A great atmospheric game with plenty of oh crap moments but gameplay is lacking!
Now a-days I cant play that original because I have become to engrossed in current FPS games like COD and Battlefield that the old, stock pile the med-kits and armor up with armor packs and such just don't cut it anymore, plus the more realistic, well mostly, game play of current games has ended that too. Back to Fear 2, a great game visually and effect wise, it still has the awesome bullet effects from slow-mo and such but the gameplay elements I enjoyed from the first significantly dampen my fun here.
First and foremost, I didn't buy this game when it first came out because the reviews said it was terrible, its not. I recently tried it out because I saw some videos of people playing it and wanted to try it out and at 6$, you can't pass that up. The atmosphere is the same though. You have tight corridors to shoot in, not much in the way of outside locations but to make an atmospheric single player game, you need tight places. Weapons feel somewhat ok, they lack the power that you felt from the first game like the particle effects from the smoke and the bullet impacts on surfaces. All told its not bad for an aging game engine though.
My primary complaint about the game is the controls. The original had the full of array of normal FPS functions, lean, crouch, a decent array of weapons, armor, and map pickups(multiplayer). This game removes the lean function and adds a not too well implemented cover system where you can move certain objects to make makeshift cover. Its an interesting system but it doesn't always work and the stuff you can move there is no one around to use it against because you keep getting into firefights in areas with nothing you can use or you are too preoccupied shooting that you don't even notice its there, lean functions much better because you usually find walls to stand behind and shoot out of those as opposed to making your self a walking target and be shot at while you move a piece of furniture into place. I really miss the lean function!
Game play looks good, same stuff, nothing really new. Weapons are basic repaint jobs of the first game weapons, SMG, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle. They do have new weapons, I have only used the auto shotty and the practically useless flame thrower, and haven't tried the rest yet. The first game had a cool rocket launcher that fired 3 rockets in a salvo and a plasma sniper rifle which was really cool, hope they are still here. This game needs a decent sniper rifle but the maps are usually small so it doesn't matter. All told its a decent game which continues the Alma story but the lack of good gameplay elements ruins the fun for me.
P.S. The game came out 4 years ago so the graphics engine for 2009 standards is good. Im doubtful someone will read this four year late review so hopefully my review will help you if you plan to buy this now.