F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Gives Me The Heebie Jeebies

February 19th, 2009

The first game in the F.E.A.R series was easily one of my all time favorite shooters. It did a fantastic job of blending action with suspense and terror. It kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Each time you turned a corner, you were presented with either a new fight, or a piece of disturbing imagery. Given the quality that oozed from every pore of the first game, I was highly excited to get my hands on F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. The million dollar question: Does it live up to the legacy left by the original?

Project Origin picks up right where the first game left off. You take on the role of Michael Becket, a Delta Force operative who just so happens to have the same bullet time skills as the protagonist from the first game. Becket quickly realizes that Alma has a strong interest in him, and his big old psychic brain. See, Alma has been locked up for a long time, and that big explosion at the end of the first game, and the beginning of the second has allowed her consciousness to spread out and communicate with other psychics. I’d tell you more, but then I’d have to throw up spoiler tags, and no one wants that, right?

Project Origin is, at it’s core, a very competent shooter. This game handles almost identically to it’s predecessor. right down to the quick aim feature, and the bullet time button. Unfortunately, Project Origin didn’t stop borrowing from F.E.A.R. at the controls. Many of the environments look and feel very similar to those found in the original, with the sole exception of a level set in a ruined elementary school. You’ll find yourself searching these all too familiar levels for all too familiar pieces of intel, much the same way you did in the first game.You will even experience similar disturbing visions to those found in the first game. None of these concepts are implemented poorly (with the possible exception of the bland level design), but the dev team didn’t bother with updating any of them. They just followed the formula set up in the first game extremely closely, and never bothered to color outside of the lines so to speak. The one rather large change the dev team did make was the inclusion of giant mechs. While it is a lot of fun to pilot one of these mechs, and gun down anyone who gets in your way with it’s mighty arsenal, it sort of takes you out of the suspenseful atmosphere the game works so hard to create. It’s hard to feel intimidated by, or scared of anything when you’re walking down the street firing missiles at anyone foolish enough to point a gun in your general direction.

Following in the footsteps of it’s predecessor, Project Origin includes a multiplayer mode. I can’t speak for other platforms, but on the Xbox 360, just about every game I wound up in either ended early due to connection issues, or had a population of four or less, which I attribute largely tot he fact that there are quite a few more popular shooters on the 360 taking people’s attention away from Project Origin, and that’s a shame. The controls and weapons found in the single player campaign lend themselves nicely to multiplayer. The few well populated games I found myself involved in were extremely enjoyable.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project origin isn’t a bad game, it’s just not a shining star of excellence either. It sticks very close to the standards set by the F.E.A.R., and it doesn’t really go out of it’s way to impress you with any sort of new tricks, or improvements. If you REALLY loved the original, then you should probably give Project Origin a try. If you didn’t care for, or didn’t play the original, there isn’t much for you here. With so many good shooters on the market right now, it’s tough to recommend this game to anyone who isn’t already a fan of the series.

-Mike Kurz