1 is the masterpiece for how it made the player the star of an action film, all that bullet time, leaning, and karate meleing was pretty insane at the time. Bit it suffered from its era of FPS stories going on for way too long in repetitive environments. It was also a legitimately freaky game.

2 was not as scary and just didn't have the epic build-up of the plot that 1 had. It was just an overall great, tactical, atmospheric shooter, probably the best I've played in that niche. I always say I couldn't play the first fear ate dark because of how creepy it was but i couldn't stop paying the second because of how fun the gunplay was.

3 gets hate because it didn't do the story of the franchise justice but gameplay-wise it was one hell of a game. The co-op was probably a little ahead of its time.

2 is probably my favorite but overall a great series.