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

This somewhat scary sequel is a solid shooter, but it can't keep pace with its lauded predecessor.

F.E.A.R. 2 delivers some meaty combat, but fails to improve on the original. Where was the ambition to innovate or surprise? It's by no means terrible, but for such a major franchise, more was expected. This is still an enjoyable shooter, just not a particularly hair-raising one.

That most damning of all things - neither memorably awful, nor memorably brilliant, but simply decent. The sureness with which Monolith revisits the original game's themes and dual gameplay structure is commendable, but the spark isn't quite there.

A great game, despite its lackluster multiplayer component. The intense imagery and action is framed between gratifying exploratory segments that allow you to navigate and learn about the haunted world at your own pace. A coherent story holds the dizzying narrative together, which is something that the game’s predecessor sorely lacked.

FEAR 2 is a typical sequel in every sense. There is more blood, more enemies, more variation, more slow-motion action and more creepy ghosts. It's fun to run around blasting enemies for a while, and the environments do create a great overall atmosphere, but FEAR 2 lacks that certain edge that would make it stand out from the competition. It a good shooter - just not a great one.

F.E.A.R. 2 turned out to be a game that both succeeds and fails with equal amounts of spectacle.

F.E.A.R. 2 is a middling shooter at best, and while the bare-bones mechanics are all tightly oiled, you’re left with a stale taste in your mouth. It may be the first big release of 2009, but it’s also the first big disappointment.

While F.E.A.R. 2 still delivers in its action and grim setting, especially for fans of the original, FPS games have evolved since 2005, and the very innovations that made the first game stand out have now become cliché and drawn out.

First-person shooter meets survival horror, but the primary psychic phenomenon here is deja vu.

The fact remains that F.E.A.R evolved shooters back in 2005, but there appears to be very little progress in the four years since with F.E.A.R 2.

That is perhaps what is largely wrong with FEAR 2: as quintessential a First-Person-Shooter as it is, it doesn't have the heart and soul of games like, for example, Half-Life 2; your character is merely existing in the world rather than living in it, and that's a departure from which even the new quick-time events cannot save it.

I honestly did not really mind that the game closed without fully explaining itself; the problem was that as the credits rolled my mind harked back to earlier points in the game, trying to give those supposedly standout moments a second thought, and realising none of them really stood out firmly in my mind.

If you played the first few FEAR games and you want to know what happens next to the faceless, characterless, protagonist then you could do a lot worse than FEAR 2: Project Origin. I really can’t recommend this to players that are new to either the series or the genre. The lack of reiteration of the first game’s story is rather perplexing.

If you've never played a first-person shooter before, you'll probably be in love - this is as archetypal a corridor-shooter as has ever been made, and there's a reason why it works. But for anyone who's been running down corridors with shotguns for most of their adult life, this is so uninspired that you worry for the spark of Monolith's soul. You guys made "No One Lives Forever," remember? You're smart. You're better than this.

The more I played it the less I wanted to as the story got sillier and the horror theme phased in and out. I wouldn't recommend F.E.A.R. 2 to anyone except the ultra hardcore fans of Monolith Productions - even then you'd be better off playing Condemned 2.

The game hardly lays out a convincing tale, which leaves gameplay to perform double duty.