Xbox 360
FEAR (first encounter assault recon), was a dubious title. Never before had such a forced acronym and such a merging of genres been so...good, at everything it was trying to do. The horror shooter had everything. It had complete pant filling tension, but without being overly gory, a good sense of humour, excellent combat, great enemy intelligence and a brilliantly executed slow mo, which made the intense battles incredibly satisfying. The story was never too hectic nor too ludicrous; perfectly unsettling in fact.
And so FEAR 2: Project Origin came to us with high, pant filling hopes. And while the continuation of plot, from another teams perspective works well, and the combat is still fairly solid. Some peculiar omissions and a sense of dumbing down detract from what is otherwise another excellent shooter.
You control a member of another team sent in to find one of the board of Armachem, a chemical company who we know from the original, were making armies of clone soldiers to be controlled telepathically (although this went inevitably wrong with the poor child who was the original, being confined and driven mental for being too god damn powerful). Soon after there is an explosion, and you are being hunted by a corporate clean up crew… and then things get weird.
The game plays similarly to the first, with you acquiring increased ‘reaction time’ as the game progresses, which lets you sow down time for increased gun-toting accuracy and general super coolness. A similar array of weapons are on offer for the killing-with, but removing the chance to wield two pistols and the removal of several melee attacks, for no real reason is sorely disappointing, and does actually remove some of the satisfaction and immersion they leant to the original.
As far as the atmosphere goes, FEAR 2 is still solid. Many many sections will have you shooting at cupboards, tables and your own shadow. The developers have a keen sense of tension and atmosphere and use it well, to make turning corners really quite difficult. Sadly though, the sequel just isn’t as FEARful as the original, which kept you constantly on edge via a variety of methods; now things are somewhat more predictable, and while it’s still unnerving, its not as unnerving…
Which is why it’s hard to shake the feel that FEAR 2 hasn’t been dumbed down - both in terms of atmosphere and combat. While there have been some steps forward - wider variety of enemies, excellent use of quick-time-button-bashing-panic-moments – there have been more backwards. Including the difficulty. FEAR was intense, every bullet counted and there could not have been more satisfaction pulling off a headshot with your pistols when low on ammo and surrounded by the scarily smart troops. Now, not only is the combat not as intense, you are also far to geared up – health, ammo and armour litter the levels, even on hard – which means that things never get particularly hectic.
It’s not that FEAR 2 is bad. It’s a great game. A top shooter with a decent combat and a genuinely scary single player game. It’s well worth playing. And it’s not like the game is suffering because it’s a sequel and was never going to be as good. It could have been just as good, but instead the developers chose to dumb things down. Which fully prevents the game from being as good as the original.
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