GAMETIME: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:18 pm
GAMETIME: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
By Cody Webb
The lights start to flicker as you step into a crumbling classroom, and out of the corner of your eye, you think you see something move. An unseen girl’s giggle penetrates the silence... it can only mean one thing: Alma’s back to terrorize players! The spooky, telepathic girl in red is back again to scare the pants off of a new protagonist. Welcome to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, which was developed by Monolith and is rated M for heavy use of blood and gore and lots of violence and swear words.
Instead of playing as an unnamed fellow who is nicknamed “The Point Man”, players get to strap on the boots of one Michael Becket as he joins a squad of Delta Force soldiers in capturing a renegade executive. People who explored the first F.E.A.R. will recognize the executive, but I won’t spoil it here. They succeed in finding their target, but then have the misfortune of getting caught up in the explosion that rocked the city at the end of the first game. Becket gets knocked out, and when he awakens he finds himself capable of slowing down time much like the Point Man could do.
First and foremost: the tedium of wandering through blank office hallway after blank office hallway is gone. Becket finds himself moving through diverse and interesting areas, like a hospital near the beginning of the game, to the destroyed ruins of the city, and even into the dingy and dark subway system. You’ll fight against different types of enemies instead of the endless Replica Soldiers from the first game. You’ll find yourself under attack by the Replica Soldiers, of course, but they’re joined by Black Ops forces, mutated abominations, and you’ll even be assaulted by Alma a few times.
F.E.A.R. 2 won’t amaze with its graphics, but by no means is it ugly. It looks slightly better than the first game, in my opinion. The spook factor has been drastically lowered in comparison to the first game. The music and environments try their best to make you tense, and some areas succeed, but overall this game just can’t scare you as much as the first game did. I’m sorry, F.E.A.R. 2, but there is nothing scary about tromping around in a giant mech and blasting hapless soldiers without barely breaking a sweat. Although, I will give it credit for the incredibly creepy elementary school level.
The controls work great, allowing you to defeat the many enemies the game sends at you. That’s good, too, because most of the time, the enemy A.I. is smart. having soldiers distract you while sending a couple around to shoot you in the back. They’ll even make use of the new cover system, which allows you to move certain items in the environment around so you can take cover behind them. This is where their biggest flaw is; however, since most of the time, once they flip over a table, they’ll stay behind it until you pop them in their exposed heads.
The biggest problems I have with Project Origin are the disorienting and horribly done movement bounce and how you can’t switch the aggrivating weapon swap. Would it have been so hard to include an option to turn off the movement bounce or allow players to change their control schemes? These faults aren’t very big, only minor annoyances so I wouldn’t cry foul. One last thing worth mentioning, don’t buy this game solely for the multiplayer. Its strengths are the single-player story and it seems like multiplayer was simply tacked on as a last thought.
So, to sum it up: F.E.A.R 2 tries to be scary, but really only ends up as a solid shooting game with an interesting plot. Would I recommend it? Most definitely, if you’re a fan of action, or if you loved the first game; just don’t expect to have the same nightmares again. I’ll give F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin an A-.
By Cody Webb
The lights start to flicker as you step into a crumbling classroom, and out of the corner of your eye, you think you see something move. An unseen girl’s giggle penetrates the silence... it can only mean one thing: Alma’s back to terrorize players! The spooky, telepathic girl in red is back again to scare the pants off of a new protagonist. Welcome to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, which was developed by Monolith and is rated M for heavy use of blood and gore and lots of violence and swear words.
Instead of playing as an unnamed fellow who is nicknamed “The Point Man”, players get to strap on the boots of one Michael Becket as he joins a squad of Delta Force soldiers in capturing a renegade executive. People who explored the first F.E.A.R. will recognize the executive, but I won’t spoil it here. They succeed in finding their target, but then have the misfortune of getting caught up in the explosion that rocked the city at the end of the first game. Becket gets knocked out, and when he awakens he finds himself capable of slowing down time much like the Point Man could do.
First and foremost: the tedium of wandering through blank office hallway after blank office hallway is gone. Becket finds himself moving through diverse and interesting areas, like a hospital near the beginning of the game, to the destroyed ruins of the city, and even into the dingy and dark subway system. You’ll fight against different types of enemies instead of the endless Replica Soldiers from the first game. You’ll find yourself under attack by the Replica Soldiers, of course, but they’re joined by Black Ops forces, mutated abominations, and you’ll even be assaulted by Alma a few times.
F.E.A.R. 2 won’t amaze with its graphics, but by no means is it ugly. It looks slightly better than the first game, in my opinion. The spook factor has been drastically lowered in comparison to the first game. The music and environments try their best to make you tense, and some areas succeed, but overall this game just can’t scare you as much as the first game did. I’m sorry, F.E.A.R. 2, but there is nothing scary about tromping around in a giant mech and blasting hapless soldiers without barely breaking a sweat. Although, I will give it credit for the incredibly creepy elementary school level.
The controls work great, allowing you to defeat the many enemies the game sends at you. That’s good, too, because most of the time, the enemy A.I. is smart. having soldiers distract you while sending a couple around to shoot you in the back. They’ll even make use of the new cover system, which allows you to move certain items in the environment around so you can take cover behind them. This is where their biggest flaw is; however, since most of the time, once they flip over a table, they’ll stay behind it until you pop them in their exposed heads.
The biggest problems I have with Project Origin are the disorienting and horribly done movement bounce and how you can’t switch the aggrivating weapon swap. Would it have been so hard to include an option to turn off the movement bounce or allow players to change their control schemes? These faults aren’t very big, only minor annoyances so I wouldn’t cry foul. One last thing worth mentioning, don’t buy this game solely for the multiplayer. Its strengths are the single-player story and it seems like multiplayer was simply tacked on as a last thought.
So, to sum it up: F.E.A.R 2 tries to be scary, but really only ends up as a solid shooting game with an interesting plot. Would I recommend it? Most definitely, if you’re a fan of action, or if you loved the first game; just don’t expect to have the same nightmares again. I’ll give F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin an A-.