So why did everybody hate Perseus Mandate?

[Via]

I didn't install it with much enthusiasm after everything I read about it (professional reviews and posts).

But the game's not that bad IMO. Sure, the Dell product placement is pretty cheesy and it doesn't seem very difficult.

But so far I'm enjoying it more than extraction point.

Maybe playing the FEAR 2 demo a while back gives this game more weight than it deserves. I don't know.

But if you where underwhelmed by FEAR 2 and never played this game because of bad reviews dig up a copy. At least it gets the "feel" right. And there's some pretty exciting moments the first time you encounter them.

I rarely finish games anymore, but I'll surely finish this one.

 

[zagood]

That's because it's a reverse-rails version of the original. Cheap and easy way to make money. Hell, they got mine...

...and yeah, I enjoyed it.

-z

 

[Koudelka]

Well.. I thought the game was horrible compared to the first one. Overall gameplay was half-assed compared to the first one. I feel like i'm playing Painkiller or Serious Sam. I played the game for about 30 minutes then quit.

I dont know why they removed so many good features from the 1st, and the AI is equivalent to that of someone in a coma. The controls are also clunky for PC and you cannot set anything to mouse4, mouse5.

I just did not enjoy myself at all in the 2nd game. Combat was boring and it felt 5 years older than the 1st FEAR.. with half the good features, graphics and polish.

I sure loved the 1st one though. I might finish the 2nd one when i have more time. They just surprised me by removing all the good features, and adding useless ones like flipping over 1/20 objects you see to use as cover.

 

[Via]

Originally posted by: Koudelka
Well.. I thought the game was horrible compared to the first one. Overall gameplay was half-assed compared to the first one. I feel like i'm playing Painkiller or Serious Sam. I played the game for about 30 minutes then quit.

I dont know why they removed so many good features from the 1st, and the AI is equivalent to that of someone in a coma. The controls are also clunky for PC and you cannot set anything to mouse4, mouse5.

I just did not enjoy myself at all in the 2nd game. Combat was boring and it felt 5 years older than the 1st FEAR.. with half the good features, graphics and polish.

I sure loved the 1st one though. I might finish the 2nd one when i have more time. They just surprised me by removing all the good features, and adding useless ones like flipping over 1/20 objects you see to use as cover.

The graphics seem exactly the same to me. I don't notice any difference. Same with the controls. I will admit the combat does seem a little easier, but the overall gameplay is unchanged.

How can you feel like you're playing Painkiller when you have sqaudmates?

 

[dust]

I personally enjoyed it a lot. The Nightcrawlers proved to be worthy opponents. If anything, I wish they had more fights with the darn hamsters, the speedy devils. F.E.A.R. was way too easy.

 

[Sam25]

I loved it as well, finished it a couple of months back before playing through FEAR 2.

 

[Liet]

I didn't hate Perseus Mandate, but I'd certainly have been disappointed if I'd paid $30 for it, instead of $14.99 for the FEAR Gold edition which included both 'expansions'. It's a shallow excuse for FEAR, and it doesn't have the most engaging story... but it's still a fun diversion and it's still got the great FEAR gameplay mechanics.

 

[PingSpike]

I bought the gold edition and played through FEAR and whatever that expansion was called where you were still the same character. Those were both good, I enjoyed them.

I only got half way through the perseus mandate though. It had some good ideas, but it started to feel a bit cartoony compared to the original fear which was gloomy the whole time. You could tell it wasn't made by the same group. And I was actually playing to get more of the story and was disappointed to find I wasn't the same character.

But really...what was up with the voice acting on those stealthy guys though? Did one of the programmers record that with his brother on MS sound recorder? Terrible. I've never complained about sound in a game before but that was jarring.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Via
I didn't install it with much enthusiasm after everything I read about it (professional reviews and posts).

But the game's not that bad IMO. Sure, the Dell product placement is pretty cheesy and it doesn't seem very difficult.

But so far I'm enjoying it more than extraction point.

Maybe playing the FEAR 2 demo a while back gives this game more weight than it deserves. I don't know.

But if you where underwhelmed by FEAR 2 and never played this game because of bad reviews dig up a copy. At least it gets the "feel" right. And there's some pretty exciting moments the first time you encounter them.

I rarely finish games anymore, but I'll surely finish this one.

"Just seems like more FEAR to me...."

You answered your own question with that line, FEAR sucked to begin with, very overrated.

 

[Psynaut]

I didn't hate it either.

 

[mindcycle]

I didn't think it was quite as good as the first expansion, extraction point I think it was called. I enjoyed though, since I enjoyed the mechanics of the original.

IMO it got a bad rap because the original FEAR was so old at that point and many reviewers felt it was just stomping on the same old ground without offering anything unique over the original. Which is pretty much spot on.

 

[Via]

I had a chance to move on a bit.

To be fair - it gets weaker as you go. It's almost as if the beginning was designed as a PC exclusive and the decision to make it a cross platform game came later.

Even the graphics seem more console-ish and washed out in later levels. I have everything maxed out and the railway depot (which I'm sure would have been awesome graphically in the original) looked like it was set to medium or minimum specs.

The level design definitely has console stamped all over it. For example - What's the deal with briefly ressurecting the answering machine messages from the original? That destroyed immersion instead of adding to it.

I'm still enjoying it more than I thought I would, though.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: Via

The level design definitely has console stamped all over it. For example - What's the deal with briefly ressurecting the answering machine messages from the original? That destroyed immersion instead of adding to it.

Yup, I thought so to. I was infact surprised that the answering machines were not there at all.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

I don't hate it!

...Because I've never heard of it or played it.

...what? Your thread title says "everybody"!

 

[Via]

"everybody" might have been a generalization.

All of the reviews I read were pretty mediocre, though (in the 50-60% range).

And that's what stopped me from buying it even though I loved FEAR. I guess the lesson for me is - If you love a series, throw the review scores out the damn window and buy the game anyway.

I'm more irritated at myself for letting them influence my buying decision than I am at the reviews themselves.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Originally posted by: Via
"everybody" might have been a generalization.

All of the reviews I read were pretty mediocre, though (in the 50-60% range).

And that's what stopped me from buying it even though I loved FEAR. I guess the lesson for me is - If you love a series, throw the review scores out the damn window and buy the game anyway.

I'm more irritated at myself for letting them influence my buying decision than I am at the reviews themselves.

Yes. Don't let reviewers influence your decisions. Everybody is different.

I was just making a joke.

 

[Billyzeke]

Like the OP I did not buy it when it first came out because of the mediocre reviews. I played it around the first of the year and liked it. It was not as good as the original. It did not have the "creep factor" like the previous FEAR games, and as others have stated it is a lot easier.

 

[tigersty1e]

Perseus Mandate was ridiculously difficult. It was not fun...

I'm good at fps games, but the game was just ridculous... 15 heashots to take down those elite soldiers was just bad game mechanics.

Some of the textures were missing light spots and some of the room floor and walls seemed seamless and deep.

They also threw in those cheap "scare tactics...

***SPOILER****

You know those monstors on the floor that suck you in if you walk over them.

 

[ShawnD1]

FEAR sucks, so no didn't like this game. They never got around to fixing that bullshit where the enemies see through walls and know exactly where you are all the time; I think it's officially called Far Cry Syndrome.

Oh and the game is absolutely terrifying if that little girl looks a bit like your older sister who kicked your ass when you were younger. Damn Sarah, that bitch, I'll get her some day.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

FEAR 1 was awesome.

The expansions looked awful and ran like ass anyway.
I would say it was one of my great gaming disappointments.

 

[Koudelka]

FEAR 1 rocked. Fantastic physics, Amazing graphics, lots of polish and little extras.

Fear 2 - Over the top physics, no polish, no extras, graphics feel dumbed down by several years.

In Fear 1, when i walk into a room and start firing at soldiers with the mp5.. the lighting, sound effects, slow mo effects, and all the little extras like the room being clouded with dust from bullet holes really added to the immersion.

Fear 2 has none of that. The weapons all look clunky and ridiculous. There is almost no effort put into the weapons whatsoever especially when shooting. It just looks 100% bland and plain. The HUD looks silly as well. Everytime i pull out that pistol i just want to laugh in the developers face. It looks like a childs toy gun.

Fear 2.. everytime i think i want to try to finish it or play a bit more of it out of boredom i cannot play longer than 15 minutes without being disgusted by the lack of effort compared to Fear 1.

There is not a single feature in Fear 2 that has been improved from the first one at all. Every single feature that they actually do have.. has been dumbed down. I still dont understand how they could overlook something so simple as not allowing you to configure mouse3,4,5 to anything.

Its not a rant. I LOVED Fear 1. I bought all the expansions. But i was absolutely shocked and horrified when i bought Fear 2. Sequels are supposed to be updated and improved. The gameplay and graphics resemble a game that should have been released 5 years before Fear 1.

I was hoping for something more in Fear 2, or even just on par with the first. And all i got was a slap in the face.

 

[BFG10K]

I loved Fear and both expansions, and I actually finished Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate again back-to-back before playing Fear 2. Fear 2 didn?t turn out to be as good.

The reviews simply didn?t do Perseus Mandate justice and it?s far better than the masses would have you believe.

 

[Via]

I just got done with the "showdown" level. I figure I must be near the end.

Still enjoyable for me so far. I'm already planning on playing through the game on max difficulty setting sometime to see how some of the battles turn out.

This whole game is like an hommage to (or ripoff of) past FPS classics. Some of the later level design even had me thinking of the original Half Life.

 

[Via]

Ok, finished it. Guess I'll have to check out those bonus levels sometime.

My initial impression stands - it's not a great game by any stretch, but it's better than most reviews scored it and is definitely worthwhile if you enjoyed the original FEAR.

 

[SpunkyJones]

I enjoyed Perseus Mandate. Though the two exansions were starting to show their age, I had a blast playing them.