F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin Hands-On Preview

Impressions

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin may be a horror game, but it’s also a first person shooter and that means three things; big guns, slow-motion and mecha-robots.

Working through them in order, the guns in F.E.A.R 2 run the usual course and there are a whole load of weapons that have been carried over from the original game. Pistols, rifles, sniper rifles – the usual selection is rounded out by continuous-fire energy weapons and the like, but fans will be pleased to know that the perforator is back. This spike-firing rifle proved a fan favourite in the original game and was fantastic for nailing enemies to walls and pinning them into hilarious post-mortem poses.

Slow motion gunplay is still the order of the day though, no matter the weapon you’ve got in hand. Just like with the first F.E.A.R you can, at the press of a button, flick the world over into snails-pace. The world suddenly becomes super-sharp in clarity and then you can dive through the air, filling the sky with lead and blood.

Learning to use your bullet-time skills correctly is critical to progressing through the game as the enemy has a tendency to play slightly unfairly. Snipers line the rooftops and rocket-toting mercenaries will lie in wait for you at every corner. You usually get a second or two of warning as the AI springs its trap, but that’s all. Learning to respond smoothly and reflexively is absolutely vital.


The abilities of the artificial intelligence have been expanded too. While the levels of the first game were usually more stale than an abandoned bakery, what the AI could do in those spaces was phenomenal. Foes could crash leap through windows, kick over cabinets to block doorways and take cover when in a pinch, firing blindly round corners or waiting to charge you when you got close.

Monolith has tried to capitalise on that strength for all that it’s worth, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself being outflanked, outnumbered, outgunned and outmanoeuvred by the AI regularly.

Next up on that previously mentioned triniity of FPS design is the robots. Now, we’ll be honest and say outright that we don’t understand why these things are being fired into the city via rockets, but doubtless that’ll be made clear in the full game though. All that really matters to us is that there are big robots we can ride in.

Handling much like the pilotable robots in the added scenes of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on the PC, these armoured suits boast dual miniguns and more attitude than Samuel L. Jackson on a bad day. They aren’t invulnerable and can only be used for set parts of the game – usually they last until you have to jump over something – but they are still pretty cool.


Whether their coolness is something that’s going to hold up when we actually get around to encountering them in the full game though remains to be seen. The question now though is; how hopeful are we that F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin will be worth the wait? Getting to the issue directly, our answer is an ambivalent ‘Kind of’.

When it comes to F.E.A.R 2, we have to admit a bit of an emotional divide in our impressions of the game. One part of us feels that the game isn’t going to harbour all that many surprises, that the story which was predictable to start with isn’t going to be enhanced by a revisit. Even though the gameplay has been ostensibly polished and made a helluva lot prettier, it’s still going to be a very linear and clumsily paced shooter.

The other side of our collective conciousness though isn’t worried at all. You know why? Ghosts, gore and big frickin’ robots, that’s why. F.E.A.R. 2 may be a lot of things, but it’s definitely a lot of fun. Which side of our brains we end up listening to though, we’ll have to wait and see – but at least we won’t be waiting long.

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin is due out February 13th on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. It will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive.