F.E.A.R. 2 : Project Origin
Thursday, February 12, 2009
When Monolith created the first F.E.A.R. 2005 there was rebellion in the game world, the game had an incredible AI for its time and had an engaging story and incredible horror and action sequences. Now it’s 2009 and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin has been released, is it as good as its predecessor? Read on and see …
At last, a continuation or …?
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin starts approximately 30 minutes before the end of the first game, instead of playing as the nameless protagonist we now play as the Delta Force soldier Michael Becket along with his troop are sent in to arrest Genevieve Aristide, the president of Armacham. Before Beckett and the crew even had time to start Becket started having hallucinations and wierd shapes began to emerge in his periphery.
The story, like its predecessor leaves you with many questions this time around though you get a lot more answers. Unlike the first game you quickly get into the action-part of the game, unfortunately devoting less time to build up the horror. Despite playing in an urban environment you’ll travel through an old hospital, a school, deserted streets, subway systems and underground complexes and all of them are pretty scary environments.
If I had to say something negative about the story it would be that it does not escalate in the end, the first game had an incredibly cool ending, but it doesn’t make the way to the end less enjoyable though.
Slow-mo Killing Machine
Like its predecessor F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is a first-person shooter, we find everything in this game that could be found in the first one which means: More weapons and grenades, awesome kicks and a slow-motion effect that makes all the killing easier. A new mechanic is the cover-system, however, is not like what we are accustomed to. In the game you can now turn over tables, and other objects which you then can crouch behind, you’ll have to take care of the crouching though using a button.
Anyway, it’s all the same welcomed mechanic, however, I would have preferred to see a feature that lets one lean out from the walls like the enemies do. Speaking of enemies, the fantastic AI is back. The enemies in the game tries to flank you, they take cover behind walls, they turns over objects and takes cover behind them and they really do their best to try and kill you which is very nice and spices the action-experience a bit. It’s really cool when they run from cover to cover and at the same time fire some shots on their way. The only thing I can complain about much is that they are a bit slow on the trigger and they accuracy is not top-notch. This may change in the higher difficulty levels, however.
There are also some stealth elements in the game, where you can sneak up on an enemy, however these moments are quite rare.
If you succeed in sneaking up on an enemy you can like the predecessor use some of the games awesome kicks, you can sprint and quickly press the melee button to make a gliding tackle, or you can make a standing jump kick or a running jump kick, which is 2-3 kicks that will land on your opponent. It’s really satisfying if you can make it look good. The game does not seem to support the quicksave and quick load, but the game has checkpoints or auto-save-points, unfortunately.
Terrifying visions
Like the first game this game is a horror game, however the game is a lot more “action” than its predecessor. In my opinion, the horror elements are not as scary, but horror is really subjective, but I found the first game to be scarier. Despite this, the game offers a lot of surprises and I found myself scared several times throughout the game. There were even times when I shuddered because of the eerie atmosphere. Along with the visual effects and sound effects in the game it’s easy to suffer from paranoia, you get really careful when your flashlight suddenly stops working and you think you heard something behind your back.
The game blends action and horror elements quite well and I found myself feeling at ease when the scary moments were over. Fortunately, you will not be completely alone during the game, there are a lot of NPC interaction in the game which is very nice when you walk through halls with corpses laying everywhere.
Graphically the game is very nice and it’s really nice looking if you have the computer power to meet the recommended requirements. The game is not as demanding as Crysis or Far Cry 2 but the game is obviously beautiful and much better looking than it’s console counterparts. Sharp textures, high-resolution shadows, motion blur, depth of field, etc., it all enhances the experience.
Conclusion
The game is perfect for you who love horror and action, and to have the lights off and headphones makes the game a bit more scary. F.E.A.R. 2 delivers a good action-horror experience, with immersive graphics and incredibly satisfying gameplay. This is a game is a given if you liked the first one.
