Fear seems like it has been around forever. I still remember playing the first one. I all ways felt that the mechanics of shooting in the game was one of the greatest achievements in the game rather than the weird little girl or the horror aspect.
In this game, you play a different character Becket. Who is thrown into the lead up and aftermath of the incident that happened in end of the last FEAR game. The atmosphere of the game is hardcore horror. But the problem comes when you are walking around with the most extreme firepower and Alma seems more interested in helping you than trying to kill her.
The A.I. does an excellent job of getting to cover and in the later parts of the game they get rather aggressive but never to the point where things get completely out of hand. The strange thing is I played most of the game as a straight shooter and didn't need to use the slo-mo too often. In fact, only in one or two places near the end. I was kind of surprised. Usually FEAR games have the tendency to throw so many enemies at you at once that it makes it impossible to kill them all without slo-mo. But in this game, the developers have given you so much ammo and such powerful weapons that even power suits can be destroyed.
The game looks great. It certainly looks better on the PC than it does on the XBOX 360 or PS3. But you will probably need a pretty descent machine to play it on the PC to get those graphics. So, the 360/PS3 version is probably the best bargain. The sound in the game is first rate and some of the enemies have signature music or sounds that will help you track them if you have a descent surround sound system. There was a nice variety in enemy types for most of the game and the action was pretty fast moving so you weren't as annoyed by killing the same three types of soldiers over and over again. They did mix it up with some cool additions and even some fantastically rendered ghosts and those amazing assassin enemies make a return with some cool new animations and textures.
The game has a descent variance in setting and even though there are far too many areas that seem to be the same layout as Office Building X. Certainly the Hospital level needed to be shortened and I wouldn't have minded a little more of the subway, if it was interesting The game does a good job of trying to fool the player into thinking this isn't the case. I was only slightly put off when the two power suit sequences that you get to control the suits seemed virtually the same in lay out and even somewhat in staging.
The ending of the game while pretty good is a little anti-climax and I felt that it could have been handled better. I'm not exactly looking forward to FEAR 3, if it's just going to be a continuation. The main selling point for FEAR 2 is the backstory that is told throughout the game. It explains everything that happened before the first FEAR game and what happened to Alma to make her the way she is.
The game does have multiplayer and there isn't anything wrong with it. But it's just not interesting or different. I enjoyed the little I played of it, but I would have liked to see something more substantial added. It's certainly fast and furious but the lack of anything really different just makes it seem unnecessary to the package rather than a feature.
My final verdict on FEAR 2 is that it's a good game in the same vein as games like Dead Space and Bioshock. If the story had a little more at the end to give the player a little more fulfillment I would have certainly ranked it right up there with those games. But as it stands, perhaps they should have dropped multiplayer and added another hour or two of story. Don't think your going to read that in one of my reviews again, so enjoy it. I give FEAR 2 a definite rent it and if you REALLY love FEAR buy it. 8.5/10...
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