FEAR 2

[DickDalewood]

Re: FEAR 2

Downloaded and played the PS3 demo today...

VERY cool, but was glitching like crazy near the end. No gun sounds, framerate issues, etc. Very weird.

[Cusefan]

Re: FEAR 2

Im gonna wait until the Reviews, but it looks solid.

[Flawless]

Re: FEAR 2

IGN UK Review - 8.5

It seems harsh to judge such a competent, consistently enjoyable title on over-familiarity and there’s certainly no arguing that Project Origin is an excellent, albeit, old-school shooter. It’s 2009 though and, from the game’s well-worn jolts right through to environments consistently drawn from the big book of FPS clichés – hello subway system, hospital, derelict street, science lab and underground bunker – there are simply too few moments that alleviate proceedings to the top tier of genre daddies. Admittedly, F.E.A.R. 2 raises its game in final few hours – with a few stand-out set-pieces including a cargo train assault, an eerie descent into ground zero and an ending so spectacularly obtuse it’s likely to elicit more than its fair share of “Wuh?”s. Overall though, rather than any sense of surprise or genre-shifting admiration, it’s the minute-by-minute assault of trigger-fumbling tension and horror, married with the games’ superb underlining shooter mechanics that drive you toward the game’s baffling conclusion.

Game Informer Review - 8.25

After the embarrassment of The Perseus Mandate, F.E.A.R. 2 should be in consideration for comeback player of the year. While the multiplayer is weak and the mood won’t make people forget Dead Space any time soon, the solid action core makes it worth a play.

Second Opinion - 8.5

F.E.A.R. 2 avoids the pitfalls of its predecessor while throwing in a few tricks of its own. As with the original game, the audio work is superlative in and out of combat. Cinematic tools like pacing and lighting are utilized with great skill to evoke moods that range from the creeped-out willies to abject terror. The story is much more interesting and less obvious in its twists. Reasonably intelligent enemies will suppress and flank you, if for some reason you let them live long enough to do so. The nicely varied environments are handcrafted to create both fun firefights and intense thriller sequences. F.E.A.R. 2 has all the elements of a great FPS package, but a few very noticeable warts bring it down. The egregious head bob can cause headaches or nausea while playing, and there’s no way to turn it down or off. The combat feels great with a mouse and keyboard, but often finicky and annoying on a gamepad. Ultimately, the game never escapes feeling like a re-hash of the original, with the same ideas, themes, and gameplay elements repeated throughout. Nonetheless, F.E.A.R. 2 does what it does with great skill, and successfully delivers one of the better single-player FPS experiences around.

[Flawless]

Re: FEAR 2

Eurogamer Review - 5

In other words, I found the experience of playing the game to be simultaneously exhilarating and depressing. The smallest fundamental parts - such as the combat - work. But on a higher level, alienation grows as the game becomes a chain of well-worn genre standards. I found myself thinking the back-handed compliment, "Well, at least I haven't done a gun-turret bit yet." Then, predictably, one turned up. Every time I started a new level I ended up wondering whether this one would be the moving-platform-train-bit. Surely it would arrive eventually? And it did.

It's a checklist of genre-tropes, well performed. If you're just looking for more well-polished shooting, this will while away the hours pleasantly enough. If you've never played a first-person shooter before, you'll probably be in love - this is as archetypal a corridor-shooter as has ever been made, and there's a reason why it works. But for anyone who's been running down corridors with shotguns for most of their adult life, this is so uninspired that you worry for the spark of Monolith's soul. You guys made No One Lives Forever, remember? You're smart. You're better than this.

FEAR 2 isn't terrible. That's the most terrible thing of all. Is mere competency enough to garner gamers' love? I don't know. But it's the one thing I really do fear.

[Flawless]

Re: FEAR 2

IGN Review - 8.1

With F.E.A.R. 2, Monolith has crafted a solid follow-up to F.E.A.R. It’s a good shooter, bordering on great at times, but it’s not as groundbreaking as its predecessor. Still, it’s definitely faithful to the idea of F.E.A.R., which is mainly trying to get under your skin using a combination of tried-and-true horror elements, not the least of which is a creepy little girl.

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='isStandAlone=true&highRes_ID=2746951&lo wRes_ID=2746947&object_ID=812587&downloadURL=http://pcmovies.ign.com/pc/video/article/953/953130/_fear2_vidreview_021009_flvlowwide.flv&allownetwor king="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed>

[Flawless]

Re: FEAR 2

1UP Blog

I got through F.E.A.R. 2 and started a second run before leaving for NYCC but there wasn't a chance to get in any mulitplayer. So, I spent the plane ride back from NYC putting down all my thoughts on the single-player. I'm going to guess I'll probably be one of the higher scores when it's all said and done, but yeah, I really like it -- so well that I'm pretty sure I'll play through it again here at home on the retail version. Anyway, here's my take:

Part shooter, part scary thriller, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin wants to get inside your head and freak you out to make each tension releasing pull of the trigger that much more satisfying. It works; so well in fact that you may find yourself needing a break at times just to let your heart-rate recover some. That ability to really get to you reflects the degree to which developer Monolith managed to take the ideas of the original and grow them into a fully matured design in the sequel.

F.E.A.R. 2 takes an approach uncommon among sequels of starring a new main character and beginning before the end of the original. You step into the role of a Spec Ops soldier whose team has been sent to secure an important weapons company corporate officer when a series of violent riots hit the city. These events turn out to be the out-of-control psychically-controlled clone army on its rampage that was the story of the original F.E.A.R. And shortly into this sequel you witness from afar the cataclysmic blast from Alma's release that marks the climax of the first game. Of course, you have no idea about any of what's going on which makes this new point of view perfect for unraveling some of the unanswered questions from the first game as you learn things alongside the character without feeling like you're just being force-fed. It also makes this a sequel you can play and enjoy equally well whether or not you played the first one.

It may sound odd to put such importance in the storytelling for a game that will get basically classified as a shooter but it carries much of the responsibility for getting you wrapped up in the game. And it stands as one of most significant design leap in F.E.A.R. 2. The original F.E.A.R. confused building suspense with just plain keeping you in the dark. This time around you get a real sense for who the players are and what's going on. That knowledge gives you just the right amount of grounding against which the increasingly freaky happenings gain even more contrast.

Monolith made equally great strides in its ability to pull off creepy and unsettling paranormal phenomenon. They use a lot of subtle tricks to build atmosphere like having your flashlight dim and waver in dark areas or momentarily disrupting your view with interference and static across the visor through which you see the world. For a little more direct approach they take more active control actually blacking out areas or having doors uncontrollably slam open and shut. And when they do go for the shock value startle it works all the more effectively for not having been over used. They've also gotten down that sense of when doing nothing at all is just as tension building because you're expecting something right around the next corner. It gets pretty tough in places not to become so trigger happy you find yourself unloading half a clip into nothing.

It doesn't help matters that you're already on edge from the intensity of the fire-fights you get into. F.E.A.R. earned a reputation for having great artificial intelligence for its enemies, and F.E.A.R. 2 carries on the tradition. It feels more like fighting against real players than bots because the AI isn't content to just find a piece of cover and popup for a shot every couple of seconds until you shoot them. In fact they won't stay in one place long instead looking to regroup, charge, or flank for a better position on you. The result keeps each fight dynamic and forces you into more of the exciting situations where very quickly you need to figure out what to do next.

And there's plenty of them. The pace of the game stays at a pretty intense level most of the time but it can because you have one other trick: F.E.A.R. 2 also brings back the slow-mo system of the original. While it isn't the only game to use it, its application here really fits to the game. Between being on edge almost all the time and the vigorous enemies it's most welcome to have a little extra escape that makes it feel like you can stay in the game. You're clearly intended to use it a lot too. While you won't be able to stay in slow-mo for too long, it recharges very quickly. This leads to some very interesting maneuvers as you start to learn different ways to combine popping in and out of it with different weapons to effectively create combo attacks.

Yes, you'll need to learn them too because Monolith broke out of the repetitious office and warehouse world of the original. In fact, the first few areas of F.E.A.R. 2 feel like something of an homage to those levels -- a sort of reminder of them, and validation of how good they were as stages for the fire-fights. And then the door opens and you're out on the street. From there out F.E.A.R. 2 takes a nice rhythm between clutching the controller anxious for what's next in the dark to enemy-filled shootouts. And just when you need a break it punctuates it all by dropping you into a mech a couple times and letting you just obliterate everything in your way.

By the approach to the climactic final encounter Monolith has taken you from bombed out city streets, over roof tops, through apartments, into the bowls of secret manufacturing facilities and everywhere in between. And along the way you've been scared, startled, creeped and grossed out (lest it go unmentioned, with the gore turned on this is one of the bloodiest and violent games around), had hundreds of white-knukled shootouts with everything from soldiers to grotesques to specters, and tromped around in mech as a complete bad ***. And most importantly, loved every minute of it.

[tanis38]

Re: FEAR 2

Wow, nobody picked this game up? This thread was all the way in page 3.

I got it yesterday. Needed something to play since my 360 is being repaired and Killzone won't come out until the end of the month. Plus, I enjoyed the demo.

The game is pretty solid. Although I gotta say, after playing the Killzone demo many times, this game looks terrible now. The demo looked great to me when I initially played it, but Killzone has already set a new standard.

[Cyros]

Re: FEAR 2

Unfortunately my funds are being held over for the Resident Evil 5 CE.

[shon]

Re: FEAR 2

Rented the game on Friday night didn't get to play until Saturday and beat it at 11:30 Sunday. I enjoyed the game but it wasn't that hard even on the hardest level. All the
elements worked and it had a good story with awesome action.

[Flawless]

Re: FEAR 2

F.E.A.R. 2 Reborn Interview

F.E.A.R. 2 is getting another piece of downloadable content, this time offering up four new single-player levels. For this outing, you'll get to experience the F.E.A.R. 2 story from a different perspective as you take on the role of replica soldier foxtrot 813. The expansion is on the way this August (no details on pricing are available just yet), so we went to Monolith Studios Associate Producer Lucas Myers for more.

[Cyros]

Re: FEAR 2

Just finished this thanks to GameFly. Solid title and the ending has me anticipating F.E.A.R. 3.