F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin Review
F.E.A.R. 2 Project: Origin
Monolith Productions 2009 for the PS3/XBox360
Overview
So, I’ve been on a sort of survival-horror binge lately. F.E.A.R. 2 played right into that hand for me. There was a lot that I liked about this game, but there were also a couple key elements that detracted a lot from the overall experience. Essentially this game was like a video-game version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Every time I felt like I was really getting immersed in the story and game as a whole, some glaring glitch or terribly animated monster would pop up, and immediately the illusion was broken, “Oh wait… Only in video games do they have frame-rate crashes like this.” So, it really is a love-hate relationship between a game that I really wanted to like, but detracting factors that got in the way.
Controls and Gameplay
The controls were nothing to complain about. Coming out of 2008, if I don’t know how a standard FPS operates, then there’s something seriously wrong with me. However, I’m going to complain about the (triangle) button: reflex mode. Pressing the triangle button allows you to slow down time and gain the reflex advantage over any enemies that are near you. Sounds about fair, right? This really isn’t necessary in the easier difficulties on the game, however during my playthrough on “hard” I found that I was relying on this technique more than my own skill. By gathering all of the “reflex injectors” from around the game, you can double the time you can stay in the slowed down state so that it becomes almost too easy to obliterate any enemies that ever try to slow you down. In otherwords… To enable God-Mode, simply press triangle.
Apart from that obvious difficulty deterrent, the game played and controlled well. The environment reacted to you well, however the enemies did not. The AI in this game was probably my biggest grievance. They were entirely too predictable, and worse yet, their movement animations seemed rushed and incomplete. Especially with the creatures called abominations. Some people have suggested that this was intentional to make them seem more “unnatural”, however when I’m seeing them glitch and lag, so their movements are strangely reminiscent of me playing counter-srike on a 56k connection, then I hope to god that it wasn’t intentional. The scariest part of this game was not that the creatures popped out at you, it was how poorly they were animated.
Graphics
Continuing on from where I left off… The environments were made very well made, and fit the type of emotions the creators were trying to pull out of the gamer. The colors were very dark and rich, and it felt like half of the time, the only light in the scene was that weak beam radiating from your flashlight. (HINT! To heighten the gameplay and make the experience scarier and harder, drop the brightness down a notch or two) This is were my praise for the graphics end. As far as I’m concerned, Monolith has no clue how to texture a moving object. The times that you’d think they’d pay particular attention (during the close-ups) seemed to be the weakest display of their graphics potential. It really left me wanting a lot more. Polygons and broken textures really aren’t that scary, just in case you were wondering.
Story
I’ll admit it, I’m a bad person, and I haven’t played the original F.E.A.R. However, in this case, it gives me an outside perspective and the ability to say that they did a very good job of not alienating people like me. I felt like there wasn’t much that I missed by not playing the first title, probably because this is an alternate story arch from the character that was playable in the first installment. Other first person shooters need to take notes from the single-player campaign. There were 14 different chapters, and each of them taking at least a good 10-15 minutes to get through. I guarantee that no one will finish this game just to exclaim, “That’s it?!?!”
The game has its obvious twists and turns in the plot, nothing too out of the ordinary, but I won’t take points off for being a little predictable. The only thing that really got under my skin though was how they deliberately set the game up for a sequel with the ending. I won’t give away any specifics, but when the credits roll, you’ll be in good company if you’re thinking, “Well, looks like there’s going to be a F.E.A.R. 3.”
Multiplayer
Now, this part of the review just makes me sad. Through no fault of their own, the multiplayer in the game is lacking. Not lacking in terms of type of gameplay, weapons, options, or even vehicles that you can tear up the map and eachother in. It was lacking in the number of people that were playing it online. You were lucky if you could find one game in each of the 6 different gametypes at any given time. As I said, you can’t really blame the company because no one is using their product for online gameplay, because the servers are top notch, and work very well. The game just had the unfortunate launch timing to be released within a week of Killzone 2 in a field of competition that is already saturated with online FPS’s.
The Bottom Line
7.9/10
I enjoyed playing through this game twice in the single player campaign, and even the desolate multiplayer was fun when I could find enough people to start a match. But in the end, the shoddy animations and weak enemy AI were just a little too much to bear. Thus resulting in the score that doesn’t give justice to what this game could have possibly been.
