Although it's a little late to squeeze extra life out of F.E.A.R., in comes F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate, a stand-alone expansion to the 2005 hit. Unlike the previous expansion, Extraction Point, Perseus Mandate does not require the original game to play. Furthermore, it tells a story that runs parallel to the events of F.E.A.R. and Extraction Point through the eyes of a new Point Man on a different Assault Recon Team that is coincidentally sent to investigate a different Armacham Corp building. Alma, the child-sized psychic with a major grudge, plays her usual head tricks on the player and the ghostly version of the cannibalistic Paxton Fettel makes a cameo.

Extraction Point's story merely dabbles in the world of the supernatural while Perseus Mandate dives headlong into it. Although players initially deal with human mercenaries during the early parts of the game, creatures leap from the shadows. Luckily, this new Point Man has the exact same super reflexes as the original character, so that time slows down for bullet dodging. In fact, practically everything about the game has a "same old stuff in new skin" feel. Mercenaries come equipped with advanced assault rifles, but they're ultimately the same clone army of soldiers. Aside from one or two new enemies, players will mostly confront the same old mix of Armacham guards and clones. The mercenary boss comes with an extra surprise, and we enjoyed the mech chase, but we've done this all before, twice over.

Perseus Mandate reuses the same game engine from 2005, with virtually no changes. The graphics, which were state of the art back then, hardly hold up to today's standards. Even the artificial intelligence, which was groundbreaking for its time, is predictable and downright stupid. On the other hand, the bright side of using two-year old technology is that it has fairly low system requirements in comparison to other games.

All the weapons from Extraction Point are present, including small automated sentry turrets and a super-powerful chain gun. However, the new weapons don't offer very much. The new advanced assault rifles aren't very different from the normal ones, except they have infra red scopes. Areas generally aren't dark enough to justify using the scope, and it's completely useless when dust gets kicked up into the air from bullets, obscuring one's vision. The second weapon, an electro-shock gun, fires a steady stream of electricity and is similarly unimpressive, especially since it doesn't shoot down creatures any better than the other guns. In fact, electro-shock works worse than the other weapons since it doesn't stun enemies (creatures hardly seem to notice being shocked), and the electricity doesn't conduct through water.

Gamers that can't get enough F.E.A.R. should consider Perseus Mandate, especially given its relatively low system requirements and price in comparison to other recently released shooters. But players looking for something new and different should save their money for Project Origin, the true sequel to F.E.A.R., scheduled to release sometime next year.