Amazing firefights are just part of the F.E.A.R. formula, however, and Extraction Point has plenty of the effective horror that was seen in the original game. Extraction Point works because it doesn't try to terrify you with grotesque demons and monsters. Those have been done to death in games, anyway. Instead, Extraction Point is an exceptionally creepy experience. The game continually messes with your senses, and you'll see and hear things that will raise your hackles. Sound is incredibly effective, as each little noise can send you spinning, ready to start blasting. Shadowy figures dart in and out of the edge of your vision, and objects rattle ever so subtly to draw your attention. Developer TimeGate deserves plenty of credit for maintaining the intensity of the original game, even though veterans of F.E.A.R. are already used to some of the atmospheric tricks of that game.
You get a few new toys to play with in the expansion, though you'll mostly rely on your trusty assault rifle and your ability to slow down time.
The overall campaign lasts only about four to six hours. That's about par for most shooter expansions, and anything longer probably would have felt too long. Even with its intense action and atmosphere, Extraction Point definitely feels as though it's beginning to drag on. Part of that could be the sense that there are only so many replicant battles that you can fight before they all start to feel the same, but the bigger issue is that the plot doesn't really go anywhere. What few questions the game raises are barely answered; the act of constantly battling to get to a rendezvous point is so overused that one of your teammates even cracks a joke about it; and the ending turns out to be disappointingly bittersweet.
Unfortunately, when you're done with the single-player campaign, that's pretty much all there is to Extraction Point. That's because the multiplayer component of F.E.A.R. has already been split off from the single-player game, and it's been made available on the Internet for free under the name F.E.A.R. Combat. You don't even need to own F.E.A.R. or Extraction Point to play it. That means there's not a lot of replay value in this expansion. You won't miss much if you don't play Extraction Point, but if you do like your action and horror blended together and you liked the original game, you should give this one a try.
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