Consoles: PS3, XBox-360Genre: Horror FPS
Players: 1 (Online 2-16)
ESRB Rating: M 17+
Taking place immediately after the original F.E.A.R., a routine rescue mission becomes a nightmare as a massive explosion turns the city into a ruined wasteland. Through a series of mysterious events, your mission quickly becomes a fight for survival against the terrifying power of a mysterious, supernatural being.
Story
F.E.A.R. 2's story takes place only moments after the first F.E.A.R.'s ending, where a catastrophic explosion destroys an entire city, and awakens a wide host of disasters.
Like many FPS's in the past, what hurts the story the most is it's absolute linearity. While the atmosphere and sound in the game brings many of it's stages to life, there just isn't enough story and dialogue to make you care about your teammates.
Gameplay
The bulk of your FPS gameplay is an intense series of firefights fought out against seasoned mercenaries, artificially cloned soldiers, and an assortment of zombie like creatures. Those highly trained soldiers, each come with a different class, weapon set, and tactics. Most have SMG's and assault rifles, and wear light armor, while others don heavy assault armor and wield shotguns and flamethrowers!
Surprisingly, soldiers and mercenaries have well varied AI outside of scripted scenes, like being able to knock things over for cover, slide out of harms way, and even finding some opportunities to flank the player when they least expect it!
In addition, a healthy assortment of weapons players can carry (Up to 4 firearms, and 4 types of grenades) lends to plenty of flexibility in choosing ones strategy against a well programmed enemy.
Graphics & Sound
The shadowy halls and ruined streets of F.E.A.R. 2 are perfect settings for it's horror theme, with sudden apparitions or hallucinations appearing on screen to scare the bejessus out of you!
Everything from destroyed buildings, to abandoned medical facilities are decently textured, and areas populated with soldiers or ghosts are two different worlds, thanks to the nice changes lighting and the amazing sound design. With scratching sounds coming out of your rear speakers, or the clatter objects out of sight being tossed about, bring a beautiful sense of paranoia to each player.
Combining that with the many ghosts you'll be fighting, makes for a perfectly tense atmosphere that even veteran gamers might feel just a tad uneasy in. All in all, F.E.A.R. 2's graphics may not be up to par with other next-gen games, but the total experience makes for one enjoyable game.
Overall
For all it's terrifyingly amazing effects, and it's challenging AI, F.E.A.R. 2 remains linear, with a lack of really creative level design. As a whole though, it's a rock solid shooter that provides an enjoyable challenge that'll leave you with a white knuckled grip on your controller.
Review by Johar Aston, TheLAG
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Copyright 2009 Johar Aston, TheLAG
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