Man....FEAR 2 is SCARY!

[maxlords]

I just played the demo of F.E.A.R. 2 and HOLY is that game ever creepy. I normally don't get creeped out by games. I play a lot of horror titles. Something about this though....I think it's the speed at which things get slaughtered around you or something, combined with the excellent sound and dark strobe-ish lighting.

I was literally starting to walk down corridors and getting too creeped out....backing up, then starting to walk down them again, then backing up again! Several sections of the demo made me do panicked wild strafing and hesitate before going down a corridor or around a corner. It's REALLY impressive, far creepier than the original. Check it out!

For those of you that have tried it...thoughts?

[G-Boobie]

I thought the demo was excellent. I enjoyed the PC version of the first game, and think that Condemned and it's sequel are criminally overlooked. Crazy good A.I. and scripting. Monolith knows their creepy.

I'm looking forward to picking F.E.A.R. 2 up in a couple weeks. Hopefully the console versions will be more in line with the PC version this time around.

[Neil Koch]

I tried the PS3 demo and liked it. I might pick it up when the price drops (too broke to be buying $60 games right now).


Condemned and it's sequel are criminally overlooked.

I haven't played the first game, but I played through 2 a couple of weeks ago and I agree that it's phenomenal. One of the best horror games I've ever played.

[hellfire]

I tried out fear 2, silent hill 2 scares the crap out of me but fear 2 wasent that scary

[maxlords]

I thought the demo was excellent. I enjoyed the PC version of the first game, and think that Condemned and it's sequel are criminally overlooked. Crazy good A.I. and scripting. Monolith knows their creepy.

I'm looking forward to picking F.E.A.R. 2 up in a couple weeks. Hopefully the console versions will be more in line with the PC version this time around.


I didn't realize that the PC and console versions of the first F.E.A.R. were significantly different...how different are they? I have both, but when I got the 360 one, I didn't bother waiting for my PC to catch up to the specs of the PC version, so I didn't play it and played the 360 one instead. Amazing AI, but not all that scary.

And the Condemned games are flat out a must-play. They are SCARY. Really really messed up, well-written, and just unnerving. I hadn't realized until recently that it was the same company making both, but when I played the F.E.A.R. 2 demo, the first thing I thought was how much it reminded me of some of the scenes in Condemned 2, and my buddy pointed out that Monolith made both.

I'm really looking forward to a truly scary F.E.A.R. game with a high-quality AI. The first one....I remember walking down a hallway once in one of the office buildings and I couldn't see very well, so I flicked on the flashlight. I walked around a corner and all I heard was the yell of "FLASHLIGHT!" and a bunch of booted feet running and then all of the sudden six guys were on me....and two of em flanked me using my flashlight to position themselves!!! What game does that?!?!?!? Absolutely blew my mind. Easily the best FPS AI I've ever seen bar none.

[The Shawn]

This is all good to know, as the first condemned game is down to 20 bucks now. I was hesitant to pick it up for fear of suckiness now it sounds like a must have.

Also Fear 2 will be a must have, I'll just wait till' it drops down from $60.

[demen999]

Oh year FEAR2 demo got me spooked too! It gives you that on the edge thriller feeling. It is like Silent Hill and a FPS together. The effects for the ghosts were fantastic too. I got Condemned 2 a while ago, and am surprised how many people haven't played it.

[carlcarlson]

Oh man.

I'll admit to being easily freaked out by video games, even when they aren't trying to be scary. I remember one time in the original Half-Life I busted open a air duct that was at eye level. I turned on my flashlight to look in and was immediately greeted with a screeching headcrab to the face. I exited out of the game in about 5 seconds and just stood in the middle of the room breathing hard. I'm a baby.

Having said that I gave the Fear 2 demo a shot because my buddy (who is really into horror stuff) said it was probably the scariest game he's ever played. I had to see what could make him scared. Well.. I only made it to the hallway where stuff starts flying around and that was it, I immediately jumped back to the dashboard. I will not be buying this game, there's no way I can handle it. Again, I'm a baby.

[BHvrd]

It is paced much better than the first game for sure. Hopefully the whole game has the same pace.

[Ed Oscuro]

I installed the demo last week but didn't try it until just now.

Plays pretty well on my semi-aged C2D / Geforce 8800 combination with just some slight pauses now and then. Good framerate as far as I can tell, even at 1600x1200 and with a few options set to max (maximum textures and geometry for example - turned down FSAA a notch though), although I don't really care for the focus blurring (i.e. the game simulating things out of focus of your eyes...much easier to look about the screen than wave the mouse around, and while my LCD screen is pretty good it's not perfect). Also don't care for not being able to bind DEL as my reload key, and I played with a rather awkward configuration. On the plus side, HDR is pretty well done here.

I was having too much fun spotting all the details in the school (like Harold the Vegetarian Bear and his salad bowl) to be scared.

Also, best NPC rats in a video game so far, although I don't think they'll fight you like in another famous shooting game.

And a nice Duke 3D reference in the first level - was expecting it though. Possible Condemned references too...

[G-Boobie]

I didn't realize that the PC and console versions of the first F.E.A.R. were significantly different...how different are they? I have both, but when I got the 360 one, I didn't bother waiting for my PC to catch up to the specs of the PC version, so I didn't play it and played the 360 one instead. Amazing AI, but not all that scary.

There are some compromises in textures, the enemy AI(seriously!), and framerate on the 360 version... And the PS3 version is garbage.

I enjoyed the 360 and PC versions, though the 360 version is the one I actually completed(due primarily to being able to sit on the couch). EIther way you go though, it's great.


I'm really looking forward to a truly scary F.E.A.R. game with a high-quality AI. The first one....I remember walking down a hallway once in one of the office buildings and I couldn't see very well, so I flicked on the flashlight. I walked around a corner and all I heard was the yell of "FLASHLIGHT!" and a bunch of booted feet running and then all of the sudden six guys were on me....and two of em flanked me using my flashlight to position themselves!!! What game does that?!?!?!? Absolutely blew my mind. Easily the best FPS AI I've ever seen bar none.

I had the same thing happen to me on multiple occasions. The best was sitting behind cover taking heavy fire from a squad of regular clone soldiers, popping out every once in a while to fire off a headshot. The enemies stopped shooting, which made me think I'd either killed them all or they'd fallen back. I started to move, and a grenade landed right in front of me. I ran forward like an idiot to escape the blast, and as soon as I cleared the desks or whatever I was hiding behind, the enemy soldiers popped back out and filled me full of lead. By the time I thought to activate bullet time, I was a goner. They'd actually flushed me out of cover.

F.E.A.R. is why I didn't enjoy the single player modes of Call of Duty 4 and Resistance. They're more like first person bullet hell shooters than anything tactical.

[The 1 2 P]

I need to hook up my 360 so I can download this demo and try it out too. I have yet to play the first Fear game(or it's expansions) but I've always been interested by it. Plus I'm a fps junkie.

[maxlords]

Word is avoid the expansions. I don't know for sure, but I've been told that Monolith only supervised the initial first couple of sections, then farmed out both expansions to a 3rd party dev. Apparently the level design is awful. I haven't had a chance to play either expansion (they were combined for the console release of FEAR Files).

[Nesmaster]

Loved FEAR on the PC and really enjoyed the 360 port. I bought Files a while ago for cheap and haven't touched it yet based on bad word of mouth. I'll try the demo of 2 as soon as I can, but I just haven't had much time to game lately. The little time I currently have is being used on Fable II. I want to be able to enjoy the demo and not have to rush or worry about shutting it off mid-way.

I will say this though: Having not played Condemned 1 or 2 (despite owning 1 for over 2 years and 2 for about half a year...), FEAR is the only game since doom 64 to make me jump out of my chair. It only happened once, but the fact this rarely happens to me says a lot about what Monolith can do with the survival horror genre.

[Ed Oscuro]

Word is avoid the expansions.
I was thinking about how I've never played the original FEAR - beyond the demo anyway. Seems to me that if it doesn't crash my machine, they should all be at a low enough price that I wouldn't feel too bad about it.

I mean, heck, I just started playing They Hunger on PC again - if I can stand that, I can take some crummy FEAR expansion :P

That said, thanks for the 411!

[Damaramu]

Word is avoid the expansions. I don't know for sure, but I've been told that Monolith only supervised the initial first couple of sections, then farmed out both expansions to a 3rd party dev. Apparently the level design is awful. I haven't had a chance to play either expansion (they were combined for the console release of FEAR Files).

I'm pretty sure that dev was TimeGate Studios located in Houston (Sugarland, specifically). A smallish developer run by a tyrant of an CEO (the stories I've heard of this guy).

Before landing my current job, I was applying for a game tester position there. Almost took it...in fact it looks like the QA Tester position is STILL open there.

[G-Boobie]

I will say this though: Having not played Condemned 1 or 2 (despite owning 1 for over 2 years and 2 for about half a year...), FEAR is the only game since doom 64 to make me jump out of my chair. It only happened once, but the fact this rarely happens to me says a lot about what Monolith can do with the survival horror genre.

I jumped twice during the demo of F.E.A.R. 2. Seriously. It is a freaky, freaky game.

I really hope the game succeeds at retail: Monolith is overdue for some success and recognition. Condemned 2 was a complete flop, which is shameful. It was pretty great. I'll never look at a bear the same way again.

[The 1 2 P]

I just played the Fear 2 demo on my 360 an hour ago. I liked it alot. However, having played thru both Silent Hill(the Japanese import version) and Doom 3, Fear 2 was definitely not as freaky as those two games. Nothing jumped out from behind me every 3 minutes and the fact that I could use my gun and flashlight at the same time made the atmosphere alot less tense. I still enjoyed it, especially the end of the demo when I was cleaning house in the mech.

As for the expansion games that everyone said are bad, I picked up the 360 version(Fear Files) at Circuit City's last going out of business sale(in December) for $10.50. I haven't played it yet but I can't imagine it not being worth trying for around $10 brand new. But I'll reserve judgement until I play it.

[maxlords]

I've played through the first 3 Silent Hills and about half of Doom 3. The Silent Hills are creepy as all hell, but it's in a totally different style. A slow building tension rather than the in your face gut reaction you get from FEAR. As for Doom 3...I didn't find it scary at all. Not even a little. System Shock 2 was scarier than Doom 3. In fact....I got bored playing Doom 3 and found myself laughing at the enemies...hence the not finishing it.

[FrakAttack]

Didn't scare me, the flickering lights and swirling ghost images just gave me a headache. *_*

[Nesmaster]

Those ghosts actually pissed me off a lot, and they did overdo it with the flickering lights in that area.

This feels a lot harder to me than the first one. I died as I cleared the street area and went into the building at the end and got rushed. I dropped it to easy and had the same thing happen. Perhaps I was just rushing, but I got so annoyed I shut it off at the time. I'll try it again when it isn't so late/close to bed. LOL

[The 1 2 P]

I played the demo again and it's shaping up to be a really nice fps. But unless they step up the creepiness it's not going to scare me at all. I also went and played the demo to Fear Files via an OXM disc. That too was fun and I actually felt it's control scheme was more precise than the controls of Fear 2.

[G-Boobie]

I played the demo again and it's shaping up to be a really nice fps. But unless they step up the creepiness it's not going to scare me at all. I also went and played the demo to Fear Files via an OXM disc. That too was fun and I actually felt it's control scheme was more precise than the controls of Fear 2.

The scares are all pretty much cheap horror movie tactics, but I consider them to be icing on the cake. The best thing about F.E.A.R. games is the firefights. They get truly insane. If you get flashes of an undead psychopath trying to strangle you after a particularly nasty encounter, that's a bonus. :)

[The Shawn]

If you get flashes of an undead psychopath trying to strangle you after a particularly nasty encounter, that's a bonus. :)


One of the reasons I enjoyed the first Suffering game so much...

[Solertia]

It comes out tomorrow :)

[The 1 2 P]

If you get flashes of an undead psychopath trying to strangle you after a particularly nasty encounter, that's a bonus. :)

I actually remember a scene like this in Doom 3 with a chainsaw wielding freak.

[otaku]

I tried the demo on my pc. Great atmosphere (and graphics/sound) scared the hell out of me been awhile since a game did that to me (dino crisis when I was younger)

[G-Boobie]

I picked F.E.A.R. 2 up today, and it's pretty great.

There aren't as many jump scares and bizarre supernatural freak outs as the first game, but I'm only about a third of the way through. Good gunplay, excellent graphics, all the usual compliments.

The A.I. doesn't seem as bright this time around, though.

[Drag0nsfyre]

I picked this up last night along with OneChanbara and the Ultimate Genesis collection. I just messed around a bit with some of the online modes so far.