The J-TAC

Issue date: 2/20/09 Section: Entertainment

F.E.A.R 2's graphics are much improved from the prequel.

Monolith, the game developers behind the "Condemned" series and "F.E.A.R." game, have once again produced an eerie, first person shooting experience to haunt your dreams and make you afraid of the dark. This time, it comes in the form of "F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin". This game picks up about fifteen minutes before the first game ends. In this game, you play a totally different character than in the first. You play as Sergeant Michael Becket, a recently assigned member to an elite military squad. Your new objective is to collect Genewvieve Aristide, the President of Armacham Technology Corporation. Armacham is a shady, private aerospace company that has been linked to suspicious events in Auburn, the city where both games take place. Once you find her, supernatural events begin and they don't stop.

"F.E.A.R. 2" is split into fourteen levels, each in a different location, except the hospital setting that spans across two of them. The controls are very similar to other first person shooter games, except for the button used to enter "Reflex Mode," which is just Monolith's fancy way of saying, "Slowing down time." This so-called "Reflex Mode" is really fun because you can slow down time for a short duration and wreak havoc on your poor, slowed down foes. There are thirteen "Reflex Injectors" that increase the duration of the "Reflex Mode" hidden throughout the game. Whether you collect them or not is totally up to you. Other than that, the controls are pretty basic and very similar to both of the last two "Call of Duty" installments. The ability to reload while sprinting is something I wish the "Call of Duty" franchise would take from "F.E.A.R. 2". You can carry up to four different types of weapons and grenades with five grenades for each. There are also a couple of sequences in which you get to pilot a huge mechanical suit equipped with infinite ammo for its two arm turrets and missiles.

There's nothing entirely too ground breaking as far as new takes on old multiplayer games. None of these are very innovative but they did introduce a new game mode where your team and the opposing team each have one mechanical suit to walk around and dismember the competition with.

The creepy sounds and scary music coupled with some haunting locales and several "in-your-face" shocks puts the player on edge and can scare even the most grizzled, first person shooting veteran.

If you like to be scared, "F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin" is definitely worth your time. I don't like to give away the way games end, so let's just say that there will inevitably be another installment in the "F.E.A.R." franchise.

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