F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Developer Q&A

FEAR 2 Nailgun Gameplay

Enemies in FEAR 2 suffer the wrath of your nailgun.

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The original F.E.A.R. earned acclaim for tense, close-quarters firefights that combined great weaponry with a downright spooky atmosphere. With the long-awaited sequel, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, developer Monolith is aiming to keep players on edge while simultaneously adding more variety to the combat. Primary art lead Dave Matthews and senior software engineer Matthew Titelbaum help explain how they intend to accomplish this goal.

GameSpot: The heart of any game's combat experience is the conflict between the player and the enemy. In F.E.A.R. 2, those enemies look pretty tenacious. Early builds of the game have shown them opening car doors to use as cover, and limping back up from the brink of death to make you really work for the kill. What are some other ways you've improved the enemy AI to add more combat depth?

Dave Matthews: One of our biggest successes in F.E.A.R. was our AI, and that's not something that's going to be overlooked. In F.E.A.R. 2 we've enhanced what was created for the original game and built upon the strengths of that system. You're going to see enemies that are far more aware of their environment and a lot more capable of adapting to the way you play. We've added awareness to environmental hazards such as fire and electrified areas. An AI that catches on fire doesn't just continue fighting with complete disregard for being engulfed in flames. They will now drop their weapons, try to extinguish the flames by patting, the ever-popular stop, drop, and roll, or if there is water nearby, run to it. If they can douse the flames, they'll switch to their secondary sidearm or find a weapon nearby, pick it up, and reengage in combat. There'll be plenty of opportunities for the player to experiment with new and glorious ways to bring about the demise of their foes.

As for combat, you can think about it like sandbox combat. The environment you fight in doesn't change, but the way enemies attack you and react to your behavior changes every time you play. The AI are now aware and will take advantage of combat opportunities within the environment. Just as you can target the gas tank of a car to take out the foes, they will be able to find the same types of advantages and leverage them against you. What affords us this emergent behavior is that our AI is not scripted, but educated, so as you enter combat volumes, enemies will adapt to your play style. If you are a run-and-gun kind of player, the enemies will see this and use opportunities to flank you and attack you from behind. Players that use cover more heavily will find enemies using various strategies, like throwing grenades to your location, to flush you out into the open so they can attack you. The goal is to make players not notice that the enemies are controlled by the computer.

Expect to see more explosions and particle effects this time around.

GS: On the subject of enemies, what are some of the types that players will encounter? How will their various strengths and weaknesses affect the way people play the game?

Matthew Titelbaum: We have a few new enemies in F.E.A.R. 2, as well as some that have carried over from the original F.E.A.R. with significant modification. Regular and heavy-weapon soldiers are back from the original F.E.A.R. with a few modifications. Some ATC soldiers now carry "cleaning" equipment to cover up Armacham's tracks, but the tanks they carry are very vulnerable to gunfire. Also, some soldiers are packing flamethrowers now, which also require carrying a tank of fuel on their backs. The player will definitely want to aim for the tanks to quickly incapacitate the enemy. Assassins are also back, quick as ever, but now they have much improved mobility. Assassins can now climb and jump all over the environment, sneaking up on the player from where he or she least expects it. Slow-mo will definitely help the player out, but using the environment to his or her advantage is also key. Finally, soldiers equipped with powered armor are also back in F.E.A.R. 2, along with their technological successor elite powered armor. Both of these enemies pack tremendous firepower and require the player to be fully aware of available cover. Luckily for the player, though, both enemies are heavily susceptible to electromagnetic attacks, so a well-placed chaff grenade can render these deadly enemies immobile.

The new enemies in F.E.A.R. 2 are wholly different sorts of threats. The abomination enemy is the result of an Armacham experiment gone wholly wrong. Barbaric and quick, the abomination will appear where you least expect it and bound off the environment and right at the player. If given the chance, the abomination won't hesitate to jump right on top of the player and won't relent until the player is able to wrestle him off. The abominations also tends to show up in groups, so the player should also be sure to frequently look over his shoulder. The remnant enemy, though, is a wholly different ball of wax. After Alma's taint overwhelmed the city, many civilians were devoured by her tremendous power. These lost souls are now neither alive nor dead, stuck forever repeating their final moments. These remnants seek their revenge on the living by reanimating soldiers to attack them, sort of a puppet master, if you will. Killing the remnant's soldier puppets is an exercise in futility, though, as the remnant will quickly reanimate them once again. The trick is to run down and kill the remnant before his minions can kill the player.

Armor penetration is a key consideration in the weapons you'll pick up.

GS: You've expanded the type of weaponry available for players to pick up over the course of the campaign. Can you tell us about some of these new guns and describe how you've tried to make them more appealing in a genre where typically one only needs an assault rifle and some grenades to survive?

DM: In F.E.A.R., there were a few weapons that definitely made an impact with the community, and those items, like the penetrator, are making a comeback in F.E.A.R. 2. But early on we realized that we would not be able to just deliver another set of weapons alone. Coming back to one of our mantras of "variety," we brought an armor-penetration value to each weapon. For instance, the pump shotgun has a high damage value, but a low armor-penetration value. This means it's great for your standard troops, but starts to have less and less effect against those with heavy armor. Whereas a rocket launcher has a concussive element to its damage, all of these factors will play out in how the enemies will react to you and being hit. This type aspect of your arsenal will have impact on how you approach combat against each enemy type. Depending upon how you use your weaponry, [this] will ultimately affect the combat resolution. I think as you see the enemies leveraging elements in the environment, the player's options in the combat volume, the weapons in your hands, and the various type of grenades that shape the space, you will see that F.E.A.R. 2 will require the player to make very tactical decisions about which weapon to use and at what time.