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

"Her name is Alma. She was eight years old the last time she stood in sunlight. In her life, she has known nothing but pain. It is the way of men to make monsters. It is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers."

This is the opening to the F.E.A.R. 2 demo, spoken by Paxton Fettel. If you don't know who Paxton is, you probably didn't play the first game. I would encourage you to do this before finishing this article; I would hate to spoil any of the surprises, and it's too good a game to not play it (And this will be filled with possible spoilers for the original game, so don't read any further if you don't want them blown). However, if you do know who he is, then get excited. The demo for F.E.A.R. 2 does exactly what the demo for the original game did for me; make me drool in anticipation for the full game.

The demo opens with a cinematic showing some back story on Alma. The opening line gives you some insight, then we are taken to a dream (nightmare, really) sequence that ultimately has you waking up after the helicopter crash from F.E.A.R.. From what I could tell, the demo at least assumes that the Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate expansions didn't happen, which is a bit of a shame; Extraction Point was excellent, a perfect follow up to F.E.A.R., while Mandate was an acceptable action game, just not up to F.E.A.R. snuff.

But enough about the old, let's get on with the new. I'll start with the dry part: technology. As to be expected from Monolith, the developers, things like particles, lighting and physics are top notch and realistic. The water in the demo is reminiscent of Bioshock, and that means it's great. The game is gorgeous, or at least as gorgeous as a city devastated by a nuclear blast can be. Fire is omnipresent in the outdoor scenes, and nice touches like a crashing passenger airliner make up the ambience of the background.

My first go through was with the resolution cranked and all the bells and whistles turned on. It chugged a little in parts, but my system is 2 years old, so that is to be expected. Actually, that being considered, it ran amazingly well for a new game with some impressive features, like motion blur. Speaking of motion blur, this is the first game I ever used it in and it confused the hell out of me. It accurately mimicked the effect of a fast moving camera, and I was suitably impressed, I just am not ready for that level of realism, clearly.

One thing that the original game did to perfection, and I mean absolute perfection, was a horror atmosphere. Sure, it has its action sequences, and those are top notch, equaling the Doom and Half-Life franchises in their intensity, maybe even earning some extra points for the inclusion of bullet-time, which isn't just a neat feature, it is absolutely necessary at points. But, I digress on that. The atmosphere is second to none. F.E.A.R. did it, Extraction Point did it, and the F.E.A.R. 2 demo does it. There are scenes set in an abandoned school that are outright frightening. They actually managed to make the evil spirits even more intimidating this time around. They appear to be the angry ghosts of dead men and made me feel like I was playing a game possessed by the demon from the Exorcist or spirits from Poltergeist.

There are a couple of BOO scares, but the occasional manifestation of the withered Alma is the scariest thing; as it was in the original.

The weapons in the game include the old standards; sub-machine gun, shotgun and assault rifle (although very different from the original), plus a missile launcher, laser weapon and a sniper rifle. The sniper is my personal favorite, and you get the opportunity to make some Replica sniper's heads explode like ripe melons (amazingly satisfying).

The demo ends with a short jaunt in a suit of power armor. Yep, you get to pilot one of those missile and machine gun toting monstrosities, and by God do you get to make a mess of things. The missiles are effective, but the guns literally shred replica soldiers. If you loved the gore in the original, then whatever is stronger than love will be inspired by this one.

Some things to keep your eyes peeled for: the afore-mentioned Alma sightings and the crashing airliner are nice touches. When you are in the school, pay attention to the decorations, and when you encounter a room with a slide projector, turn up your sound and watch the slide show, paying careful attention to what word is played for what image; it is incredibly subtle subtext and a treat for anyone who paid attention to the details in F.E.A.R. about the Armacham Technology Corporation.

By the time you read this, the actual game will probably be on store shelves (2/10/09), but if you haven't rushed out and bought it yet, either because you didn't know it was coming or are saving your hard-earned money for it (as I will be), do yourself a favor and download the demo and play it through; preferably a few times.

Then you will know that the money you lay down for the full game will be worth every penny.