So I will be the first to admit, I am a little hesitant in most cases to play a sequel of a game if I didn’t play the first one. In the case of the FEAR series I had to make an exception. The demo I played for the original FEAR was absolutely atrocious. I gave it about 5 minutes before it was deleted off of my hard drive. So time passed, a couple expansion packs were released and I was still not attracted to even a rental. I am not a total pessimist, I will usually download just about any demo and give it a chance. I started seeing ads for FEAR 2 frequently and my curiosity began to migrate towards that evil little girl. Alas came the day, the demo for FEAR 2 was released and into the active downloads it went. I fired up the demo, and all I can say is… WOW! I have not been impressed by a demo this much in quite some time. After playing the full version of the game in it’s entirety, the demo is even more amazing as it is a mix of 5 or so of the campaign levels rolled into one. It includes some of the cooler weapons in the game and even the awesome mech/battle suit! For anyone who has not already played this demo or even the full game, in the words of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger, “DO IT NOW!”
The gameplay has totally changed since the first FEAR. It feels almost identical to the Call of Duty engine.. The down the sights aiming is clean and smooth and the bullet time is a nice touch, although it did make the game feel a bit easy at times. This Max Payne style bullet time also transfers to the game’s turret and mech sections which is pretty awesome. Do yourself a favor and try and use it as little as possible, it will make the firefights more challenging and more immersive. The game also does an excellent job of backtracking to give noobs of the FEAR series like myself a bit of the background behind the story. While I won’t dive into the story too much in this review, I will say that it is both captivating and cool with nice little twists and turns and a really cool ending to boot. The game has it’s fair share of “OH SHIT” moments, and while it’s not terribly scary, it’s a good one to play with the lights off. There are some really nice touches as far as graphics go. While the textures and environments aren’t amazing, the lighting and spec maps look really nice, and the movement as far as running and aiming feel very realistic and controlled. I must say, this game has some of the best and most believable AI in any shooter I have played. Shoot an enemy in the leg and he will hobble and limp towards safety and flip over a table or hospital bed to take cover. The cover system isn’t revolutionary but you can interact with certain objects in the game to create cover. There are even some items that have a propane tank or gas can on them. Hit bullet time, flip the table over and the tank of flammable liquid will fly towards enemies allowing you to target it and detonate it with a well placed shot setting enemies on fire… good stuff! A nice touch that was added was the ability to perform some awesome running melees, even in bullet time. Running slide kicks and spinning back kicks will have you throwin‘ it down like Jean Claude Van Damme or Neo from The Matrix. These melee attacks transfer over to the multiplayer, but the bullet time does not.
The game has a few really well thought out moments. A couple that stick out to me would be the creepy and VERY bloody hospital levels, an abandoned high school and a really cool tram level where it feels like you are battling on the Monorail from Disneyland. Very similar tie-ins to Killzone 2 in this game. While I don’t know if the chicken or the egg came first here, I couldn’t help but feel like an employee might have left one of the projects and joined the other as there was so many similarities. From the nail gun to the look of a few of the enemies and the weapons and grenades, there is some striking resemblance. And onto my favorite part of the campaign, the mech!! Wow, few game developers have implemented a mech or battle suit well in quite a few years but FEAR 2 really hits the nail on the head. Zooming, thermal vision for seeing enemies through walls, dual heavy caliber machine guns, and rockets that look straight out of Robotech will have you decimating enemies and removing limbs in quite a satisfying fashion. I would have to say this was definitely my favorite part of the game and it never really seemed to get old.
Multiplayer was actually quite surprising for me. While I wasn’t expecting anything new or spectacular, I was really pleased with the way it played. Plenty of your standard modes available like Bomb Arm, Free-for-all, Deathmatch and even Blitz which is a clever take on Capture the Flag or as they call it, PHLAG, (PHosphoLuminescent AGents). The level designs are pretty darn good and a Call of Duty style leveling system is provided as EXP points are gained. The mode I found the most fun by far was Armored Front. In this playlist, each team gets a mech and it’s basically King of the Hill or Territories style control. It’s pretty cool advancing behind your mech and capturing territories. While there is nothing mind-blowing, or that has not been done before, it’s a pretty solid experience that’s sure to keep folks populating multiplayer for a while. Good stuff all around on this one guys and gals, and again if you haven’t at least played the demo, give it a go ASAP. Definitely one of my favorite games all around this year.
–DIGGITY OUT
The Gamer Report 
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