AFTER MUCH DEBATE, and some rather nasty back room dealings, the second official chapter in the F.E.A.R saga hit stores earlier this year. And immediately split the fanbase right down the middle with a massive, flaming meat cleaver sword of doomy doom.

Some were extremely pleased to find that the two expansions (Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate) were made obsolete by the new plot arc. I fell into the other (I believe smaller) category who were disappointed due to the quality of those two offerings, especially Extraction Point. But it matters little in the end, they’re no longer cannon and that’s the end of it. The worst part about that was how it left so many loose ends. Such as the fate of the three survivors from the first chapter. Jin and Holliday were, and still are, my two favourite characters from the series. Though Stokes is pretty cool, but I’ll come to her later.

The important question now is whether Project origin is worthy of it’s place as a sequel to one of the best games made so far. Which is another point which rapidly drew battle lines between the fans. Some did, indeed, very much like the new direction the game was moving in, and others utterly hated it. It seems very much that this is one of those cases where there is no middle ground. But then, there so rarely is anymore. So where do find ourselves at the end? All I’m going to say is that a game with actual hands to press buttons and open doors is an instant win in my books.

Thankfully, at least from my perspective, the game does a very good job of driving the plot forwards. Offering far more insights into the sordid affairs of Armacham. We find that not only was Alma bred for the sole purpose of creating pyschically controlled super soldiers, so too are a number of other children. Fairly early in the game we come to a school set up to train and develop what appear to be hundreds of potential pawns. A point that many will gloss over, but a thoroughly chilling concept when you sit and think about it for just a moment.

Still, that doesn’t answer the primary question. Is Project Origin a good game or not? A worthy successor yes, but that doesn’t immediately make it worth the time to play. I believe that, yes, it is an extremely good game. Not as good as it’s parent, but I spend much of my time explaining the vast difference between “not as good” and “bad”. It’s a very well constructed, solidly written and fun experience. The over abundance of Alma, especially during early stages of the game, irked me somewhat, but fit with the story (and fan requests). And the sudden rash of heavily combat oriented sections right near the very end went a long way towards spoiling the flow for me personally. I also found it to be a little too easy. The AI seemed to be more or less on par with what we were expecting, though the environments were more linear and gave them much less room to really make use of their team smarts. Which was another thumbs down for me.

But don’t let that fool you. No matter how well constructed something is, there will always be the weak points. The important thing is that F.E.A.R 2 has less marks against is than in its favour. Long story short, my thumbs up is definitely there. And I have to say, for such an advanced game I was thoroughly shocked at how low system requirements were. Ignore those listed (which is pretty standard for PC games, they always try and make it sound more impressive than it really is) this is an extremely well coded engine. It actually ran better than the first F.E.A.R did on my rig. Now that is a major case of kudos. Plus, Leftenant Stokes. She has some great lines that add a
sense of realism to the game. “Snakefist? Are you f***ing kidding me?!?”

Graphics: 9.5/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Audio/Music: 8.5/10
Plot/Scripting: 9/10
Overall: 9/10