Yet another game of recent past that I have not had the fortune of playing is the highly-acclaimed first-person shooter/horror title for the PC, F.E.A.R. Granted, it would probably scare the bejeezus out of me anyhow judging by what I saw today of the forthcoming sequel, Project Origin, so perhaps in some regards that’s for the best. Either way, we learned a lot about PO today, so if you were a fan of the original, you’ll be happy to hear what we’ve collected regarding the sequel.
The demo we were shown was not playable, but we did receive a guided tour from Dave Matthews, Primary Art Lead of the project at Monolith Productions (and not frontman of a popular music group—we didn’t even make the joke to him, as I’m sure part of the violent content of the game was inspired by all the bottled-up anger he’s amassed after receiving smartalec comments his entire life about his name… but I digress).
Anyway, the game picks up right before the final cataclysmic events of F.E.A.R., when Alma, the freaky little evil girl with the red dress, is being released from her constrictions. You play Michael Beckett in the city of Auburn, the same setting as the previous game. As you progress, you get closer and closer to ground zero throughout the entire game, as once you get there, you plan to stop Alma once and for all.
The reasoning behind this continuing militant effort is that Alma has awakened cloned soldiers throughout the city, and they’re now waging war on what’s left of civilization. The world is a dreary, run-down place these days, with only fragments of buildings left and torn architecture decorating the city streets. The enemies in Project Origin are considerably smarter than before; they now possess an expanded perception of the world around them, and they use anything from the environment as a weapon—whether it’s another fallen enemy’s gun or any other of a variety of inanimate objects. Likewise, you can shoot gas tanks to trigger explosions, trigger car alarms, break windows, knock over stacks of boxes, and destroy all sorts of environmental surroundings in your quest to confront the freaky little girl.
Speaking of freaky, now she’s a little more grown up, and she can even touch you… which isn’t exactly the type of thing you’d probably want to happen considering her appearance (and I hate to be superficial). The horror feel is definitely there; the designers consciously made an effort to control the pacing of the game so that the player is not so inundated by action sequences that they become numb to their impact. There are preconfigured scenarios throughout the game that are meant to convey a more cinematic feel in an effort to better influence the mood of an upcoming battle… for instance, a grand foe enters slowly, introduced in a movie theater in a dark hallway.
There’s also a wonderfully expansive selection of weapons at your disposal in Project Origin. Some of these include any number of automatic weapons, the “penetrator” nail gun (indeed), and various breeds of grenades such as regular, frag, and even incendiary grenades, which, predictably, set people on fire. By the way, the enemy AI’s response to being on fire is a great testament to the improvements in the system—they’ll run around frantically, searching for a source of water; or, if they can’t find one, they’ll try desperately to put it out by patting themselves or rolling around on the ground.
You’ll even find a playable version of the EPA (so-called “powered armor” from the first game; they’re back in this game as enemies as well), and it’s ever-so-sweet. You can wreak some serious havoc from within this mechanical beast’s drunken cluster missiles, and the coolest thing is, even if it’s damaged beyond use while you’re in it, it’ll never explode and kill you. That’d be too cheap, the designers decided; so instead, it simply ejects you, repairs itself over a short period of time, and then is usable once again.
So how long’s the game? Dave says around 20 hours if you take your time like he does, but if you’re all about speed, it wouldn’t be impossible to get it done in closer to 12. No details on multiplayer yet, but we’ll keep you posted. So far, Project Origin looks horrifically good.
