Overdue (Guest) Review: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC)

With the atrociously titled F3AR on the horizon, guest writer CM Teresi checks out what’s what with FEAR 2: Project Origin. Share his profane befuddlement after the jump!



Remember FEAR? It wasn’t earth-shattering, but it turned out to be a good, if not mildly great shooter. While it did have its stereotypically manshooty elements, it deftly incorporated some genuine scares and a convincing J-Horror aesthetic. I would argue that the ending was its best asset: The city of Fairport is devastated by a nuclear explosion, and the ridiculously named Point Man and his cadre of badasses are presumably turned into bloody goo-piles after Alma appears in their helicopter. If you’re going for the J-Horror vibe, the hopeless ending is pretty key. Check out Kairo or Uzumaki to see how it’s done.

However, leave it to the games industry to demand MORE BLOOD SACRIFICE. I haven’t actually played either of the expansions, but I’ve heard them roundly criticized as garbage, so I felt like jumping into FEAR 2 unaware would be fine. I immediately, frequently, started asking myself “WHAT/WHO THE FUCK ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT?” FEAR 2’s action centers on Beckett and his own cadre of manshooty badasses, who are sent on a mission to rescue Genevieve Aristide. Then shit pops off for real. If these names are unfamiliar, there is a reason: Beckett is a new character with absolutely no introduction, and Aristide only briefly appears following the credits of FEAR. The real kicker here is that those expansions aren’t canon, so they offer nothing to clarify things.

MANSHOOTY BADASS SQUAD NEVER
LEAVES A BRO BEHIND, BRAH!

The main narrative problem lies in that all but the most basic plot beats are told through journal entries and memos. I’m not opposed to that sort of storytelling, WHEN IT MAKES SENSE. Amnesia and Bioshock immediately jump out as good examples of how to do this; those games are slow-paced and exploratory, allowing for some reading downtime. FEAR 2 is ballistic and balls to the wall crazy. After a pitched firefight, I am not in the mood to read some bullshit memo. TIME AND FUCKING PLACE, Monolith. Even if you do spend the time to read up on everything, the storytelling is the most convoluted mess this side of the Matrix sequels. Once you untangle it, the plot is serviceable, if formulaic. Expect to see 9 out of 10 twists long before they arrive, (more on that one outlier in a bit.)


Getting back to those pitched firefights, FEAR 2 doesn’t push the original formula, but the combat in FEAR was already pretty great. Even though the game is absolutely linear, the area design allows for a ton of variation each time you attempt a particular section. The AI seems to have gotten dumber in between games, but they do try to flank and make use of cover, giving them a leg up on most FPS mongoloids. Perhaps to compensate for dumber enemies, attacks have been weakened to the point of absurdity. Even on the easiest difficulty, vanilla foes will absorb 5 or 6 headshots, and tougher enemies will eat bullets like they’re Jelly Bellies. In addition to firing a billion guns, you are occasionally given control of a Shogo-style battlesuit. They’re pretty much glorified rail sequences, but if you can’t appreciate battle robots, you are dead inside. Sidebar to Monolith: MAKE SHOGO 2 RIGHT NOW.

Hey. Hey buddy.  Call me back
when you are Shogo 2.

While the combat has survived intact, the scares of the first game have largely been done away with. I don’t know if I was just a big pussy in 2005, or if the game really was that good, but I seem to remember some pants-shitting terror in FEAR. The “scares” in FEAR 2 amount to an orange filter occasionally placed on your vision, and quicktime events in which you must rapidly click to beat up a naked woman, (this actually happens. More than once.) If the in-game terror was good in FEAR, the truly frightening shit centered on the abuse and sexual assault of Alma. FEAR 2 has toned things down quite a bit on that angle, but it does bring them back for one mind-boggling scene, (again, more on that in a bit.)

While I enjoyed the combat, and grudgingly tolerated the horror elements, props must be given to Monolith for their environments. FEAR caught a lot of shit for looking ASTONISHINGLY same-y, and the devs seem to have gotten the memo. FEAR 2 still spends a lot of time in high-tech facilities, but the brief forays into devastated Fairport are simply stunning. This is what Fallout 3 should have looked like if it hadn’t been made on a 10-year-old engine.

Expect to beat the hell out of this woman
at least a dozen times.

To address that one mystery item that I’ve referenced, I place up the SPOILER ALERT. 

After playing through a largely conventional shooter, one would expect a largely conventional ending. Instead, the player enters a hallucinatory showdown with Alma, while she rapes your character in the “real” world. Yes, you read that correctly: in between shooting ghost dudes, you catch glimpses of Beckett’s helpless body being raped. Then, to put a bow on that shit, in the final shot of the game, a pregnant Alma places Beckett’s hand on her belly and a faint voice saying “mommy” can be heard. Roll credits. The audacity of this ending took my mind-grapes and turned them into delicious mind-merlot. If the actual gameplay had been so bold, it would stand among the greats. No, scratch that; if the gameplay was that bold, it would have been Mirror’s Edge. (Yes, I’m bitter.) 

END SPOILER ALERT

In total, FEAR 2 is perfectly competent in terms of gameplay, but falls flat in its storytelling and TITULAR MISSION TO INSTILL FEAR. I initially didn’t enjoy it, but things picked up as soon as I got into the destroyed city, and I was genuinely engaged for at least the final half. If you can get it on the cheap, it’s worth the time investment.