F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (Computer)
User Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): February 10, 2009
- Publisher: WB Games
- Genres: FPS
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
Review Approach:
Nothing much to really tell as far as a personal experience is with this game. All it really did was just come along for the ride when I purchased the WB Game Humble Bundle. The only details I really knew about the game previously before playing it was that it was a game trilogy that is an FPS-survival horror crossbreed.
Made by a developer who knows their way around the park, in 2005, developer Monolith Productions (not to be confused with Monolith Soft) created an FPS game with survival horror elements and decided to call the game F.E.A.R.. Soon after F.E.A.R. was released, they made another survival horror FPS called Condemned: Criminal Origins, which (from what I hear) far succeeded F.E.A.R. in the element of survival horror. About 4 years later after both of these games were released, Monolith finally released F.E.A.R. 2, which was received with much hype because of how well the first one was. Did the game really live up to the hype, or are people just now afraid to talk about it (in more ways than one)?
-Story-
Throughout playing this game, I felt like the story was almost nonexistent, while, at the same time, the story felt like it was either trying to hard or something else along those lines. Since I've never played the first F.E.A.R., I pretty much just jumped in hoping to be filed in as to at least some of the events of the first game (Which majority of the sequels I've played do). And they do fill in some blanks, but I feel like they only covered about half of the story. Anyways, the story of this game is that you're part of some sort of military assault unit who's task is to storm this building that's currently under attack. After you kill all the baddies, and all is well, you find this secret room in the building's penthouse, with the person in that room telling you that it's "The End Of The World", and you're fortunate enough to actually see, what looks to be a bomb, go off. Next thing you know, you're thrown into a hospital and you eventually wake up and find out that some telepathic psycho chick (No, not Carrie) is attracted to you, and sure enough, you're now on a quest to go out and kill her (And possibly save the world).
Throughout the game, you find these files that are, apparently, supposed to help the player understand the overall backstory to the game, but I just gave up on reading them. First of all, you can understand most of the story just by hearing all of the dialogue within the game. Second, most of the files seem to have no relevance with the game, like one of the files I found in a school which only talked about how Little Timmy was sleeping in class and having nightmares.
For those of you who skipped over all this and went to the review score first and then came back to read this, I might as well spoil the ending (for understandable reasons):
-Graphics-
Before I start this part of the review, I want to point out that I played this game on medium settings since my computer isn't all that powerful. I'm sure this has raised some red flags for some of you, but hear me out. I've played The Darkness II, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Bioshock 2, and a few other games all on my computer with medium settings or higher, so I hope this tells that I know when something looks good.
Back to the graphics, very mixed emotions on this one. In the first two levels of the game, it just looks fantastic, even on medium settings, but after......"eh." The models for a lot of things look very good, and so do the environments, but after you head outside, the environment just look bland and uncreative. Majority of the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic city, so you're going to have to put up with this for majority of the game. When you look at the environmental graphics as a whole, it looks like the developers devoted a lot of their resources to making sure that the inside of buildings looks nice. Anyways, moving away from the environments, the models for the guns look very decent, and the character models all look very good except for Alma (the telepathic psycho chick). They all do their part, and there's really not much else to say about it.
-Music-
Bare none, The End.
Just for the sake of some professionalism, I'm going to say that the music is a bit cliched when there is some. What I mean by this is that it's...just...there. It doesn't really take away from the experience nor does it add anything to it.
-Gameplay-
It's just the standard FPS formula, you point and shoot and that's all folks. In addition to the standard FPS gameplay, there's also a little time control feature where you slow down time around you and you can aim at the enemies before they even have a chance to fire a shot. I feel like this add-on feels a bit out of place since this game is supposed to be a survival horror game. The reason for this is because, more often than not, I actually used the time control feature to kill a lot of the scary baddies which took away a lot of the horror element of the game.
Besides the standard FPS gameplay there's really nothing else. No mini-games, no side-shows, nothing. You progress from place to place (With some places reminding me of areas from Silent Hill), with no real question as to where you're going, leaving nothing but blood and corpses everywhere. I will give it credit though because, sometimes, when you're mowing down enemies, you can feel like a badass in some places, but these moments are very short lived.
I know someone out there is going to ask my opinion on the multiplayer (Yes, there is online multiplayer), but I'm not going to talk about it really. Reason being is that I didn't really play the multiplayer, and I didn't really see a need to. Forgive for a bit of bias here, but I think that the addition of multiplayer is a tacked on feature when the emphasis of this game is supposed to be survival-horror.
-Controls-
I'd have to admit, this is the first FPS I've played where I've had to change at least one of the default settings. And that was the mouse sensitivity settings. The default controls of this game take some getting used with the way they keys are assigned, but after you get used to them, your fingers just seem to roll onto each and every key naturally. Other than that, the only other complain I really have is that there seems to be a bit of a delay in the controls. I'm not sure if it's my computer (as stated above, it isn't all that powerful), but I often experienced the problem where I would push something (E.G. Left-click, W), and it would finally respond about half a second later.
-What is bad about it? What could have been done?-
Quite a bit. Besides that graphics, the lack of music, how bad the story is, I still have a few complaints, one which is that this is supposed to be a horror game. That element just falls flat on it's face. The closest you'll get to actual horror in the game is near the end of the Hospital level, majority of the School level and a bit of the sewer level. Just go to off on a little rabbit trail, Dementium: The Ward did horror even better despite being an FPS. The game had consistent atmosphere, limited ammo, and some monsters that just creep you out. Even though Dementium is another survival horror-FPS, it took the horror element, and made it something interesting. It took some risk, being an FPS, but it was a more enjoyable game, and it's an experience I wanted to go through again. This game, on the other hand, takes elements of horror and executes them very poorly. Majority of what they consider to be horror is just the environments flashing between the real world and the slight demented, redish-orangeish world. If they kept up the atmosphere that was in the Hospital, the School and the sewers, this game could have been a lot better.
My other complaint about the game is Alma. I know the fact that she's supposed to be this scary, all powerful being who wants to get you, but I just see here as nothing but a clown. She walks around majority of the game in the nude, and that doesn't really help the image that she's supposed to be scary. All it does is just reminds me of photos I've seen of African women and children. Besides that, she pops up at the most noticeable and predictable of times, and sometimes when she pops-up, you're probably facing every other direction, except at her. My only other complaint about her is that she attacks you (she does this sometimes). The question I want to ask is, "Why? What's the point of that?". If you read the spoiler post up above, you'd probably be asking the same question too.
My last complaint is pretty much the gore. Now, I'm sure someone noticed earlier that I pointed out that I played The Darkness II, which is an even gorier game (IMO). Here's my response to that: That Darkness II used gore mindlessly and thoughtlessly and had some fun with it, while this game tries to use it as a scare tactic or as shock value. More often than not, I'd have limbs and skulls flying everywhere while my bullets were going through the enemies, and it just got very tiring.
-Judgement-
This game is an okay FPS, but the horror elements pretty much suck. I'm almost tempted to give this game a 4, but since I found some enjoyment, I'll give it a bit of a higher score.
Throughout playing this game, I felt like the story was almost nonexistent, while, at the same time, the story felt like it was either trying to hard or something else along those lines. Since I've never played the first F.E.A.R., I pretty much just jumped in hoping to be filed in as to at least some of the events of the first game (Which majority of the sequels I've played do). And they do fill in some blanks, but I feel like they only covered about half of the story. Anyways, the story of this game is that you're part of some sort of military assault unit who's task is to storm this building that's currently under attack. After you kill all the baddies, and all is well, you find this secret room in the building's penthouse, with the person in that room telling you that it's "The End Of The World", and you're fortunate enough to actually see, what looks to be a bomb, go off. Next thing you know, you're thrown into a hospital and you eventually wake up and find out that some telepathic psycho chick (No, not Carrie) is attracted to you, and sure enough, you're now on a quest to go out and kill her (And possibly save the world).
Throughout the game, you find these files that are, apparently, supposed to help the player understand the overall backstory to the game, but I just gave up on reading them. First of all, you can understand most of the story just by hearing all of the dialogue within the game. Second, most of the files seem to have no relevance with the game, like one of the files I found in a school which only talked about how Little Timmy was sleeping in class and having nightmares.
For those of you who skipped over all this and went to the review score first and then came back to read this, I might as well spoil the ending (for understandable reasons):
You and Alma make whoopee (AKA sex)
-Graphics-
Before I start this part of the review, I want to point out that I played this game on medium settings since my computer isn't all that powerful. I'm sure this has raised some red flags for some of you, but hear me out. I've played The Darkness II, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Bioshock 2, and a few other games all on my computer with medium settings or higher, so I hope this tells that I know when something looks good.
Back to the graphics, very mixed emotions on this one. In the first two levels of the game, it just looks fantastic, even on medium settings, but after......"eh." The models for a lot of things look very good, and so do the environments, but after you head outside, the environment just look bland and uncreative. Majority of the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic city, so you're going to have to put up with this for majority of the game. When you look at the environmental graphics as a whole, it looks like the developers devoted a lot of their resources to making sure that the inside of buildings looks nice. Anyways, moving away from the environments, the models for the guns look very decent, and the character models all look very good except for Alma (the telepathic psycho chick). They all do their part, and there's really not much else to say about it.
-Music-
Bare none, The End.
Just for the sake of some professionalism, I'm going to say that the music is a bit cliched when there is some. What I mean by this is that it's...just...there. It doesn't really take away from the experience nor does it add anything to it.
-Gameplay-
It's just the standard FPS formula, you point and shoot and that's all folks. In addition to the standard FPS gameplay, there's also a little time control feature where you slow down time around you and you can aim at the enemies before they even have a chance to fire a shot. I feel like this add-on feels a bit out of place since this game is supposed to be a survival horror game. The reason for this is because, more often than not, I actually used the time control feature to kill a lot of the scary baddies which took away a lot of the horror element of the game.
Besides the standard FPS gameplay there's really nothing else. No mini-games, no side-shows, nothing. You progress from place to place (With some places reminding me of areas from Silent Hill), with no real question as to where you're going, leaving nothing but blood and corpses everywhere. I will give it credit though because, sometimes, when you're mowing down enemies, you can feel like a badass in some places, but these moments are very short lived.
I know someone out there is going to ask my opinion on the multiplayer (Yes, there is online multiplayer), but I'm not going to talk about it really. Reason being is that I didn't really play the multiplayer, and I didn't really see a need to. Forgive for a bit of bias here, but I think that the addition of multiplayer is a tacked on feature when the emphasis of this game is supposed to be survival-horror.
-Controls-
I'd have to admit, this is the first FPS I've played where I've had to change at least one of the default settings. And that was the mouse sensitivity settings. The default controls of this game take some getting used with the way they keys are assigned, but after you get used to them, your fingers just seem to roll onto each and every key naturally. Other than that, the only other complain I really have is that there seems to be a bit of a delay in the controls. I'm not sure if it's my computer (as stated above, it isn't all that powerful), but I often experienced the problem where I would push something (E.G. Left-click, W), and it would finally respond about half a second later.
-What is bad about it? What could have been done?-
Quite a bit. Besides that graphics, the lack of music, how bad the story is, I still have a few complaints, one which is that this is supposed to be a horror game. That element just falls flat on it's face. The closest you'll get to actual horror in the game is near the end of the Hospital level, majority of the School level and a bit of the sewer level. Just go to off on a little rabbit trail, Dementium: The Ward did horror even better despite being an FPS. The game had consistent atmosphere, limited ammo, and some monsters that just creep you out. Even though Dementium is another survival horror-FPS, it took the horror element, and made it something interesting. It took some risk, being an FPS, but it was a more enjoyable game, and it's an experience I wanted to go through again. This game, on the other hand, takes elements of horror and executes them very poorly. Majority of what they consider to be horror is just the environments flashing between the real world and the slight demented, redish-orangeish world. If they kept up the atmosphere that was in the Hospital, the School and the sewers, this game could have been a lot better.
My other complaint about the game is Alma. I know the fact that she's supposed to be this scary, all powerful being who wants to get you, but I just see here as nothing but a clown. She walks around majority of the game in the nude, and that doesn't really help the image that she's supposed to be scary. All it does is just reminds me of photos I've seen of African women and children. Besides that, she pops up at the most noticeable and predictable of times, and sometimes when she pops-up, you're probably facing every other direction, except at her. My only other complaint about her is that she attacks you (she does this sometimes). The question I want to ask is, "Why? What's the point of that?". If you read the spoiler post up above, you'd probably be asking the same question too.
My last complaint is pretty much the gore. Now, I'm sure someone noticed earlier that I pointed out that I played The Darkness II, which is an even gorier game (IMO). Here's my response to that: That Darkness II used gore mindlessly and thoughtlessly and had some fun with it, while this game tries to use it as a scare tactic or as shock value. More often than not, I'd have limbs and skulls flying everywhere while my bullets were going through the enemies, and it just got very tiring.
-Judgement-
This game is an okay FPS, but the horror elements pretty much suck. I'm almost tempted to give this game a 4, but since I found some enjoyment, I'll give it a bit of a higher score.
Verdict
What I Liked ...
What I Didn't Like ...
6
Gameplay
5
Presentation
5
Lasting Appeal
5
out of 10
