Manually doing captions for pictures is going to get tedious...
Several weeks ago FEAR 2 Project Origin was released, continuing the first person shooter franchise started with FEAR. I had some fondness for the first one and plenty of dislike for the expansion packs. This in mind I felt rather ambivalent about the sequel, as although my natural cynicism said it would be bad to mediocre, I hoped that perhaps Monolith had taken what they learned from the earlier games and used it to refine the elements of the series I liked.
Then I played FEAR 2. And died a little inside.
Conveniently I've become accustomed to this sort of disappointment, so rather than feel angry and betrayed, I'm just a little sad.
Before I get into the details, let's have some quick background (enough so people who will be bored, and people who don't won't have a clear picture).
There have been four games in the franchise. FEAR, FEAR Extraction Point, FEAR Perseus Mandate, and FEAR 2: Project Origin. Now FEAR and FEAR 2 were made by Monolith, whereas Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate were made TimeGate, due to the fun of developer/publisher disagreements.
In FEAR you play as the silent Point Man of First Encounter Assault Recon, who has a mysterious past and the capability to see the world in bullet time. The scarce members of FEAR and a lot of Delta Force red shirts face off against a battalion of clone super soldiers psychically controlled by Paxton Fettel, who is searching for his mother Alma (think Samara from The Ring except with fire instead of water, and she kills a little more directly). People die, perception is screwed with, Alma turns out to be your mother, and you try to kill everyone with a nuclear explosion. Fun times all round.
Extraction Point follows right after the events of FEAR, and the midden has really hit the windmill; everything you did in the last game has either been undone (killing Paxton), or made things worse (nuclear explosion kills everyone except the target). Following this pleasant turn of events the FEAR team members spend the entire game trying to get the hell out the city and proceed to fail utterly.
Now I haven't played Perseus Mandate, but you are not missing much. Don't worry, my upcoming rant will elaborate.
FEAR 2 has you playing as Michael Becket of the Delta Force (the same guys who spent the previous games dying as much as.....things that die a lot). After getting bullet time you go from one secret Armacham base another for the majority of the game as you search for a clue, and then a psychic amplifier. In the end you try to kill Alma but instead you just get raped.
Literally.
Well that was the 'quick' background, now time for the actual rant. Except that at this point I'm not in the mood anymore to complain so I guess the point for this post will be a post in itself. Ironically enough (or perhaps intentionally) this sort of inconclusive and abrupt ending right up the collective alleys of the FEAR games.
To be continued.
Then I played FEAR 2. And died a little inside.
Conveniently I've become accustomed to this sort of disappointment, so rather than feel angry and betrayed, I'm just a little sad.
Before I get into the details, let's have some quick background (enough so people who will be bored, and people who don't won't have a clear picture).
There have been four games in the franchise. FEAR, FEAR Extraction Point, FEAR Perseus Mandate, and FEAR 2: Project Origin. Now FEAR and FEAR 2 were made by Monolith, whereas Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate were made TimeGate, due to the fun of developer/publisher disagreements.
In FEAR you play as the silent Point Man of First Encounter Assault Recon, who has a mysterious past and the capability to see the world in bullet time. The scarce members of FEAR and a lot of Delta Force red shirts face off against a battalion of clone super soldiers psychically controlled by Paxton Fettel, who is searching for his mother Alma (think Samara from The Ring except with fire instead of water, and she kills a little more directly). People die, perception is screwed with, Alma turns out to be your mother, and you try to kill everyone with a nuclear explosion. Fun times all round.
Extraction Point follows right after the events of FEAR, and the midden has really hit the windmill; everything you did in the last game has either been undone (killing Paxton), or made things worse (nuclear explosion kills everyone except the target). Following this pleasant turn of events the FEAR team members spend the entire game trying to get the hell out the city and proceed to fail utterly.
Now I haven't played Perseus Mandate, but you are not missing much. Don't worry, my upcoming rant will elaborate.
FEAR 2 has you playing as Michael Becket of the Delta Force (the same guys who spent the previous games dying as much as.....things that die a lot). After getting bullet time you go from one secret Armacham base another for the majority of the game as you search for a clue, and then a psychic amplifier. In the end you try to kill Alma but instead you just get raped.
Literally.
Well that was the 'quick' background, now time for the actual rant. Except that at this point I'm not in the mood anymore to complain so I guess the point for this post will be a post in itself. Ironically enough (or perhaps intentionally) this sort of inconclusive and abrupt ending right up the collective alleys of the FEAR games.
To be continued.
I'll forever wonder what the actual rant would have been like....i guess a boy can dream....
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