Despite alternating randomly between horror and action, FEAR 2 still provides quality shocks, thrills and gore equally
Contains: Strong Bloody Violence, Psychological Horror, Nudity and Gory Images
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F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is paranormal, horror-themed First-person shooter that is the direct sequel to F.E.A.R. and continues the supernatural suspense story revolving around the menacing little girl named Alma.
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STORY - 1/5
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F.E.A.R. 2 continues the supernatural events revolving around the supernatural being, Alma, whose rage against those who wronged her causes an escalating paranormal crisis that threatens to devour and replace reality with her own. You play as a Delta Force operator whose squad is sent in to take Genevieve Aristide, the President of Armacham, into protective custody approximately thirty minutes before the ending of F.E.A.R. based on incriminating evidence found by the Point Man during the first game, where the company has been linked to suspicious events, and as you gather intelligence it'll become clear that things at Armacham aren't all that they seem.
Unfortunately an average script and spoken dialogue do little to bring some intrigue into what was an interesting and mysterious story in the first game, and overall the story is mainly told through hidden intel documents, is completely uninteresting and has an ending that is equally dreadful and confusing.
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CHARACTERS - 2/5
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Michael Becket is the player-controlled character throughout F.E.A.R. 2, and while clearly normal in the opening level, a grisly operation sequence later on enables him to possess abnormal reflexes which allow him to perform manoeuvres with surgical accuracy in an extremely short span of time, an ability portrayed in the game as the world "slowing down" around you. For the most part, F.E.A.R. 2 is a mental battle of endurance for the silent protagonist, who is being traced persistently by the fury of a little girl called Alma, who looks to absorb you because of your telekinetic energy signature that draws her closer. If you played F.E.A.R. then you'll remember Alma being the centre of the story, and with such evil powers that threatened everyone who enraged her. She was haunting as the little 8 year old, wearing a red dress and with a disturbingly blank, mask-like face obscured by long black hair who forced hallucinations onto the protagonist and was demonic in her persistence to haunt you in the dark, foreboding shadows. Since her appearance almost certainly was accompanied by violence, she was an unnerving antagonist where you were never quite sure if she really existed, or only in the mind. Sometimes all that was heard would be giggling laughs and whispering in your ear, and overall Alma was infamous in the gaming world as she was input with extremely nerve-wracking effect. In F.E.A.R. 2, her appearance is completely different - that of a naked, emaciated young woman, but with intentions towards your character that remain largely the same, but to an more lacklustre effect than the original. Apart from the somewhat frightening new version of Alma, the rest of the characters throughout are weak and forgettable.
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GAMEPLAY - 4/5
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The F.E.A.R. series has been well known for the combination of action and horror elements, from moments where you are dispatching numerous soldiers, and then when you think it's safe, a paranormal hallucination is injected into your character's mind, materialising out of nowhere and leaving you gasping for breath as your heart remains stuck in your throat until you can survive the supernatural encounter. F.E.A.R. 2 does try and do the same formula that succeeded in the first, but while there are many tense moments, scares are often forced and appear clichéd, but more unfortunately it too often switches between frantic first-person action and freaky paranormal occurrences that don't chain together effectively. The game would have been better at offering an all action level, then provide a constantly terrifying level rather than mix the two as frequently as is the case in this game, since it randomly alternates between the two when you least expect it to with a less-than-successful effect than its predecessor.
Despite negativity, F.E.A.R. 2 still offers many chilling moments, and the random appearances of Alma in a dark corridor with your flashlight not working, and the lights flickering above while phantoms seek to hurt you is a highlight during one of the game's most memorable chapters that includes a chilling trek through an abandoned elementary school, and also a frantic psychological battle through a hospital being victimised by intruders and loose experiments. The environments are generally linear, but there is much more variety to where you'll be navigating, and the repeated designs that were a key flaw in the first game have been improved here greatly. Environments are more open and sometimes destructible to a moderate extent where grenades and bullet ricochets impact on certain things such as lights down corridors and chunks off support pillars on buildings, and these explosive forces that react nearby succeed at making the action set pieces more entertaining, and one instance that makes good use of the ruined city setting is a classic armoured mech sequence that overpowers you with rockets and machine guns to wreak bloody havoc on your way to an objective through derelict streets in a now-apocalyptic city from the aftermath of the catastrophic explosion that was the ending of F.E.A.R.
When you aren't cowering behind your controller or on the edge of your seat, you'll be blasting through waves of enemies and leaving bloodbaths behind you from a variety of modern and fictional-style weapons that are decently enjoyable to use purposefully. The core shooting is solid, but what makes the solid shooting in F.E.A.R. 2 unique though (an ability originally introduced to the protagonist in F.E.A.R.) is the option to initiate reflex time, a special ability that makes everything shift into slow motion, giving you time to precisely take down enemies in the time you have before the reflex bar drains to empty. The gameplay in this horror sequel works throughout the game, there is some intense action sequences of gory destruction where your shotgun keenly explodes foes into lots of bloody pieces, while your extraordinary laser gun dismembers others even more brutally, and there are psychological horror moments that are effective enough to send shivers up your spine with the occasional jump scare. A cover system is kind of input into the game where you can interact with tables to create shields for yourself from the barrage of bullets that fly your way (in normal time or slow motion, the choice is up to you) but this is pointless and wasted potential and you'll likely never need it. But overall the gameplay is entertaining from the first bullet you fire to the last body you leave to bleed out as the death toll constantly rises through your doing, or from the wrath of Alma's, and F.E.A.R. 2 is engaging and creepy equally, though not always combined effectively.
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GRAPHICS - 4/5
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The graphics don't exactly impress, but they also don't exactly lack the essentials to make a good-looking game, and while the first impression is generally unfavourable, you'll get used to the visuals soon enough to realise that what makes environments good and unsettling is spooky imagery, blood and gore covering surfaces in a thick, sticky layer. Lots of it. Everywhere. And it looks splendid and suit's the game when lights flicker and illuminate the horrific images beyond the darkness. During slow motion sequences bullets slice through the air leaving an airstream in their wake in a great visual effect before hitting targets, and the visual distortion caused by explosions showcased during these moments are also well exhibited and look fantastic.
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SOUND - 4/5
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The original F.E.A.R. music makes a welcome return during the opening cinematic, and injects creepiness into the game atmosphere, and is great at the attempts of stimulating the horror. Chilling audio is persistent and keeps up with what is unfolding on screen and rarely falls silent, and only comes to a crawl when reflex time is initiated, then resumes once the carnage has been caused. Slow motion induces muffled cries of the dying and causes all other sounds to fade out, while close explosions create a ringing in your ears aswell as muffling out regular noises until you recover from your near-death experience. The only downside to the sound department is the voice acting, which is flat and unimpressive, and contributes to the failure of not generating any suspense to the story which originally had a promising and engrossing premise.
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CONTROLS - 3/5
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Getting used to the feel of the controls and the movement of your character will take some time, and you'll no doubt find yourself throwing a grenade by mistake with a tap of R1 when you momentarily lapse in concentration and must regain memory of the control layout which has the unfamiliar, though not awkward, combination of L2 aim and R2 shoot unlike most other shooters. Changing weapons can be accomplished in two ways, one is the right directional button that cycles through your available options of up to four guns, whilst the left direction button cycles grenade type, or by holding L1 which brings up a weapon wheel. This option is less viable during a fight since the game doesn't pause or slow down when pressed, so you have to be quick at choosing the right weapon or grenade for the right purpose and enemy. There is also the opportunity to select different firing modes for certain guns in your arsenal, but this addition is pointless and is never needed. Your team is equipped with state-of-the-art prototype visor displays that allow hands-free communication and status monitoring for health, armor, weapons, ammo and reflex time, in addition to affording protection for the eyes, and overall this is a neat heads-up display that looks cool without blocking your visuals.
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ATMOSPHERE - 4/5
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F.E.A.R. 2 has a frightening antagonist which makes the atmosphere oppressive all the time she is present somewhere in the area, and strange abomination experiments that are loose and ghostly phantoms are enemies you'll fear as soon as they make their first appearance. The atmosphere generated is one that induces panic and dread, especially when psychological horror moments materialise unexpectedly and are often brief enough to make you sigh with relief that the threat wasn't persistent that time around. Some clichéd scares seem forced attempts at making you jump, especially when done repeatedly in the same area, or you see them coming from a mile away, but you can't help but feel tension in such dark and threatening corridors where all manner of supernatural, demonic forces could suddenly jump out with menacing intentions.
The screen and your flashlight flicker to notify you of a scary presence, usually the deranged figure of Alma, but it doesn't clearly indicate the direction of the hallucination or scare, and since it happens so quickly you only get a momentary glance to spot the terror, and you can sometimes miss what you were supposed to see through no wrong-doing of your own, and that's unfortunate when you ponder afterwards at how you could have missed it. Biggest scares are usually through Alma's brief appearances that catch you off guard when you turn round and she is simply standing directly in front of you, and generally she is a scary character at the centre of the events in the story who's rage puts you in a state of unease whenever she is around you, and the overall atmosphere is thick and filled with unspeakable horrors lurking in the shadows beyond your vision that do a pleasing job of making you feel tense.
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ENEMY AI - 4/5
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The human foes/replica soldiers throughout F.E.A.R. 2 are just as intelligent as in the first game, though this time they have some new tricks, but some unnecessary inconsistency aswell. Human enemies or replica forces soldiers are the main enemies that obstruct the path to your goals and their behaviour is similar to that seen in the first game. They react to your flashlight, interact well with surrounding cover, and flank you where possible in the linear environment designs. They are intelligent foes that provide a challenge when in numbers and if they ever get set on fire then they'll roll around to extinguish the flames that engulf their flesh, and the animations are smooth and believable. What isn't believable is the occasional flaw in their creativity where they'll flip over a table for cover, but instead of taking refuge behind it, they move away and remain down the iron sights of your gun for an easy kill. Apart from that, they are skilled adversaries that communicate efficiently to try and prevent your progress.
Other enemies aren't quite so intelligent, but what they lack in ability, they succeed in sending shivers down your spine as you panic and blind fire randomly in order to prevent them from devouring your flesh. Deformed and escaped experiments known as abominations crawl menacingly around as they converge on your position and attempt to complete their bloodthirsty intentions to feast on your corpse. Hostile phantoms are literally the replacement for the original F.E.A.R.'s freaky ghosts called Nightmares, and these strange, ghostly apparitions make navigating down a dark corridor nerve-wracking when you can see them in the distance and know that is the only way forward to proceed to the next objective. They emit a chilling sound that sounds anything but some sort of vocal noise, and this only adds to the tension when they disappear screeching before you get a chance to blast them away from inflicting harm on you, only for them to reappear behind you, and still vengeful.
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LENGTH - 3/5
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A reasonably satisfactory length of about 8 hours is the time limit you can expect to complete all 14 levels within, and the varied environments that range from ruined street blocks, a creepy hospital and a subway are all areas you can expect to find violence and horror equally within your playing time.
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REPLAY VALUE - 2/5
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A couple of sequences may encourage replay value, primarily the sections that you are given the option to pilot a mech and rampage towards your next objective through ruined streets. You don't have to enter the armoured suit, but instead could take on the challenge of moving forwards on foot if you relish a struggle against lots of enemies, some armoured. But ignoring the opportunity to spill blood in destructive ways to accomplish your goal easily would be illogical given the rarity of this type of situation, that is a worthy mention for the chance to change the regular on-foot shooting action.
In conclusion, F.E.A.R. 2 considered what made the first game lack perfection, and improved on a variety of areas to make the game both fun and intense, where the visuals, gory imagery and various lighting techniques added some scope to the psychological horror scenarios, and the reflex time was executed brilliantly to convey across slow motion effects with solid shooting mechanics within various settings other than similar office rooms that plagued F.E.A.R. However, the developers didn't press enough effort into the engaging mystery that was a major success in the original, and here it is told mainly through intelligence documents scattered around locations and offers very little mystery or suspense to the predicaments unfolding, and further deflates when you encounter the dreadful conclusion that is left open to an inevitable sequel. For intrepid gamers, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin may prove unconvincing with it's jump scares and clichéd scripted events, but for those who grapple the tension mentally and feel it take refuge in the pit of their stomach, this horror-themed First-person shooter will be effective in it's approach to place fear and anxiety deep within your mind and senses and will be a violent experience where gameplay overcomes the lacklustre story behind Alma's incredible rage for revenge.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8/10
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Good Points: Spooky sound and visual effects augment the psychological horror, Reflex time makes the solid shooting even more spectacular, Many chilling encounters against unspeakable horrors, Intelligent enemies, Lots of gory imagery creates a sense of unease within an oppressive atmosphere.
Bad Points: Dreadful ending to a disappointing story, Too often alternates randomly between horror and action, Interactable cover is mostly pointless, Story is told mainly through intel you pick up.