F.E.A.R. 2 - An Above Average Shooter with Great Atmosphere
It's been a long road for Monolith to get Project Origin out there. After separating from Sierra they lost the rights to the F.E.A.R. name but soldiered on. This forced them to go in a sideways kind of way to continue the story while not directly referencing the key figures of the first game. Namely because they were all involved in the F.E.A.R. unit they did not have the rights to. As one of the few good things to come out of the selling off of almost all of Vivendi's assets Monolith got the F.E.A.R. name back and so we finally have F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
Perhaps due to this legal conflict the game does not center on the nameless protagonist of the first game. In fact there is no mention of the F.E.A.R. unit in the first game at all. Instead you play as Sergeant Beckett. A psychologically sensitive member of one of the Delta Force units sent in to assist in the pacification of Armacham. While its sad that the story from the first game is left unresolved its understandable considering the legal troubles.
As with its predecessor F.E.A.R. 2 is a highly psychological game. If you're looking for a straight run and gun experience this is not the shooter for you. From the word go you'll be introduced to the main antagonist of the game: Alma. This incredibly powerful psychic has been the cause of the destruction of Auburn and takes particular interest in you. The abundant firefights will regularly be broken up by whispers in your ear or images at the corner of your vision. While these can cause you to jump straight out of your chair at first after awhile you almost begin to expect them. Even so it creates a level of unease that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the experience.
If you haven't played the first game you'll likely be rather lost as to what is going on. While more effort is done to provide information about the back story its still rather dense. This is perhaps one of the great shortcomings of F.E.A.R. 2. While players might enjoy the solid shooting, intelligent AI, and beautiful graphics at the end they might just not know why they are doing any of it. This is further compounded by the incredibly ambivalent ending. It almost feels like a level or two are missing from the game how suddenly it just ends.
This of course takes nothing away from the game play and beautiful graphics. F.E.A.R. 2 has perhaps some of the most beautiful graphics of any game in recent memory. This is particularly shown in the sequences in which Becket will pilot a huge mechanized walker. The way the video feed will crackle with static and the clouds of blood that the chain guns create a beautiful in a terrible sort of way. End the end though predominently the environments are once more wasted on hallways and ruined buildings.
The multiplayer is pretty by the numbers. Your standard deathmatch, capture the flag, and control point are also present. The one stand out mode is Armored Front in which each side gains control of one of the armored mech suits from the single player game. In the end its nothing different than you'll come across in any shooter.
In the end Project Origin is a solid shooter whose atmosphere raises it above the crowd. You arn't going to find such a terrifying and fully fleshed out horror story in anything short of a Stephen King novel.
