It's not the best of screenshots to give you a sense of what F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is all about, is it? Truth be told, even knowing what to expect after having played a bit of the first F.E.A.R. thanks to this 1001 list, this is still too hands-on a game to worry about grabbing screenshots in the middle of it, my attention is too focused on what is getting chucked my way that I simply can't provide you with anything that looks nice and composed.
So live with it. Just imagine that you, too, are in a dark and spooky first-person shooter that follows on from the psychological horrors of the first game and see how you fare.
Let's try and make some sense of it, though.
Fun Times
I don't know where in the F.E.A.R. chronology Project Origin sits, before or after the first game, but I do know for certain that little Alma is back to haunt us once more because as we've found out, kids are scarier than adults could ever be.
The horror starts before the first-person shooting does in this one, as our visions of a destroyed street interrupt our mission briefing.
These names (I've since learned, after skimming my own post about the first F.E.A.R. game) belong to familiar faces, but those faces are more detailed and fleshed out, and the graphics on display here are much improved over the first game, coming complete with some film-grain like filters to really enhance the look and feel of Project Origin: spooky and otherworldly.
We're looking for someone, and as it turns out, we're not the only people looking for her. Is she an important part of the overarching plot of the F.E.A.R. series? Having not finished the first game yet, I've no idea - and if it was only a re-reading of my previous post that reminded me that I've met these characters before, you can bet that there's a lot of stuff that I don't know about.
What I do know is that we've got a lot of bodies that shouldn't be here, and we're about to add more...
Or we probably would, if we didn't get headaches and visions at inopportune moments. Our story could have ended there and then, were we to find ourselves just a foot or two to the right. Is that pure dumb luck on our part, or is someone watching over us?
As I said, we're not the only folks looking for Genevieve Aristide, and it seems both parties have no problems ensuring that the other need to be killed, so our submachine gun goes through a fair few rounds in what continue to be firefights that aren't like a lot of other video games.
This is the first level of Project Origin, on normal difficulty, and I am scared. Yes, the controls are a little odd by default, with aiming down the sights on the Shift key and sprinting down on Alt, but that's not why I'm scared.
I'm alone against a squad armed to the teeth with devastating weapons of their own, but that's not scary either. I've faced armies alone. No, what's scary is that aside from them running across my field of view to get into cover, or jumping over railings in full view without covering fire from their squadmates, these enemies have smarts.
Much like the first F.E.A.R., your opponents are generally brainier than anyone else you've faced in video gaming. They still do stupid things, yes, but they're not here to be killed. They're here to kill you. They'll get behind cover and lob a grenade just like you would. They'll be on the move to get a bead on you before you get the upper hand on them. They're trying, and as such, much of the screenshots I've got of Project Origin are of me hiding in cover, hoping I've enough time for a reload before they swing around the corner to continue the fight.
Couple this with the great lighting on display, as well as the film grain filter plastered on top, and Project Origin is a right old show, and we've not even talked too much about when our head starts to pound and the visions take over.
After collecting plenty of intel to read to flesh out the world a bit more - who'd have thought that our character shows outstanding mental abilities in a psychological horror game? - we find Genevieve who literally disintegrates before our eyes, and as we stumble around the place in a spooky orange haze, we collapse as what appears to be a nuclear explosion looms above the horizon, before unknown figures arrive to take us away.
Frustrations
I said when playing the first F.E.A.R. that it was a memorable game for its combat, rather than its story and setting. Lots of industrial greys, lots of generic super soldier stuff. Project Origin, I fear, is going a similar way. The environments are brighter and bloodier, but an empty hospital isn't anything new in video games, is it?
Is it supposed to be scary to be the last survivor in a hospital that appears to have come under attack? Maybe. Well, as it's used so much, I'll probably say yes, it is. My point is that it, too, feels a bit generic. Project Origin, great though it is to look at, with its filters and its head bobs and its lighting, is still a game about a spooky girl and super soldiers. Or am I missing some detail?
Having directly witnessed my own surgery, one I gather those in power are surprised I survived, I'm not sure if I can trust Genevieve. The same folks who were after her earlier are after her again in this hospital, and finding a gun somewhere I get to make sure they don't get too close with some wonderful slow-motion, should I ever manage to get my fingers onto the right key to make use of it.
Your vision goes a bit weird, but your enemies all slow down to a snail's pace and you can watch the gore in all its bloody detail. Again, were it not for stuff like this, Project Origin may end up being too generic to worry about, but as it stands, scared by the enemy AI or not, I'm invested for the time being - and clueless as to the plot, of course.
Prompted towards the T.A.C. Lab by a combination of bloodstains, ghostly visions, and chatter from our squadmates over the radio, we get to see some really nice lighting effects as something mysterious happens to a bunch of soldiers.
The light show allows Genevieve to escape once again, but another vision keeps us in the midst of the action, and when we come to, we find ourselves in a bit of a sticky situation, almost face to face with the man in charge of the opposition forces.
I'm pretty sure we escape by simply falling over, but we definitely get to fight our way out to make certain of it and soon find that this building is getting wired to blow, which just gives us more options for taking out whoever gets in our way.
Pistols, combat shotguns, even a napalm cannon all get used on my escape from this building, each with their own preferred uses. Like the first game, you can only be sure of your safety when your target stops moving, and even as they fall and flail, their weapons can cause you problems.
I'm not sure if I'm hallucinating the effectiveness of the shotgun at this point, but rather them than me.
Whatever happened, I died. Supersoldier material I ain't, but F.E.A.R. fan? Hmm...
Final Word
If you wanted more F.E.A.R. in your life, Project Origin is superb; a drastic step up in quality and a continuation of a story that is no doubt swimming in spooks and mysteries. A game that continues to impress with regards to its enemy AI, and one where you can be just as annoying as they are, pushing over cover to create new ways to face your foes.
But if the whole psychological horror stuff isn't your thing, is that combat enough to convince you otherwise? I'd probably have to go with yes. Project Origin is just as bleh in the story department as the first game, but the presentation and gameplay are more than enough to make up for it.
I get the impression you (and I) ought to play through the first game before playing this second one, especially if you want all the story details, but then maybe it isn't. Is this an origin story that sets up the events of the first game? I've not got enough of a grasp on what's going on to know for sure.
All I can say is that, once again, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin has done enough to get me thinking about it, even if I don't find myself desperate to play through and find out where the story goes. It's just all so nice to look at, even if you're not sure what you're looking at in the first place.
I don't know how far I'll get into it before another stupid game-ending mistake, but I reckon I'll give it a go, and giving it a go is the only way you'll understand what F.E.A.R. fans mean when they talk about the combat - screenshots from behind cover only tell you half the story.
Fun Facts
The subtitle, Project Origin, was the winner of a fan poll to 'Name Your Fear', to literally provide the name for the sequel. The other finalists were Dead Echo and Dark Signal.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, developed by Monolith Productions, first released in 2009.
Version played: PC, 2009.