It's been about a year since F.E.A.R. soaked our screens in blood with hordes of supersoldier clones, a powerful psychic girl named Alma and a commander named Paxton Fettel who has an appetite for human flesh. The expansion, Extraction Point begins where the original game left off. That's bad news for you, because Alma is still one VERY unhappy little girl.

The expansion offers much of the same gameplay as the original game, it mainly just works to further the story. But that doesn't mean that there's nothing new. Timegate Studios, who is handling the development of the expansion, has added more variety to the game with some new weapons and a handful of new creatures. Fun new toys include a chain gun that rips foes apart and has loads of smoke effects. Among the menagerie of horrific creatures are spirits, moving almost invisibly (except for its red eyes) until they're ready to attack. Even then, the monster runs so fast that you will need to employ super reflexes if you want any hope of hitting them.

All this is accompanied by narrow (and bloody) corridors, crawlspaces, and office shootouts. Strange visions will occasionally haunt you while you walk around, and the use of dynamic lighting and shadows will keep the creepy ambiance at the right level. Perhaps the one possible disappointment in playing the Extraction Point demo is the lack of new scenery. The main character seems to be trapped in the same office building that he kept running through the first time around. Let's hope that the final retail version will offer more environmental diversity. The excellent artificial intelligence which helped set F.E.A.R. apart from other shooters is back, making this an expansion to definitely keep an eye out for... or is it watching you?