Project Origin was halfway decent and it ended with the most bizarre final stage and cliffhanger ending. With such a setup, it was hard to resist giving the third game a try and at the very least find out how the story ends. In short, the plot revolves around an organization which didn’t have any employees which saw Akira or The Ring. We have the spooky little girl Alma with immense psychic powers and in order to weaponize those talents The Man produce from her two sons (and Christ is the family dynamics screwed up enough to make anyone grateful for their family situation). In Project Origin, Alma ravages the main character and is carrying a new bundle of murder, and so in the grand finale the two brothers overlook their feud to fight through the foot soldiers of The Man and confront their mother to… to… it’s ambiguous. One of the brothers is a silent protagonist and does not talk one bit. That he never emotes also makes deciphering his drives nigh impossible.

When it came to delivering the scares, Project Origin wasn’t half bad. The visions and distortions as well as Alma’s sudden attacks could get under a player’s skin. Part 3 doesn’t deliver when it comes to the horror, it has a few things that should be scary but the bland presentation does little to spook players. In Project Origin there was a trek through a ruined city and people frozen in place and turned to ash which was chilling in a post-9/11 way though watching the bodies go up in a puff of ashes. It almost felt like killing them when disturbing and destroying them with a touch. Part 3 has no scene which is really comparable.

Typical of military shooters, the settings are almost exclusively mundane. While there may be potential in turning a Sam’s Club into a scene of horror, the stages have no impact or personality. In the airport stage, there are advertisements which use a baby and the idea of family to sell their product as well as a poster for a horror film, but aside from those two instances there is nothing really connecting the stages to the story. If more thought was put into the levels to convey a running theme throughout the story, or hints of the internal workings of the characters then the game might have been greatly improved.

As gameplay goes, what I dislike about F.E.A.R. 3 is pretty much what I don’t like about this generation of shooters in general. Constantly hugging cover as I wait for enemies to pop up out of their cover to take potshots at me so I can fire back, only for a bunch of generic soldiers to fill me full of holes and I hug the cover even harder as I wait for my health to regenerate (which is totally realistic). Horror is about pacing and building tension, but slow and plodding is how most military shooters feel. Then there are the times in which the player faces frickin’ robots. ROBOTS!! In one stage, the player can even pilot a mini-Gundam and mow down enemies with reckless abandon. Of course you never face the supernatural horrors while piloting the robot, and it might have been a good idea to do so. Let the player feel nigh invincible in the seat of a badass mech only to get some eldritch thing get up in his grill, effectively shattering illusions of safety.

Unlike prior games, F.E.A.R. 3 has a co-op mode for the story campaign. Based on performance throughout the game, the ending is decided by which brother had the best score. Not a bad idea, but the problem is that either way the endings feel like rip-offs with little sense of resolution, and after the credits the player is assaulted with the same epilogue which really gives no fresh insight. If you want a military shooter, then you might be better off with Modern Warfare or Battlefield because at least they still have busy enough servers for their multiplayer. If you want horror, then put down the controller and watch Ringu which F.E.A.R stole one or two ideas of. The only thing we have to F.E.A.R. is F.E.A.R. 3 itself.

The story begins in postwar Japan which is in a state of ruin, want, and chaos. Just about all the principle characters are first introduced, but one man who has yet to get into the life is our main guide through the narrative. On the plus side the audience gets the benefit of a character to identify with, but like gangster movies in the West important characters are only talked about for long chunks of the movie with sparse appearances. Further, because years may pass between showing up onscreen, it can take a while to remember who these crucial individuals are as they have visibly aged.

Musically, the film has very much of a 70s vibe, reflecting the era the movie was made in as opposed to contemporary films and video games which love to use pieces of music from the period of the story. Historical authenticity aside, the music does fit the over the top personalities and outrageous acts perpetrated. A number of scenes have shots which are very claustrophobia inducing. These shots may be mundane, but I couldn’t help thinking they conveyed the squalor and wretched living conditions of the characters. This sentiment was especially so after a scene very late in the movie set in one boss’ rather spacious office.

Violence is a crucial part of the yakuza life, and it is abundant throughout the movie. Plenty of fights breakout which are more like schoolyard scuffles than battles. Assassinations often clumsy on the part of the killers and targets often lose dignity moments before losing their lives. Memorable among the bloodshed and murder, it is an instance of violence against self which stands out most strongly: the ritual of cutting off the tip of one’s finger to atone for dishonor. Simultaneously gruesome and comical, it’s a hard scene to forget.

Opting not to take the romanticized path, Battles Without Honor and Humanity presents some very unsavory behavior. One boss behaves among his underlings in such a manner which leaves the viewer perplexed as to how this unimpressive man remains the boss. However, when it becomes clear how he keeps his control, one’s blood might well turn to ice. While I admit to have had a hard time keeping track of who was who, but I am certain that much of the nastiest fighting was internal.

In the end, there is no satisfying conclusion, no hope, only the character who guided us came to a morbid epiphany. The result is a senseless act of violence which in light of his epiphany is the only sensible thing to do. By no measure a feel good movie, and not as informative as a documentary, but as crime stories go Battles Without Honor and Humanity deserves credit for the sober depiction of the yakuza as well as subverting a cinematic tradition which on its face was absurd.

Feedback and review requests may be sent to: PStarIV@hotmail.com

http://www.capcom.co.jp/sfxtk_en/playstation.html

Hearing Mega Man’s confirmation made me more excited until I saw that image:

Boy you got fat!

Not sure if Capcom is really into Trolololoing, but Mega Man fans are pretty pissed. Some are taking it as a joke character and tribute to Bad Box Art Mega Man (The name it’s been dubbed.), after all this isn’t the first game BBAMM has been introduced to as playable.

If this was 8 years ago, I’d bust a testicle in nerd rage… now I’m finding it funny and disappointing at the same time. It’s a weird feeling, yet I’m curious to see it action…. oh wait:

This is, MY DESTINY!

Apparently, this was MM creators idea before he departed from Capcom a year prior, dunno if true or failsafe on Capcom’s part… either way, have fun with this!

Sadly, the task proved to be overambitious and gradually fell apart. For years it seemed as though the saga would never see the light of day. I took it upon myself to attempt to rewrite the script in a webcomic format so that the project could be salvaged and reinvented as a massive comic, but as the years went by, even I often doubted I would ever find the drive to tackle it.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to announce that the first installment of that comic is ready. Please enjoy, and be sure to keep checking back for more!

[ Crossover Chronicles: Prelude ]