Jul 12 2009 2:03 am
F.E.A.R. 2 – Project Origin
I know I’m late to the game here, but I’ve just played through F.E.A.R. 2 on the Xbox 360 which I received it as a gift this past Christmas, and finally got around to playing. F.E.A.R., for those that don’t know, stands for First Encounter Assault Recon. This is the second installment of what so far is a two-part series. F.E.A.R. 2 is a sequel to the first game, but gives us some perspective as to what happens to the games’ (both) main villian: Alma.
I’ll start this off by first saying that the demo is quite misleading. If you downloaded the demo on Xbox Live, you got what was a good representation of the game but had it delivered to you almost like a movie preview. Allow me to explain… The demo takes some of the more exciting moments from the game, and threads them all together like a continuous level. So you get bits from level 2, 5, 8, etc (examples) sewn together and presented to you seamlessly.
With that said and out of the way… The game at first impression when loaded for the first time feels pretty boring. I was reminded instantly of the first F.E.A.R. Which, unfortunately, isn’t a good thing. I was not impressed by the first game. So little so, that I never finished it. I got so bored of going through what seemed like the same level over and over again, that I just took it out and gave up on it. As I moved on in F.E.A.R. 2 however, my dread of monotony was relieved as a story did start to unfold. The enemies got tougher, new types of enemies were introduced, and the creepiness scale kicked up a notch (or 2 or 3 or 4).
I don’t want to give too much away for those that haven’t played it yet, but I will say this… On a scariness factor, I’ll give it a solid 7 out of 10 scary ghosts. If you were on the edge of your seat playing Condemned, or Condemned 2, then you’ll enjoy F.E.A.R. 2 in much the same fashion. I won’t give it as high of a rating as Dead Space (which I never reviewed unfortunately), which I would give 9 out of 10 zombie alien spacemen. But I will say it’s worth picking up and playing through. Especially if you can find it on sale.