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

February 11 2009, 5:51am

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC, First-Person Shooter) opens with Paxton Fettel taking command of a battalion of Replica Soldiers and storming the Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) headquarters. Surveillance footage shows Fettel in the act of cannibalizing one of his victims. You, the player, are introduced as the new "Point Man" for the First Encounter Assault Recon team, a secret government organization that specializes in dealing with paranormal threats. The team coordinator, Rowdy Betters, introduces you to teammates Spen Jankowski and Jin Sun-Kwon. The team is ordered to eliminate Fettel. As a failsafe measure, ATC implanted all bioengineered soldiers with a honing device, so the team is able to track Fettel’s movements with the Hannibal-3 spy satellite.

GamePro gave it 4 out of 5 stars: “While it wasn’t the best shooter ever created — that honor belongs to the original Half-Life — the original F.E.A.R. was a terrific FPS, full of intense action, a sweet slo-mo gimmick and the scariest little girl I’ve ever encountered whose last name wasn’t Olsen. Now, the spine tingling sequel, Project Origin is here to continue the story of the psychic and psychotic Alma with damn good results.” [GamePro | F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin]

GameSpot gave it a 7.0 (‘Good’) rating: “You’ll get the occasional heebie-jeebies from F.E.A.R. 2, but the magic of the first game hasn’t been re-created here. It’s true that some of the changes in the new game seem like they were intended to address criticism of the first F.E.A.R.: tedious and claustrophobic environments, lack of enemy variety, and so on. Sadly, though these changes were made, the resulting sequel, while fun and well-crafted, seems to have lost sight of the strengths that made its predecessor so unique. Nevertheless, playing F.E.A.R. 2 is a worthwhile way to pass the time while we wait for the inevitable next installment.” [GameSpot | F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin]

IGN.com gave it an 8.3 (‘Impressive’) rating: “With F.E.A.R. 2, Monolith has crafted a solid follow-up to F.E.A.R. It’s a good shooter, bordering on great at times, but it’s not as groundbreaking as its predecessor. Still, it’s definitely faithful to the idea of F.E.A.R., which is mainly trying to get under your skin using a combination of tried-and-true horror elements, not the least of which is a creepy little girl.” [IGN, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin]

Those already familiar with the first game will probably also enjoy F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. If you didn’t play the first one, though, maybe you should start from there. IceRocket: F.E.A.R. 2 project origin