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

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 15:02

Entertainment

Continuing the Japanese style horror element, F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin is all about comfort zones (familiar settings) with thrown in oddness, giving a sense of unease as you group through the dark.  Much of the frights are triggered at points along your journey that must have looked good on paper.  Opening doors, entering lifts, turning a corner and so forth, but here we highlight the issue with F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin.

Maybe I am indeed becoming desensitised, but I just wasn’t scared.  Even with the lights turned down, head phones on, big screen happening, it was rare for me to jump throughout the whole F.E.A.R 2 experience.

But here is the kicker; there IS plenty of disturbing imagery in the game – heck it was originally banned in Australia.   But the problem is the delivery.  F.E.A.R. 2 has too much rhythm.

It’s like a bloodthirsty bio-rhythm, the game flows from battling soldier type foes, to a bit of triggered scares, the occasional horror opponent, cut-scene and then back to the soldiers, only the setting changes.

Once you are in the zone of the game, the expectations are set, the next step predictable and apart from a few exceptions, the game descends into generic shooter territory.

Multiplayer looks like it will be fun, with six modes and nine maps on hand out of the can.  In many ways, though, this chapter of the F.E.A.R franchise is for fans only.  As a last word, there is something less creepy about a grown up Alma wandering around killing with a thought, compared to here pre-teen early incarnation during the original game.

7 buckets of blood out of 10