FEAR 2

[chizow]

Originally posted by: zagood
After watching Yahtzee, it reminded me of the other part I hated so much, the damn "PRESS X AS FAST AS POSSIBLE" cutscenes. So fucking pathetic.

I started playing the original FEAR again, some major differences I noticed...

1. The character models are much better in the new one.
2. You move much faster in the original.
3. Shadows are better in the original, lighting is used better in the original but there are some much better instances of it in the new one.
4. The old one is just sharper and higher contrast, the new one uses the more muted "hey everything's gray" that's typical of FPS games in the last few years.
5. Movements feel more digital in the old one. Hard to describe.

That's a pretty good assessment, I'd add a few points though:

• 6. Weapons are much better imo in the new one. Aim-Down-Sights and scopes are a huge improvement and certainly expected in games nowadays. There also seems to be a smaller CoF/bullet spread within the first few shots.
• 7. Head Bob is much less obnoxious in the new one, which is good considering it can't be turned off.
• 8. Rendered cinematics, cut-scenes and overall production quality is much better imo. Text Data discs were a step back from the phone messages, which are both pretty weak game elements imo.
• 9. Level design so far seems much less varied and innovative. Just less tunnel-crawling and alternative route finding from what I've seen so far (only half-way through interval 03).

As to #4, I'd say I prefer the new one better, as the old one just looked too clean and synthetic. Particularly surface textures for walls, floors, etc, which were either extremely bland or used too tight/repetitive patterns.

Also for #3, I've seen quite a few complaints about the shadows, but the conclusion there are no shadows in FEAR 2 is simply not accurate. The new version does have full dynamic shadows, the PC version just makes heavy use of diffused lighting so that you get much softer shadows, rather than the extreme hard shadows of the original.

There are instances you'll find the hard shadows but only when you have an extremely intense single light source in a dark environment. Soft shadows/diffused lighting are common in DX10, but you also see some of the particle shadows commonly seen with recent games like GTA4 or Mass Effect. They use a higher resolution shadow map but you can clearly see it used for many smaller objects. Arguable which is better, it just comes down to preference imo.

 

[nosfe]

don't know about the general level design but there are no more arenas where to fight the AI and where you had those situations where 2 pin you down and the rest of them flank you from two sides. The enemies don't even come in packs anymore, just one after the other so you get the impression that the AI is bad but it's more the level design at fault here.

 

[geoffry]

No spoilers but my god that ending was kookoo bananas.

 

[Dacalo]

I thought the ending was terrible.

 

[josh6079]

Thought it was a very fun game. I never watch horror movies or anything scary for that matter, so I'll admit that I experienced some goosebumps, shivers down the spine, and let out a few shouts of panic. Loved F.E.A.R. and this sequel delivered quite well.

I suspected the ending would turn out as it did, but my mouth still hung open when finally seeing it.

Could have done without the letter boxing, inability to lean right or left, and restricted save schemes though. Also, the game doesn't read the additional buttons I have on the left of my G5 mouse, which is what I used for my "Slow Mo" in the original F.E.A.R. That was another annoyance, since it worked fine in the first one.

 

[MBrown]

I just finished it. I thought it was pretty good. Some of the graphics were iffy, and the ending was a bit meh. Overall I liked it.

 

[TecHNooB]

Originally posted by: geoffry
No spoilers but my god that ending was kookoo bananas.

I like this assessment

 

[josh6079]

Concerning the graphics, I didn't like how "fuzzy" everything seemed to be.

I don't know if it was the HDR implementation or a looking-through-electric-glasses effect that they tried to do, but things didn't have as much crisp compared to the original.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: josh6079
Concerning the graphics, I didn't like how "fuzzy" everything seemed to be.

I don't know if it was the HDR implementation or a looking-through-electric-glasses effect that they tried to do, but things didn't have as much crisp compared to the original.

you mean the film grain? with brightness at the appropriate level its not very noticeable. with the brightness up it can be very distracting though. supposedly you will be able to turn it off or adjust it with the upcoming patch.

 

[josh6079]

Cool.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: geoffry
No spoilers but my god that ending was kookoo bananas.

I agree...just completed the game half an hour back! Otherwise, I liked the overall gameplay here.

 

[TecHNooB]

Just beat the game... as good as the first in my opinion. Would have been nice if the PDAs were read to you. The level design was similar to the first with some variation which was good. I played it on hard the first time through cuz people griped about the AI being dumb. The AI put me down many, many, many times... but I haven't played FEAR MP in a while so my outrageous killing rampage skills were practically zero (if you've played FEAR MP you know what I mean). The overall singleplayer package was good. Gunplay was intense and frustrating at times (this is good in an age where devs cater to casual gamers way too much). The story consistently moves along. And the ending was a little wierd. Many FPS tend to lack in the story department, and just end up being a good looking shooter with little substance. FEAR 2 does what it sets out to do from beginning to end, and for that I give it a 9/10