The only thing you have to fear about F.E.A.R. is its look - so dark and grey, so depressingly bland. We're far enough into this franchise's lifespan now to have Monolith and their expansion pack developing counterparts, Timegate, provide us with something a little more visually stimulating than yet another run around the same old industrial complexes, sewer tunnels and endless array of warehouses. I presume though that it really wouldn't be a F.E.A.R. game if it didn't involve a great amount of running around one of the dullest cities to have ever been built while slaughtering armies of clone soldiers.

The Perseus Mandate is the second expansion pack for F.E.A.R., and following in the footsteps of Extraction Point it's really just more of the same. Here events play in parallel to F.E.A.R. and Extraction Point, following a second group of operatives sent into 'Generic City' to deal with Paxton Fettle and his ever-persistent army of super soldiers. So you get occasional nods to the past two games where sometimes the events that occurred before are witnessed from a new perspective, which is all well and good but the plot throws up very few twists that you haven't already learnt.

Perseus does leaves you with the impression that learning anything new was never the point here - the only reason you would even consider taking the plunge with this latest offering is if your appetite for more of the same relentless carnage has still yet to be fulfilled. Timegate do at least play to the strengths of the series by continuing to draw on the incredibly adaptive AI that made the original game stand out, and even today it still manages to surpass many modern action games. Even two years on, the tactical precision with which the continued onslaught of clones and mercenaries hunt you down still throws up surprises - the way in which they flank you and assault you from a more vulnerable position or retreat under a hail of sporadic gunfire when they feel under threat. It was exactly this kind of behaviour that set F.E.A.R. apart from the many other shooters of the time and even to this day and, despite the largely unimaginative level design, it's the one aspect of the game that will keep you playing.

It still also continues to be one of the few games that really nails the whole Bullet-Time slow motion function, an effect obviously intended to assist you in tricky situations but one that will more often than not be used to show off your most stylishly executed kills. The destructive appetite of any returning F.E.A.R. fan is also fully catered for with three new weapons, bulking up you firepower with a grenade launcher, a brand new scoped assault rifle whose glowing tracer rounds help illuminate the dark environments and a lightning arc weapon that shoots off an electrical burst that sends any foes may hit flying through the air in spectacular fashion. New features don't appear to be what Perseus is about however, as apart from these new guns to blow chunks of masonry out of the walls with, there's not a great deal else to get excited about. It's all rather predictable - the plot twists, the level design, the unrelenting action and the ever present horror moments. Although I'm in danger here of making myself look as though I'm desperately trying to cling onto my macho image, those scary parts of the game just aren't really that scary any more.

There are a number of reasons why the almost non-stop assault of soldiers you must fight your way through before you even encounter anything paranormal does tend to erode whatever menace the 'ghosts' are supposed to have - so they can fly at you through the darkness and launch feeble swiping attacks at you, big deal, I've just fought my way through some of the most heavily-armed badasses around, and they had guns! If anything, when the various spectres do make an appearance they're a massive letdown, as they don't seem to posses any of the brilliant AI of their living counterparts. Another reason why the horror bits fall short is because if you've played any of the other F.E.A.R. games then you'll know exactly what to expect. Spooky long-haired girl (officially the most overused cliché in horror entertainment history) turning entire rooms of soldiers into bloody pulps, the exact same type of ghouls and ghosts making an appearance, those moment where you appear to catch something in the corner of your eye before it disappears in a puff of smoke - even if you did happen to find these things scary in the original game, you'll be so used to them by now the effects will have undoubtedly worn off.

And this isn't the only part of Perseus that highlights how old some of F.E.A.R.'s features are starting to look either, as this isn't a game whose graphics have aged at all well and considering it was never the greatest of looking games two years back (despite both it and this expansion still displaying some nice particle and smoke effects) it's probably best not to approach Perseus Mandate expecting next-gen visuals. Timegate have also skimped a little on the sound, failing to really play to the creepy ambience that some of the levels occasionally hint at, while it's also difficult to miss some repeated lines taken from past F.E.A.R. games that are uttered by these new characters.

Monolith are already working on a full blown sequel to F.E.A.R., which does make the Perseus Mandate feel somewhat unnecessary, especially when it does so little to invigorate the franchise. It's not a bad expansion because although it does little new, it's decently sized and repeats a lot of what made the original game such a hit two years ago, but a lack of any kind of polish to the old ideas of the series, let along bringing forth brand new ones, really does lessen the appeal that this expansion has - and I loved F.E.A.R. There's enough content here to appease anyone whose craving of the franchise has yet to be satisfied, but if you're not one of those die hard fans then it'd perhaps be wiser to just stick it out until the sequel arrives and keep your fingers crossed that Monolith set it somewhere a little less dull.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).