This game just makes me sad. At first blush it seems like a solid improvement over the first game, with better graphics and general presentation, which is exactly what I wanted from it. As soon as the shooting starts, though, it falls apart. The first game had this great, dynamic combat with real weight to the weapons; that's totally gone here, replaced with anemic-feeling guns and bland combat that could be from any late '00s/early '10s shooter. It's the one thing the original really had going for it, and without it the lacks any identity. I could get into the games issues with women or dumb mental health tropes, but it's not even worth it when the fundamentals are this weak. A significantly worse game than the original in all the ways that matter.

El gunplay no se siente mal a pesar de que las armas se sienten un poco debiles, wonky y que andar se sienta super extraño porque hay mucha tracción en los pies del protagonista

Obviamente es divertido el Slow mo y las cooking grenades

La historia no le preste atención y no sé qué pienso del final, las partes de miedo no dan miedo

"A Botched Sequel"

This one was particularly tough for me to evaluate, largely due to how controversial of a game it is to begin with. I did not like the first F.E.A.R. title upon my first short time with the game, but I really warmed up to that game, with it serving as a very good Action-FPS in my opinion. I believed that the sequel's main goal would have been to diversify the level environments, provide a slightly stronger and more cohesive story, and preserve the original title's gameplay while refining bits and pieces to it. What the sequel actually accomplished was...a mixed bag to say the least.

Upon starting a new game, I immediately noticed that the surface-level graphical fidelity was improved. Characters were more animated, the voice acting was more plentiful, and there was a stronger emphasis on characterization through movement and expression. While not "top notch", even by 2009 standards, it improved on an otherwise disappointing array of graphical settings that were in the first game. However, the reason I say "surface-level graphics" becomes obvious very quickly - many of the amazing gunplay effects from the first title have been drastically toned down or removed. Bullet holes no longer crack cement on walls, grenades no longer fling objects around the environment, and smoke trails from guns/explosives no longer leave the battlefield looking torn-up, as it should. This was a massive disappointment, since these effects that were present in the first game four years prior were now sliced out of the equation.

The environments also presented a similar facade. Upon fist examination, the environments are easily more varied and colorful than the first game. There are schools to fight through, underground labs, ruined cities, and a nuclear power plant (to name a few). However, the color is still very muted and gray/brown. It's a curse of games from this time period, but everything looks very similar and washed-out, even if the locations are inherently different. Additionally, while the environments are somewhat better looking, the way these levels actually "play" is a drastic step back, in my opinion. The enemy AI still interacts with nodes around the environment, but it all felt like it flowed less cohesively. I never felt like I was flanked by a squad of enemies like in the last game, and this took away a lot of dynamism and tactical feel from each battle. The new environments did little to make up for this drastic loss to the core gameplay interaction between player, AI, and environment/level.

The story is stronger this time around - however, it isn't presented in a very efficient way. Character's are still pretty boring and lack a lot of depth. Most of their deaths will leave you without any reaction other than "Dang, he/she got messed up!". There's no attachment, and while the voice acting is okay, no one is really established as super interesting throughout the plot. As for the plot itself, the bulk of the game's information/detail is locked behind PDA's that you find throughout each level. These contain text files that explain a lot of the core motivations/elements behind each character's motives and actions. Without these files, the game is a bit of a mess on the story side - its still better than F.E.A.R., but it failed to capture my attention. Alma is developed more as a character, but she HERSELF is boiled down to a "jumpscare-machine". Her motivations are only ever explained through minor interactions with the player and exposition lobbied towards the player by other characters. This led to a lack of engagement on my part, and ultimately made me disinterested in many of the plot points and narrative elements. It's a bit better than the first game, but not by a whole lot.

Lastly, I am left with one last question to answer: "Is this game a worthy sequel to F.E.A.R.?" Sadly, I am forced to give a disappointing "No". While some elements of the original game are improved upon (environments, story), the core gameplay has been butchered. The game has turned into a generic FPS, with many of the first titles gameplay elements being drastically altered or outright removed. Melee combat has been ruined, and punches/kicks lack any substantial impact or consistency to their usage. Gunplay feels much worse, with the sound design behind many weapons feeling weaker and damage output for most weapons being reduced. it really seems like all weapons in this game have been weakened substantially, and it leaves the character feeling less powerful. Additionally, the "bullet-time" mechanic feels redundant - in the old game, it made the game a bit easier, but was much more rewarding with the ragdoll physics engine and environmental destruction. Here, it feels pointless! The ragdoll physics are gone, and guns damage the environment far less. I honestly forgot to use this mechanic throughout much of the game due to how useless it ended up being. These changes to gameplay were the primary offenders of this game for me, and left me severely disappointed with the final product.

Upon completion, I can say my time with F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin was very "meh". I went in hoping for refinement upon the original game's formula, and instead was met with strange design decisions and drastic cutbacks on the first game's strengths. I would Not Recommend checking this one out if you were a huge fan of the first game - it essentially transformed the formula into a generic shooter. It's not "horrible", but it really ain't special in any way either.

Final Verdict: 5/10 (Average)

This game was better than the first one but still didn't quite hit the mark for me. The game play has been improved, with small tweaks here and there to make the overall experience better. Shields for example actually shield all incoming damage rather than only chipping at it in addition to your health. You are limited to 3 health pack instead of 10 but with the improved shield that's no big deal. I rarely died so it didn't really matter.

Jump scares are still garbage though. There was not a single moment in this game that I was actually scared by anything. It's hard to be scared in a world where you're a psychic super soldier with a small arsenal in your back pocket. It was all a little forced and way too predictable.

The story was a little more present than the first. I won't go into detail but there was more going on than "kill the bad guy and watch out for spooky lady". Although I'm still unclear on what Alma is exactly? Is she a ghost? Can she just teleport just outside your field of vision but only when spookily convenient? Not sure.

Overall it was just okay. Good enough for me to zone out and shoot some dudes for a while. Here's hoping the third game is worth it

While it still had it's thrills in certain sections the sequel was a downgraded experience for me. The combat for the most part feels serviceable, with enemies posing less of a challenge. The particle effects are lot less prominent and the sound effects are not that satisfying to hear. The atmosphere feels mostly gone too, due to the absence of strong shadows, and good lightning. It has such a brown/yellow-ish tint to the overall look of the game as well, which made the visual look a lot flatter. Only during the school section did it actually feel scary like the first two. On the other hand, the story feels the only aspect that feels intact, continuing naturally and being told more traditionally. The ending was something else.

Overall, it felt like a mixed bag.

I remember when F.E.A.R. 2 was first announced and it blew up the gaming world. It was a long anticipated sequel to one of the best FPS games on PC, and surprisingly it was also coming to current consoles which I felt held the game back some, and this infuriated some longtime fans. You continue where the first game left off and must go back into the destruction that the nuke caused and try and stop Alma once and for all.

The story and characters are worse than the first game and make absolutely zero sense. I still don’t know why Alma wants to kill everyone and who Beckett really is (your main character). The game focuses more on action over atmosphere and scares, unlike the first game. There are some really creepy scenes with the elementary school being by far the best with poltergeists chasing you in dark hallways. It’s sad that the horror element took a back seat and the game just doesn’t feel as good as the first game.

The shooting, however, has improved a lot with more responsive controls, faster paced gunplay and a slightly higher variety of weapons. The enemies are still generic soldiers called Replicas that are just bullet sponges and don’t offer anything interesting to the game. There are two mech sequences added to the game where you can crawl inside one and devastate foes. Outside of feeling powerful, these scenes felt more like filler than anything else. Another continuing issue is the level design. The game is full of generic desolate city streets, hallways, metal and concrete buildings with catwalks and industrial decor. It’s the same as before just with more detail and better visuals.

Slo-mo does make a return here, but I didn’t need to use it as often as the first game as this game is much easier. Instead of hoarding 10 medkits you get up to 3 and body armor to help absorb damage. You can still upgrade your Reflex meter by finding syringes and data pads are scattered everywhere for story tidbits. I have to say I miss the answering machines and Alienware laptops scattered around as it felt more organic and required less reading in such a fast-paced game.

The game looks really good even today. Larger environments, higher resolution textures, better models, physics, and overall lighting effects really stand out and this game looks far from ugly, just boring and generic. The game tried to switch up the setting with more outdoor environments and less indoor, but it doesn’t really matter as the game is still highly linear. It just doesn’t feel like F.E.A.R. did and that’s a shame as you can tell there was a careful placement of each scare and less focus on action.

Overall, F.E.A.R. 2 is a great sequel and worth your time for a weekend playthrough. It isn’t memorable, there’s nothing special, but the occasional scare and interesting horror elements, as well as fantastic shooting, make for a good game.

Es sorprendente el hecho de que el mismo equipo que trajo el F.E.A.R. original pudiera arruinar un montón de cosas que hicieron bien en el primero ahora en la secuela, esto se puede notar en varias partes, el diseño de los niveles ahora esta lleno de zonas espaciosas las cuales hacen notar que el diseño tan minucioso de la inteligencia artificial que vienen trabajando desde el 1 no esta hecho para peleas en lugares grandes ya que los enemigos se quedaran en cobertura lejos o trataran de correr en linea recta hacia ti, lo cual termina haciendo que no se pueda aprovechar bien el sistema de combate, y los problemas con los niveles o zonas no solo se quedan en los lugares espaciosos, si no que también en los lugares pequeños, cerrados y lineales, ya que en estos los enemigos muchas veces no demuestran ninguna otra estrategia que no sea atacar al jugador en linea recta o quedarse tras cobertura, muy pocas veces vi a un enemigo tratar de flanquearme o intentando una estrategia que cree la ilusión de que sea un enemigo pensante, algo por lo que el original es muy conocido, no se si sea solo culpa del diseño de niveles o puede que tenga que ver con que quisieron cambiar como funciona la IA de los enemigos (incluso cuando se nota que sigue teniendo parte del mismo comportamiento) pero de todas formas en términos generales el combate de esta secuela es funcional pero bastante genérico la gran mayoría de las veces y de vez en cuando muestra destellos de genialidad como los que hacían tan bueno el combate del primero. Hay un montón de cambios extraños que de verdad no entiendo, ahora uno no se puede inclinar hacia un lado para apuntar afuera de una esquina, por alguna razón ya no se puede usar la pistola en modo akimbo, algo que se podía en el primero, y aunque la pistola ciertamente es el arma mas débil del juego, poder usarla de esta forma la volvía bastante útil en ciertas ocasiones, quitar esta mecánica solo hace que no haya ninguna razón por la cual un jugador la quiera volver a agarrar, otra cosa que parece que no funciona ahora es disparar a tus propias granadas mientras están en el aire para que exploten en momentos específicos, o mas bien, parece que no funciona de forma correcta, porque varias veces que yo intente hacer esto la granada tardaba en explotar después de haberle disparado y en ciertas ocasiones explotaba justo cuando le disparaba, no si eso sea algo que solo me paso a mi, pero sinceramente sentí esta mecánica inconsistente, por lo que casi nunca intentaba hacerlo, tengo la teoría de que simplemente no se puede hacer y trataron de intercambiarlo con una mecánica de cocinar granadas, hablando de nuevas mecánicas que sinceramente no aportan nada, ahora se puede correr, pero la velocidad que aporta no es mucha en comparación con solo caminar y ademas cuando uno corre, toda acción que quiera hacer mientras corre tendrá un cierto retraso haciendo que cosas como deslices, patadas aéreas o saltos después de correr sean incómodos de ejecutar, yo diría que en general la mecánica de correr se siente torpe, otra cosa que añadieron es que ahora se puede apuntar desde el retículo del arma, lo cual no suena como algo malo si no fuese porque al usarla junto con el slow-mo cubre buena parte de la pantalla haciendo que sea difícil ver todo el daño que estas causando, no estoy diciendo que te quita la visión del enemigo, si no que esto cubre buena parte del espectáculo visual algo que no pasaba en el original, esto no seria molesto si no fuese porque ahora disparar desde la cadera es impreciso, haciendo que muchas veces sea completamente necesario usar la mirilla, otro cambio que no entiendo es que ahora los enemigos brillan cuando usas slow-mo, esto seria algo útil si no fuese porque ya de por si todos los enemigos llevan luces en sus uniformes haciendo que este cambio se sienta muy estúpido e innecesario, por ultimo en cuanto a adiciones quiero mencionar el mech suit, el cual de por si no es malo si no que las secciones en que lo puedes usar son idénticas y de verdad son de las mas genéricas que hay, eso si, quiero saber quien pensó que fue una buena idea añadir un mech suit en este juego para luego no permitirte usar el slow-mo mientras lo montas, es que de verdad no entiendo quien pensaría en esto. Ahora hablando meramente de las armas, casi todas si no todas son versiones inferiores de las armas del juego original, el rifle de asalto es peor, la ametralladora es mas o menos, el remplazo del arma de partículas es una desgracia, el nuevo lanzacohetes es aburrido, la nailgun es peor y lo peor de todo, se cagaron completamente en la escopeta, las nuevas armas son decentonas pero de verdad nada especial. En cuanto a enemigos, aunque la mayoria son muy parecidos a los originales, ahora los asesinos replica son un fastidio y salen en momentos que no dan espacio para que te puedan sorprender, y por alguna razón ahora hay enemigos rápidos que trepan por los muros y tratan lanzarse encima tuyo, son una molestia mas que nada.
Para terminar de hablar de este juego simplemente puedo decir, que aunque no es terrible porque mantiene varias cosas del original, como se caga en el resto de cosas que hicieron bien anteriormente, termina dejando una experiencia que no resalta en nada, una experiencia funcional pero de verdad una que no puedo recomendar ni a un fan del original, tiene sus momentos pero de verdad no vale la pena, ni hablar de la historia y de lo mal balanceado que están las dificultades.