I knot that this is old, but I was talking with some friends about gaming. And the topic came around to the most exciting/scary moment that you lived through. I think that mine must have come from F.E.A.R. 2. Yeah, I knot that 3 was a let down but let’s not go there alright?
I was going through a lot of games around that time, I have slowed in recent year. But around that time I was doing the Gamestop “rental” exploit. That also changed a little which might be why I haven’t been doing it either. But regardless of my original intent I forgot about it and just had to keep the game and I’m so glad that I did. For me this was the most exciting game action/shooter/horror genre that I had played and three parts stick out to me.
- The first moment was rather early in the game. At first there are just a few encounters once you crawl around in a building, then the only way to go is through a basement window which leads you into a dark room. This is where the first encounter happens that really got to me. At first you can only hear, not really see. Suddenly you hear a loud noise and you find yourself up against some sort of flamethrower who is hard to kill in this very dim and dark room. You are trying to maneuver the room and right and it is rather thrilling and frightening at the same time. I know there is a similar scene in Bioshock when you first encounter a Splicer in the dentist office but this was more exciting for me. And I never got into the Victorian style of Bio which you need to embrace if you are going to like the game.
- Another scene that really made the hair on my neck stand up was when Alma starts playing with your vision. It is while you go through the school location. All of a sudden the lights begin to explode and the room gets dark. Especially in one very specific case. Which left my underwear wetter than I like to admit. Here, the light is buzzing around you but it is lit up dimly by the random sparks just giving you a glimpse of your surroundings. When you try walking towards the only light in the room located on the other side a white evil gas like silhouette approaches you. You can only see the form when the rest of the room is lit by the sparks, otherwise the room is dark which means that you had to guess where it was going from there little glimpses before the room goes dark again.
- This one in retrospect felt over done, but I had never experienced anything like it before so I had the reaction that the game designers wanted the first time through. Once you have progressed further into the game, you realize there are (wait for it) genetically-engineered-mechanical-super-soldiers, and they are more powerful than you are (both logical and original I know), besides that you have very little ammo. As you begin to explore the plant where these (let’s just call them the GEMSS) are manufactured you realized there are dozens of incubators with these soldiers in them. I remember playing and thinking, but they all can’t escape. I mean if I remember correctly there seemed to be at least 20 or 30 incubators in the main area and even more built into the walls. As you look around thats when you realize that in fact they can and I ran around frantically for 10 seconds looking for a door. At first it is just a few, then more, and then almost all of them have broken through. Of the three this scared me the most the first time.
When I picked the game up I didn’t expect much. When I finished it I realized just how much of a deal I got. If you haven’t played the series, then you should probably play the first one for completeness alone. Since I really started with the second game I thought I must be missing something so I went back. To be honest the second one is great, it holds up to today’s standards, this can’t be said about the first one which felt way too primitive and clunky to still be playable.
Still it was nice to see where they got their inspiration for the second one from. It was definitely a strong foundation to build off of. Unfortunately, in my opinion, F.E.A.R. 3 is not about to reach the same high level, while some think it is great it is pale in comparison to the second installment. F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin is the best one of the entire series.