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

Can Monolith enter Martin's head?

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It's 2009 and F.E.A.R. 2 is going very much against the grain. It sports a health bar, harking back to an age before the meteoric rise of the console FPS. With their sequel, Monolith have declared the two shoddy expansion packs for the original non-canon, which is good, and have clearly tried to engage with the criticisms levied against them for former efforts. If we're going to be completely brazen with the truth, though, it hasn't evolved too far beyond the original F.E.A.R. This is no bad thing, mind.

It's all about Alma, still, the all-powerful psychic monster/girl project thing that was engineered by the Armacham Corporation and subsequently released upon the world - complete with ginormous explosion - at the end of the first game. F.E.A.R. 2 starts just before the first one finished, now from the perspective of a Delta Force squad tasked with arresting naughty Armacham president Genevieve Aristide. Things, obviously, go a bit crazy.

Compared to its contemporaries, F.E.A.R. 2 attempts to hammer home the idea of making the first-person shooter personal. One of the ways it goes about attempting this is by its inclusion of the horror genre. Though it must be emphasised that the liberal scattering of Japanese-inspired horror elements are, much like its predecessor, never the game at its finest. Whilst its intended gritty, perpetual feeling of dread occasionally blips on the player's mental radar, it remains little more than a fleeting sensation.

It's not going to keep you awake at night.

Monolith haven't evolved their formula for intended scares, so the sequel still falls victim to the same inherent flaws as the original. It's often a jarring sensation for the player, with you sitting and watching as the game attempts to amalgamate its two forms - high-octane gunplay and horror sequences - in a clumsy, ineffective effort. What the horror element of the game does allow, though, is the creation of an identifiable world and universe for the game's atmosphere and plot to reside in. Even when you're plugging through the most generic cliche of a setting in F.E.A.R. 2 it will continually maintain its uniqueness through identifiable horror trappings.

The other way it attempts the personal aspect, though, is far subtler and eminently more successful. I'll start with a bit of exposition: Gears of War 2 uses the third-person, creating a cinematic direction by having the player watch the lead character. With a couple of very notable exceptions, Call of Duty 4 has the player view its set pieces in the third-person, as if you're watching an entire production perform around you. Both are successful ways of building a cinematic feel, but F.E.A.R. 2 opts for something completely different. It's a game where set-pieces happen to the player, and watching the main character take a tumble or be on the receiving end of an explosion results in a fantastic visual disorientation. It's a deliciously understated bit of design, a bit of subtlety that succeeds in a genre prone to focusing on the use of excess. Combined with its ubiquitous use of the horror, F.E.A.R. 2 carves a very distinct sense of universe and gameplay.

But that's not to say Monolith haven't incorporated aspects of FPS modernity from their fellow developers, as they've opted to cut up the repetitious nature of the genre and allow sections to flow together with the occasional use of the Elite Power Armour. Which, if we're not going to mince words, is a mech. It pops up twice in the game, and provides a satisfying few moments as you stomp around in a near-indestructible suit that can repair itself on the fly.

Your geography in these sections, and many of the game's outdoor environments, is consistently visually sound, littered with examples of artistic flair. With the EPA's, though, because you don't need to be running for cover you can truly drink in the architecture of the ruined city whilst shooting holes in absolutely everything that gets in the way. By the time you've worked out the frustration of normally being a squishy load of flesh and exit the thing, you're ready to resume your regular style of playing the game. The EPA never outstays its welcome.

The developers shake up their formula with the visuals, too. Stepping outside the established palette choices from Condemned and the original F.E.A.R., the game has been positively infused with colour. Bright, saturated shades have been juxtaposed against a plentiful supply of deep, shadowy blacks. It's a more saturated game than most, and enemies hiding in the dark would be unidentifiable were it not for streaks and flashes of colour, and the bullets that hit them leave spatters of bold reds on their bodies. Its visual fingerprint is very distinct.