F.E.A.R. 2 : Project Origin PC Review

I'm fairly forgiving of the whole console influence on PC games. Ports from the console over to the PC generally aren't too bad, and console graphical constraints usually allow games to run on older computer hardware for a longer period of time. I admit this may be holding back PC games from stepping forward technologically, but there are some games like Crysis that fill the technological void quite well. Crysis still puts a pounding to most any hardware out there. It's kind of hard to say if it is a good thing or a bad thing, to push the boundaries that far. Alternatively, there has been a few instances where changing gameplay to work properly with consoles has had a negative effect on game play overall. Simplification of controls, menus, and general game world interaction are just a few complaints that PC users have when playing console ports. Graphical glitches tend to be an issue now and then as well. However I generally give games a little bit of slack for small quips caused by releasing a game for both the PC and consoles. FEAR 2: Project Origin has been released for both the console and the PC. There is a lot to love about FEAR 2. There is so much to love it may have been a great game or the great game of this year. Would have been, if not for the major complaints I have. These complaints seem to be attributable to the games association with the console.

FEAR2 graphically is rather nice, but that compliment comes with a bit of an asterisk. If anyone recalls the first FEAR game, it was also a beautiful game, but if you turned off all of the effects you noticed that the game was actually pretty plain underneath all those bullet holes, and smoke effects. Essentially the whole game was gray corridors in office settings. You didn't notice this because of all the fire, explosions and post effects all around you. It was quite effective, and I enjoyed it a lot. FEAR2 continues this in that the levels and design of the game is actually pretty dull, but the level of shit going on around you has been jacked up to 11. In some areas of the game there is so much going on it's hard to even focus on any one specific thing. There is a great deal of attention paid to the little effects. Ranging from water droplets on your glasses, to the veins glowing in your vision when you hallucinate. Even the world itself seems more alive thanks to more intractable objects. Every table in the game it seems can be tipped over for cover.

The game engine scales well visually, looking good at even moderate visual settings. However, this shouldn't even be necessary for most people, as the game isn't even all that demanding ( which is a very nice side effect of also being a console game ). An 8800GT runs the game almost maxed out on the standard 22inch monitor resolution of 1680*1050 without grunting too much, and a 4830 is capable of running the game all but maxed out at a resolution of 1920*1200, though if you crank AA, or AF you'll notice it chug more often.

There is a drawback to all of these effects going off around you. Rather than being focused on the level itself, the effects act as a major distraction. In the middle of fire fights there is so much going on it becomes a bit of a challenge even seeing what you are shooting at. This is counteracted by the slow mo feature which made it's debut in the first FEAR game, and continues to play a prominent role in FEAR2. When in slow mo view you can see everything in hyper vivid tones. Enemies appear outlined in a bright aura making them much easier targets. In the first FEAR game you soon met enemies with the ability to cloak themselves. They do make a return in FEAR2. The cloaking ability in FEAR2 turns these unarmed enemies into a wisp of yellow mist. At first it was subtle enough, but after a while it became all too easy to spot these enemies, and the sequences they would appear. Even in the penultimate battle against the largest group of these enemies they dropped like flies. This was due to how easy they were to spot. Because these enemies are unarmed, all you have to do is back up to a choke point and they waltz in one by one, falling like deer to a train in front of my trusty auto shotgun.

Other than that the combat is actually pretty exciting. You get a limited selection of weapons that you can carry, but you can usually tell what type of gun you'll need for a given situation based on what is laying around at the time, or what enemies are using. When a boss fight is coming up you see rocket launchers and heavy weapons scattered about. When you are going to be pitted against snipers you'll get a sniper rifle of your own, or even as many as 5 laying around. When fighting a lot of little enemies you'll notice the ammo for small arms scattered more abundantly. It's a bit of a cheesy, cop out level design trick, but there isn't much that can be done about it when there is an enemy that requires some serious firepower to eliminate, or an important gameplay mechanic in place.

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