Four-player madness is the name of the game.

When I sat down a couple of weeks ago to play F.E.A.R. 3's four multiplayer modes, I was immediately struck by one thing in particular. Every mode is a focused four-player affair. There's very little that could be called typical about anything I saw when I played each mode, and nothing that can accommodate a massive amount of players like most other shooters on the market.

At first, this appeared to be a daring design choice. Many first-person shooter fans prefer standard multiplayer fare, and they've spoken loud-and-clear with their wallets, allowing titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops to shatter game sales records. But upon speaking for a brief time with Ki Wolf-Smith, a game designer working on the multiplayer aspects of F.E.A.R. 3 for Day 1 Studios, I realized that F.E.A.R. 3's approach to multiplayer isn't only designed to bring something different to the FPS space, but also to inject into its multiplayer modes much of what makes F.E.A.R. a well-known franchise -- horror.

"We wanted [F.E.A.R. 3's multiplayer] to be a very F.E.A.R., unique experience," Wolf-Smith explained. "So by not just having deathmatch... we wanted it to be like 'holy crap, this is different, this is fresh, this is fun.' When you want to play F.E.A.R. multiplayer and you want that F.E.A.R. experience, you're going to come to F.E.A.R. to play the multiplayer. You can play deathmatch in a hundred games."

Take over this soldier's body, and continue your killing spree.

As I left the rented-out club where F.E.A.R. 3 was being showcased, it was his last statement that resonated with me. Wolf-Smith hit the nail on the head. Deathmatch is in a hundred games. So the good news for FPS fans and horror aficionados alike is that F.E.A.R. 3 doesn't provide your typical online shooter experience. It gives you something unique. And in the couple of hours I spent with the game, I'm happy to report that it does so successfully.

Its four modes explore the horror that the F.E.A.R. franchise's single-player campaigns deal with, which comes further to the fore when you don't have 16 or 32 players running around on a map. While I enjoyed F.E.A.R. 2's single-player campaign, I was never hooked in by its multiplayer offering. It seems that with F.E.A.R. 3, I am most excited to see what happens with these four multiplayer modes when they're finally unleashed on the gaming public.

The first mode I was able to play was Contractions, a mode that requires solid teamwork to survive. Each map in Contractions is small and confined, and it will be up to you and your three teammates to repel the evil forces of Alma (F.E.A.R.'s perpetual villain) as they come at your safehouse in wave after wave. What makes this mode so fun (in a World at War/Black Ops Zombie Mode-esque fashion) is the frantic nature created by the need to constantly restock your small safehouse with weapons for you and your teammates to use, and an equally frantic feeling as you build and reinforce barriers that keep enemies out of your safehouse. If you neglect to work as a team, stock up on weapons and protect your safehouse, you won't last very long.

The next two modes I played -- Soul Survivor and Soul King -- focused on two different ways of utilizing the same core idea. Both modes introduce playable characters called Spectres, which are ghastly beings that are able to possess humans around them. In Soul Survivor, one of the four players is made a Spectre, and his job is to turn the other three players into Spectres before the time runs out, turning the tables as the Spectre team grows and the human team dwindles. Soul King, on the other hand, makes everyone a Spectre from the get-go, forcing players to occupy the bodies of AI-controlled soldiers in order to harm other Spectres, collecting dropped souls as enemies perish. These souls act as a sort of currency, calling you out to other players as a specific target that, once felled, will net the murderer the most souls in return.

Wield your Uzis and do what must be done.

But my favorite mode was no doubt the aptly-titled F**king Run!. To me, F**king Run! encompasses the F.E.A.R. experience very well. This mode requires you and your teammates to run away from a perpetually advancing cloud of fog called the Wall of Death, all the while fending off enemy soldiers and other hazards. And as Ki Wolf-Smith told me, the fact that the mode ends unsuccessfully if even one character perishes puts the impetus on teamwork. "Your buddy that's not as good as you, you have to help him, you have to work with him and you have to get through it together." This is no doubt the most hardcore multiplayer mode in F.E.A.R. 3, and one I'm looking forward to playing with other gamers the most.

What I found especially nice about each specific mode is that all of them will have their own unique maps. Since each mode is so different from one another, the sprawling maps of F**king Run! wouldn't work with the confined space necessary for something like Contractions. So if you're playing Soul King, you can expect to find three unique maps specifically designed with that mode in mind. The twelve in-game maps don't overlap with other modes, though as Ki-Smith explained to be, "some of [the maps] are new, and some of them are environments from the single-player."

At the end of the day, when I was done playing F.E.A.R. 3, I walked along the streets of San Francisco, took a train back to my house, and realized one thing -- F.E.A.R. 3's multiplayer has single-handedly put this game on my radar. The first-person shooter genre is a tired one, and it's refreshing to see something different and unique, especially in the stagnant realm of online multiplayer. F.E.A.R. 3's online modes won't necessarily resonate with all fans of the FPS, but for those looking for something truly different, and something that really fits in with F.E.A.R's horror them, you may not need to look any further.