Monolith continues their great tradition of throwing players into an immersive and scary world with this well executed sequel.The first person action remains largely the same with satisfying weapons, bullet time and excessive gore. While it doesn't break any new ground, F.E.A.R. 2 is certainly good enough to steal your attention for its duration.
There is a general sense of dread that kept me on edge You play the entire campaign from the first person perspective of Michael Becket, a special operative with paranormal abilities. Much like the first game, there are no cutscenes and the story is largely told by overhearing conversations between other characters or picking up scraps of information left behind by those not as lucky as you. This isn't groundbreaking but it helps maintain the immersion. This immersion is F.E.A.R. 2's greatest strength as there are is a general sense of tension throughout the world. There are very few jump scares here but the game mostly relies on its great atmosphere for the horror.
Towards the beginning of F.E.A.R. 2, you witness the explosive ending to the first game and it is around this time that Alma takes a special interest in you. You spend the rest of the game trying to figure out what went wrong at Armacham, as Alma continues her quest for revenge against her former captors. She mostly shows up as a grown up woman this time but Alma continues to be just as spooky as the creepy little girl you remember. She continually haunts you with random hallucinations and the sheer randomness of her appearances will have you taking a second look at everything. It evokes a feeling that you're really chasing a ghost.
Its an amazing audio-visual experience and the updated graphic engine does a great job of realizing this gritty world, with extensive detail on just about everything. The enemy and weapon sounds, especially in bullet time, give a hard hitting feel to all the weapons as you turn your enemies into minced meat. There's a wide range of weapons at your disposal here and all of them have the right weight and feel. This makes the action a very visceral and satisfying experience.
There is a solid shooter underneath the horror If you get down to it, the shooting is actually the same deal as the first F.E.A.R. but that isn't necessarily a bad thing since the gunplay still stands up to the latest shooters. You still encounter some really smart AI and Becket has the same slo-mo abilities as Point Man but the game's other peripheral qualities make it more exciting than your average shooter. Qualities like the excellent level design where every stage has a unique challenge. You need to be very mindful of your surrounding as the enemies use the environment just as well as you. There is also an immensely satisfying vehicle section where you take control of an Armored Mech (AMC) and it gives you a good feeling of empowerment. It will take most players around eight hours to blow through the single player but not a single minute is wasted on filler material. You're constantly moving from one exciting action sequence to another and it makes for a fun ride.
Sadly, fun is not something I would associate with the game's weak multiplayer offering. Most of the campaign's tricks like the AMCs or bullet time don't translate well here. There are plenty of gameplay modes available with a lot of room for customization but the action never feels as satisfying as the bullet time driven combat in the single player. Players can choose custom loadouts on every spawn but none of the weapons pack the same punch in the multiplayer.On top of that, its near impossible to find an actual game online. There are usually just one or two games being played on the PS3, with everyone boosting for the sake of trophies. In the end, the multiplayer is just a luxury as the tightly tuned campaign delivers the necessary goods.
It is easy to criticize the game for its familiar trappings but Monolith did a great job of executing on the same old ideas. This is a genuinely scary game at times and a solid shooter throughout. If you're a fan of the first one or happen to have missed out on it, F.E.A.R. 2 is definitely worth a look. The single player is the highlight and makes it a great rental/bargain buy.
The views here are this user’s only and are not representative of Giant Bomb's thoughts and opinions on the discussed video game. GB's official reviews reside at giantbomb.com/reviews.
