The Man Without: F.E.A.R. 2 360/PC

Stop me if you have heard this one: mute protagonist known as “Point Man” blessed with psychic/physical abilities to perceive time as a higher rate and plagued by nightmarish visions of a deranged and violent little girl shoots his way to the revelation that the bad guy, Fettlel, is in fact his cannibalistic brother. Both characters are children of the the little girl Alma, who is projecting her younger self from cryo-storage in the basement of a facility. Alma is a powerful psychic driven insane by extended experimentation and apparently, raped to pregnancy.

That, in a nutshell, is the mythology of the original F.E.A.R. Running concurrently to the last half of the first game is F.E.A.R 2 , featuring mute protagonist “Beckett” blessed with psychic/physical abilities to perceive time as a higher rate and plagued by nightmarish visions of a deranged and violent grown woman. He shoots his way to the revelation that Alma wants him to make babies with her, if only in a psychic not physical way.

F.E.A.R. 2: Fear Harder is good looking game marred by an annoying choice to run film-grain effect over the visuals. Rather than emulating Japanese horror films this aesthetic makes the game look muddy, especially when I played it on 360. The controls were sluggish as well but on PC, and with film grain off, it looks and feels like the original F.E.A.R. which is not a bad thing.

Added to the mix is the ability to operate the once feared mechsuits that terrorized players in the first game. Essentially invulnerable until the power runs out, the mech sequences are explorations in destruction as hundreds of enemies are mowed into pulpy gore. Very satisfying and never outstays its welcome, unlike the main campaign.

2 Fear 2 Furious addresses valid complaints about the endless monotony of office corridors that plagued the original by providing larger more open environments that act as funnels into smaller corridors. Industrial design still dominates but there are some massive setpieces that offer real scope, especially in the aftermath of the explosive conclusion of the first game.

Fun and propulsive, F.E.A.R 2 The Fear Police, suffers from hindsight that the tricks of the original that thrilled and amazed have lost their sheen.