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 Post subject: Fear 2: Project Origin
PostPosted: 26 Jul 2010 17:39 
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Joined: 25 Mar 2010 20:32
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Location: Austin, TX.
Project Origin: the game that continues the story of Fear (meaning the 2 expansion packs of Fear 1 didn't happen.) However, instead of playing the Point Man in the 1st Fear, you play a Delta Force Sergeant named Michael Becket. You and your team are given the assignment to seek out and apprehend Armacham president, Genevieve Aristide. However, not everything goes according to plan and everything turns into a fight for survival.

Now, Fear 2 isn't probably what everyone expected and was seen as a small letdown in terms of the Fear world. To me, Project Origin was kind of like Monolith giving more but also taking away some of the best things that made Fear 1 great. Yes, the Jupiter EX engine was redone to give the world of Fear a great new look and feel, but was it worth it? I'll explain my thoughts on what I liked and didn't like in Fear 2: Project Origin.

Minimum requirements:

- Operating system: Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or greater/Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 or greater
- Processor: Intel Pentium 4 at 2.8ghz (Windows XP) or at 3.2ghz (for Vista)/AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Windows XP) or 3200+ (Vista)
- Memory: 1gb (Windows XP) or 1.5gb (Windows Vista)
- HDD Storage: 12gb
- Graphics: Fully DirectX 9.0-compliant graphics card with 256mb of memory with Shader Model 2.0b (Nvidia GeForce 6800 or ATi X700)

Recommended requirements:

- Operating system: Same as above
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.2ghz/AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
- Memory: 1.5gb
- HDD Storage: Same as above
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS or ATi HD Radeon 2900 XT

Story: As stated before, you are playing a different character. You and your team are sent 30 minutes before the ending of the 1st Fear to Genevieve Aristide's penthouse to apprehend her for questioning about the situation that has taken place from the first Fear. Now, since I played the first game, I knew what was going on so I wasn't lost or anything. For those that haven't experienced the Fear story might want to begin with the first Fear game; otherwise you'll be totally lost with the story and probably won't enjoy it as much as those that have followed along. The story in Project Origin focuses a lot on who Alma is and why she is the way she is. And I'll be honest, you'll sympathize with her in this game. Expect a lot of twists in the story of Project Origin because it gets somewhat complicated but pretty easy to digest.

Gameplay: Much like its predecessor, Fear 2's gameplay revolves around fast & extreme firefights against superb A.I within a horror environment. The A.I. is as smart as they were in the first Fear (if not any smarter) and they hit as fierce too. They'll take advantage of their surroundings, lob grenades at you if you're behind cover, flank you, and more depending on how you fight them. A new element they added was the ability to knock down stuff for cover (like how the enemy does.) You can knock over certain items and use it for cover. This is both useful and useless. Useful because you are given more options to cover yourself from incoming enemy fire. It's also useless at the same time because you can still get hit. The horror aspect isn't as great as the battles that happen around you. The horror aspect feels a bit cheap compared to Fear 1 and it's as if they are TRYING to scare you. There were plenty of scares but some were just too "forced." But the smart-ass A.I. makes up for the loss in horror.

Graphics: The world of Project Origin received a huge "face lift" in terms of graphics. The colors are vibrant and makes Fear 2 look more realistic than its predecessor. The Replica Soldiers, "Zombies," and other NPCs look so much more realistic and have awesome facial expressions. However, the new blood Monolith created for this game looks sort of like a gelatin type of blood. Some people were turned off by this new blood look but I personally kind of liked it. The dismemberment in Fear 2 has been taken up by a notch and provides more gore than the previous game. The way the gore flies out is kind of "out of whack" and there is too much of it. So if you are a person who hates extreme amounts of blood flying around in your games, then I'd stay away from Fear 2. People also criticized that some of the shadows were taken out of the game, thus leading to a lower sense of realism. Honestly, I didn't even notice until I read the comments people made about it. Another thing they noted about that I didn't realize was the fact that some of the artwork was incomplete. What I mean by this is: for example, in Fear 2, there is an area around the playground of a school. In this area, the player can climb up high enough to see the ceilings of the buildings. The problem: there were no ceilings! I didn't notice this at all until I read the comments and I have to say that I'm rather disappointed that Monolith decided to do a half-assed job. I mean sure the guys at Monolith thought that players wouldn't even bother to take time to climb that certain area but hey, there are players that love to look at every little detail in a game.

Sounds: Okay, I REALLY REALLY don't like the sounds in Fear 2. Not because they suck but they sound very low! It's very hard to hear what's going on in this game unless you turn up the volume in Windows or use really good headphones. The sub-machine gun sounded very weak and was like listening to an airsoft gun go off. Also, a lot of the tension related to sound in Fear 1 is lost in Fear 2. For example, in Fear 1, a dropped coke can rolling on the floor caused me to jump out of my seat. The sound of a falling body scared me at times also in Fear 1. All (or most of) that is lost in Fear 2. It really didn't bother me but I do wish they kept that in the game so that I was always on my toes and was feeling that constant dread over me. Monolith kind of dropped the ball with the sounds in Project Origin.

Misc: Well there weren't really MANY problems with Project Origin other than the sound and half-ass art job but there is something that needs to be noted that I didn't mention earlier in this. With Fear 1, you were able to bind certain actions to the side buttons of a mouse. This led to easier controls and better gameplay for the player. Well, for some stupid ass reason, Monolith decided to not do that! I mean, come on, why they decided to take this great option away from the player beats the shit out of my mind. Instead of using my side mouse button for Slow-Mo, I have to use Ctrl. It may sound trivial but to me (and other gamers), having the ability to bind to my side mouse buttons was one of the key things I loved Fear 1. Another problem (though it's not a huge problem for me) is the exclusion of leaning left and right to peek around corners. This was a very handy ability that many Fear players loved. It gave them a sense of realism during the battles. And lastly, the exclusion of dedicated servers for multiplayer really killed the online aspect of this game. Dedicated servers in Fear 1's multiplayer was one of the biggest "bonuses" for the game. Without dedicated servers, Fear 2 online quickly made its way into the abyss.

My conclusion: Fear 2 disappointed me a bit more than it intrigued me. I mean I love the Fear story, the superb A.I, fierce gunfights, and horror aspects but Project Origin took away too much and gave only a little bit of new content. The new stuff really can't cover the losses of the previous game but it is still a good game to me. If you were a hardcore Fear 1 player and truly loved everything about Fear 1, then you might feel disappointed with Project Origin. However, if you really want to know what happens within the realm of Fear, then I suggest you give it a shot, despite the disappointments. All in all, Project Origin can't compete with its older brother but does manage to hold its own weight. I give Project Origin a 7.0/10.0 for the reasons below:

Pros:

+ Superb A.I.
+ Great continuation to the Fear story
+ Fierce, extreme gunfights
+ Beautiful graphics

Cons:

- Mouse button bindings gone
- Sound is weak and some is missing from the first Fear
- Half ass job with artwork
- Some of the scare tactics felt cheap
- New cover system is more useless than it is helpful
- Multiplayer is a dead issue

Fear 2 video snippet:
[youtube][/youtube]


Last edited by DimSumGuy83 on 03 Aug 2010 17:05, edited 4 times in total.

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PostPosted: 27 Jul 2010 00:11 
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Joined: 29 Mar 2010 17:20
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
:\ i opened this expecting the usual long post and am suddenly disappointed lol


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PostPosted: 27 Jul 2010 00:57 
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Joined: 25 Mar 2010 20:32
Posts: 1247
Location: Austin, TX.
Sorry to disappoint you Bunny. I don't have the video uploaded onto Youtube so that's why there's nothing in here. Well hopefully the next time you view this section, you'll have all the reading for your enjoyment lol.


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PostPosted: 27 Jul 2010 16:24 
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Joined: 29 Mar 2010 17:20
Posts: 991
Location: Los Angeles, CA
now i do!!!
ill read it after im done :D


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PostPosted: 03 Aug 2010 16:18 
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Joined: 25 Mar 2010 20:32
Posts: 1247
Location: Austin, TX.
The video snippet has been added for Project Origin. I apologize for the quality of the video. I recorded it at half of my current resolution in Fraps and then converted it to 720p. If you guys want, I'll try to redo it using a different converter to get better quality. So for now, enjoy! :D


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PostPosted: 05 Aug 2010 03:16 
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Joined: 29 Mar 2010 17:20
Posts: 991
Location: Los Angeles, CA
for some reason i just wanted to keep watching you play lol


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