F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate versus Project Origin - by Digital Nightfall
Malleus on 27/1/2009 at 18:39
Tried the demo, and yeah, seemed like the AI is not as active as in the first game. The fixed 16:9 aspect ratio is annoying as hell, so is the lack of leaning and manual saves. And what's with that film grain effect like the one in Mass Effect? I can't even turn it off.
Disappointment of the year (well, no real contenders this time, but this was one of the two games I really looked forward to this year).
Sulphur on 27/1/2009 at 18:45
And we're baaaack!
Tried it on the PS3. Immediate impression: that grain filter needs to go. Framerate's a bit wobbly at parts, très surpriseeng. But it's manageable, and not as terribly blurred as the port of the first game.
Overall, the demo's pretty interesting, but it's lost some of the flavour of the original, IMO. It's not as spooky (I think the whole Alma flash/segue bits are a trifle overdone), and the action just doesn't seem as meaty as the first.
It's still a good corridor game with more expansive corridors environments and solid gunplay, which is good. And the whole mech bit at the end was cool, though you'd probably be going 'huh?' at it from a narrative point of view.
june gloom on 27/1/2009 at 18:48
Oh christ I was having withdrawal symptoms.
Anyway played the demo a couple days ago.
things I didn't like
- no leaning, something the first game let you do
- checkpoint-only saving- wtf where is my quicksave god damn it
- TOO MUCH MOTION BLUR
- aside from special effects (mostly the horror/mindfuck sequences) it looks a little too much like the original, though to be fair the law of diminishing returns is in effect here
- the HUD is intrusive and kinda sucky
- the original game captioned everything- cutscenes, Replica troops swearing, so on and so forth- this only captions radio messages and the occasional scripted Replica radio transmission when they don't know you're there
- according to the system requirements it wants 12gb free for installation, what the fuck, not even Witcher EE takes up THAT much space
- fixed 16:9 ratio
things I did like
- very well optimised
- combat feels a bit tighter and more hectic
- looks really good
- I like the nod to extraction point (which is noncanon) with the jetliner falling out of the fucking sky
- some interesting enemy variety
- snipers! :D
- you get to ride a walking tank. oh yes.
I didn't notice the film grain; it's not as intrusive as some other games I've played.
suliman on 27/1/2009 at 19:28
I... didn't like it. The combat mechanics of FEAR were pretty much perfect, so why fuck with them? There are many silly things in the demo(interface, the "DATA UNLOCKED" thingie that pops up every time you pick anything up, silly grain filter[WHAT IS THE POINT OF THAT THING], fixed 16:9 resolution, checkpoints, nerfed shotgun:(), but the new combat mechanics are probably the thing I hated the most about it. I'll wait until I play the full game before acting all angry-like, sure, but from what I've seen this is nowhere near FEAR.
I did like the way the ghost guys moved around, though. Very cool.
Jason Moyer on 28/1/2009 at 02:42
What changed with the combat/AI other than the replica soldiers not telling you exactly what they're doing every 30 seconds?
I thought the demo was great. Only real complaints are the lack of leaning, and the weird glow/sheen on NPC's. Oh, and for the love of god I hope they add some sort of bullet impact sound in a patch or something because it's really odd that there isn't a "player being shot" sound.
Fafhrd on 28/1/2009 at 02:53
Put me firmly in the 'hated it' camp. They completely broke combat by adding sprint and making it required for slide kicks, and the movement in general feels clumsier, and like I'm fighting against the player character to do anything. And my muscle memory from the first game is useless, because leaning is gone, and I have to re-bind shift for sprinting, so bringing the gun up to aim is on a different key. The HUD is ATROCIOUS, the slo-mo and sprint gauges are too small and placed horribly. They changed the art style for all the replica soldiers, so any real sense of continuity from the first game is ruined, the colours and lighting are muddy and hard to see, the blood effect is stupid, dismemberment is severely toned down, there's no collision on bodies once they're dead, and weapons don't have anywhere near the oomph that they did in the first game. Compare the 'ka-BLAM' of the original shotgun to the 'paf' of the new one. The sound design is also notably worse, and for all I know it doesn't support hardware sound because there sure as hell isn't any option for it.
And who was the fucking genius who decided to have the performance evaluator auto-settings dealie work INSIDE the game, and automatically set screen resolution? Thanks for setting the resolution outside my display's range, forcing me to restart the game in safe mode so I can set it back to 1920x1080, and then restart again so it's not in safe mode, asshole.
gunsmoke on 28/1/2009 at 04:03
Seconded^^^
Yes, it is fun. Nowhere NEAR the first game, though. I had high hopes, as I was a freak about the original. I replayed it on the hardest diff. w/self imposed artificial limitations like no slo-mo, no shotgun, no grenades....It takes an incredibly fun and replayable* game to get me to do that.
*replayable in the sense that the a.i. makes every fight new and tense.
Volitions Advocate on 28/1/2009 at 05:57
I found that the AI in FEAR shone depending on the environment they were in. In the demo so far all you get is a corridor for them to run at you single file from... basically. I like the AI, i think its more lifelike in this one. If you've got them pinned down and they can't move or they'll be shot.. they dont stick their heads up like gophers for you to shoot them. they make you move to get them, which exposes you. Something that most people don't put into AI programming (call of duty) because they say it makes the AI boring because people don't normally do dumb things like charge at you when you have the advantage over them.
I very much enjoy the set pieces and I love how they've redone them (the ghosts for instance, freaking awesome)
The lack of autosave is sucky. but the leaning doesn't bother me. I didn't use it much in fear and even when i did it felt very mechanical and clunky.
Personally I think this feels exactly like the sequel to fear should feel. They've brought back what made fear great, and tipped their hat to timegate for the work they did on the expansions, even if they're non cannon. (personally I thought they did the pacing better than monolith did).
As for the context of the demo, i'm sure they did the same thing the fear demo did, just grab a locale in the game and make a quick demo map out of it. I'm sure that when we get to the point in the real game where you get the power armor, it isn't really there. But they needed you to play it in the demo. iirc the end of the FEAR demo had you up against a power armor suit that immediately launched a volley of missles at you. and the demo was over. Really, this follows suit.
I'm really excited. I just fired up the original Fear and I have to say Fear 2 doesn't just look better, but also runs better even with the original patched to 1.08
EvaUnit02 on 28/1/2009 at 06:30
The laser gun looks like it was totally ripped from Extraction Point. That's another nod to Timegate.
Aja on 28/1/2009 at 06:47
This demo runs really well on my laptop. Finally, a new game that doesn't have mouse lag, even on higher settings. Although all I really need is full particle effects and full motion blur.
Incidentally, not enough motion blur.
