F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

E3 2008 Preview

Alma, the little girl in F.E.A.R., brought a very creepy quality to the first-person shooter world that Monolith created. One year ago, the development team began to work on a sequel, one that did not have a name. Well, a name was given the project and on Tuesday, at the Los Angeles Convention Center during E3, Monolith showed off the progress of Project Origin.

Shown on the 360 (running at 720p), Project Origin - from Warner Bros. and Monolith Studios - is the beginning of the third act of the tale started in F.E.A.R. Several changes have been implemented simply to make the game a more immersive experience. In the original tale, a member of a special forces squad was sent into a town rocked by a supernatural explosion. In that town he began to have visions of a little girl, named Alma, who got creepier and creepier. Supernatural mayhem was the order of the day and it all seemed to stem from that little girl. The game was a terrific horror story. In Project Origin, the source of Alma’s power has been discovered and the player’s character is headed there to stop Alma once and for all.

Some of the changes to this version included going to a regenerative health system over the med kits. The Monolith dev team discovered that players were so engrossed with the game that they often forgot to take their med kits when health was low. So the regenerative system was implemented to improve immersion. True sighting down weapons was also brought into the game, with depth of field emulating real weapons.

Other new features include:

• Players now get to carry four weapons instead of three.

• The AI has been improved

• Players can now bake grenades

• Players can utilize the world interaction enhancements to create instant cover

• Enemies will use the environment against the player

Make no mistake about it, this is a very visceral and bloody gaming experience. Alma has the psyche of a woman in this iteration and the dev team said that means she has different wants and needs and will touch the player’s character more than in the previous game. The environment also is destructible and reacts to damage.

One of the levels shown had the player’s character get into an armored suit that was equipped with machine guns and rockets. Bullets would tear apart brick walls, and explosions would leave a fine layer of dust hanging in the air.

When asked about the challenge of sustaining the horror element, the dev team members on hand stated it was a real challenge to keep the atmospheric horror. On one hand, they didn’t want to go too far and it become cheesy, and they certainly did not want to do what they had done in the previous game.

Project Origin certainly builds on the tension and horror that were hallmarks of F.E.A.R. No release date was attached to the project and the game will carry an “M” rating when released.

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