F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

So I just got a new, temporary position in a furniture factory, and to celebrate my first week of work, I purchased F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin for Xbox 360. I thought I'd give you my thoughts on the game seeing as I'm a F.E.A.R. fan. I have played the first game, plus both expansions all the way through on PC and they're pretty good. We'll get to that though. I purchased my copy of the game from Clem's Collectibles in Jefferson Pointe. If you're in the Fort Wayne area and you go to Jefferson Pointe, check out Clem's every now and again for their used video games. I've found that they are priced anywhere from $5 to almost $20 cheaper than Game Stop. My copy of F.E.A.R. 2 is in great condition, and it included the instruction manual.

The game play is pretty standard F.E.A.R. with the maps being very linear with the player meandering through creepy, bloodstained corridors with the occasional hallucination of Alma (a creepy woman who is the cause of the destruction and mayhem of the game). The story is kept moving by the player discovering various intelligence items that require the player to read through information such as e-mails and military orders. It does the job alright, but it is not super compelling. That's just how it works in F.E.A.R. games.

The combat for me seems to be a bit clunkier than the previous F.E.A.R. titles. The first game and the two expansions had a certain finesse to the combat. It was fast, furious, and the AI was REALLY smart in how it reacted to the player's actions. The AI, who always outnumbered you, always attempted to use squad tactics to defeat you by using suppressive fire and flanking maneuvers. The AI was also very good at trying to avoid damage to the enemies. For instance, if you threw a grenade, the enemies always tried to get away from it. F.E.A.R. 2 is similar, but so far it has not been as hectic in the combat, and the AI is a little predictable in what it is going to do. It is still good at avoiding damage, but I've found the enemies try to come at you head-on most of the time so it's easy to just mow them down.

Something else that was good in the first F.E.A.R. that is not as prevalent in F.E.A.R. 2 is that during combat, stuff would be flying EVERYWHERE. Debris flew all over the place when you shot the environment, and grenades were DEVASTATING indoors, leaving the player crouched behind some counter in a lab as the smoke cleared after a vicious encounter with the enemy. You really felt like you were in a firefight. While the graphics of F.E.A.R. 2 are improved over F.E.A.R., that element somehow wasn't translated as well. Also, the blood that comes out of the enemies looks completely ridiculous. It looks like the blood globs that come out of the Klingons in Star Trek VI in zero gravity. The blood looks really globby and fake. It's stupid.

Moving around is also a chore, as the developers have tried to make this game seem realistic. Now, if you look straight down, your character has legs and feet that move while you walk and run. I always appreciate that in an FPS because it adds some realism. The game makes you feel EVERY STEP while you walk though... I get caught on all kinds of corners because it feels like the character is lurching around instead of being a sweet Black Ops soldier who is agile and maneuverable.

The slow motion aspect is standard for the F.E.A.R. franchise, but they improved it a little by having the enemies highlighted on your screen while you're in slow-mo mode.

I've been ragging on this game quite a bit, and you're probably thinking that this game is terrible. Well, there were some really good improvements made to improve the game play. First, in previous F.E.A.R. titles, the enemies could manipulate furniture and other objects in the environment to give themselves cover (such as pushing a table over like in a Western bar fight), but the player was left to hide behind potted fake plants. Well, now the you do that too. You can drag soda machines down and kick over tables and hospital beds to give yourself cover during combat. It's a little clunky to do, but it does help a lot. You can also leap over lots of obstacles too, and that's pretty grand as well.

Overall, I'd rate F.E.A.R. 2 as a 6.5/10. It's fun, but it is far from the best game ever. We'll see how I feel about it after I finish it though. I'm only partway through, and things could get better or worse. It is not scary at all, so if that's what you're looking for in a game, look elsewhere. I don't mind it too much though, and I'm glad to finally play the next chapter of F.E.A.R.