I enjoyed Monolith’s F.E.A.R. on the PC. I enjoyed it so much that I even played through those non-Monolith expansions that people refuse to recognize as canon. F.E.A.R.‘s excellent artificial intelligence and satisfying gun play made for a memorable first person shooter. Its horror and scare tactics spiced things up, but at its core was a solid game which could stand on its own regardless of the dressing around it. When I heard the folks at Monolith were creating a sequel, I was intrigued. And when the demo hit the PlayStation Network, I was excited to take it for a test drive.
The demo offered a generous amount of content for the curious. The standard gambit of weaponry (including SMGS, assault rifles and rocket launchers) showed off what kind of firepower F.E.A.R. 2 had to offer while a surprising amount unsettling moments gave a sneak peak of what kind of scares we could expect. I found both offerings very familiar. They’ve also included a small segment with a mech suit which was amusing, but not something I would dedicate an entire video for.
What I didn’t particularly enjoy were the controls and technical shortcomings. It’s one thing to lock button assignments in place, but to lock them in the uncomfortable “L2/R2 triggers for aiming/shooting” configuration? That’s just annoying and uncomfortable. Monolith produced a great looking game, but I wished they didn’t do it at the expense of a consistent framerate. I’m not sure why, but something about the way the game handles movement coupled with the erratic framerate makes me queasy. I had the same problem with their Condemned games and their technical issues as well.
If the demo was meant to demonstrate the enemy intelligence, I didn’t notice it. There weren’t enough encounters to get a real impression of how they’d react. I find it hard to believe that it would be a step down, but we won’t be able to pass judgment on that until the final game debuts on February 10th, 2009.
As a fan of F.E.A.R., I cannot help, but feel an affinity for the sequel. The technical issues of the PlayStation 3 version is a deal breaker for me, however I’m not ruling the game out completely. While I cannot justify picking this title up in a surprisingly jam packed February, I may just explore the Xbox 360 or PC versions in the future.
For more information on F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, visit the official website.
Joey
dude, it was just a demo. i checked it out today and i didn’t find it to be horrible, all my friends agree as well. the first F.E.A.R was a good game with many small problems as well. Also, this is only the demo, it’s not right to say that the full version would be like this (if so, then i’m pretty sure a patch is already in progress)
the first game was good in all versions (i played the PC, 360, and PS3 versions) but not all were very different from each other. i am not sending this reply to insult you or anybody who read this review, i am just a little upset that you would skip the PS3 version of the game based on a demo. -Joey
gofukurself
technical issues with the PS3 version? really?
Im so sick of idiotic fanboys like you lookin for any reason to rag on the PS3 version of anything. I played both the PC and PS3 demos as well and actually found the PS3 version to be on par with the pc version and even had better textures.
biased fanboys make me sick
No_Style
There’s no need to call bias if you’ve seen where I play most of my games. It is not my fault if the PS3 version isn’t up to snuff. I finished the excellent Dead Space earlier last week on PS3 and found it to be excellent. My thoughts on the game will be up shortly.
Marco
Nice man.
xino
Played this on the 360, it was damn awesome!
After I finished playing it, I tried to download the original F.E.A.R 1 from marketplace but it was taken down. I never liked the first one, I don’t know why, I just hated the controls! The fact was, when F.E.A.R was introduced the first time, I was so hyped for it.
I love this game, but it still gets the degraded version unlike the PC. Game doesn’t move at 60fps and graphics level has been reduced.
Albeit this is a great game! I like the controls, I just hope you can customize it in the final product. I was so bloody impress with the realism: the way Bucket (bucket of sh..) walks, the HUD design, realism when fighting and enemy A.I. It’s just so great! It sort of feels like Killzone 2 just a little. I love the realism combat, how you can tip vending machines and tables over.
I still don’t favour using the slo-mo, makes it too easy. It wasn’t scary, but my second play through did get me jumpy. I will definitely be playing this at night, d00m 3 was sick:)
This game needs to be purchased