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

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Developer: Monolith Productions (“Condemned”)
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive
Available On: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Reviewed On: Xbox 360

While any good first-person shooter can give you a visceral thrill, most don’t do much more than that. But by combing the genre’s requisite fast action with the kind of freaky imagery, scary sound effects and great use of light and shadow normally reserved for a “Silent Hill” game, the first “F.E.A.R.” managed to give shooter fans a visceral fright as well.

In the original, you battled an army of super soldiers under the control of a psychotic psychic who made Akira look like Kreskin. Picking up where that game ended (and thus ignoring the events of the expansions “Extraction Point” and “Perseus Mandate”), you—playing as someone different than the non-descript hero of the first game—have to deal with the aftermath. Which means (you guessed it!) more super soldiers.

Good thing, then, that “Origin” has the same silky smooth controls as the original, though they have been slightly tweaked. You can now, by quickly pulling up your targeting sights, snap onto a target like a veteran from “Call Of Duty,” or flip tables and move objects to create cover for yourself, though never to the extent of such cover-based shooters as “Rainbow Six Vegas.” Which comes in handy since the aforementioned super soldiers are also, as in the original, still super smart, and won’t just stand there when you start shooting, but will instead flip a table or run for cover when the bullets start flying. Or when you show up wearing a new robotic suit of armor that would make Tony Stark jealous.

Otherwise, not much has changed, and that ain’t a bad thing. “Origin” has the same mix of fast action and freak-outs as the original, and does both so well that while this is effortlessly exhilarating enough to keep you playing all night, it’s so freakin’ scary that you won’t want to play it before going to bed. But hey, who needs sleep when there’s super soldiers to defeat, right?

Bottom Line: All we have to F.E.A.R. is F.E.A.R. 2 itself.

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