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

A very nicely executed and gripping game. Ended up loosing track of time on several occasions while playing. Perhaps a bit short for my tastes but the amount of detail and the action makes up for that. My one quarm is that you MUST use STEAM or you cannot play the game. Im not a fan at all of being forced to install extra software to play somthing i paid good money for. Im a firm beleiver in the 'Opt in' system regardless of how STEAM performs. Afterall i didnt buy an account on steam, i bought FEAR2.

Alma's back. Given that she's essentially dead and all, this isn't good news. Describing her as "slightly peeved" about being used as an incubation chamber for morally bankrupt corporate Frankensteins and then left to rot, would be the very definition of understatement. One character in Project Origin describes her as "the Mother of the Apocalypse" -- and he's not far wrong. Alma is a very, very angry little girl. Which is great, because her rage-fuelled paranormal killing sprees are a large part of what makes the F.E.A.R franchise so much fun.

The game begins mere moments before its predecessor's ending and places you firmly in the sweaty combat boots of one Michael Becket ("Bucket" to close friends and snarky colleagues), Delta Force soldier and all-round gun-toting bad-ass. Becket and his team have been tasked with taking into "protective custody" one Genevieve Aristide. If that name doesn't ring any bells either you've never played the first game, or you're developing presenile dementia.

Aristide was the manipulative corporate schemer who was directly responsible for unleashing Alma upon an unsuspecting populace through a mixture of greed, unchecked ambition and a callous disregard for both the truth and the lives of innocent civilians. Regrettably for Aristide, she's about to reap the whirlwind. Armacham Technology Corporation's Board of Directors, her employers, are calling her to account for her actions. To this end they've dispatched Colonel Richard Vanek and his battalion of heavily armed thugs to dispose of both Aristide and any evidence linking the ATC to Alma and Project Origin. Your job is to stop them, secure Aristide and find out how to stop Alma. Piece of cake.

All the features that made the first game such a visceral experience remain largely unchanged. Enemy AI is as cunning as ever, seeking cover, attempting to outflank you and throwing an assortment of grenades in your general direction. Weapons are varied, robust and genuinely useful, barring perhaps the rickety pistol which is only really handy when you've exhausted all other options. "Slow-mo" makes a welcome return and unlike in the previous game, where it was an entertaining but superfluous novelty, proves essential during a couple of the more frenetic firefights. (A battle aboard a moving subterranean tram near the end of the game springs to mind. Slow-mo, proximity mines and the automatic shotgun will become your new best friends.)

As one might expect for a game released in 2009, Monolith have made notable improvements. Graphics are gorgeous, particularly the desolated ruins of Auburn. Music, voicework and sound effects are all appropriately ghoulish and contribute heavily to the game's unsettling ambience. But best of all, F.E.A.R veterans will be pleased to learn that level design is no longer limited to a dreary selection of office interiors interspersed with the occasional rat-infested sewer. In a similar vein, enemies are now obviously different, fulfilling different roles within Replica/ATC units. A heavy weapons soldier is bigger and more heavily armed and armoured, whereas a Replica sniper is lightly armoured, but fast, agile and excels at concealment. It's no longer a case of the same bloke in a different coloured uniform. Enemies of a paranormal nature are similarly varied. Abominations, though weak, are particularly good at getting the jump on you, and the way they move is just... wrong. Remnants are an entirely different bucket of entrails, and the first time you encounter one can be a uniquely disturbing experience.

Of course, if anyone's going to induce brown-trousers-time in a hardened FPS gamer, it's Alma herself, and rest assured she doesn't let the side down. A bowel-loosening hour spent in the charnel house that was once Wade Elementary School stands out as a high-point in both steadily increasing tension and moments of stark terror. Alma's also a lot more "hands-on" in this outing. In fact, without revealing too much, you'll find that your relationship with Alma at the end of the game has taken on an entirely new, and grotesque, dimension. As an antagonist, Alma invokes feelings of ambivalence. On one hand, you feel sympathetic toward her and the unrelenting horror she's been forced to endure. On the other hand, she's a vengeful, insane spirit with a penchant for acts of gratuitous destruction and mass carnage. But at least she's not boring.

Some of the more formidable opponents in the first game were the Replica soldiers piloting mechanised power armour. These lumbering behemoths were capable of unleashing jaw-dropping torrents of firepower, and soaking up truly massive amounts of punishment. In Project Origin, the shoe is very much on the other foot. When you first clamber into the cockpit of an Elite Power Armour and the onboard computer calmly states (in that soothing feminine way that all sci-fi computers seem to have) "Systems Online", you feel something you've not felt for pretty much the whole of the game so far -- safe. Snugly ensconced within roughly three tons of reinforced steel plate, with a pair of chain guns and dual missile launchers at your fingertips, you feel secure, relaxed, content. And then you start stomping through the ruins of Auburn, laying waste to all in your path, and that sense of peace and tranquility is swiftly replaced with a demented urge to shoot things and blow stuff up, cackling like a muppet all the while. As a pleasant change of pace from being constantly on edge as you slink through gloomy, mutant-infested corridors, it works really well. Oh, and it's a wheelbarrow-load of fun.

Okay, so Project Origin is fun and scary and appallingly violent, but what else is it? It's dark. Really, really dark. And it doesn't help that the torch with which you've been provided could be effortlessly replaced with a Bic lighter taped to the end of a broom handle for all the illumination it provides. Feeble doesn't begin to describe it. And yes, we all know that it's a survival horror game and pervasive gloom helps to reinforce the claustrophobic ambience, but why go to all the trouble of tarting up the graphics if you can barely see your hand in front of your face. Becoming acquainted with the gamma correction setting in the options menu is strenuously advised.

Another bugbear is the new checkpoint system. Despite being able to quicksave at any point in the proceedings during the first game, Project Origin uses pre-programmed checkpoints. No quicksaves for you, young man. I suspect this, along with the new three medpack limit imposed, is an attempt to regulate the game's difficulty given that it seems, on the whole, significantly easier than its predecessor. This is all well and good in theory, but in practice, it's just annoying. See, I'm weird in that I like to select the game's difficulty by adjusting the 'difficulty' slider in the options menu. That way, if I'm all liquored up and exhibiting the hand-eye coordination of an arthritic pensioner with chronic epilepsy, I can just set the difficulty to 'easy' and not spend the next six hours feeling like an emasculated failure.

Project Origin is also short. It's nowhere near as long as the first game, though what little there is of it is highly entertaining. I guess when you fritter away all the zots on new environments, enemies, weapons and big stompy robots, you've not a whole lot left over to give the convoluted story the in-depth and sufficiently lengthy treatment it so desperately needs. Is the game worth $100? Subjective. If you have the attention span of a three year-old whose ingested four pounds of raw sugar and a bucketful of treacle, then I'm sure you'll get your money's worth. Otherwise, you may want to wait for the price to drop.

Verdict: By turns enthralling and horrifying, but far too short.

like the game over all. just finished the game on normal difficulty and found the majority of it really simple but there were some part that were a challenge.

I found the HUD fine and the Crysis 'esk middle mouse button weapon change useful or though a little cumbersome, and the avatar for radio transmissions very useful. also the border makes it more obvious to see it flicker when Alma or other paranormal activities are near.

storyline is ok, it's totally linear which i don't really begrudge the developers for but that limit my inclination to play it again, cinematicly i think they could have taken better advantage of this. it's also ridiculously unrealistic and hard to identify with the character you play. a lot of the story line is in found documents, i don't really like this method because you can miss some and there is no emotion presented with the info.

game play was good i liked the feel of most the game but was frustrated with the ladders, improvised cover and vaulting over objects where all very slow and awkward movements that did not feel right and where bad ideas in combat. i would not include the Elite Powered Armor (EPA) in the full version there was plenty of time to get in to the EPA before the fire fight gets in full swing. and boy was it fun to drive, would have liked more time in it with more of a challenge to it. i really like the weapons but would have liked one or two more new experimental weapons. was not too dark and the flash light could used from the first time i tried and was only unusable in one or two places that it would have been detrimental to the game atmosphere but some of the times i think i should have been able to use it. the maps were mostly linear, with only one way to get to most areas so the enemy could almost never flank you. there where not many interesting looking places.

the game seemed to run well and it never crashed and on my 64bit Vista that is a miracle, but with 6 hours (estimated) game play time it might not have had enough chance.

overall i liked the game would have liked it to be a bit more open with more complex environments in maps and with a stronger character development. but was fun to play and an interesting story, despite repeating a lot form the first game.

I had never played fear 1, but I still got the idea of the game and I thought it was a pretty awesome game, especially at the end!

To start off though, there is nothing wrong with having a game on steam unless your on dial up. Otherwise it is one hell of a lifesaver as it self patches and that is very helpful when some games have different regions and are patched multiple times!

The game does have some "scary" moments but in general it is more about the gunfights. You do have a fairly nice selection of weapons from missile launchers to machine guns to flamethrowers to weapons that shoot spikes! There are a few different enemies but in general you do find yourself fighting 2 types of soldiers.

Voice acting is pretty well done but it's generally heard over a radio and fits in perfectly as you always end up separated from others.

But overall it is a very fun first person shooter, with an interesting storyline and good game-play to keep you wanting to play more.

Back in 2005, the original First Encounter Assault Recon (F.E.A.R) was created by Monolith and released for the PC to wide acclaim, winning notice for it's creepy atmosphere, brilliant enemy A.I, and incredibly forced acronym. The game centered on the Pointman of the titular F.E.A.R team, a squad created by the U.S government to combat paranormal threats. It was regarded by many as a superior FPS with masterfully executed horror sequences, with the only real problem being the bland environments. Note, this is not to say the atmosphere was, just that one area felt like the others; the wastewater plant felt like the office building which in turn felt like the Origin facility, with the only standout area being the Apartment complex. I was a huge fan of this game, and had been waiting for this sequel, F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, for years. Now that I finally got it, it barely seems worth it.

First, I'll start with the good; the combat is absolutely amazing, it might honestly be the most satisfying FPS I've ever played in that regard. The game still bleeds atmosphere as well, and these two factors combined make it incredibly immersive. It also addresses another flaw people found with the original: the fact that virtually every encounter was against the same type of enemy, with the only the occasional variation in the form of an assassin, elite soldier, mech, or nightmare. This game tends to keep the encounters varied between the Armacham Black Ops soldiers, Replicas (the main enemy in the first), and several supernatural beings I haven't even begun to name yet. Finally, the areas are actually distinct.

That said, there are some issues, many of which outweighed this stellar gameplay for me. First off is the complete abandonment of all the mystique. In the original game, you had only a vague idea of who Alma was or even what was happening, which added to the suspense and, dare I say, fun, as you unraveled the mystery. All that is pretty much abandoned here; you know what's going on and why all the way until the end, with the important aspects of the plot being spoon fed to you by your squad (whose presence, by the way, also undermines the horror, as part of horror is usually being alone) as opposed to the laptop and phone message method of exposition in the original (although it is worth noting that you can find more minor parts of the plot in computer disks that you have to find). The ironic thing is, the ending itself is pretty ambiguous. Seriously, I had to look up a plot summery on Wikipedia just to find out what happened in the last 30 seconds or so.

Going hand-in-hand with this is their pseudo-sciencing of all the paranormal things which happen. They explain everything that should have been left unexplained, how Alma was created (beyond the torture that was mentioned in the first game), what caused Alma and others to be psychic in the first place, why some can see Alma and feel her effects while others can't. Simply, mysteries lose all their appeal the second you reveal them. In this sense, F.E.A.R 2 fell into a similar pitfall as Condemned 2.

As well, with their correction of the previous games mistakes, they also create more problems. Like how all the supernatural enemies trickle out by the end, leaving you fighting wave after wave of Replicas.

Next is the fact that it isn't nearly as scary as the original. Now, I'm going to go ahead and say Your Mileage May Vary here, because others might well find it scary. All I'm saying is that a lot of the new additions seem to undermine the horror aspect for me. Sure, it has moments where I'm startled, maybe even a few where I'm outright scared, but no where near as many as the original. It seems the series is becoming more about the kind of scares that are based on a monster jumping out at you, which is fine, but the original was built on more psychological fear, on creating and then dashing expectations. I must say, the only dashed expectations were mine when I made this realization (/bad joke).

Finally, it simply doesn't feel like F.E.A.R. It's hard to explain, but the original, while more than occasionally dabbling in the supernatural, always seemed like it was firmly based in reality. This is one reason Alma was so disturbing; in a world that seems much like ours, anyone, let alone a little girl, who can do something that just seems so wrong (like liquefying someone by standing near them, or sending manifestations of nightmares at someone) is just disturbing. In the sequel, it's all par for the course. Even if I hadn't played the original, it would be hard to think of Alma as anything other than just another enemy because in this game, the abnormal is suddenly normal. Frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised by anything by the end. I realize that this might not make complete sense, but it's hard to word.

Just an inconsequential nitpick, why were they using Teenage Alma for this game? Child Alma is so much scarier.

It's hard to formulate an opinion on this. On the one hand, the fire fights are hectic and great fun, as I said, quite possibly the most satisfying of any FPS I've ever played. On the other, in Monolith's rush to fix everything bad about the first game, they abandoned nearly every GOOD thing, especially in terms of the horror and tone. It doesn't help that it shat on one of my favorite stories. So, I'd have to say this; download the demo. If it appeals to you and you aren't planning to buy any other games soon, certainly give it a try.