Fear 2 is an excellent addition to the franchise and a must play for fans of the franchise or fans of FPS in general.
Play: The game plays like all other great FPS with the exception of the "bullet time" feature which is a staple for FEAR. It works great especially when mapped to the right mouse button which by default is set for melee action (which you will NEVER use except to break locks or in some scripted scenes). The game is missing a peak around corners feature, but to be honest this isn't exactly Rainbow 6 here so that's not a big deal. I like to squat a lot, but frankly I found movement while in the squat position to be slower than in other games within this genre (although probably more realistic). You are led through various locations mostly indoors and underground, except for some nicely designed outdoor disaster city landscapes. Your path is always obvious with the ability to find some locations that can contain hard to come by boosts of "bullet time" length as well as health, ammo, intel, etc. The story itself is told through some dialog you hear from various team members, a few cut scenes, and a lot of intelligence you can find and read. I think this latter device could have been served better with recordings such as those found in BioShock. However, they were pithy, informational, and at times funny. The game uses a check point save system of which I will comment on later. Finally, although named "FEAR" and clearly set in a spooky environment, the game really isn't scary at all. In fact after the first FEAR game was released, the scare factor has decreased steadily. There was never a single moment in this game when I was so much as even a little startled. Yes some of the environments were creepy, but the game itself just didn't provide any good scares.
Weapons: Nothing terribly interesting here. It is your usual assortment of assault rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, grenades, and energy weapons. I typically used the assault rifle and used the others for some specific cases. There are some scenes with large mecs that require the use of a stronger weapon, and there also some fantastic sniper opportunities that are a nice change and great fun. Of real interest here is the ability at set points in the game to take over a mec and fight in one of those. Really a lot of fun with a great feeling of power. Chain guns and missiles that do extreme damage.
Difficulty: I played on the normal default level and the game was certainly not difficult. Due to the plentiful supplies of ammo, armor, and health, combined with bullet time, means you shouldn't die very often. In fact I was almost 3/4 of the way through before I met my first death. In total I died maybe 3-4 times. Obviously harder difficulty levels should yield a tougher experience.
Save Games: I am of the school that says anyone proposing a game without a save option should be fired on the spot. This is interactive entertainment and if the developer wants to more fully control the experience then I suggest they get into movies or TV. I will decide when I need to get up and leave or when I don't want to replay something. Also given the lack of any real scares in this game doesn't make their control of saving a necessity to preserve that experience. In fact it was more of a tell since when the game saved you could expect action was coming....All of that said and frankly in this case I really didn't miss the save game feature. The checkpoints where fairly quick and as I mentioned earlier, dying was extremely rare. Both of these make the missing save game feature much less of an issue. Perhaps on harder difficulty settings this feature would be missed more.
Length: FEAR has plenty of content and I'd say ligament content at that. Many games, especially those with checkpoint saves, use re-do's to artificially lengthen the game. Yet despite only a few deaths in my case, the game offered plenty of content and I felt I got my monies worth.
Graphics: The graphics are average with nothing really standing out. I have no complaints and as mentioned earlier, the game ran very smoothly. Only a very few times did I notice any clipping.
Sound: Appropriate but repetitive. This became a problem with one piece in particular. It was sort of an Arabic chanting style music that was very cool until you heard the same piece repeated so many times at such length that it became distracting. If you are going to repeat music then it really has to be background stuff that no one is going to notice. When it stands out like this piece did, repeating it over and over becomes a problem.
Bugs: None that I noticed. Worked perfectly with zero issues (sans some minor clipping as mentioned).
Conclusion: This is really a great game that any FPS fan will enjoy and certainly any fan of the FEAR series. You really come to understand what is going on in this iteration which I enjoyed. The ending, while giving nothing away, clearly sets up the next iteration of which I certainly will be happy to play.