A few weeks ago I finally found the time to play through Monolith‘s latest title: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. I was a big fan of the original game, which offered a compelling story married with good FPS gameplay and excellent graphics, but was marred by a lack of variety and a very open ending. I even finished the mediocre expansion packs, so it’s no surprise that I had high hopes for this one.
So, F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin does away with the events of the – non-canonical – expansion packs and picks up where F.E.A.R. left off. You don’t get to play as the pointman, the original lead, but as a new character that experiences everything from a very different angle. This allowed Monolith to address many of the shortcomings of the first game and deliver one of the best first person shooters in recent history.
Story
One of the main pillars of the first game was its dark and gruesome story of a child gone mad after extensive experimentation, the cover-up by those responsible and your personal history. F.E.A.R. 2 takes all of this to a whole new level and acts as the middle in an overarching story. Many questions are answered and Alma is only now opening up her real bag of tricks.
No longer do you play as the pointman, and the events of the expansion packs can be forgotten. Instead you’re Michael Beckett, a Delta Force operative who is sent in with a team in order to retrieve Genevieve Aristide, roughly 30 minutes before the end of the original game. As you might expect, things go sour and not-so-little Alma soon becomes fascinated with you.
The story is told through in-engine cutscenes and in-game dialogues, but you’ll also stumble across notes and PDA’s that will fill in the gaps. You’ll be immersed into the F.E.A.R. universe before you know it. And when you’re in, you will find Armacham’s dirty secrets piling up, Alma chasing you and your team and ever stranger things happening all around you.
Yet the best part is how the game will change your views on Alma and Armacham. Even if you didn’t quite understand her course of action in the first game, you will come to understand Alma’s point of view in Project Origin. You’ll still be trying to kill the bitch of course, but towards the end Alma does not seem all that evil. And her motives for chasing you turn out to be quite different from what you’d expect.
The one problem here is that very ending. It’s not a bad ending by any means, but it’s one that begs a sequel. That doesn’t mean no questions are answered, this is not Lost, but many new questions are raised. And F.E.A.R. 2 is one of those few shooters that will leave you wanting to know what happens next, much like Half Life (where is Episode 3, Valve?).
Alma is back... creepier than ever
Gameplay
F.E.A.R. 2 addresses the prime complaint leveled at its predecessor: lack of variety. In Project Origin you’ll be facing off against Mechs, experimental soldiers, experimental creatures, creatures from ‘the other side’, and many different types of ordinary soldiers. And you won’t be stuck in eternal office blocks either, because you’ll find yourself duking it out in a haunted elementary school, hospital, industry terrain, city block, personal residence, underground facility, and so on.
This increased variety also stretches out to Alma. No longer is she restricted to rather common horror scare-sequences, but her entrances are less predictable as well. The line between combat sequence and horror sequence is less clearly defined, which makes F.E.A.R. 2 much more of a constant scare than its predecessor was. You never know when something freaky might occur, nor how it will play out.
But at its essence F.E.A.R. 2 is still a first person shooter. Most of the time you’ll be shooting at bad guys, whether they be spirits or real men (or creatures). There is a decent variety of weaponry, most of which was (in a way) present in the original game, such as motion-sensing mines, machine guns, shotguns, nailguns, etc.
The novelty factor here comes from variety once again. You can dual-wield certain weapons and you will not constantly be traveling on foot. Some of the best sequences in the game will see you wreaking havoc in giant Mechs, or facing off against the craziest of foes in Alma’s ‘dreamworld’ sequences. This combined with the classic bullet-time and melee combat of the original game makes for a very good FPS experience.
F.E.A.R 2 doesn’t present anything you’ve never seen before, but it does combine elements of its predecessor with other successful games to form a very solid package. Add some further AI improvements (yes, even better than the original), excellent difficulty scaling (hard was challenging, but never punishingly so) and quick-time events and you’ll soon forget about its lack of innovation. This meaty 12 hour game is bound to please!
Tearing it up in a mech is one of Project Origin's better moments
The Outer Shell
The varied environments present in this game are notable for their increased livelihood. If you though the world was quite destructible in the original game, think again: F.E.A.R. 2 ups the ante with entire walls collapsing under heavy gunfire and with plenty of scripted sequences featuring all manner of worldly destruction to feast your eyes on.
It’s amazing to see what Monolith has managed to squeeze out of their engine. Their art style and impressively scripted events transform a game that cannot truly compete technologically into a stunning experience that will definitely not have you faulting the visuals (or audio) in any way. Much like Valve did with their Half Life 2: Episode 2.
But in a horror shooter like F.E.A.R. 2 there is of course another element to the visual presentation: gore. And in this regard Project Origin sits in a league of its own. You’ll see people literally being ripped apart before your eyes and they’ve clearly spent extra development time just on the presentation of blood. Which drips, sprays and stains every segment of the game.
Monolith has pulled out the stops for their sound effects as well. The guns you’ll be using are obviously futuristic, but they sound quite solid for a sci-fi FPS. And with most of the story being told during gameplay or through in-engine cutscenes it helps that the voice acting is top-notch. The music further enhances the overall mood of the game, without being overbearing.
Gore is something this game certainly doesn't shy away from
Replayability
Much like its predecessor, the singleplayer experience is very linear and scripted. You might play it again before a possible sequel comes out to refresh your memory, but otherwise its not something you’d hurry to give a second go. Once is enough, even if its a very spectacular and enjoyable ride.
There are several multiplayer modes to extend the longevity of this title, but F.E.A.R. never was a multiplayer game and that’s no different for Project Origin. DeathMatching with overpowered weaponry, shattering walls and layers of dust littering the battlefield is fun for a few hours, but soon loses its appeal. There are better games on the multiplayer front.
Some people might have stuck around in order to unlock the wealth of achievements on offer, but none of them are tracked anywhere so there’s no point to it. Why bother if you can’t even show them off on your Steam or Games for Windows accounts?
The fact that the singleplayer campaign lasts a full 12 hours makes up for a lot of this, because it’s still good value for money. The game is priced around 30 euro, which makes for roughly 2 euro per hour of fun, add in a few hours of multiplayer gameplay and a potential second play-through when the sequel comes and you’re looking at a very decent price indeed.
Impressive
Pros Cons + Horror element is superior to the first game - No innovation + Much more variety in singleplayer - Mediocre multiplayer + Excellent graphics and sound - Pointless achievements + Proper difficulty scaling - Ending requires a sequel + Answers more questions than the first game + Quality storytelling
Reviewer Score: 8.8
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[...] 8th, 2009 in Reviews Last week saw the release of a new singleplayer DLC-pack for F.E.A.R. 2 (my review) entitled [...]