(Over)dosing Fear
True to the motto 'better late than never', we bring you the review to 2009's first scary game. Find out inside why this is not just another scary movie.
Published: March 1, 2009
When Monolith released the original F.E.A.R. back in 2005 prior to the Xbox 360's and PS3's launch, the PC became home of a first-person-shooter that not only tried to do things differently in terms of design and presentation (Yes, it was one of the first first-person shooters that actually let the player see his -- or her -- own feet, and even let them do jump kicks...), it also combined two genres, and in a way two media which many thought didn't match: Action games and horror movies. The result was quite impressive with only a few minor issues critics could go on complaining about - mainly it was the game's cramped and unvaried environments that gave them reason to gripe. Eventually the game received the 'port to the next gen console' treatment, while disappointing on the PS3 because of a poor technical translation, the Xbox 360 version did manage to capture the PC version's atmosphere partly brought about by the decent graphics and creepy sound design.
Let me begin by saying that most issues of the first game have been dealt with, but I'll get to the details on that specific part in just a bit.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin picks up about 30 minutes prior to F.E.A.R.'s spectacular, and non-the-less shocking "kraaaaaawuuuummm" ending, and throws the player into the role of a new hero named Michael Becket, who is part of Dark Signal which is a Delta Force sub group. Your primary goal is to infiltrate an upper class building complex and take Genevieve Aristide, a high ranking CEO of the Armacham Technology Corporation, into protective custody in order to keep her from being dispatched by Armacham's board of directors who sent the clean-up crew after her and any evidence linking them and the company to her screw up. What that screw up exactly was shall be kept in the dark here, after all I am trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible.
Predictably most of what can go wrong, does go wrong, and again I will spare you with details at this point. What I am going to say is that once you make it past that giant 'nuclear' explosion from the first game's ending, you get your hands on the time slowing superpower (aka reflex booster) that helped make the first game the unique experience it was. And yes, with that Alma is back as well and she has become a woman now, half the time quite the attractive one that is and the other half a bit more creepy, ugly, angry and dangerous.
Project Origin feels and controls a lot like it's predecessor, though thanks to the evolution of first-person-shooters, it received a sprint button, and a button that let's you peek through your weapon's scope/iron sight for better accuracy. Overall the controls are now very similar to those of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with the sprint button being mapped to L3 while aiming is done by L2 and shooting by R2. Tossing grenades can be achieved by hitting R1 and Triangle activates and deactivates your reflex boosters. Additionally when you walk up to certain pieces of furniture, which are spread throughout the now mostly much larger rooms and environments, a square button logo appears on screen allowing you to flip over the piece for additional cover. In theory that sounds like a neat cover system, though in the reality and chaos of battle it turns out being quite useless. First off, it only works when you see the square button logo appear on screen (and you only see it appear when you aim directly at the table or cupboard you want to use as cover), secondly once it's turned over it really doesn't offer much that could be called "cover" at all. Even when you crouch behind a flipped table your head is always an easy target for enemies to test their shooting skills on. And in this game getting behind cover and staying there for a longer period of time is probably not a good idea anyway.
Let me begin by saying that most issues of the first game have been dealt with, but I'll get to the details on that specific part in just a bit.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin picks up about 30 minutes prior to F.E.A.R.'s spectacular, and non-the-less shocking "kraaaaaawuuuummm" ending, and throws the player into the role of a new hero named Michael Becket, who is part of Dark Signal which is a Delta Force sub group. Your primary goal is to infiltrate an upper class building complex and take Genevieve Aristide, a high ranking CEO of the Armacham Technology Corporation, into protective custody in order to keep her from being dispatched by Armacham's board of directors who sent the clean-up crew after her and any evidence linking them and the company to her screw up. What that screw up exactly was shall be kept in the dark here, after all I am trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible.
Predictably most of what can go wrong, does go wrong, and again I will spare you with details at this point. What I am going to say is that once you make it past that giant 'nuclear' explosion from the first game's ending, you get your hands on the time slowing superpower (aka reflex booster) that helped make the first game the unique experience it was. And yes, with that Alma is back as well and she has become a woman now, half the time quite the attractive one that is and the other half a bit more creepy, ugly, angry and dangerous.
Project Origin feels and controls a lot like it's predecessor, though thanks to the evolution of first-person-shooters, it received a sprint button, and a button that let's you peek through your weapon's scope/iron sight for better accuracy. Overall the controls are now very similar to those of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with the sprint button being mapped to L3 while aiming is done by L2 and shooting by R2. Tossing grenades can be achieved by hitting R1 and Triangle activates and deactivates your reflex boosters. Additionally when you walk up to certain pieces of furniture, which are spread throughout the now mostly much larger rooms and environments, a square button logo appears on screen allowing you to flip over the piece for additional cover. In theory that sounds like a neat cover system, though in the reality and chaos of battle it turns out being quite useless. First off, it only works when you see the square button logo appear on screen (and you only see it appear when you aim directly at the table or cupboard you want to use as cover), secondly once it's turned over it really doesn't offer much that could be called "cover" at all. Even when you crouch behind a flipped table your head is always an easy target for enemies to test their shooting skills on. And in this game getting behind cover and staying there for a longer period of time is probably not a good idea anyway.
