F.E.A.R 2 Review
F.E.A.R 2 is a direct sequel to the first F.E.A.R game, but F.E.A.R 2 does a few unusual things for a sequel; you control a different character and the game starts before the first one has finished. This isn’t a bad thing though. You now get to follow a different story in the same universe whilst transferring your experiences of playing F.E.A.R into a new character.
Taking place around 30 minutes before the end of F.E.A.R we see a squad of Delta force operatives trying to take Genevieve Aristide into protective custody. At the same time, a Black Ops team sent by Armachams board of directors are also sent to capture Genevieve as a scapegoat. You take control of ‘Michael Becket’ who is part of the Delta team. In a last minute effort from Genevieve, you are told that it’s up to your team to stop Alma. An explosion then rips through the city as the point man detonates the reactor at the Origin Facility. Then F.E.A.R 2 really starts. I could go into a lot more detail, but the story is quite an integral part of the experience of F.E.A.R 2, and it would run the risk of reducing your enjoyment. Let’s just say it has explosions, Mechs, Replica Soldiers, two scoops of Alma and a very ominous atmosphere.
The developers did a great job of improving on the first game. There is much better AI; makes the gunfights feel more dynamic, although they are less tactically focussed and more run-and-gun than the first game. The soldiers make inventive use of cover, oftentimes knocking over drinks machines or flipping tables to make their own cover. The weapons feel just as effective as the first game, with a lot of enemies taking realistic amount of damage before death. The atmosphere as even been made to feel more threatening but this could also be attributed to the graphical prowess of the current consoles and PC capabilities than the atmospheres in each game. The use of slow-motion also returns with plenty of gory slow-mo opportunities, and later in the game it becomes a necessity. I was impressed with the grenades in this game especially the choice between 4 types, and found that they were well balanced and provided the right amount of explosions without being too overpowering or under whelming, which is an issue I have with grenades in a lot of games. It even lets you cook the grenades before you throw them.
The city looks incredible, with the landscape burning and falling apart all around, collapsed roads flooding the street with pools of water, or even the foggy, amber sky that clouds the game in an eternal gloom. There are a few standout moments in the game, from the collapse of all structures at the epicentre of the blast, leaving a crater that you have to descend by using the remains of pipes, roads and other items. There is even a spectacular moment in a school, which I am not going to spoil, but it contains some great use of flickering lights and ambiance.
However, there just isn’t enough variety in enemies, and considering that the same criticism was placed on the first game I am surprised that they didn’t make more of an effort to diversify the soldiers, especially seeing as Black Ops soldiers don’t fight really that much different from Replica ones. There is also the issue of Blur effects in the game. Now, I understand that in order for a game to have incredible graphics there needs to be some sacrifice to achieve this, in the same way that a lot of Nintendo 64 games had reduced draw vision, current gen seems to adopt the blur effect. It’s very distracting, even later in the game I noticed it and although it wasn’t as obvious to me as when I first started playing, it definitely made it much harder to immerse myself when in the chaos of battle I also have to contend with objects becoming blurry, and becoming disorientated because of it.
As great as some of the sections can look, there are plenty of repetitive environments in there as well, especially at the start where you are walking through the same corridors again and again. It’s an improvement over the first game by a long way, but it still isn’t quite there. Finally, the Mech sections. These are only in the game a few times but they feel forced; like the idea of stumbling across an abandoned Mech is just good luck for you, despite there being soldiers all around the thing having the courtesy to leave it free for you. Even once you are in the machine, it just feels like a more dramatic version of the FPS you played up until that point and after, only with reduced weapon choice and the sections consist of just firing again and again until you kill everything in your way. It seems almost redundant as there is very little challenge in these sections.
Once you finished the single player campaign there is multiplayer for you to try but beyond the inclusion of the over powered mechs it’s a standard affair with generic death match, team death match etc modes. I also encountered the problem of their not really being a lot of online activity, with the only full matches I encountered being unranked, so people who are after the trophies might have a mixed experience of the online. I would like to withhold a lot of my judgement against the multiplayer as I tend to find that online activity differs between people.
So Basically….
The single player was really good, and retains the creepy atmosphere that the first game built up so well. The story is engaging from the use of scripted scenes whilst keeping you in the moment, and the spontaneous flashes that happen in the middle of a inconspicuous corridor and finish as abruptly as they started. It’s also a good length, and it’s refreshing compared to the 5 hours campaigns that a lot of developers are getting away with these days. It’s just a shame that multiplayer is so generic. F.E.A.R 2 is a game worth checking out if you like FPSs or/and horror games.
