F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin (PC) Review

A combined review? Yes indeed in the spirit of getting things done in a timely fashion I shall cover both titles. Lets just get one things sorted from the start – the PC version has better graphics, looks smoother and sharper. That’s the major difference of the two versions – read on for the rest of the review if you need more

The sequel begins about 30 minutes before the end of the first F.E.A.R (First Encounter Assault Recon) game. You are Michael Becket, a member of a F.E.A.R unit sent to arrest Genevieve Aristide, a senior member of the Armacham Corporation, and take her in to protective custody. Whilst making your way to Genevieve all hell breaks loose and upon arrival at her penthouse you encounter Black Op soldiers sent by the corporation to kepp Aristide quiet. Saving her from the troops you are informed that you and your unit are to be members of project Harbringer. Before any more information can be given your character from the 1st F.E.A.R game explodes the Origin Facility’s reactor core and everyone is blown to hell. You fall to the floor barely conscious, with scary arse Alma around and then black out.

You wake up later after strange freaked out dreams and operation sequences to find yourself in a lab run by Aristide, clearly you have been “modified” in some ways but this does not become aparent until later in the story. As Becket trys to get answers the hospital is over run by further ATC black op troops and you must fight your way out of the facility. As you move through the area you are contacted by a mysterious stranger, calling himself “Snakefist”. This mysterious figure appears to be trying to help you out of the facility but to what ends you are unsure. Alma appears and basically beats the snot out of you but leaves you breathing – which is more than what she did wiith most of your squad mates. From here you basically follow the bloody and twisting tale for truth about what has been done to you, who Snakefist is and who this mysterious woman is.

Graphically the game is pretty smart. The first game was a real landmark game with graphics you cold benchmark your PC by. This title is no slouch in this department but on the PC there are better looking titles. On the XBox 360 it sits in the top tier of games graphically and both titles maintain a solid and fluid framerate – but the XBox version suffers with the odd jittery shadow. That is not to say the PC version is not good quality – believe me it is top notch, we’re just not talking Crysis here, which in itself is a good thing. The dark drab interiors and exteriors are well rendered and lit perfectly. Shadows and light blooms are mostly well rendered by Monolith’s Lithtech engine which was also used in Condemned 2 and that shows, but both titles work very well graphically and have a simliar style. There is plenty of splatter and guts flying as you take down enemy after enemy and showers of sparks fly as you hit obstacles with gunfire, then they fall perfectly in slow-mo to the ground. And this is where the F.E.A.R games has shone is when you hit that al important bullet-time/slo-mo button and you can really go to town.

Progress is that of your typical FPS. Run some corridors, shoot your way out of set piece, graba snatch of story element, run some corridors, shoot your way….. you see the pattern If there is one major flaw to F.E.A.R 2 is that is does nothing unique with the FPS genre. It is predictable and stoic, but this is also a great strenght. What is does it does very well indeed and if your a FPS fan or someone looking for a shooter game then this will do exactly what you want it to do. After the mysterious operation you have been given several “powers” to use as you choose. The major one of these, as mentioned before, is the ability to slow down time. This allows you to get in close for shotgun or hand-to-hand take downs or just to get to cover when all hell kicks off. You also have the ability to turn over objects and furniture to use as cover, it won’t last long but it does in a pinch. There are a fair variety of levels on offer and it manages to not stagnet to any real degree, one of the main critisisms of the first F.E.A.R title. There are plenty of cliches used to establish the “horror” of the title such as dark, dank dripping bathrooms with closed cubicle doors that have you truly questioning if you need to open them or not. The first title never really “scared” me, the only realy “WOAH!” moment came when Alma was stood atop a ladder – scared the crap outta me This game is probably a little darker and they have tried to move things a little more in the action/horror direction.

A large gameplay change of note is that this time you get to jump in to the drivers seat of large Mech-like creations courtesy of the Armachem Corp. This hands a very large wedge of shooter fun to the player but completly negates the whole tense horror setup that has been the games staple up to that point. I found this change of pace far too jarring and element to forgive. It was a great change in gameplay flow but one that just felt so out of place to me. That said it notches up the already impressive destructability of the environments and allows even further dismemberment of enemies to ensue.

The use of sound in the game is, once again, well done. Heavy sounds and grinding sound tracks kick in at relvevant parts of the game – Big fights, boss type encounters etc. The usage of ambient sound with this title is the most impressive part though with small tinkles and rumbles making you spin to see what made the noise, or send shivers down your spine.

Multiplayer is once again catered for but only lightly – this won;t replace Halo, Killzone 2 or COD in your online rotation. The six multiplayer modes of “Deathmatch”, “Team Deathmatch”, “Blitz” (CTF ) . “Control” (king of the hill). “Armored Front” is a variant of Controlbut with Mech suits involved and lastly we have “Failsafe” which uses the old Counterstrike tactic of one team attempting to detonate a bomb, the other team attempts to defuse it.

And Finally :

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