The best way of describing FEAR 2 is that it's the Deus Ex Invisible War of FPS sequels. A follow up to a well remembered PC classic but consoles was the priority over the PC platform. It makes sense logically, you can never become a mainstream mega success without catering to console gamers. Bioshock did the same with System Shock. Dishonored did the same with Thief. The main difference is that the Bioshock and Dishonored were new IPs on console where FEAR 2 and Deus Ex Invisible War were sequels to games that made their name off the PC platform. There are exceptions like the Call of Duty franchise however. FEAR 2 was supposed to be something along the lines of Doom 2 and Serious Sam the Second Encounter but instead it's more like the aforementioned Deus Ex Invisible War and Serious Sam 2. FEAR Extraction Point is a better sequel and Trepang2 is a better spirtual successor.
FEAR 2 is by no means bad but the best way of describing is that it's "watered down". Right away this is something noticeable about the game. It can be both felt and even seen.
Two very strong aspects of the first game is the sound design and the amazing feedback for weapons. You can notice how watered down they are in FEAR 2 just by watching gameplay footage of the first game and playing the former. FEAR 2 feels like a video game version of a movie that began life as a rated R film but got reshot to be PG 13.
Weapons do not sound nearly as punchy and impactful anymore. The pistol and shotgun being two very noteworthy examples. Firing the pistol in the first game had a super loud POP to it. The shotgun is especially watered down what was once a badass insturment of death now feels like a water gun by comparison. The loud punch is now replaced with a quick flash sound. Hitting enemies with it now has enemies just flinch a little, take 3 shots to kill with and sometimes will just blow up into mush. You get an auto shotgun but why does FEAR of all franchises need two shotguns? What's worse is that while the auto shotgun is more effective, it also chews through ammo much faster and it still doesn't come close to the shotgun of the first game and the Extraction Point.
The same can be said for weapons like the sub machine gun, assault rifle, penetrator, laser gun and so on. It's all so watered down.
This can also be said for the combat encounters themselves. It still has that feel that the first game and Extraction Point but it's much tighter and more boxed in. There are some good arenas like some of the ones in the warehouse and the elementary school but it never reaches the heights of the first and especially Extraction Point.
It also doesn't help that addition of ironsights makes it easier to gundown enemies at closer range and it's no longer the epic game of slowing down time and shooting from the hip and watching the carnage unfold. Combined with the more compact level design and it just reinforces the watered down feeling the game has.
I'm also not big on the additions of turret and mech sections. It ruins the gameplay purity FEAR and Extraction Point have. They aren't overly awful but it does put FEAR in the realm that a lot of FPS games of the time.
Also don't really think the new enemy types add much of anything. Abominations just crawl around everywhere and the most threatning aspect about them is the mashing you got to do get them off. They're just fast zombies from Half Life 2. The Replica Assassins are more annoying due to them cutting through your health quickly. Remnants are interesting on paper but they just show how weak FEAR 2's guns are due to how many shots it takes to kill them. Don't even use the Hammerhead on these guys.
The changed health system is interesting on paper since it's more about enemies dropping health than carrying medkits but since enemies can tear through health faster and can hit you in slo mo and don't drop health enough, it makes playing on anything above normal a nightmare.
After all the criticism I've made, there are things FEAR 2 does well. The story is better here than the first game while the characters aren't super interesting, the overarching urgency of stopping Alma and how much destruction she causes throughout the game does make the story intriguing in the moment. The text files aren't too long either which helps flesh out the story. The ending is still insane and crazy even now.
The environment variety is better than the first game. You go to more places than just office building after office building. While it is an improvement over the first game. Extraction Point also had more variety in it's enviroments while retaining everything great about FEAR 1. Some of the weapons and locations are similar to Extraction Point too like both being in a hospital and a subway station.
Overall, FEAR 2 is by no means terrible. I've played far worse games and there's far worse FPS games you can find released in the 7th gen but it's just an all around watered down sequel in many ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment