First Impressions: F.E.A.R. 2:
She never could contain herself upon seeing the new Argos catalog.
The horror genre is, by and large, a complete and utter farce. The only good recent example of horror, or something resembling horror enough to neccessitate new undergarments, was Bioshock. Oddly enough, so far this game borrows from various sources, doing some things well, some things sychophantically, and somethings downright laughably. But I’ll dissect each as I come to it, as I’ve got steaming mounds of criticism and praise for different aspects.
The main issue with first person shooters when telling a story, is everything has to be very visually obvious. While this is disappointing to those seeking a David Lynch-esque plot device, this probably appeals more to those who don’t want to spend twenty years on the internet trying to find out why the ball was red. F.E.A.R. 2 is all about ghosts, psychic soldiers (somehow simultaneously psychic and unintelligent), and the hallucinations that follow on from these two premises. From the beginning of the single-player experience, you’re dumped into the shoes of a named male protagonist, which automatically indicated something very clear; plot elements of this title will be completely lost on you if you haven’t played the first incarnation of the series.
Blundering on, as I hadn’t played the first game, mainly because I don’t usually have a lot of time for titles like this, I discovered one thing to my complete and utter horror. Nothing, whatsoever, was destructible. I was wearing a reinforced suit of armour, covering a very muscular arm. I smash this arm into a thin bit of wood, twice. Nothing happens. Not even a dent. As a fan of Valve’s titles, I was bemused. For a soldier, I certainly didn’t feel very strong. However, it seems I’d just emerged from the wreckage of a helicopter, so I wasn’t about to judge yet. This, by the way, is shortly after a surreal scene in a devastated cityscape, where you follow the spirit of the creepy little girl on the cover into a big lava-like hole in the floor. Makes sense, doesn’t it.
Can I just stop for a minute? When did little girls suddenly become something to fear? I’ve read my Freud, I am at peace with the concept of das unheimlich and other Gothic and horror techniques; making something natural, unnatural scares us as human beings, because we’re not used to it, as opposed to actually being afraid of something rational, say, a lion. But little girls, for all it’s worth, aren’t scary anymore. Resident Evil tried it, Bioshock tried it, though their method was a lot more original; the Little Sisters and their Big Daddies were adorable in a macabre sense of the word, but nonetheless, videogame developers seem to be very much under the impression that after seeing Splicers run across a ceiling, in the pitch dark, laughing and crying at the same time, with nothing but a wrench to defend yourself with, that little Alice Jones from down the road is going to make you scream.
Back on topic; the actual focus of the title itself, the gunplay, lends itself marvellously to the experience, providing some very intense battles with, assumably at this point, evil soliders, and pulling off an old, old, old technique we’ve come to love since Max Payne and Neo; the slow-motion button. It works well; your bullets hit harder, for one, making it not just a “lower the stress” button, and all the soldiers begin to glow, telling you where they are and what they’re doing by the position of their anatomy silhouetted to you in gold-yellow. Though, how gold-yellow is supposed to stand out in an environment that seems primarily comprised of dirt brown and headteacher grey, is yet to be explained.
The last voice actor they used wasn't so enthusiastic about his lines.
Moving through the silent corridors, your character, psychic by the way (a better explanation for flashbacks and hallucinations than other titles working with such ideas), will encounter ghosts. Some are simply memories, and some will actively try to brain you with their ephemeral fists. This is, in theory, quite terrifying, as you wouldn’t expect bullets to be of much use, and you’re given no psychic powers or means of exorcism. However, I shot several and they went away. Admiteddly they came back repeatedly, but it just felt a little odd that they could splatter entrails up the walls and ceiling, drag people through foot-thick concrete floors, but one 9mm piece of metal and they suddenly become so weak.
The only thing I could name weaker than the average ghost mobs, is the storyline, and the dialogue. I can’t remember the last time I actually played a game alone, and ridiculed it out loud out of sheer incredulity at the horrible scriptwork. “I can see a girl, she looks like she’s crying” says the gormless soldier on your radio, not quite deciding whether he’s in F.E.A.R. 2 or Left 4 Dead. “I’m going to go and check her ou-OHMYGODWHATTHEFSSSSSS-*static*” Grow up. This is pathetic. I understand the need to increase caution around what seems to be the main evil lurking in this particular area of the game, but you don’t have to throw stupid soldiers at it. I walked through a corridor where a halogen strip bulb was swinging slowly from the ceiling, all but torn from its moorings, with blood coating every surface, and the odd bit of human here and there. That was effective, especially considering (credit to you for this, I’ll admit) the fantastic lighting present in the experience. What’s not terrifying is being midway through thinking “Jesus, what caused that?” only to be interrupted by another comms broadcast along the lines of “Oh look, a dangerous looking woman, I’m so glad I brought my poking stick”.
If it’s gunplay you want, you’ll get it. There’s even a section of the first level where you jump into a mech and stomp around for a while devastating everything in your path, only to face off against an equivalent evil mech nearer the end of that particular segment. It has nothing to do with the rest of the game, feels disconnected and pointless, but it was more fun than I had playing through any other part of the single-player demo level. It’s worth a try, to be honest, even if you just test the waters using the demo as your S.S.Hopeful. But don’t expect to be scared. This isn’t scary. Big Bird is scary. Clowns are scary. Fans of Steps are scary. But not this.
Odd. I’m stuck inside this blog post. I think I can see something in my screen. What’s that? Oh my God! Help! It’s a seven point five for a game that wants a ten! Hah. Good luck. Psychic soldiers. There’ll be a psychic summer camp next. Oh wait. That was good.
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