Product Details
 | Fear 2: Project Origin |
| List Price: | $19.99 |
| Price: | $9.68 |
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Product Description
Fear Alma AgainProduct Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2407 in Video Games
- Brand: Warner Bros
- Model: 1000038906
- Released on: 2009-02-10
- ESRB Rating: Mature
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Dimensions: .35 pounds
Features
- Confront enemy forces and Alma's supernatural powers as special forces operator Michael Becket
- Enjoy improved world interaction features as you navigate the detailed environs of a ruined city
- Experience a dramatic slow-motion effect as a result of your character's awesome reflexes
- Combat all-new enemies that use improved AI to employ advanced tactics
- Use multiplayer mode to compete with or against your friends
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Confront
terrors both known and unknown in a explosive battle for survival with
F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin for PC. This action-packed follow-up to
Monolith Productions's award-winning supernatural shooter F.E.A.R.
begins where the previous game left off. This time, you'll come up
against Alma's powers from the perspective of special forces operator
Michael Becket. After an enormous explosion has devastated the city of
Auburn, you'll quickly discover that what seemed like an ordinary
mission to retrieve and interrogate Genevieve Aristide is anything but.
Project
Origin Run Amok: Alma's Background
Fans of the first game will
be familiar with the suspenseful story surrounding the psychic Alma, a
peculiar and disturbing odyssey that adds depth to her devastating quest
for revenge and immediacy to gameplay. Origin began as a secret
military project run by the Aramacham Technology Corporation (ATC) . In
an experiment run by Alma's own father, her DNA was used to create two
clones that possessed her impressive psychic powers in an attempt to
engineer a telepathic military commander. In the end, the research team
became worried about the dangers of Alma's powers, and they tried to
kill her.While her heart stopped beating and her physical body
died, her psychic energy continued to exist, and she manifested herself
in many forms, including both a child and a deformed adult figure that
betrays the gruesomeness of her ordeal. Due to a string of events tied
to both her clones, Alma has escaped the disastrous explosion of the
last game and the facility where she was held, and the haunting
manifestations of her power are at work all around you, adding an
unpredictable, nightmarish quality to the world.
Strange Events
in a Supernatural Setting
In order to get anywhere in the rubble
of the city of Auburn, you'll need to survive firefights, stay calm in
the face of surprisingly graphic events, and uncover the terrifying and
mysterious nature of your real enemies. Your character's phenomenal
reflexes allow the much-talked-about slow motion effect from the
original title to persist here, giving you an edge in combat and adding
to the unique nature of your perspective.
Improved Details and
Enemy AI
An enhanced graphics engine means more detailed
environments to explore and better effects. The vast destruction in the
city opens up a huge variety of spaces and enhances the other-worldly
feel of your mission, and you better be ready to stay on guard because
all-new enemies powered by improved AI don't just act more realistically
than their predecessors, they employ advanced combat tactics and know
how to use the environment against you. But they aren't the only ones
with more resources at their disposal--additional world interaction
enhancements allow you to create cover and protect yourself or remove
obstacles from your path.
While it may be the horrific action and
the details that first catch your eye, the tactical demands and the way
story elements are slowly unveiled promise to help keep you interested
as gameplay wears on. And for those times when you're not in the mood
for a prolonged single-player campaign, this title also offers the
ability to battle with or against friends in multiplayer mode.
Ghoulish
supernatural enemies give F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin a horrific,
cinematic feel. View larger. |
You'll explore and
do battle in the dark corners of the ruined city of Auburn. View
larger. |
 |
An enhanced
graphics engine offers more dramatic effects. View larger. |
Improved enemy AI
means you'll need better tactics. View larger. |
Customer Reviews
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Bargain Bin
In 2005, F.E.A.R. was an
incredible experience for me. I loved the combat, loved the story, loved
the scares. Which makes this experience all the more painful several
years later. Simply put, F.E.A.R. 2 continues the trend of making
console ports into PC games, and it's once again a tragic failure.
I
will not delve on the story, except to say surprisingly few of the main
characters from F.E.A.R. are in there. Sure, a certain little girl
roams the halls of this new release, but other than that there is not a
whole lot of the First Encounter Assault Recon team in this "F.E.A.R."
experience. The story is also quite short, even on the hardest setting,
but I suppose this is the trend nowadays. Or perhaps it is for another
reason, like the glaringly dumbed-downed enemy AI, or the lack of an
"extreme" difficulty setting like its predecessor had.
Which
brings me to the laundry list of problems with this game for PC gaming.
For starters, the AI pales in comparison to the original. At first I was
disappointed that they took the ability to lean out of the game
(especially because the enemies can still use this forbidden feature),
but then I realized that it was so easy to best the AI in combat it
didn't matter. And be careful when using that slow-motion, because it
causes the enemies to light up with a glow effect reminiscent of
Assassin's Creed, in case you had any trouble shooting them before.
Overall, combat is not nearly as polished or as fun as F.E.A.R. The new
cover system? Might be helpful if anything you took cover behind
actually fit the player; instead, most of your body is still exposed.
And
the list of egregious errors continues. There is horrible letterboxing
across the top and the bottom of the screen if you do not play on a 16:9
display, meaning all monitors of standard 4:3 and widescreens of 16:10
will be out in the cold. There is a film grain which, when played at the
highest resolutions, looks absolutely atrocious and ruins the depth of
the graphics, which are a tad dated to begin with. Shadows are glitchy
at best: sometimes they appear for certain items, sometimes not, in
multiplayer never. The clumsy HUD takes up almost the entire screen. And
the best part about all these mistakes? There are no options to disable
them. The lack of customization in this game is laughable- it's far
more restrictive than the original!
But these are mostly cosmetic
fallacies- the real deal-breakers are far more critical. For example,
you cannot save/load from wherever you want, but merely from a series of
checkpoints. In a PC first-person shooter. Are you serious? This is an
extremely visible error that screams console implementation and in no
way should be included in a computer game. Want to map your extra mouse
buttons as in the original? Not possible. But even that is a relatively
small affair compared to the multiplayer woes of this game. In short,
there are no dedicated server files or anti-cheat measures. That's
right: a game which requires Steam to install and run has no real
servers, merely hosted games running on other people's machines. This
might be fine for an XBOX or PS3, but it is completely unacceptable in
2009 for a game to have a watered-down MP experience far worse than its
2005 predecessor. Fortunately, if and when you get MP to work it is a
pretty forgettable experience. No leaning, no slow-motion, no real
difference between F.E.A.R. 2 multiplayer and any other shooter. Call of
Duty 4 runs circles around what this games "multiplayer" claims to be.
Bottom-line: F.E.A.R. 2 has console multiplayer, and it's utterly absurd
on a PC.
Overall, F.E.A.R. 2 is, simply put, the biggest
disappointment for a sequel which I can recall in the last decade. Even
Far Cry 2 didn't make some of the more tragic development errors
F.E.A.R. 2 is chock-full of. Taking the huge PC community which loved
F.E.A.R. and giving them a bargain-bin console port is the only thing
that really scares me about this game. Monolith, normally a pretty
reliable outfit, has gone the way of many other developers and gone
after the casual console crowd with this one, and it's a shame.
People
who pay one, two, three, or even four-thousand dollars plus on a
computer system do not want to play a game that they could have played
on a console for a couple hundred. They want the ambiance and feel of
the original F.E.A.R., not some watered down garbage that caters to the
more simplistic crowd. Sure, the game is scary at times, and yes, the
graphics can look good given the right circumstances, but this is
nothing like F.E.A.R. Gone is the intelligent combat. Gone is the
legitimate feeling of fear. Gone is any chance of a multiplayer
community. And, perhaps worst, gone is my fifty dollars on a game I
expected to be the best shooter of 2009.
Save your money and your
fond memories of the original F.E.A.R. This might as well be the
Activision/Blizzard version- the one with the same name but none of the
same feel. Monolith should have just left the name as Project Origin and
not tarnished the good name of the F.E.A.R. franchise with this console
mess. Caveat emptor.
A welcome update
to the F.E.A.R. franchise but requires Steam to play
FEAR:2, the long awaited
sequel to the original Fear Trilogy (not really a trilogy, but there
were three games: Fear, Fear: Extraction Point, and Fear: Perseus
Mandate) is finally here and it doesn't disappoint. Walking the
footprints of giants in the horror game genre isn't easy, especially
when one of them was your previous incarnation, the original FEAR.
Gladly, they got it right, and in fact, even better than the original in
many ways.
First off the level design is much more imaginative
than in the original F.E.A.R. There are a wider variety of environments
(No more endless office corridors!) and they are all very nicely done.
Second,
the shock value is as good or better than the original with new
affects, startling moments, and fast paced action akin to Doom 3. Slow
moments are mixed in, complete with visions of the dead, 1st person cut
scenes that move the story along, and a few nice nods to the earlier
game.
One of the things I liked best in the original F.E.A.R when
it was released was the way the weapons worked. They just felt 'right'
and meshed with the environments to create clouds of concrete dust from
bullets hitting the walls and support beams, fires, etc. That's been
taken to a whole new level in FEAR:2. The combat feels cinematic with
you controlling the action. It's amazing. Sometimes I wanted to just sit
back and watch what was going on, but couldn't because I would have
gotten hacked to pieces by one of the swarming zombies coming my way...
This
is a fairly short game, and replay value is average. Once you've played
it for the story and been shocked out of your socks at a few places,
the intensity level will be lower. However, the game play and visuals
will keep you entertained nonetheless.
One of my biggest
complaints with the game is that they did a poor job of tying FEAR:2's
story together at the end. It will leave you with as many questions as
answers, in the same way Fear: Extraction Point frustrated me.
I
am a huge advocate for DRM free games. I've written many of those 1 star
reviews that so many of you dislike. I will continue to write them,
because I believe draconian DRM schemes like SECUrom are terrible for
the consumer, and unnecessary as well. However, in the case of FEAR:2
and STEAM, I actually am coming down on the side of STEAM (to an
extent):
1. Steam is DRM, but it isn't malicious like Securom and
does not enforce limited installations on your computer. It does not
take root level control of you computer, and does not attempt to disable
other software, nor does it potentially screw up hardware profiles for
CD/DVD drives. It is in short, about as benign as I can imagine DRM
being, and while it does have its problems (see below) it is a
compromise that I can in good conscience make.
2. I already have a
STEAM account and have had one since HL1 days, and have a completely
satisfactory experience with it, including installing multiple games on a
series of different computers over time.
3. STEAM does not
attempt to control my computer. It does a simple check with the server
and then releases me to play my games. In fact, contrary to common
belief, you can unplug your computer's internet and play Steam games all
you like once they are activated.
However, STEAM has some real
negatives as well:
1. Potentially violates the "Doctrine Of First
Sale" which guarantees my right to re-sell something that I've
purchased. STEAM allows a 1 time transfer of the game to another
account, but once it is moved, that's the end. No more transfers. I
understand why STEAM does this: to prevent massive rings of gamers
swapping games back and forth using their servers to achieve it, bogging
up their download severs, etc... While I agree that is a problem for
them, I think that limiting transfers violates my rights, and destroys
the second hand game market.
2. Requires 'One more program' to be
run on my computer. I'm pretty selective about what I install on my PC,
and I hate being forced to have yet another program running just to
access some of my games.
3. What happens if Steam goes out of
business? Will I still have access to my games? How? None of that is
spelled out in any documentation from STEAM or VALVE.
So
basically I've come into this one with my eyes wide open. It's not that I
love STEAM and think it is totally without faults. I just think that
its faults are not enough to limit me playing a game as good as FEAR:2.
STEAM itself has proved itself reliable in the last 7 years, and so I'm
willing to use it to play a game I really, really want to play. The key
distinction is that Securom DAMAGES my computer and TAKES AWAY MY
ADMINISTRATIVE RIGHT, as well as ENFORCES LIMITED INSTALLATIONS. STEAM
does none of those things.
Overall this is a great game. If you
can't live with STEAM, I understand, and I honestly probably wouldn't
get involved with it either if I didn't already own a bunch of games on
it from years past, before I learned about DRM schemes and began to care
about such things. Go in with your eyes open, and if you think it's
worth the potential risks, the game itself won't disappoint you.
Glorified Console Game
I am not about to rant about DRM/STEAM as this has worked well since Half Life so who cares. What I
am going to rant about is how lousy this is.
The game that PC
gamers made famous now goes CLEARLY console with an afterthought port to
the PC. Jerky graphics, loss of leaning (my prized feature), lame
story. FEAR original had a decent (if sometimes incoherent) story with
great cut scenes and a creepy factor.
FEAR Original AI was
brilliant!! Their reaction to the flashlight, grenades, your movement
and they would hide and sneak up it was amazing. Equally amazing is that
ALL OF THAT IS MISSING HERE!
PROS
Sierra made lots of money
selling out to Vivendi or Warner Bros or whoever is responsible for this
steaming pile
CONS
-Went out of my way to buy it and waited
in anticipation
-A SLAP in the face of the PC gamers that made this
famous
-Clearly a console game with console graphics and action
-Console
jerky mouse movement (think 10 year old on Ritalin)
-WHERE IS THE
LEANING????? Oh yea ran out of CONSOLE buttons I guess
-AI is
STOOOOOOPID and I mean dumb as a box of rocks. On normal difficulty, I
can mow then down all day.
-Poor level design (horrible to be honest)
-TOTALLY
linear although they attempt to convince you that there are other ways
to go
-Creepy factor has been replaced by weak attempt and flashes of
Alma
-Completely lacks the original dark feel and story
-Lame
dialogue ripe with foul language for no reason. In the original game
when the guys would yell F*** or S*** or otherwise, it had a place and
increased the realism. They sounded shocked. This just feels like an
onslaught of pointless cussing to make little boys giggle.
- Grenades
(a fave) are useless as their concussive damage is nil. You drop a
grenade in the middle of 3 guys, they run to the wall, BOOM....nothing.
-
I could go on but hopefully I have convinced you to wait until $19.99
All
in all this is a major disappointment and I mean MAJOR for one of my
favorite game franchises. Hell I even bought Perseus Mandate and enjoyed
that even though it was an overpriced expansion pack.
Chasing the almighty dollar on console games. TOOLS!
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