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

aka: FEAR 2: Project Origin, Project Origin
Moby ID: 39245
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is the sequel to F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon and continues the series' trademark blend of supernatural horror and suspense. Many mechanics from the original first-person shooter have made their way into the game, like slow motion bullet time, and intelligent AI. New gameplay elements have also been introduced, like grab and drag movable cover, combat mechs, and iron sight aiming. The environments are now more open and less linear than those in the first game, and are also more diverse.

Point-Man, the protagonist of the first F.E.A.R. has been replaced by a new playable character, Michael Becket, a Delta Force operator who has been sent on a mission to arrest Armacham president Genevieve Aristide approximately 30 minutes before the ending of the first game. Alma, the strange little girl returns to give you scares and also assist you at some points.

The game only takes the original game into account and ignores all events from the expansion packs Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate.

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Credits (Windows version)

251 People (240 developers, 11 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 78 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 71 ratings with 5 reviews)

Those Who Seek To Find Her, Will Learn The True Meaning Of Fear

The Good
The sequel, to one of my favorite FPS in a long time. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, has a lot to live up to. And after a sorted history, what with Monolith, losing the rights to the name F.E.A.R. And then having to rename the game, but still make it clear that it was a sequel, and then finally, months before it’s release, getting the rights back.

And while the ending of the first F.E.A.R. implied that there could be a sequel, it is not always wise to go rushing into the sequel game. Even though, more often than not FPS sequels are at least decent, a claim many others genre’s cannot make.

In F.E.A.R. 2, you are Special Forces, Michael Becket. And just hours before, the destruction of Auburn, you are sent in to retrieve Genevieve Aristide, and take her into protective custody. When, you arrive at her posh, apartment building, you find she is already in trouble, as Armacham, goons have orders to kill her. Before, you can bring her in, Auburn is destroyed, by Alma. You awaken in a hospital, and you are told by a mysterious assistant, that Alma, is after you. Now you must survive and find a way to destroy Alma, and end the Auburn nightmare once and for all.

Project Origin, has many cool moments, and set pieces. The hospital mission, and the creepy school, are among the coolest. And F.E.A.R. 2, like is predecessor, succeeds in having scares, as well, as great action set pieces.(Like the hallowed Half-Life.-MM-) In one great set piece, you get into a power armor, and reek havoc, on your foes.

The Gameplay also boasts some changes, and new additions. This time you can carry 4 weapons at once, giving you greater variety. You can also carry 4 types of grenades. There are a great deal of weapons to choose from as well. Some are new, and some old weapons do not return. Even some of the guns from the expansions make an appearance.

The phone messages, that filled in some of the back story, are gone. Replaced with emails, and other Intel, that is now sent to your PDA. Also new are the quick time events. In these you must quickly tap the indicated button. One of these involves a major enemy and is quite badass.

And you can still slow down time. And F.E.A.R. 2 continues the tradition of being one of the most violent FPS’ on the market. As you can still get “critical hits” on enemies. And blow them to pieces, take their heads off, or perhaps blow them in half. With the laser guns you can eviscerate to your hearts content.

The graphics are great. And use the newest Jupiter Engine, last scene in Condemned 2. It looks substantially better, than the first game. And of course the Havok physics engine is back. Who knew that physics could be so much fun?

And there are some many cool little touches. Like seeing a real-time reflection, in the scope of your sniper rifle. And the realistic looking water, and the way, that it splashes of you HUD, as well as blood, great stuff.

I would be remiss, if I did not talk about the lighting. It is some of the most realistic I have ever seen, it is hard to put into words. But what good would realistic lighting be if it was not used well. And Project Origin, also has one of the best uses of lighting. Some times it is as much of an ally as your teammates, or as much of a foe, as the replica soldiers. One new enemy, is a creature of light, a ghost of sorts, that darts by, and has to be destroyed quickly. The first time I saw it I was like WTF?

The sound effects and music, and voice acting are all solid as well. The voice overs are well done, and the dialogue is well written. As to be expected from a Monolith game. The music is great, and cues at the proper times. And is not over used.

But as in the first game it is the sound effects that steal the show. From, the creepy monsters sounds, to those heard, from Alma, it really helps maintain the scary element.

The Bad
In a lot of ways this game fails to surpass its predecessor. Even though it could have if they had wanted it to. But then again, it is much better than it’s predecessors’ expansions.

I wish, that Monolith, had not scrapped some of my favorite weapons, like the duel sub-machine guns.

There also could have been, more of a connection to the first game. And be warned this game does not use the continuity of the two expansions.

The Bottom Line
When all is said and done, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, is a great game. And a worthy sequel. Fans of the series and of FPS games in general, should not miss it. And there is a new F.E.A.R. 2 expansion coming out soon, so what are you waiting for?

Windows · by MasterMegid (723) · 2009

Has its ups and downs

The Good
Now that Alma is an adult there is a lot more material to work with. The story is still mostly centered around her and so is the horror. With Fettel gone the producers took more time to explore Alma as a character and a human. One moment I was especially interested in was on Still Island, without wishing to spoil anything: It will crush any theory that Armacham might have been right.

The new team is a lot more interesting and there is more variety in the levels. The original F.E.A.R. took place for the most part in dark research facilities and Jin aside, your team wasn't very interesting either. Project Origin takes you to different areas and you are accompanied by a more like-able team.

The new enemies are definite keepers. There is the enemy that crawls all over the walls and ceiling, they are quite scary at first, but they are also fun to fight and even more fun to watch fighting other enemies. Those psychics are more interesting though. They just stand there pretending to be normal people, but if you get close they start freaking out and bringing corpses back to life and don't die until you put more bullets into them than a single man can carry.

I liked the few moments where you got to use the APC turret and giant robots. It was a nice change from standard gunfights and they happened just enough to stay fun. Also big-ups for putting that in the demo, that is what made me buy the full game.

The AI is still top notch and they threw out some off the annoying enemies from F.E.A.R., like the turrets and those flying things that fired lasers. It doesn't just have the same good as F.E.A.R., it has something better.

The Bad
The game is dark and I mean seriously dark. Even the flashlight is less effective and to top it off, this doesn't make the game anywhere near scarier. It just makes the game more annoying to navigate through. There was also a moment very similar to the one that made me stop playing Half-Life 2, where I had to navigate through a dark, non-linear area with constantly respawning enemies and puzzles.

It isn't near as innovative as the original. If you'd take away the awesome horror, this would just be a generic shooter with some interesting moments. I didn't expect to see just as much innovation as in the original F.E.A.R., but to me it feels like they didn't even try.

The Bottom Line
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is a good game, I like the horror and story better than in the original and there is more variation, but the lack of innovation and the constant lighting problems were a huge annoyance to me. As a shooter it is just generic and not worth it, but thanks to the horror this is still a game worth checking out for 20 or 30 euros.

Xbox 360 · by Asinine (957) · 2011

Project Origin

The Good
- As with Condemned 2, this is one of the most unique looking and sounding Monolith titles. Visual design is superb. Music is one of the Grigg's best works. Sound design in general is mostly great. - More varied gameplay, than if FEAR1, gunplay is solid. Occasionaly, horror elements are good. - Levels look much prettier than if FEAR1, less square rooms, more diversity. - Very good build-up to the ending and the ending itself.

The Bad
- Story is just a copied plot from the first game but with different characters and the ending. Dialogues are cringeworthy. - Level design is much more linear, which leads to more stupid AI and frustrating moments sometimes. Overall, the gunplay is less engaging than in FEAR1. - Like Condemned 2, this sequel is less about scary atmosphere and more about insanity (which isn't necessarily bad). - Reborn DLC is 30 minutes long at best. Still solid though.

The Bottom Line
Highly recommendable, despite every flaw.

Windows · by SanfordMorgan · 2023

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

April fools'

In 2009, as an April Fools' joke, the official site of the game announced that the next game in the series will be a prequel to the original F.E.A.R.. As a reference to the criticism surrounding the quick time events in F.E.A.R. 2, the news stated that the new game would consist entirely of quick time events, as well as allow the player to control Alma on her swing, try not to fall asleep in Wade Elementary School, and enjoy the "Alma Ball".

F.E.A.R. expansions

While the sequel to F.E.A.R. is said to ignore the events of both expansions of the original game, F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point and F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate, there are a lot of things which have been taken from the expansions directly or indirectly.

Starting with the weapons: the Laser Beam gun in this game uses basically the same effect as the Type 12 Laser Carbine in Extraction Point, while the new Assault Rifle is very similar in design to the VES Advanced Rifle introduced in Perseus Mandate.

A few similarities for the enemies:

The first type of the ATC soldiers in the game look almost exactly the same as the new type of ATC soldiers from Perseus Mandate.

The new Abomination enemy in the game is somewhat similar to the Shades introduced in Extraction Point - they behave as neutral monsters, who use only a melee attack and kill any human being on their way, just like the Shades.

And finally, the funniest thing about "ignoring the events of the expansions", is the design of many levels in the game:

In the beginning levels, the new Delta Team finds itself in a hospital, later revealed to be part of a secret underground facility. In Extraction Point, the last levels take place in a hospital as well.

In some later stages, the protagonist finds himself in the subway. This place was seen in both of the expansions, mainly in Extraction Point. There is even one place in the subway level in the sequel, where the protagonist needs to step aside from a moving train to avoid getting killed by it. The same thing was in Extraction Point.

And finally, in one of the levels, a falling airplane can be seen, just like in the beginning of Extraction Point. However, in the expansion, the crash site was near a subway entrance and the plane was a U.S. Military one. In Project Origin, the crash site is somewhere in the city and it is an ordinary tour plane.

German version

Various blood and gore effects were removed in the German version. Also missing is the ragdoll system for corpses.

Power Armor

The Elite Powered Armor was originally going to be bright red coloured, but in the final game it has been changed to an olive drab military tone. It seems that Armacham supports the metric system judging by the fact that the Elite Powered Armor's heat gauges are marked as being in degrees Celsius. The Elite Powered Armor looks very similar to the Dreadnought vehicles from Warhammer 40,000.

References

In the first mission, Sanctuary, there is a strange statue in the foyer of Genevieve’s apartment. The same statues can be seen in the Museum in Monolith's other horror/FPS Condemned 2: Bloodshot.

Title

When the development studio Monolith Productions, Inc. was acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Inc. in January 2004, the name of the F.E.A.R. franchise remained with Sierra/Vivendi Games, so a new name had to be found.

In June 2007 fans were asked to submit their proposals in the contest "Name Your Fear", where three favourites were chosen: Dead Echo, Project Origin and Dark Signal. The voting for the names closed in August and in September Project Origin was announced as the winner:

Project Origin is a strong fan and developer favorite. We received over 400 submissions containing Origin in the name. The second submission of the contest was Project Origin, so we have had the name rattling around in our heads right from the beginning Project Origin is a natural fit for the title of the sequel because it is the Armacham program from which all of the trouble in the game world originates. The architect of Project Origin, Harlan Wade, used his daughter in a horrific experiment which turned her into the monster that we see in the first game. ... In the sequel, the repercussions of Project Origin are only beginning to unravel.

However, the name had in the meantime ended up at Activision Blizzard and in September 2008 Monolith announced to have purchased the name. Project Origin was kept, but as a subtitle.

Uranium

Judging by the game's PDA, the Armacham Hammerhead weapon shoots uranium spikes. The fired flechettes have glowing bands on them, however, depleted uranium does not glow (very few radioactive compounds do) and in fact does look very similar to steel.

Weapons

Like in the original F.E.A.R., some weapons in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin have a real-life counterpart. The Andra FD-99 submachine gun is based on the FN P90, the Pattern PK470 assault rifle on the HK G36, the SHO Series-3 pump-action shotgun on the Mossberg 500 and the Vollmar ULTRA92 semi-automatic shotgun on the Pancor Jackhammer.

Awards

  • Gamespot
    • 2009 - Most Disappointing Game (Editors' Choice)

Information also contributed by Big John WV, MasterMegid and Medicine Man

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by bobthewookiee.

OnLive added by firefang9212.

Additional contributors: Jeanne, Sciere, coenak, Cantillon, Medicine Man, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third, FatherJack.

Game added February 15, 2009. Last modified March 15, 2024.