DEMO-LITION: F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin

Sure, as Max said, I don't get to check out the Resident Evil 5 demo until next week. It looks to be a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll dig it. So, I figured that while the snow falls outside, I'd drop some impressions about the F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin demo.

You start with a trailer within the game of the future i can only assume. Alot of doomsday type stuff. It was interesting. You wake up in the street and Alma, the star of the game as the creepy little Dakota Fanning style psychic, begins to guide you through the burning and wreckage. It's a cool set piece and it sets up that you'll be seeing her a lot. The tutorial is immersive, showing a soldier shooting an unfortunate soul and having you run down and waste a few gun toting agents. Teaching you the basics of weapons, use of slowmo and intel on you PDA on the way. The pacing is enough where you get to breathe and figure out what you're supposed do yet setting you up to get the bejesus scared out of you shooting at ghosts, your character freaking out and having flashbacks, seeing blood splattered walls and the little girl inches from your face, only to disappear seconds later.


The atmosphere is what is going to sell people on this game. At it's heart, it's an FPS with a better then average story and setting. The fact is that most "survival horror" games aren't scary in the least. Sometime almost comically so. I'm looking at you last couple of Silent Hill games. (Especially you, Origins.) But F.E.A.R 2 takes the best parts the horror genre and applies it to it's gameplay. The unsettling feeling when climbing through a broken subway car, only for the doors to close and a shadow appears in front of you. The position of the camera makes it seem like the figure is creeping up behind you slowly. You turn around only to briefly see whatever it was, as the screen blurs and turns back to real time and you see......nothing. Moments like that are all over the demo. This is a gory game. The first one was a gory mess and this one is likely to follow in the same footsteps. Playing in the dark, at night, probably wasn't the best move. I nearly jumped out of my skin in a few places in the demo. My wife telling me to turn the lights on or stop playing since my jumping back hit the bed, waking her up. Awesome.



The demo ran smooth. I don't know if it will suffer the fate of the first F.E.A.R game on the PS3. That is sucking ass and running like crap. But, from the demo, I don't think that Project Origin will go down that route this time around. It ran well, with no major hiccups or slowdown. With shooters not slowing down in popularity, F.E.A.R 2 should do fairly well. Although, the PS3 version might get a jump start, but something tells me that it might get a tad overshadowed by another game coming out two weeks later. Still, F.E.A.R. 2 is going to be a roller coaster ride that will have you breaking your neck looking behind you after you play. Just try not to wake your wife.......


F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is out Feb. 10th.

J.