best and most accurate review of fear2 ever!
/ Another GameSpot Review of F.E.A.R.2 (by da wurm) / 2Nov 2010 /
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F.E.A.R.2. What more can be said about this game that hasn't already been
said? By this point, most people are looking ahead to fear3 rather than back
at fear2. The general consensus seems to be that fear2 is an above average
FPS, good but not really great. Moreover, fear2 is a kind of sci-fi/horror hybrid,
and there is no shortage of hefty competition in these genres. What with all
the zombies and ninjas everywhere, fear2 can start looking rather bland and
unimpressive ...
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So I asks myself: 'What makes for a really great video game?' If it's something
new, something totally unexpected and off the wall, full of color and movement
and variety, and action all over the place, then a game like Bioshock will come
along and surprise everyone. But fear2 is not like that. Fear2 takes the low
and slow road, ramping up the action in halts and starts, in little bursts of
violence, and in between telling a story by way of NPC's and intel-drops.
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Compare this with Half-Life2, another supposedly great FPS that's full of fun
and action, with no shortage of monsters (zombies!) and enemies and
zooming around the place in fast vehicles, etc, but so light on the story-side
that the whole game felt like I was running from here to there for no apparent
reason really. Or just for the halibut? ... Fear2 is definitely not like that! Here
you have a mystery to solve, and little pieces of the puzzle are scattered
everywhere. It's up to you to go and find them, and make some sense out
of this mess.
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I guess what I'm trying to say is that, for me, what makes a video game truly
great are the little things; because it's the little things that show the player
just how much love was poured into the making of the game by the designers
and programmers. Yes, creativity is one thing. Attention to detail is something
else, and ultimately the more important of the two. Just bear with me, and
allow me to explain what I mean:
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Some of the things I love about fear2:
[1] the look of it (graphics and textures),
[2] the sound (music, sound effects, and ambience),
[3] the *usually* understated general creepyness,
[4] the adjustable difficulty,
[5] the things that are said by the NPC's
(eg. at one point Snake Fist describes Alma by saying 'She's a coveter').
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[6] And then there's the controller layout. Now the way that commands are
mapped to the various buttons is, of course, unique to every game, but there's
something about the way that fear2 does it that's just SOO right. Press the Y
button to go to slow-mo. Press the right bumper to lob a grenade. Press the
left bumper to swap my assault rifle for the auto-shotgun. It's all just so
perfect that it makes controlling Becket natural and easy. I don't get this
feeling with most other games, especially not first-person shooter's.
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In fact, the only other game that even comes close to matching fear2 in this
area is Fable2. Now Fable2 is a third-person RPG, and not an FPS at all, but
the combat system is simply outstanding. You have melee weapons (swords
and such), long range weapons (guns and crossbows), and magic (fire,
electricity, etc) and these are mapped to the X, Y, and B buttons such that
you can effortlessly switch between these three attack modes at any point in
any battle. Man, I just LOVE that! In my humble opinion this is *by far* the
best feature about Fable2. Other than that it also has story and color and
farting at people, and so on. And that's all well and good ...
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BUT it also has things that fear2 *doesn't* have: frame-rate issues, sluggish
performance when the action heats up, object collision issues, AND many
many glitches. Remember what I said about the little things? In Fable2 I got
stuck inside a door once, and because there's only one save-slot per game I
had to restart the game from the beginning. In Fable2 I got stuck in a corner
of a house because I couldn't move a stupid chair six inches to the side. In
Fable2 I got stuck in an alley because some stupid little kid was standing
just-so in front of the door, and I couldn't move him or go around him, and the
little bastard refused to step aside no matter what expressions I used on him.
Anyway, that's some great hero ya gots there, Lionhead!
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So the only reason I play Fable2 at all is because of the fantastic combat
system; which is far superior to that found in Oblivion (and most other games
as well). But fear2 is still the superior game overall. Even vastly superior, I'd
say. In fact, I'd put it right up there with Bioshock and Arkham Asylum. Fear2
belongs with the best of the best because of all the little things that it does so
well. Moreover, how many games have a boss-villain that you can love as
much as you fear? Yes, Alma is a monster, but she's also just a little girl.
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A *really* creepy and dangerous little girl, but still ...
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