F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, the not-quite-so-sequel follow-up to the popular first-person horror shooter F.E.A.R., reached gamers everywhere Friday the 13th (oooh, chills already). Developed by Monolith Productions and produced by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, F.E.A.R. 2 was, for some, a long-awaited masterpiece emerging through the horrific garbage that has been handed to horror shooter fanatics over the past few months.

You play as Sergeant Becket, a military grunt sent into the heat of battle to locate, secure and protect a VIP for unknown reasons. Of course, nothing goes as planned and you’re forced to pursue your VIP while Alma, a science project gone horrifically wrong, chases you.

F.E.A.R. 2 takes place right before the end of the very first F.E.A.R. and progresses as a parallel storyline to the subsequent expansion packs. This parallel storyline gives a unique twist on the original plot as you are constantly fed hints and references to events from the previous games from a different perspective.

Monolith and Warner Bros. clearly knew what worked with the first F.E.A.R. and stuck with it. In the case of this paranormal thriller, keeping with the trend was a good thing.

The combination of fantastic lighting and visuals, creepy sounds and music and the scare tactics used to portray some of the paranormal events in F.E.A.R. 2 make this game terrifying to play alone in the dark. Picture you favorite horror movie – one that makes you jump out of your pants every second. Now picture being able to control the main characters throughout their adventures: That’s F.E.A.R. 2.

The paranormal events will most definitely make you soil your pants, especially with the new, more interactive ‘cut scenes.’ These cut scenes force players to physically ward off Alma with some hand-to-hand combat. Blasting away at ghosts in pitch-black darkness with the occasional faulty light flickering on and off to set the mood will make most gamers take their time with this one, even on the easiest difficulty setting.

Your character also obtains the ability to slow down time, called ‘slow mo’ or ‘bullet time,’ which makes the ungodly amount of enemies you’ll face that much more fun to blast away.

The assortment of weaponry allotted to you this time around is much more versatile. In the last game you were limited to basic weaponry: pistols, assault rifles, sub-machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, etc. In F.E.A.R. 2 they hand you a similar style of weaponry, but with some added perks and firepower. Sadly though, the developers took away the dual pistols’ wielding feature.

With the addition of an assortment of grenade types and the ability to change firing modes (burst fire vs. full auto), turning an enemy into a hazy red mist of vaporized body parts has never been so much fun, especially in slow mo.

Although the game still feels and looks very similar to the previous F.E.A.R., this is in no way a hindrance to its performance. The rest of the game has definitely been amped up to give F.E.A.R. 2 that extra punch.

Players are now able to slide cover and objects around to protect them from enemy fire and to get to checkpoints, as well as climb over things and jump through windows. The enemy’s artificial intelligence is even better this time. They will wait for you behind cover, toss grenades to flush you out, have two squad members flank you, etc. It’s frighteningly realistic.

F.E.A.R. 2 adds a few new challenges to its lineup with some fast-moving enemies that climb off walls and force you to use your enhanced ‘reaction time’ (slow mo) to kill them. However, this might be the only fault in the game. Although it’s a great attempt at a new enemy, these psycho-looking humans crawling up and down the walls could have been done better. Maybe if they were even faster and there were less of them they might add to the ambiance a little better. But this does not come close to ruining the game, and by no means takes away from the experience.

With all the internal struggles between developers and publishers, the multiple name changes and the subsequent release date delays, it’s refreshing how well F.E.A.R. 2 turned out in the end.

So turn off the lights, crank up your speakers and enjoy Monolith and Warner Bros. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. A word to the wise: keep an extra pair of pants nearby and prepare to scream like a little schoolgirl, because F.E.A.R. 2 will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.

mlbellez@syr.edu

Published on February 24, 2009 at 12:00 pm