Saw you playing that the other night Ash and I remembered how much fun I had with Fear 1 & 2. Need to get around to playing 3 but I get really ridiculous fps issues that apparantly were hard to fix.
Fear 3 is definitely the most fun and the closest they've come to getting the horror right. Also, being able to play as Paxton Fettle (as his psychic ghost!) is tons of fun, especially in multiplayer. He has all sorts of stuff he can do with his powers, even if he's more fragile than Pointman...
- Shoot psychic blasts as his normal attack and use a powerful melee attack, which can also become a short range AOE.
- Temporarily stun enemies so Pointman can shoot them more easily.
- Give Pointman a damage reducing shield for a short period of time.
- Possess Enemies and use their weapons against their friends. This lets you use weapons Pointman can't access, but you can't switch weapons and the bodies quickly decay. You can keep your host alive longer by picking up souls from dead enemies though.
Pointman, on the other hand, can still slow down time, as well as use most of the weapons. He's also tougher to take down and can use grenades.
Multiplayer is definitely the high point of this though. The Co-Op campaign has two players playing as ether Pointman or Fettle. The idea is that your on the same side and are working together to stop Alma from giving birth, but you're scored depending on what you do. Absorbing psychic remnants, killing crazy guys, getting combos... it all adds up over the course of the game and whoever wins the most "categories" is declared
the favorite son, who then wins the game and gets the ending for their character. It's a neat twist and a lot of fun. It also has a few other multiplayer modes, one of which is a fun mode that is basically a rip off of Nazi Zombies from CoD, but easier to get into and you can use a giant mech in one of the levels.
All in all, Fear 3 is by far the best in the series.