Graphics

The graphics in F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin are one area of the game that we can’t criticise though as, although the game is a bit lacking in terms of design, the engine itself looks beautiful.

From the motion blur that kicks in ever-so subtly around the edges of the screen to the way that bullets and grenades ripple through the air when you dive into bullet-time, F.E.A.R 2 can look great when it wants to. The fact that you’re fighting an army of clones in a series of perpetually dark corridors though means that you don’t often get a good chance to see that.

Still, in order to help give an idea of what’s on offer graphically in F.E.A.R 2 and to help guide you on what the game might look like on your system, we’ve broken down some of the graphics settings below. We’ve not touched on them all, as the options for fiddling are actually quite extensive for F.E.A.R 2, but we’ve covered the basics. Check them out.

World Detail

This setting controls how populated the levels are with extra items, such as books, boxes and rubbish bins and coke cans and pots and pans and...you get the idea. Stuff. This setting puts stuff around and comes in three flavours; Maximum, Medium and Minimum.


The effect of this setting is fairly obvious. Turn it down and stuff disappears. The boxes on the cart on the left hand side of the screen, as well as the chairs around the table in the center, prove that. These are all non-essential items which get trimmed out at lower settings, improving performance on lower systems.

Other parts of the level meanwhile, those that are dynamic or part of the actual level geometry mainly, stay. The vending machines, the tables and the cash machines – these all persevere.

What’s worth bearing in mind though is that this setting also alters the actual player experience by removing small items of cover for both enemies and yourself. Dropping to Minimum World Detail may make the game load faster, but is it worth it when you’re just going get shot more?

Effects Detail

Ah, the Effects Detail setting. Generically titled, this setting could be a mask for many sins – all we know is that it comes in three settings; Maximum, Medium and Minimum.


We’ve tried to cluster as many effects as possible into this screenshot, as you can see in the enlarged images. We’ve got running water on the right, along with the blurriness of bullet-time around the edges and then the electric bolts of an electro-static grenade in the distance.

To be honest though, there isn’t a huge amount of difference to be spotted in the different screenshots other than the amount of smoke and discharge arcs thrown out by the grenade. Even that could be altered by slight variations in screenshot and grenade timings too, which makes them a little difficult to judge by.

As best we can figure though, this setting most controls the amount of debris thrown up by explosions, as well as the bullet trails in bullet-time. If those things aren’t important to you then you can drop this setting down a notch, though we doubt it’ll have a huge performance impact.