F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
It's rude to Point Man.
Japanese horror will still be a mainstay, but the iconic nature of Alma may have inflated this aspect of the original in our memories. They're the unique moments of horror in what was otherwise a bunch of great combat set-pieces in a fairly boring set of office environments - who wouldn't remember them most clearly? Playing it again, the first game was always half action movie - and that percentage has swollen here, to the point where you're in an adventure that often feels... sassy.
Speaking of the dull environments, Monolith has certainly responded to these complaints. The office levels are more interesting, whole swathes of action take place in the broken streets, and you'll be fighting through laboratories, post-Blitz streets and an elementary school in the game's much fuller, varied and impressive world.
Amongst the gun-fodder, and in addition to the long-declared Abominations, we're introduced to the Spectre - a creature that has had its body completely corroded, leaving only a soul. A soul that's fuelled entirely by Alma's peevishness. These translucent creatures can gain form enough to attack you, but they're also bait. They'll lead you into areas where they can manifest and attack you.
More interesting are the Remnants - until you disturb them, they're meaty ghosts, repeating the last actions of their lives. In the elementary school, the music teacher thumps out a discordant melody on a piano. Out in the street, a businessman is stuck hailing a taxi. They seem harmless enough - you can even take your first shot for free. But once you've disturbed them - which the level design will clearly force you to - they'll become puppetmasters over the corpses around them. Red strings of psychic energy slink across the room like an infuriated strawberry shoelace, and the Remnant hides while you have to deal with its army of... well, let's call them zombies, because zombies are proper fashionable. Destroy them, flush him out, and kill him - it's not a short or easy battle.
The standout level - not in terms of quality, but more in terms of eyebrow-raising from people unfamiliar to the series - is stomping through the warehouses and streets in the EPA suit. You really feel invincible. For long periods of time, when you're slicing soldiers in half with bullets, or simply reducing the soldiers to a cloud of blood, it's difficult to remember there's a damaged woman fingering your brain throughout the game. In the normal sections, you'll be kicking over tables to provide yourself with soft cover (something only the enemies could do in the first game), but in the EPA sections you'll be shooting through brick walls and bringing buildings down.
Matthews explains the evolution of the EPA suits. "The community were crying out for it. They wanted to be able to jump into the power armour. We tried it, and we liked the idea, but it didn't have everything we wanted. So we created the big brother version of it, so you could rip up the environments. In FEAR, the AI own the space - you have to conquer every inch of the space to continue. In the EPA, that situation reverses, and you're forcing the AI to respond to you."
It's the opposite of scary, we suggest. "Sure, and you won't be doing this all the time - this is just one of the things we've got on our palette. This is just tossing you a bone, after you've worked hard for a while. We're letting you be a badass." If you're completely against all forms of badassery, you'll be pleased to hear that using the EPA suit is optional.
We leave this central London location as visitors to another very different kind of party are arriving. A lot of our earlier concerns about the game are resolved. The mech combat is optional, the script and the banter are excellent, the combination of medkits and health that only partly regenerates is a compromise that leaves you needing to worry about taking damage. But some new concerns arise - the pace of the game feels slightly slower, and at times it felt a little like a combat slog. It's important to remember we weren't playing through the finished game, though - and that kind of talk needs to wait for a review. At the very least, Project Origin is looking set to be interesting, and judging by the direction its taking, any review will receive a fair bunch of "oh this is so wrong actually" comments, which is no bad thing.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is due out for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on 13th February 2009.