F.E.A.R. 2

[SlaveOfSeven]

So anyone else playing (or played) this? I'm enjoying it, but I can't help feeling the atmosphere's not quite right this time round. The first game had a big feel of mystery as well as the creepiness, but it's lacking now. Of course, it's a bit hard to maintain an air of mystery around a story that's already been adequately explained, bar the odd loose end or two; but the "horror segments" seem to be directed a lot more crudely than in the original. It's just up in your face, sudden loud noise stuff for the most part, with very little of the sinister surreality that made the first one so memorable. And autosaves only? To one slot, no less. Yeah. Really great idea that. Really, really great idea.

Ok, complaints aside, it's pretty fun and has managed to make me reluctant to leave a safe spot on a couple of occasions after some intense encounters, and the ruined city made for some amazing visuals and atmosphere.

Now I'm just off to investigate a school. I anticipate at least two sequences of Alma closing the distance between us in rapid edits and getting all up in my face. I have a nasty suspicion that

Spoiler: Alma stuff

her interest in the player character this time round has a certain sexual component, what with the talk of her wanting to absorb the player around the time she made a concerted effort to give me a big old hug, and the disembodied voice annoucing that she's a woman now, though she doesn't know it. And who was that supposed to be anyway? Harlan Wade? Also, the tentacles. Hmmm.... Anyway, would be a bit sad and tacky if it does go that way, in my opinion. I hope I'm mistaken.

 

[firehawk12]

Well, I own it anyway. I have no idea when I'll get to it though... sadly, I still have a copy of the first game and the non-canon expansion packs that I haven't bothered going through yet.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I finished the first, haven't done FEAR Files yet though, might pick up the second one after the expansions

 

[Lonemagpie]

It feels like more of the same to me - fun, but more of the same. The scares in the school are a lot better than the ones in the original game though. (even if one of the causes, as far as I can tell, is actually a living enemy in a Predator-type invisibility suit)

 

[Jax]

Played the 2nd demo and it was ok but felt too different from F.E.A.R, the atmosphere is just not right, not too mention fighting the demon things so often just waters them down. The original F.E.A.R for the PC is my number 1 game of all time. I just loved how it tried to get into your head and freak you out, this game is just not up the standards of the first.

thats what you get when the studios who created it split up, only half the fun.

 

[SlaveOfSeven]

Well, I own it anyway. I have no idea when I'll get to it though... sadly, I still have a copy of the first game and the non-canon expansion packs that I haven't bothered going through yet.

You should give the first game a go at least. I wouldn't go as far as Jax and rate it as the number one game of all time, but it is a great game. The second, not so much; fun, but lacking a certain spark.

The scares in the school are a lot better than the ones in the original game though.

The school was enjoyable (if that's the right word) but I didn't think the scares were as good as the original, myself; much less superior. It's a different style this time; I prefer the style of the first. Different strokes, I guess.

 

[PKerr]

Ya know I couldn't seem to stay interested enough in the first one to even remember finishing it, I had to look at my achievements to see in I in fact did.

I don't know why folks felt as though it was scary or creepy because I sure didn't.
To me it felt like I was playing a bad Half Life Clone.

 

[LutherSloan]

I finished it earlier this week, and to the OP: you're all too correct about your spoiler prediction.

 

[SlaveOfSeven]

Yeah, as I've just discovered. Ah well. It was enjoyable enough, if a bit on the short side.

Gotta say the bit at the crater was awesome, in the sense of actually inspiring awe rather than the informal sense of being cool; which doesn't happen too much playing computer games. So that alone was almost enough to make up for the over-the-top cliched stuff. Made me thankful for my new computer and widescreen monitor.

Bit disappointed it didn't live up to the first, but had a lot of fun playing it, frustration at stupid saving method and horrible mouse acceleration aside.

 

[LutherSloan]

I found the gameplay to be somewhat different from the first. In the first FEAR, it was really hard to take on a group of 3+ soldiers without using the slow-mo thing at least once. This time, I found that I didn't need it at all until the 3rd or 4th level. Then it got tougher.

I was disappointed that there is still no real closure in the story. Hopefully they will release an expansion that actually CONTINUES the story for once. It's getting a little old basically just following in the footsteps of the first story again and again (although the two expansions to FEAR 1 are now not considered canon to the story).

 

[TedShatner10]

I'm puzzled at how big ATC suddenly got in FEAR 2, playing through the game. In the first game Armacham is a very big company but they're still kinda of plausible when they're presented as a hybrid of General Electric/Microsoft/Blackwater/Lockheed-Martin, but in the second game they suddenly exceed the size and scope of Omni Consumer Products/Umbrella combined. Where did ATC's divisional strength army come from when they supposedly just had the billed cap wearing rent-a-cops?

Maybe Armacham is heavily subsidized and controlled by a complicated US Government conspiracy who want to rule the world through cloning and psychic powers, hence the bottomless funding for all those underground towns and private armies.

Spoiler: The Hospital Complex

I find it amusing you wake up into what you intially think is a big metropolitan hospital with eveything you can expect in a conventional hospital (like canteens, wards, nurse's reception, and vending machines), then you get into some grim laboratory area with sinister operation theatres, blast doors, security rooms, and specimen cells. After that you go up a maintenance elevator and find yourself in a huge artificial cavern and the hospital is really just part of a gigantic bunker complex located over a mile beneath the surface!

 

[clint g]

I think I enjoyed the game more than most. While it was alot like fear, to me it seemed as if they were trying to improve on the faults with fear and i think they succeeded. The pacing, for example, was much improved. I was a little disappointing with the save functionality (a hold over from the console version I would imagine) but other than that I thought it was great. I was also glad that they didnt cave in and go with an auto-regenerating health system like every other shooter on the market.

 

[SlaveOfSeven]

In the first FEAR, it was really hard to take on a group of 3+ soldiers without using the slow-mo thing at least once.

Yeah, it was a pretty easy game; except for the tram ride, which was a bit nasty.

I was also glad that they didnt cave in and go with an auto-regenerating health system like every other shooter on the market.

Agreed; very much so.

I just finished Crysis, and I've got to say despite my complaints about Fear 2 it was a damn sight more enjoyable. Crysis looked fantastic but I found it really tedious to play.

 

[LutherSloan]

In the first FEAR, it was really hard to take on a group of 3+ soldiers without using the slow-mo thing at least once.

Yeah, it was a pretty easy game; except for the tram ride, which was a bit nasty.

That was absolutely the hardest part. The biggest problem with the game is that the enemy soldiers have AMAZING aim. A lot of games have this problem.

It was really anticlimactic, since things got pretty easy after the tram ride. The cloaked ninja guys were annoying, but with the slo-mo they are easy. Then there was no real 'end' battle. You just had to keep pushing forward in that dream sequence/vision/whatever.

 

[JonathonWally]

I just picked this one up today after playing the demo, repeatedly!

I thought the demo was awesome, cool atmosphere and lots of fun, so I went and picked this one up. I'm still very early on in the game, but having serious fun with it.

 

[Brent]

I am loving this game, haven't finished it yet, at the part where I encouter the BIG mech!

I played the original FEAR and the expansion, I love this series a lot. Someting about little demon girls is scary as crap for me. I jumped back in my seat once so far, I was at a window picking up some ammo and health, and just right beside me standing there there Alma was, just standing there, not doing anything, RIGHT beside me, didn't expect it, and I jumped back. I play with the lights off at night for the most affect

 

[rafterman1701]

I quite like it. Not the best ever, but it's fun and I like the way the AI behaves. Areas suck though, office after office. Plus the mix of Akira and the Ring works for me. It will tide me over until I pick up Killzone 2.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I have reached the school level and too be honest the game feels like I'm playing a tweaked version of the first, controlling the big mech was new if slightly limited.

Not a bad game but not offering anything new.

 

[FordSVT]

Not as good as the first one, not very difficult, a pretty generic shooter, not even as "scary" as the first one.

Yahtzee has it right this week.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/565-Fear-2