‘F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin’ Demo Impressions

Fri, Jan 23, 2009

In 2005, "F.E.A.R." rocked the FPS gaming world by introducing sophisticated horror and smart A.I. into a genre that had long relied on stop-and-pop combat. Enemies would team to flank you, spectacular, booming bullet ballets would ensue, and just when you thought things were safe, your enemies all dead, a horrific little girl with a penchant for human incineration would begin messing with your head.

If today's demo is any indication, "F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin" will be more of the same.

"Project Origin" starts up just about exactly where "F.E.A.R." let up: a massive explosion and a helicopter crash. Only this time, you're not the unnamed protagonist from the original, but rather a soldier named Michael Beckett who is attempting to rendezvous with the rest of his scattered Delta Squad. You enter a ruined building, find your first squad member, watch him be brutally gunned down by an unknown assailant, and are guided by the game's tutorial to perform your first action: "Melee."

One foe down, 30-something to go.

Though early hype for "Project Origin" promised an open, perhaps even free-roaming shooter experience, the roller-coaster scare ride in the demo doesn't fail to impress -- it's not every day you see a character's flesh ripped off -- but what really drew me in was the new complexity available in combat.

While the original "F.E.A.R." wowed with a series of short, intimate encounters with plenty of room to maneuver, the "Project Origin" demo ups the ante with a contextual system that lets you shift or knock over a variety of objects to provide makeshift cover -- or shoot destructible items to remove it. Facing a host of foes in a miniature food court, I turned tables, carts and even soda machines into barricades -- then shot a fire extinguisher in my foe's kitchen hideout to smoke him out into the open. Out on the ruined street, I opened disused car doors for temporary shielding, then when foes did the same, pumped sniper rifle fire into their car's engines to ignite the gas and literally blow them away.

Weapons felt incredibly powerful, partly due to their loud report -- but mostly because of foes' reactions to your fire. Enemies twist and stumble when hit, limp after being shot in the foot, and roll on the ground to put out flames after being lit on fire. And when you use the game's version of "bullet time," shotgun blasts and sniper rifle rounds become powerful enough to blow off entire limbs, heads and torsos in gruesome yet satisfying fashion.

The "Project Origin" demo is now available on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, with the full game coming February 10th. It's a bit of a hefty download, but there's a solid fifteen minutes of what could be a truly excellent shooter for all -- and a must-play for fans of the original.