F.E.A.R. 2, AHHHHFUCKWHATISTHATTHINGKILLITKILLITNOW Options

[Tanegar]

Man, I love Steam's sales. I picked up the original F.E.A.R., the Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate expansions, and F.E.A.R. 2 as a package for $10. I already had F.E.A.R. and Extraction point, so I'm playing F.E.A.R. 2 now. One thing you could never accuse Monolith of is not knowing how to establish atmosphere. Much like the first game, I find it difficult to play F.E.A.R. 2 at night. The F.E.A.R. games feature some of the most effective use of sound cues I've ever heard, together with clever scripting to really sell the idea that the bad guys aren't just standing around waiting for you to come to them. They have their own goals and are clearly working to achieve them while Armacham corporate forces engage in running gun battles with Replica soldiers. The AI also deserves a mention: there have been several instances where I ducked behind an object to get out of the enemies' line of sight, one enemy shouted, "Where is he?!" and another actually replied "He's behind that crate!" Now if they had just done something to flush me out, like flank or throw a grenade.

As I said, sound plays a big role in selling the supernatural elements of the game: whispers in your ear whose words you can't quite make out, chittering ghosts, screams of people being torn apart or flayed to the bone. F.E.A.R. 2 also makes liberal use of Interface Screw in the form of blur and color filters to simulate the psychic Big Bad messing with your perceptions. It very effectively sells the idea that Bad Shit™ is going down.

Bottom line: If you like highly atmospheric shooters, you will like F.E.A.R. 2.

[Kagetenshi]

The AI also deserves a mention: there have been several instances where I ducked behind an object to get out of the enemies' line of sight, one enemy shouted, "Where is he?!" and another actually replied "He's behind that crate!" Now if they had just done something to flush me out, like flank or throw a grenade.

This is actually clever scripting as well. There's a fascinating whitepaper kicking around the internet describing how the F.E.A.R. AI-related systems worked and how they ended up using tricks to get some very impressive-looking behaviour without having to generate multiple breakthroughs in the state of the art; this sounds very much like one of the tricks they describe, and I'd guess the sequence goes like this:

1: an AI actor catches sight of the player, generates a "player sighted" event
2: the "player sighted" event triggers a check to see if there's another AI actor that can't see the player
3: if there is, that actor is triggered to speak a line like "where is he?" or similar
4: finally, the AI actor that started the whole process replies with a descriptive line

There were a number of really clever tricks like this; two more of note were the "call for reinforcements" which didn't actually do anything but was discovered to lead players to believe that the next group of enemies they encountered were in response to the call, and the flanking—the AI in F.E.A.R. 1 doesn't understand flanking, it just understands attacking and moving between cover. The trick is, the level designers laid out the cover such that "moving between cover" would, if the player holes up, result in the AI flanking the player (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Man, makes me almost wish I still had a working Windows install somewhere.

~J

[Adarael]

Everybody should play FEAR 2, not just because it's f'ing awesome, but because you're directly supporting the friends of mine that made it.

/plug

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Tanegar]

You know the guys at Monolith? Pass along kudos from me, dude. And ask when they're going to make No One Lives Forever 3. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Wounded Ronin]

Blood 2 was good!

[KarmaInferno]

I still have one scene from FEAR 2 stuck in my head. It's not even a major moment.

You're walking down a hallway. Up in the distance you see a shape run across the hall, silhouetted by a light so you can't make out details. When you get up there you of course turn to look where the shape ran to but there's nothing there. Then a shadow cast on the wall crosses back the other way, as if someone was behind you, between you and the light.

I must have expended an entire clip when I spun around, only to see... nothing.




-k

[Wounded Ronin]

I just beat the game.

My favorite weapon was actually the pistol, which thankfully was periodically dropped by enemies even in the end game. It was so accurate when using iron sights that it was easy as pie to multi-headshot enemies, and typically I'd swap the auto shotgun or assault rifle for the pistol whenever possible. The combat shotgun was much better than the auto shotgun, which lacked adequate stopping power IMO, but it stopped appearing towards the end of the game.

The story and execution was a lot better than in FEAR 1. The first FEAR game failed to scare me because it was very obvious when events were scripted, and when they weren't. FEAR 2 did a better job with immersion, so the cutscenes were actually scary because it didn't suddenly feel obvious from how the characters were moving that we were in a cutscene. I guess that means all the character animations were a lot better. FEAR 2 did in fact scare me from time to time.

The bullet time was a lot more satisfying, as well, I think because it was easier to use. In FEAR 1 I remember it not really feeling worth it to remember to use in the end and I went through the game mostly not using it.

[ Spoiler ]

The one and only "oh come ON" moment in the game was when Genevive Aristede capped the el tee. As if a raggedy osteoperosizing woman executive overloaded with stress hormones would be able to walk up to a military officer (an officer who just lost team members on a trek through a supernatural-infused combat zone and who is wearing military body armor) waving around a glock in her hand, rant on for ten seconds about her career, and then cap the el tee, who in turn is just going to stand there so that she can begin her verbal criticism which she delivers while getting shot, and who then dies from being shot once. In the armor, it looks like.

I remember thinking while she was talking about leverage, "quick draw from that drop holster and shoot her while she's talking".

Recently, I'd been practicing for steel shooting matches, and really improving my game. I've been spending a lot of time in front of a mirror drawing quickly from a hip holster and dry firing. As I watched that part of the game, I was actually mentally visualizing the front sight on my 1911 coming up in slow motion like it does when I shoot competitively, as I imagined what the el tee would have/could have/should have done while Aristede was talking.

Then after the el tee went down, I thought, "play dead now that you've been shot once, and shoot her in the back while she's talking."

I mean, the el tee's character wasn't a sterotypical useless Vietnam-style 2nd lieutenant or anything. She seemed to be engaged with the team and the mission for the whole game. So the one single moment of the game that really caused me to feel dissonance and step outside of the game for a second was the point where she got punked by a post-menopausal exec who appeared to be twice her age.