Reviews// F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

But when the difficulty curve begins to steepen, it does so rapidly. Opponents other than the black ops are much more difficult to defeat, and will require quicker thinking and better use of the weapons at your disposal.

Ammunition scarcity becomes a factor as you get further into the game. At first, almost every opponent you drop will have been carrying ammo, but later, this is not the case.

Moving through the game, the horror elements begins to assert themselves. Your character repeatedly experiences black-outs and hallucinations, during which he sees the figure of a girl/woman in various states of dress. She constantly seems to be leading you towards something, and it is only by persevering with the game that you get to discover what this is.

The action is woven into a carefully plotted and relatively complex story line that involves weapons technology, para-psychology, and corporate corruption.

As you progress through the levels, the story is exposed to you through a series of items of 'intel' that you can collect as pick ups distributed about the level. The thing is, these items do nothing to enhance the gameplay - you can complete the levels and progress without collecting them, and when you do collect them, they do not contain anything more than general information about what's happening around you.

If you fail to collect them, or collect them and fail to read them it will not significantly hinder your enjoyment of the game, though it may limit your understanding somewhat. But even that isn't too much of an issue, there are no alliances to be forged here, pretty much everything that moves is hostile and requires obliteration.

When you are in the company of allies, your firepower does not hurt them, so you do not need to ask questions first, and shoot later. Any really important mission objectives appear on screen, and the game is sufficiently linear to make most of your objectives unavoidable, since there is nowhere to go but towards them.

Collapsed scenery is conveniently arranged in such a way to make many directions 'one way'; you can climb over the collapsed item, but due to a drop at the other side, you cannot go back.

This works nicely, enabling the game to move forward without feeling like it has distinct levels. New mission objectives drop into your HUD seamlessly, joining other as yet uncompleted ones, adding to the feeling of one continuous adventure.

The game autosaves periodically, and should you die, you are only ever given the choice of starting again from the beginning, or from the most recent save. So, if you find yourself wandering into a autosave point with low energy and low ammo, you can then find yourself in the fray without the necessary equipment to win through. This is rarely an issue because battles are usually located near a plentiful supply of armour, health and ammo pick-ups.

The graphics are very good. Detailed and extensive levels are atmospherically lit, and there is lashings of blood for those who like a bit of splatter. But it is the audio that really makes F.E.A.R. 2 frightening. And it is frightening especially when played late at at night, with surround sound. The game has a pervading aura of unease. The audio builds and releases tension masterfully. And the graphics do everything that's required of them to maintain the illusion.

SPOnG Score 83%
F.E.A.R. 2 is a compelling game that has a rewarding single player aspect - too often overlooked in FPSs these days. But it is too linear, lacks any real puzzle elements, and the AI is too rudimentary to make it a classic. But those factors can't make us take it out of our 360 just yet.