're much less scary to fight in a room where you can see more than 10 metres in front of yourself!

As my girlfriend arrived at my place last night to rescue me from my self-imposed videogame-born hell I had reached a new type of enemy. Finally something new! Except that they're a different type of generic soldier. With better guns. Of course, the better guns advantage is quickly lost when I take said gun from the first one that goes down - the rest serving as obstacles to my ending the drudgery, and slight ammo stockups.

To sum it up, one of the squad members, shortly after encountering the ninjas said "That's new". "No, no it isn't new" I answered, quite vocally. To the utter confusion of my brother.

Is it bad that I'm talking to a game? Probably.

Either way, I will finish this stupid game sometime next week most likely - and then move onto something infinitely more enjoyable. I won't touch F.E.A.R 2 right away, because I;d rather not rip my soul to shreds more so than it already has been.