["Goosebumps" theme] âJoin us now!â With Halloween right around the corner, itâs time to talk about a scary game. This video is slightly haunted. I thought I already did a review of âF.E.A.R.â⌠but itâs come back to haunt me. The same plot and ideas â theyâve all come back as a spooky, shambling corpse. Things might get hairy, so sit back and turn out the lights, and- [burst fire] Or not⌠In âF.E.A.R. 2â you play a Delta Force operative, named Michael Becket. The game kicks off before the ending of âF.E.A.R. 1â, and youâve been sent in with your team to arrest a corporate director of Armacham. Things donât go to plan, and now you need to fight an army of clones and stop a spooky woman. Look, I know the box says âF.E.A.R. 2â, but this is, eh⌠like a soft reboot of âF.E.A.R. 1â. Iâll talk about the story differences a little later, but for now thatâs all you need to know. Alrighty, letâs look at the presentation. For a game from 2009, it looks like a game from 2009. Iâd even say itâs closer to the high end of the scale. The textures are solid, and, on occasion, the lighting and shadow effects can be pretty impressive. The detail in the models and animation is also great. And a step up from âF.E.A.R. 1â. There are more improvements, like better soft shadows, more detail in the environments, and, eventually, more varied environments. Itâs a good start, but things change more when you get into the lighting. It is odd that the first game used it so well, and âF.E.A.R. 2â has so many problems with it. The game tries very hard to convince you that there are no problems, and things are just like they were before. But youâve changed, and I can tell. The lighting is far less dynamic than âF.E.A.R. 1â. To explain: this game had very harsh lighting. There werenât a ton of fake light sources in âF.E.A.R. 1â, and it wasnât uncommon at all to be in a room that was nearly pitch black. Some textures had lights mapped onto them, and other common techniques to make you not realize it wasnât all dynamic. But there was enough that was to really sell the illusion. When you consider that and the AI, âF.E.A.R. 1â is kind of like the greatest magic show in video games. It did come at a cost â the environments were barren and similar, to make the effect work properly. What they were doing already was nearly setting computers on fire, so they couldnât push it that far. âF.E.A.R. 2â seemed to have an opposite ratio, where I was actually shocked when I saw my own shadow, compared to it just being commonplace thing. Okay, so the lighting is just worse, but how is that an actual problem? As I said before, there was a lot of attention to detail in âF.E.A.R. 1â when it came to lights and levels. The lack of detail in the environments also makes it easier to pick out an enemy. If you really had trouble, you could use your handy-dandy flashlight and reveal yourself more. Thatâs still the uncommon solution. So now we donât have nearly as many of these lights, and the environment has way more stuff in it. So whatâs the solution? Well, it might make your head spin, but they settled on âcover everyone in Lite-Britesâ. In fact, if you go in slow-mo, every enemy will be highlighted in bright orange. There is a lot wrong about slow-mo now, too, but Iâll hold off. Just having people with Lite-Brites is already silly, so they compensated by also giving the game a more sci-fi aesthetic. Your weapons can glow, environments can glow â everything must glow. This hurts the design. The Heavy in âF.E.A.R. 1â has dangerous glowing blue insect eyes. It makes him unique, and he stands out in darkness. The Heavy stands out here too, but he glows like the damned Sun. This could look really awesome in darkness â in fact, there is a section in DLC where it looks incredible. And it looks incredible, because itâs a very small section that was carefully planned out. But now look at this doofus in broad daylight. The giant orb of light around him isnât behaving realistically, but even worse than that is the fact that he looks silly. You can barely tell what heâs supposed to look like, and also his AI is breaking this clip. There are some enemy designs I really like, and, for the most part, the glow on them is minimal. Making a design, but saying âIt has to glow here, here and hereâ is a horrible parameter to work with. This also greatly changes the tone. In âF.E.A.R. 1â the Replicas rolled around in armored cars, and I liked that. They were this insane sci-fi element, but being carried around in something fairly mundane. It grounds them and helps you suspend disbelief. The same thing went for the sci-fi weapons. They werenât covered in gizmos â they just looked like an experimental weapon. The grounding made fantastical elements stand out, but they never pushed it too far. But now weâre in Lite-Britepunk, so we have to rearrange all of that to make it consistent. What was once grounded is now cartooney. And⌠anime. [rocket launcher shots] STOKES: âYou did it! The turretâs neutralized!â Also, this is supposed to be a horror game. Ghosts and spirits have not been spared, and suffer from the same issues. They have to be visible â make âem bright. Itâs a shame, because theyâre well animated, but theyâre a miasma of Bloom and light, so you canât really be afraid of them. You also see them better if they get stuck on a rat, and thatâs⌠thatâs pretty embarrassing. The cloaking enemies bend light and color around them when shot, which is actually a really cool effect. But itâs made less special, because 1) so many enemies already emit light, and 2) that effect wasnât enough, and they also have to shoot arcs of lightning everywhere. Even the horror sequences arenât spared. Letâs make a comparison. Iâll use a similar scene. Hereâs â1â. [sporadic gunfire] [sharp music sting] Now â2â. FOX: âBecketâŚâ So whatâs wrong about it? This has potential to be the stronger scare. Itâs all in first person and uncut and right in front of you. And then someone presses every post-process button at once. I can barely tell whatâs happening, and not in the good way. Maybe as a one-off it could be okay, but this is the gameâs favorite technique for scaring you. Thereâs not much buildup to these either â they just happen. This is like watching âThe Grudgeâ during a solar flare. Maybe these images are effective, but⌠I CANâT SEE THEM. Itâs honestly incredible just how mishandled the lighting in this game is on nearly every level. When ghosts come out in âF.E.A.R. 1â, they rip reality around them. Theyâre supernatural, but coming into the world you know, and thatâs what makes them scary. And I know horror is a subjective thing, but Iâm willing to bet less people are scared by the Sunny Delight dimension. And there is a legitimately great sequence in this game, but Iâll save that. At the end of the day, that may not matter to you. You might enjoy the more detailed environments and colors that âF.E.A.R. 2â has. My problem is how easily it can look like so many other games of its era. There are a lot of technical improvements over the predecessor. In retrospect though, âF.E.A.R. 1â has a brutal industrial art style. You typically only saw bright red painting someone to the wall, or seeing Almaâs dress. Blood is red, dress red â caveman brain know Alma bad news. We canât do that now. Now she grabs you and the lights are flashing, and you mash a button. So, to wrap it up: the light in âF.E.A.R. 2â is an absolute mess. You canât put all the blame on consoles for this one â this is an art direction problem, too. Now, the Heads-Up Display â that falls under âsort ofâ. You know, the centered elements are so it fits in the TV, but the horrible blue lines â no. Youâre wearing âCall of Dutyâ Elite Gamer goggles. Itâs supposed to be an immersive HUD element, like âRepublic Commandoâ or âMetroid Primeâ. In practice, you might just get some water droplets on your face, and the screen cracks when you die. The rest of the time they do nothing for the screen and are just annoying. Itâs worth noting that in the DLC for this game this was also removed. I think they realized it was an unfinished idea. But my big UI annoyance is the ammo icons. For some reason, different ammo types will sometimes share the same icon. This only serves to add some needless confusion to managing your ammo. I have shells â now I donât. A slightly different symbol could have helped here. Iâm not completely done with the visuals, but letâs take a break and look at the sound. No, wait, I meant âlistenâ! The âF.E.A.R. 1â composer is back, but the music has become more generic. [fairly bland military tune with Middle-Eastern vibe] [monotone chugga-chugga] [gunfire] [barely audible ambience] There are still a few standout tracks, but it feels a lot more subdued than before. The music did become stronger and, frankly, noticeable in the later parts of the game. [stronger and, frankly, noticeable music tracks] Sadly, it never reaches previous heights. [F.E.A.R. OST - Replica battle] The weapon sounds also donât hold up, and, beyond that, they donât even measure up to an average scale. They sound weak and lack bass. [*pop-pop-pop*] [*BANG-BANG-BANG*] [*prrrrrr-prrrr*] [the ting goes SKRRRR-AHHHH!!] [pap, pap, ka-ka-ka] [skidiki-pap-pap] [and you get the idea] [booming shotgun blasts, explosion of a fire extinguisher and resonating cries of pain] Itâs like weâve gone backwards. The only exception is the sniper rifle. [punchy sniper rifle shots] The sound design in general is very average, but the voice acting is good. Itâs just the, ehm⌠Itâs just the writing⌠SNAKE FIST: âYouâre like free pizza at an anime convention.â The weaker sound is one of a few factors that makes combat less satisfying. This game suffers from a lot of ideas that look good on paper, but in execution fall flat. I realize Iâve been horrifically negative, so letâs look at a few positives. Some new additions over the first game. You can now hold four weapons, instead of three. Great change! Vaulting over cover is also welcome. You can properly spring now. Itâs actually a fairly pathetic sprint, but it does feel more like running than âF.E.A.R. 1â. The forever flashlight. I donât see why not. Thereâs now a grenade cooking meter. Another welcome addition. Aim Downs Sights. At first, this may seem like a pure positive change, but it came at a sacrifice. Aiming is a lot easier in general, but weâve lost a lot of spectacle. What do I mean by that? Well, besides lighting, âF.E.A.R. 1â also ruled at making particle effects. Smoke and debris from a gunfight would hang in the air long after the fight was over. All the weapon decals on the walls were just icing on the cake. In slow-mo, all this stuff reaches a completely new level. You can fire your gun and walk through your own warping bullet trails. You can aim, which just zooms in a bit, but you are completely fine just hip-firing. These effects are worse in âF.E.A.R. 2â, but they are still here. Like I said before, the lighting is an issue. Slow-mo makes your enemies glow and theyâre shooting out strawberry jelly. For now, letâs pretend âF.E.A.R. 2â looks the same. Alright, here comes the big money shot. A-and thereâs the problem. Your weapons are far more inaccurate when hip-firing, so you need to aim down your sights. The scope helps you aim, but itâs hiding the true level of devastation youâre causing. Your vision is restricted to the jelly man. Look how much more you can see when aiming in âF.E.A.R. 1â. You have the big picture of everything youâre doing. You see how your weapons move, you see how the enemies are reacting to it. With the exception of the scoped rifle, you can see it all clearly. Monolith wanted to see you turn people into skeletons. âF.E.A.R. 2â now looks and plays like a modern FPS game. The scope fills your screen, the muzzle flare is huge and the blue lines are still there. The gunplay is competent, but now it looks and plays like any other military shooter of this time. Okay, other new things! You can flip cover over! Kind of⌠This is one of those âlooks good on paperâ ideas. It takes too long to do, and itâs never placed somewhere truly effective. You mostly die doing it. [Marv scream] This ties into the level design. The first half of this game especially has some poor decisions. So let me go over those! The first issue is how much of the arenas are generally unused. This is due to the enemy AI and how they spawn. There could be a technical effect for the term â Iâm just gonna call it âclown car fightingâ. Enemies love pouring into a level from one spot in a big group. They donât seem to utilize cover as much, and instead really enjoy charging the player. It leads to a lot of the fighting feeling more like spawn-camping. Hereâs an example. Early in the game there is a big arena. There is a lot of cover and elevation for different distance fights. This is a huge room, thereâs gonna be some kind of war in here. Now, the fight is triggered by pushing a button, and you need to turn three valves to escape. The valves are spread far apart, so you think youâll use the whole level for this. Nope. The soldiers actually spawn in different areas, but their AI compels them to run towards you, and so they all get in close range. This war effectively took place in the corner of it. Then power armor comes up in elevator, like âF.E.A.R. 1â, but itâs the same thing, because itâs just a single enemy. Also, when it dies, it makes, like, that joke bass boost sound now. [explosion is amplified by background bass vibration] So the fight is over, but guess what â I only turned one valve. These valves could have triggered new enemies to spawn at different points, but instead, itâs just busywork after the fight. The boss didnât come up on the last valve â it just comes up. The whole level is set up great for an interesting fight, but the mechanics just didnât allow it. Beyond that, the first half of the game is just horribly linear. Thereâs barely any room to maneuver, or flank, or do anything interesting. It is kind of funny that the first decent arena in the game is â in the story â an actual fighting arena. They just keep you in these closed short spaces for so long. AI runs out to try and flip cover in the hallway, and just dies. It doesnât help so many objectives feel like padding. You could say the valve arena was poorly thought out, but at least something happened. [cheering and applause] This was also an issue the previous game could have, just not nearly this frequently. And the levels do get better in the later half of the game. The standout fight is right before the end, on these reconfiguring trams, so enemy spawns are moving all over the place and distances are changing. Itâs a legitimately great fight. Levels before this also show improvement, where the cover objects can actually be used properly as cover, and the AI in general is just acting better. Yet theyâre still very fond of charging you. Whereas before you could have actual standoffs, where no oneâs shooting and just waiting â thatâs not the case anymore. The AI seems dumber this time around. I donât know if itâs the level design, or the cover objects messing them up. Maybe they did have to tone it down for consoles⌠Whatever the reason, there were several times where the enemy just forgot I was there at all. This wasnât a one-off thing â this was something that happened several times during the game. If an enemy makes a bad tactical choice, you can chalk that up to going âEh, well, they made a bad choiceâ. Here itâs more like⌠theyâre just breaking down. Who knows, it could be more advanced, but I perceived them as being much dumber. Even the really scripted events get messy. Here I was curious to see how things would play out, so I just let the event happen. COMMANDER: âSounds like itâs over! Check it out!â SOLDIER: âAlright, we go together on three⌠Ready? One, two⌠three!â [they couldn't make it together đ˘] Together, huh? [rapid mercy shots] There are still flashes of greatness here and there. The AI could still surprise me from time to time with what it was capable of. I was really impressed when someone leaned over a ladder to shoot me. It could be that they ramp it up in the late game to contrast the early game, but I didnât see that. Still, this game is short. You can beat it in less than 5 hours. This brings me to the difficulty. The jump from Normal to Hard is like an NBA frog jump. The enemies can completely dump damage on you now. You can frequently be one-shot having a full health bar and a good chunk of armor. Due to the previous issues, this doesnât feel like a challenge â just frustrating. Your enemies can still have poor aim and run around like headless chickens. But the enemies still coming out of the clown cars. So you do the âCall of Dutyâ peek-and-shoot, and occasionally someone chunks you. John Woo fighting was viable before, but here, itâs guaranteed death. Itâs telling you can change your difficulty from the death menu, but Normal is an absolute cakewalk. On the bright side, it does mean the game is over faster, so⌠trick or treat. Iâm sorry, everyone â we need to get through this to be worthy. "AHH!" So the combat is kind of weak â got it. Well, how about the horror element? Well, for the most part, Iâve gone over it already. There are some new horror enemies, like the experimental splicers. If youâve played other first person shooters, youâve likely fought something like this before. The real standout are these new mutant enemies, called The Remnant. You encounter them doing something idle they did in their past life, and then they scream and start raising the dead. The best part is the animation in how they control their thralls. They donât just get back up and fight â theyâre being puppeteered. Itâs really interesting and creepy visual. They have a lot of potential for interesting fights, which makes all the more a shame that thereâs only three in the game. Yeah, thatâs it. You could do a lot with a corpse puppeteer. Iâm floored that these guys are so underused. As for the horror sequences â you already know how I feel about the visuals. But there is one level that most people praise, even if they hate âF.E.A.R. 2â â Wade Elementary. Also known as the âAkiraâ School for Clearly Psychic Children. A haunted school is an ideal setting for some spooks. The school has two issues that ruin the buildup. The first and more obvious one is that youâre there with another character. Whatâs going on hereâŚ? STOKES: âBluebirds, Ladybugs⌠Maybe, reading levels or something?â Oh shit! STOKES: âArmacham. Weâre on the right track.â STOKES: âComms crapping out.â STOKES: âNever mind, Iâm good.â Now the second one requires some context. âF.E.A.R. 2â has an absolute ton of background jokes. Some are dated, some are references, and some are downright surreal. These are nearly everywhere, and the school is no exception. The shelves are lined with jokes and references. Some of you are likely thinking thatâs unfair. I shouldnât be staring at this stuff â I should be playing the game. Hereâs the thing: the videos and audio logs from âF.E.A.R. 1â are gone. Instead, âF.E.A.R. 2â has you⌠read. But we have more detailed levels, so we can have some environmental storytelling. So the school has a whole bushel of these explaining whatâs going on. They also have natureâs petting zoo. Nightmare drawings. Sandwich time. One class has all the students on the board. Itâs another joke â all the kids are clearly developers. Alma â the villain weâre supposed to be afraid of â is also there. This is a big board, and itâs not out of the way. After a surreal horror sequence, youâre dropped back into this school right next to it. I donât know what Iâm supposed to make of this. I keep finding jokes in the place youâre telling me to look for story. Horror comedy is a very fine line, and I donât think the game is trying to do that. Were the minds of children corrupted by cruel, unspeakable experiments, or, perhaps, their minds were broken learning writing from the Nostalgia Critic? Okay, thatâs probably coincidence⌠Please, please, God, donât be a reference! There is a fantastical segment in this, but the buildup is abrupt. The sequences here are more reminiscent of âF.E.A.R. 1â, using physics and darkness. Itâs effective, because it seems like something happening in reality, and not the Sunny D dimension. Itâs a superb haunted house. I suspect, when most people remember this school, theyâre mainly remembering this section. This is at the halfway point of the game, and it never escalates from here â it just goes back to how it was before. The scares will always be in your path. Theyâre intense, but TOO intense with little or no buildup. You never have an option to make something weird happen, that you can just walk away from. There is one potential saving grace, and thatâs the story. âF.E.A.R. 1â had an interesting premise, but the characters were mainly flat and one-dimensional. The sequel has a lot it could improve on. Instead, it tells mostly the same story again, and somehow, with even less interesting characters. Psychic cannibal killer Paxton FettEl⌠Hm⌠Paxton FEttel? His role has been replaced with⌠Army Man. Honestly, if you played âF.E.A.R. 2â years ago, do you even remember Army Man? I had forgot about him on this replay. Instead of the F.E.A.R. team, we now have Delta Force. Itâs bigger than the F.E.A.R. team. Itâs bigger, so you can see more people die in cutscenes. This leaves the characters they had left for the important parts less developed than they could be, because the characters who are gonna die have to say some lines. As revealed in the beginning, the raid on the headquarters was a trick. Youâre part of Project Harbinger, which, once again, is trying to make commanders for cloned soldiers. Thatâs how you get slow-mo. When youâre fully activated, you become bait for Alma. Sheâs drawn to your presence, and now thatâs why you see her everywhere. You also learn about the third program for this, called Paragon, which tries to mold children into commanders. In the grand scheme, this part is inconsequential. Topping the premise of âfind and shoot this guyâ shouldnât be hard. âF.E.A.R. 2â adds so many elements, but the story and beats are almost identical. You need to read a lot of intel to learn the deeper parts of the lore. I found a lot, but there were still things I didnât understand. Alma becomes interested in Becket after Harbinger is complete. But even before that, heâs still seeing Alma⌠So later on I looked it up on the wiki. I learned that Michael Becket as a child was also in Project Paragon. All his memories of the experiments and testing were just wiped. I guess, Paragon score should have been a giveaway, but you read this before you know what Project Paragon is. So thatâs my bad. He was experimented on and made to forget. Like Pointman in âF.E.A.R. 1â. The deeper lore is just more recycled elements. In fact, it only serves to make âF.E.A.R. 1â make less sense. âF.E.A.R. 1â was about a weapons and technology company that stumbled across something far, FAR beyond what they could imagine. They were in over their heads. Their treatment of Alma and her children is depicted as evil. But beyond that, theyâre just played more as being incompetent than evil. Alma is a reality-breaking discovery, but they killed her after a few people died from her. For âF.E.A.R. 1â Armacham that was too far and time to stop. The big twist is that they consider Pointman born out of their project to be a success. All their work was buried and contained in a decaying vault. Now it turns out they had an evil school for kids, they grabbed tons of soldiers to experiment on and have a secret massive army of corporate soldiers. Armacham soldiers were just, like, armed security guys before. The whole point was: the company was manufacturing an army, not recruiting one. But now it turns out theyâre putting clones into space inside of Gundams to drop them from orbit. Theyâve just gone crazy with how powerful this company is now. I canât see this Illuminati-tier organization shutting down Alma. This is the problem in re-treading a story when it comes to the lore and the world-building. Then we have Alma herself. Her arc was done. Her vengeful spirit not only took out the people who hurt her, but also everyone in, like, a 10 mile radius. Her being Pointmanâs mother was underused, but it was effective for the game. Letâs name off what it does. One: it explains the playerâs time powers. Two: it explains why you see Alma doing dangerous things and murdering people, but never you. Three is that it gives all the visions a purpose. There is a message about the player in them. Finally, it adds a personal connection to the characters. Itâs really flimsy and weak, but it is there. âF.E.A.R. 2â, to me, so clearly has nowhere to go. The string of visions in this game lead up to âAlma had a hard lifeâ. Thatâs not a reveal â thatâs the driving force of the first game. What doesnât come back is F.E.A.R. the organization. To someone who only plays â2â, itâs a completely meaningless acronym. Why are we still here? Why are we telling the same story, just worse? I always remember going down to see Alma in âF.E.A.R. 1â. Itâs quiet, but you occasionally fight small groups of the most elite Replica forces there are. You kill Paxton, and they all shut down. This is only making things tenser, because youâre about to deal with the real threat. Then you descend down for the final confrontation. Hereâs how âF.E.A.R. 2â did it. SNAKE FIST: âThen she tricked you into getting into the Telesthetic Attunement Chamber, which strengthened the link.â SNAKE FIST: âThatâs why Almaâs aware of you. And why youâre totally pooch-crewed, unless you can destroy her.â âF.E.A.R. 2â has an actual cutscene with diagrams to explain what the fuck is happening. In an attempt at a reboot, the game has been non-stop in recycling from âF.E.A.R. 1â. Someone has realized that they donât know what context was in âF.E.A.R. 1â or just âF.E.A.R. 2â anymore. Letâs stop for a Power Point to be sure. Wait, do we actually tell them who Alma is? Eh⌠Just tell the whole story again. SNAKE FIST: ââŚeven though she was completely unconscious and locked away deep underground in a Telesthetic Suppression Field.â SNAKE FIST: âSo they turned off the life support and sealed off the facility. Just left her to drown in amniotic fluid in that miserable little tankâŚâ This goes on for a long time, but you get the idea. They have you read it, too. After this, we start copying the quiet descent from âF.E.A.R. 1â, but we take a break from that. [F.E.A.R. 2 OST - Snake Fist] What is there to say? This game was made in the dark age of âWe want the âCall of Dutyâ audienceâ, and it really shows. Immediately after this, you bring this image back. It is convenient that âF.E.A.R. 2â has an image of a large ball being dropped. Then weâre at the end, and the only significant moment that could be considered a spoiler, because itâs something truly different than âF.E.A.R. 1â. Itâs also the only thing people really bring up about âF.E.A.R. 2â, because⌠what else is there to talk about? Iâd put a spoiler time code, but itâs not worth the effort anymore. Anyways, the chair was a trick, and Alma sends your brain to the Sunny D dimension, while she rapes your body. You kill the squad mate sheâs been mentally manipulating the whole game, and then she reveals she has your ghost baby. Itâs weird, itâs shocking and itâs controversial. In other words, exactly what you need to stop your game from being completely forgotten. Itâs not out of nowhere â the game was setting it up. Alma is more curious about Becket, even changing her form to appeal to him. You mainly draw this from the one scene here. The quicktime events werenât the exact kind of attack you thought they were. Some people get really upset about this ending. As someone familiar with horror movies â especially bad horror sequels â it doesnât offend me in, like, a âthis is bad for womenâ kind of way. More like âthey were desperately out of ideasâ kind of way. You can argue whether itâs Alma expressing her warped desire for affection, or if she wants a ghost apocalypse baby, but it doesnât matter. Besides this going on, weâve learned nothing new about Alma. Becket has a name, but heâs even less of a character than even Pointman was. Becket is no more of a character than the syringe that gave Alma her first two kids. It could have worked if everyone in the scene was more developed. Telling the same story again, just with an âimminent dickingâ subplot doesnât make it good. This was an absolute Hail Mary, but at the time (and even today), it worked. Itâs impossible to talk about the game without someone bringing up the scene. People talk about all the setup for the scene, and ignore everything else that didnât make sense. Was there anything else in the game that was original besides that? If there was, I didnât notice it. You could just play âF.E.A.R. 1â and read a doujin right after it, and have a much better experience. Why turn a valve, when we could have a good fight? In a complete vacuum, the game is okay, but as a sequel itâs pretty horrific. It sometimes feels like people are playing a different version of âF.E.A.R. 2â. Like, when I read a launch review that says âYeah, âF.E.A.R. 1â set milestones, and this is better in every way, but it wonât have the same impactâ. What does that mean? I wouldnât mind all of this, if they at least told a different story. F.E.A.R. (the organization) is a combination of the Ghostbusters and Rainbow Six. Thatâs near unlimited potential for stories. We could fight Lovecraft monsters, or vampires. Maybe a mummy has an army? How about necromancers or weird science are raising the dead to make an army? That idea was toyed with a little bit. How about an evil cult up to something? If you have to have Alma, just have Pointman come back and keep her as a psychological element. She still haunts him, and you can put her on the box. I usually donât advocate for just throwing a gameâs entire story away, but we could have âNocturne'sâ Spookhouse. Instead of what could have been a really compelling anthology series, we just have Alma and clones. Again and again. Well, the one guy had a âShogo 2â shirt. That was interesting. It is worth mentioning the DLC is solid. It has the best level design in the game, and has some interesting visuals. The downside is you can easily beat it in a half hour. Also, the DLC alone is $55 on Steam. [awkward silence] Uh? In my âF.E.A.R. 1â video I said itâs really cheap on Steam sometimes. That doesnât happen anymore. You canât buy the DLC, without buying every âF.E.A.R.â game. You canât buy âF.E.A.R. 1â without buying every âF.E.A.R.â game. But you can still buy â2â and â3â standalone just fine. Iâm not gonna get into âF.E.A.R. 3â. Iâll say that some consider âF.E.A.R. 2âsâ ending a mild molesting, compared to what would come after. You can still buy âF.E.A.R. 1 Completeâ on GOG. They even have âF.E.A.R. 2â with the DLC at the same price as standalone on Steam. But still, why is it like this? Why is the Steam page lashing the first game to the other two? Itâs ridiculous. Obviously, I canât recommend âF.E.A.R. 2â. Other military shooters from them were better, other horror games were better, and frankly, âF.E.A.R. 1â was better. What it does have to offer over the first game is honestly not worth the time. You made it to the end of the video, so youâre worthy now. We endured that together, and next time weâll look at a much better FPS game. Halloween is soon. As it turns out, I just like that game a lot more than I remember. Time for questions. ILoveTheFederalGovernment: âEver get into âRainbow Six 3â or âSWAT 3/4â?â Yeah, âSWAT 4â especially. There will inevitably be a video on the Elite Force mod. DropZz: âWill you make a video about âMarble Nestâ or the other two âPathologic 2â characters?â âMarble Nestâ â Iâm gonna say no. As for the characters, that will depend on how different they really are. It already felt like I was half-remaking my âPathologic 1â video for â2â, and I didnât like that. So weâll see. Something Vile: âWhat game do you think does slow motion the best?â I mean, you might know now, but âMax Payneâ is the runner-up. Then you have the games that stop time, and thatâs a different story. Velrous: âWill you review a game if the developers were openly hostile toward the fanbase, like âThi4fâ or âDmCâ?â It would probably be âThief 4â, actually. I havenât played it yet, because⌠Well, we all saw how it turned out. I do wanna do videos on the original âThiefâ games eventually, and alto the Dark Mod, so I might be obligated to also do that one. Alright then, have a great October! Woooo, bzhh! Chk-chk. Bzh! Chk-chk. AAAAH! Bzh!
The F.E.A.R series I loved ended after the first game. The second was way to action focused and the third we don't talk about.
I don't see cooking grenades as an improvement since F.E.A.R. 1 grenades were contact grenades and were much easier to bank off walls into your enemies. They're easily the best grenades in any game I've played. Add the big shockwave effect and it's so satisfying.
The 2nd half leaned a little too into the action and was light on horror, but on the whole I loved fear 2.
Personally, i really loved FEAR2. Gameplay was tons of fun, and the action was excellent.
The horror parts were also really good. Walking through the streets after the bomb went off was awesome. Having the ash statues of people disintigrate when you walked into them was so good.
fear 2 is the kind of game that has no place in 2019. for its time it was probably decent, but playing this game in 2019 is nothing more than a chore. fear 1, however remains just as fun as ever.
i remember being so disappointed when this came out. in retrospect, it basically signaled the end of the old monolith proudctions that everyone remembers.
FEAR 2 is probably my most disappointing sequel of all time. Felt totally different from the first game, egregious "consolization" made the action feel worse and the AI way dumber.
I think FEAR 2 is fine, not as good as the first one, but the combat is still satisfying. Review was a bit harsh, but I get it.
One thing though I think worth mentioning: FEAR2 has some of my favorite zombies ever in a game (Mandalore called them "Splicers" and only mentioned them in passing). These guys close in fast, and they can come from anywhere. They'll come from behind, climb up platforms, walls, ventilation, they even climb the ceiling. Whenever you fight them, you'll frantically spin around trying to cover every conceivable angle. It gets really tense.
I will be that one guy who actually prefers F.E.A.R. 2 over the first one. More focused horror, better story and ending, and fixes the monotonous pacing and bland environments of the first one.