F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (2009)

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is surely not a bad game. It follows the story from the previous games and does this quite well. However, because of the new look of the game, the new sound design and the excessive lighting, it does not really feel like a F.E.A.R. game anymore.

The story continues in this game with Alma Wade, taking revenge on anyone who did her wrong because of all the experiments that have been conducted on her by Project Origin. After the catastrophic events of the first game, a Delta Force squad is sent to arrest Genevieve Aristide, the brains behind the whole operation. Thirty minutes before the ending of F.E.A.R., the team arrives and get to work. You play as Michael Becket, a guy that also has a strong physic connection to Alma.

The whole operation goes haywire and throughout the game, your squad gets wiped out, one at the time. This is because of the interfering ATC forces, Alma and her voodoo powers and the awakened Replica soldiers. The Point Man from the first game explodes the research facility where the experiments where taking place on Alma and Becket is knocked unconscious. You awake in a hospital, which is immediately confiscated by ATC forces. They want to erase all evidence of Project Origin, including you and your buddies.

You try to press forward while being taunted by hallucinations, shot at from all directions and assassination attempts. You meet some help underway, but they are killed off quicker that you can say “What the..”. No place is safe for you and your simple arrest mission is turned into a race for survival and escape.

In the end, Alma finally gets to you because Genevieve Aristide locks you and Alma in a metal ball thing. She wanted to lure you and Alma in this thing from the beginning to save Project Origin. The part that happens next is still one of the weirdest things in video game history. Alma goes full Cowgirl on you and, apparently, you put a little Baby Becket in her belly. In the end, she shows you her swollen belly and the game ends. Wow..

The graphics are nice in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, but the problem is that they are to light. You can set the brightness to zero and still the game is to colorful and bright. I also don’t like the new HUD that overlays your screen. It is supposed to resemble some sort of glasses holo-screen thing, but it distracts and makes you feel like playing trough a simulator.

Although this installment is way less scary than its predecessor, it had its moments. The elementary school level was nicely done and gave some F.E.A.R. vibes back. The rest however, no matter how hard they tried, it did not work. For me, this had two reasons. One is that the scare effects and horror elements are all shown to you by static and interference, followed by a hallucination, and then, more static. The second reason is that there is no ice chilling, high pitched sound that goes through marrow and bone, like the first game.

The combat is fast paced, the guns accurate and it all feels very fluent and smooth. You still use health kits to restore your health and can find reflex boosters to increase your slow-motion time.

However, in the sound department (something that is really important for me when playing a game), the developers screwed up. The sound is horrible. It is so blend and lifeless, it genuinely shocked me. The voices of the ATC forces and Replica Soldiers sound very fade in the distance, and the voice acting for their actions and communication is terrible. The guns sound like pea shooters, all of them. The worst of all is the shotgun. When firing, a foul fart escapes its barrel and that is it. Explosions sound like the popping of a balloon and when enemies die, it sounds like you poke a hot iron on their asses and they are in discomfort rather than dying from your hail of peas.

In the end, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is a good game, the combat works fine and accurate, the slow motion works just as good as the first game and the overall length of the game is fair.

It is just not that much of a F.E.A.R. sequel in my opinion anymore in terms of scariness.