I don’t like scary games, let’s face it, I’m a wimp. But I just thought I’d have a quick play through of the F.E.A.R. 2 Demo.
I played the original F.E.A.R. demo a few years ago. I thought it was a competant shooter, the kind that some people will think is the perfect example of an FPS. Others will be put off not because of any major flaw, but because of minor niggles. It’s the same with most shooters, Half-Life series, Unreal Tournament, Quake, we all have certain FPSs that we’re comfortable with. Overall I wasn’t that scared, more jumpy than horror, except for one or two sections which really made me flinch.
The F.E.A.R. 2 Demo starts out with a cinematic, telling you the basic storyline that connects the original with the sequel. I never bought F.E.A.R. so I don’t know the details, but from what I’ve read it basically revolves around a little girl called Alma (who isn’t actually so little I seem to remember), she has some form of psychic abilities and is basically insane. You first gain control in a city wasteland, victim of a nuclear explosion. You don’t interact at this point, just move along with images of a little girl popping in and out.
Then you wake up beside a destroyed helicopter. Typical sci-fi\realistic shooter, your HUD reloads itself, radio chatter of one from your colleagues who can’t seem to contact you.
Gore all over the place you meet the first enemy, controls are displayed slowly breaking you in to the specific features of the game.
When the action starts lots of whizzy particle effects fly around the screen, glass, sparks and paper, it gives a real atmosphere to the game. The enemies can interact with specific parts of the area, jumping through windows and such.
The action is a little gory for my tastes. I didn’t find it off-putting, just unnecessary. Enemies take a reasonable amount of damage to take down, it feels about right for big men in armour.
The demo then takes you through series of corridors with various apparitions throwing items and generally trying to spook you. It didn’t really work for me, made evident by the fact that I was more confused over whether I had to shoot them or not, than scared. They seemed to do damage, with red damage arrows appearing on the HUD, and disappeared quickly if I shot at them, but I still wasn’t sure.
When you first load the game it takes you through a brightness calibration test, throughout I thought it did a good job of being gloomy, but not overly so. Some games surprises are spoilt due to being too dark, and turning up the brightness makes them look washed out and can end up spoiling even more. F.E.A.R. 2 didn’t seem to have that problem.
Some interesting cut-scenes (not actually taking the view away from your eyes) occur to further the story and provide more controlled, chilling experiences, although for some reason none seemed as scary the original. Radio chatter fills in the rest of the time.
The graphics are of a good quality, crisp edges and textures and without obscene system requirements. I set all the options to maximum (except AA which I left a 4x) and my resolution at 1680 x 1050. It never dropped below 30 FPS and held a steady high 50s to 60 most of the time. (Q6600, 8800GT and 4GB RAM, for comparison.) This was one of the most visually impressive parts:
The game has slow-motion like the previous one, measured by a small metre on the bottom-right of the centre HUD (so small I didn’t notice it for a while). Everything slows down (:roll:) and various effects come into play. Bullet trails, more blurring and even more sparks increase the intensity. No game, in my opinion, has done slow-mo better than Max Payne 1 & 2, this has not changed that opinion. There’s nothing specifically wrong with it, it just doesn’t have much of an impact.
Later on you pick up a sniper rifle. If I thought the gore was a bit on the heavy side before I was in for a big surprise. The first person I hit literally exploded, further enemies weren’t so bad but the gore level was completely over the top for my liking. I know they are powerful but…
When I reached the next building, a huge suited figure appears. Oh no I thought, mini-boss fight time. Sadly he fell much quicker than I would have expected.
The latter part of the demo features a Powered Armour walker. You trundle around fighting more of the enemies you encountered earlier, plus some other Powered Armour. This section went by pretty quickly, the suit doesn’t have ammo. requirements just overheating problems.
Walls fall in particularly spectacular fashion, very few seeming to be unbreakable.
The demo closes with you taking on a larger man\vehicle, letting you get in a few shots before closing to an end game trailer. This shows off more gore than I experienced in the game, pandering to the little kiddies who think more blood automatically equals more fun.
Closing comments. I was not overly impressed by the F.E.A.R. 2 Demo, but then I wasn’t expecting to be. This just isn’t my kind of game. Like my experience with the original F.E.A.R. demo, I found it to be a good shooter, probably slightly better in fact. If you like horror shooters I can see this being your kind of game. I just know I won’t be buying it.
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