F.E.A.R. 2 story DLC next month News

good stuff, singleplayer DLC ftw!

Great, we get to fight as yet another soldier who is fast enough to make it seem as though he slows down time, fighting through hordes of clones and whatever it is Alma throws at you when she isn't playing hide and seek with you.

The thing about giving the player the chance to experience the same story (or continue or lead up to it), you have to make it different. Blue Shift, Opposing Force and BioShock 2 all give you plenty of gimmicks to justify giving you another go at the same story.

Took them years to release F.E.A.R. 2 which was F.E.A.R. stripped of what made it great. And this is merely DLC, not even a sequel or a spin-off.

i love FEAR! my favourite franchise. the chance to play some more single player is now my most wanted of this year

yesssssssss

though i am a pc gamer though *panics*

Sweet!

I loved F.E.A.R. 2 even though the ending was complete and utter crap. I'd really like more in the way of proper expansions like the excellent ones for the original game. This Story DLC at two hours in length sounds way too short really but I'll likely buy it anyway, assuming it's reasonably priced and is coming to the PC.

Hope this comes to PC, 360 is swamped with DLC

2 hours? shove it.

I expect it will be at least 800 points for 2 hours of play-once content and the "challenge" to it will be that they'll take the slo-mo away and make you a "grunt" or somesuch. FEAR2's very own Anchorage.

And yet people pay £40 for something which might last 5 hours.

A shame FEAR 2 sucks so very very bad compared to the first one.

First FEAR2 was developed for years yes, but only gained the FEAR2 name etc later on in development due to rights issues , it was never goign to be FEAR 2 initally.

Wrong. It was always intended to be an indirect sequel to the first game. The F.E.A.R. 2 that was planned before the name change is the F.E.A.R. 2 that you bought. The developers of the first game owned rights to absolutely everything except the name, which they ultimately took back. There is no 'first' F.E.A.R. 2.

I absolutely loved FEAR- got the AchPts for doing it on extreme and without dying, (collecting about 600 g's in the process all together), but FEAR2 was dogshite in my opinion. Massive disappointment, it must've been another team onboard, because as the other guy said, eveything that was great about the first game had indeed 'been stripped out'. Shame. Doubt i'll even bother with a third game if one becomes available after this.

@MilkybKid1985

The expansions are not canon by Monolith's own choice, and considering how rubbish the expansion packs were, who could blame them? Only the name was out of Monolith's reach, nothing else.

The DLC will be great if you've enjoyed F.E.A.R. 2 and want an identical extension. That would not be me.

Currently "working" my way through FEAR 2. It's a bit of a trudge to be honest and a big dissapointment after the excellent 1st.

Loved FEAR 2 so this is a great surprise. I found this to be mostly better than the first game in most respects except for the unfortunately slightly dumbed down AI. I really don't know why they felt the need to do that though it looks like they want to give players a challenge in this new DLC.

Other than that though it was ace - great combat, more variety in locations, better pacing, great mech sections and great atmosphere. Monolith are for my money one of the best developers out there for visceral, exciting and immersive in your face combat, they've always been a bit of an underrated developer IMO. It's just so satisfying to shoot enemies in their games. Easily one of my favourite games this year along with Demon Souls. To say it's nothing like the first game is a bit unfair, sure some things were changed such as the over the top physics and crazy dust particles but the core FEAR gameplay is still there in abundance. Shooting them gits with the explosive tanks on their backs is especially satisfying :P I will agree though that some of the gun sounds were better in the first game.

Anyway I'll shut up now! I just love this game and wanted to have my little say/rant! :P

Also, Instant Action please Monolith and a new Shogo/No One Lives Forever. I'll love you forever if you make sequels to both of them.

Loved FEAR 2 so this is a great surprise. I found this to be mostly better than the first game in most respects except for the unfortunately slightly dumbed down AI.

It's not the AI as such, it's the level design. Where the first one had multiple paths for the AI (and the player), the second mostly hasn't, so the AI has no chance to shine and is mostly cannon fodder.

Really didn't like it much . the first FEAR is one of my favourite FPS ever, but I couldn't even be bothered to finish the second one. It felt like a step back in every respect.

It's not the AI as such, it's the level design. Where the first one had multiple paths for the AI (and the player), the second mostly hasn't, so the AI has no chance to shine and is mostly cannon fodder.


The first game wasn't really that open though and was generally pretty linear too, nearly as much as FEAR 2, maybe my memory's playing tricks on me but I don't remember that many alternate pathways in FEAR 1. FEAR 2 didn't really feel that less open, especially in somewhere like the hospital section where you were able to duck and dive between rooms/operating theatres trying to avoid the enemy during the middle of a firefight. On a good few occasions I had the enemy flanking me and taking me by surprise. They just seemed less aggressive compared to the first one, incredibly sneaky buggers in that game.

I think, for me anyway, the same thing repeatedly in FEAR 1 just eventually wore me down. Bloody offices again and again and again. It's lucky that the combat is so fun in that game as apart from that the environments started to get very boring after a while. I went back and played FEAR 1 again recently. It's still a great game but it's definitely dated in most other respects apart from the combat. FEAR 2 at least mixes it up, with the mec sections perfectly placed to give a nice change of pace. The pace in general is perfect and it doesn' t overstay its welcome. Nothing too long and not too often, just to give the player a break. I must admit that I do miss the grenades exploding on contact in FEAR 1 though. That was very satisfying.

But different strokes for different folks and all that :)

The first game wasn't really that open though and was generally pretty linear too,

Oh, of course it was entirely linear. But there were always 2 or 3 side corridors which allowed the AI to sneak up on you, and they almost completely did away with that in FEAR 2. Instead, it takes them 5 seconds to hide behind a table, at which point you have enough time to kill them twice.

I also didn't like how the weapons felt in FEAR 2 - can't quite put my finger on it, but it just didn't feel nearly as satisfying anymore to use them.

Oh, of course it was entirely linear. But there were always 2 or 3 side corridors which allowed the AI to sneak up on you, and they almost completely did away with that in FEAR 2. Instead, it takes them 5 seconds to hide behind a table, at which point you have enough time to kill them twice.

I also didn't like how the weapons felt in FEAR 2 - can't quite put my finger on it, but it just didn't feel nearly as satisfying anymore to use them.

Aye that's fair enough, there definitely were more instances of the AI sneaking up on you in the first game than in the sequel.

I think some of the things they took out where some of the things that also added to the combat in the first game, the over the top physics, the gun sounds (especially the shotgun sound) and the dust particles. Especially after a major gunfight and there's dust eveywhere, bodies flying through windows etc. I don't think it hindered the combat in FEAR 2 much but I can see why people would be disappointed with those things being taken out, I still found the combat extremely satisfying especially when bodies exploded into chunks but of course that's just my own personal opinion.

I think in general though Monoliths games get overlooked in the FPS department by most people and I'll be honest and say that saddens me greatly, I do honestly think that they are genuinely one of the best companies around for intense, exciting, very visceral FPS combat. I've loved everything they've done since the original Blood and Condemned 2 was one of my favourite games last year, a game which despite its very wanky story had improved over most aspects of its first game too in terms of gameplay, but that's a discussion for another time. It sounds fanboyish but I hate it when they get called a B level FPS developer, though admittedly they do need to work on their storytelling. I'll take the combat in their games any day over most big FPS names

I do hope they eventually move away from horror FPS games though, as much as I love them I want to see them go back to older franchises of theirs, I've missed their sense of humour for a long time though there are some very black comedic moments in the Condemned and FEAR games. The Noone Lives Forever series are especially very funny games.