𝟕,𝟒/𝟏𝟎
Just an perfect sequel. Better weapons designs, better visual style (better than it looks on screenshots), better cutscenes. But weak plot B category.
But there are also minuses in the gameplay, the game lacks the ability to lean left or right, the super-mega cool ai of the enemies (which the series is famous for) is not felt. The difficulty is too easy. There is not enough variety in the gameplay.
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Просто идеальный сиквел. Лучше дизайн оружия, лучше визуальный стиль (лучше, чем выглядит на скриншотах), лучше катсцены. Но слабенький сюжет категории В.
Но и в геймплее есть минусы, не хватает наклонов в сторону, супер-мега крутой интеллект врагов (чем славится серия) - не чувствуется. Сложность слишком лёгкая. Разнообразия в геймплее не хватает.

We want the CoD audience: The Game.
The concept introduced in the first game is so cool - sci-fi military unit to fight paranormal forces.
But instead of expanding on that, the sequel rehashes the Alma plot from the first game, which sucks! They could do so much and don't use it - but i give them that, the hallucination sequences are great, way better then in the original.
Too bad the gameplay sucks and is a massive step down in every single way - even the hud is worse. Monolith just can't make good sequels, i guess.

Es sorprendente el hecho de que el mismo equipo que trajo el F.E.A.R. original pudiera arruinar un montón de cosas que hicieron bien en el primero ahora en la secuela, esto se puede notar en varias partes, el diseño de los niveles ahora esta lleno de zonas espaciosas las cuales hacen notar que el diseño tan minucioso de la inteligencia artificial que vienen trabajando desde el 1 no esta hecho para peleas en lugares grandes ya que los enemigos se quedaran en cobertura lejos o trataran de correr en linea recta hacia ti, lo cual termina haciendo que no se pueda aprovechar bien el sistema de combate, y los problemas con los niveles o zonas no solo se quedan en los lugares espaciosos, si no que también en los lugares pequeños, cerrados y lineales, ya que en estos los enemigos muchas veces no demuestran ninguna otra estrategia que no sea atacar al jugador en linea recta o quedarse tras cobertura, muy pocas veces vi a un enemigo tratar de flanquearme o intentando una estrategia que cree la ilusión de que sea un enemigo pensante, algo por lo que el original es muy conocido, no se si sea solo culpa del diseño de niveles o puede que tenga que ver con que quisieron cambiar como funciona la IA de los enemigos (incluso cuando se nota que sigue teniendo parte del mismo comportamiento) pero de todas formas en términos generales el combate de esta secuela es funcional pero bastante genérico la gran mayoría de las veces y de vez en cuando muestra destellos de genialidad como los que hacían tan bueno el combate del primero. Hay un montón de cambios extraños que de verdad no entiendo, ahora uno no se puede inclinar hacia un lado para apuntar afuera de una esquina, por alguna razón ya no se puede usar la pistola en modo akimbo, algo que se podía en el primero, y aunque la pistola ciertamente es el arma mas débil del juego, poder usarla de esta forma la volvía bastante útil en ciertas ocasiones, quitar esta mecánica solo hace que no haya ninguna razón por la cual un jugador la quiera volver a agarrar, otra cosa que parece que no funciona ahora es disparar a tus propias granadas mientras están en el aire para que exploten en momentos específicos, o mas bien, parece que no funciona de forma correcta, porque varias veces que yo intente hacer esto la granada tardaba en explotar después de haberle disparado y en ciertas ocasiones explotaba justo cuando le disparaba, no si eso sea algo que solo me paso a mi, pero sinceramente sentí esta mecánica inconsistente, por lo que casi nunca intentaba hacerlo, tengo la teoría de que simplemente no se puede hacer y trataron de intercambiarlo con una mecánica de cocinar granadas, hablando de nuevas mecánicas que sinceramente no aportan nada, ahora se puede correr, pero la velocidad que aporta no es mucha en comparación con solo caminar y ademas cuando uno corre, toda acción que quiera hacer mientras corre tendrá un cierto retraso haciendo que cosas como deslices, patadas aéreas o saltos después de correr sean incómodos de ejecutar, yo diría que en general la mecánica de correr se siente torpe, otra cosa que añadieron es que ahora se puede apuntar desde el retículo del arma, lo cual no suena como algo malo si no fuese porque al usarla junto con el slow-mo cubre buena parte de la pantalla haciendo que sea difícil ver todo el daño que estas causando, no estoy diciendo que te quita la visión del enemigo, si no que esto cubre buena parte del espectáculo visual algo que no pasaba en el original, esto no seria molesto si no fuese porque ahora disparar desde la cadera es impreciso, haciendo que muchas veces sea completamente necesario usar la mirilla, otro cambio que no entiendo es que ahora los enemigos brillan cuando usas slow-mo, esto seria algo útil si no fuese porque ya de por si todos los enemigos llevan luces en sus uniformes haciendo que este cambio se sienta muy estúpido e innecesario, por ultimo en cuanto a adiciones quiero mencionar el mech suit, el cual de por si no es malo si no que las secciones en que lo puedes usar son idénticas y de verdad son de las mas genéricas que hay, eso si, quiero saber quien pensó que fue una buena idea añadir un mech suit en este juego para luego no permitirte usar el slow-mo mientras lo montas, es que de verdad no entiendo quien pensaría en esto. Ahora hablando meramente de las armas, casi todas si no todas son versiones inferiores de las armas del juego original, el rifle de asalto es peor, la ametralladora es mas o menos, el remplazo del arma de partículas es una desgracia, el nuevo lanzacohetes es aburrido, la nailgun es peor y lo peor de todo, se cagaron completamente en la escopeta, las nuevas armas son decentonas pero de verdad nada especial. En cuanto a enemigos, aunque la mayoria son muy parecidos a los originales, ahora los asesinos replica son un fastidio y salen en momentos que no dan espacio para que te puedan sorprender, y por alguna razón ahora hay enemigos rápidos que trepan por los muros y tratan lanzarse encima tuyo, son una molestia mas que nada.
Para terminar de hablar de este juego simplemente puedo decir, que aunque no es terrible porque mantiene varias cosas del original, como se caga en el resto de cosas que hicieron bien anteriormente, termina dejando una experiencia que no resalta en nada, una experiencia funcional pero de verdad una que no puedo recomendar ni a un fan del original, tiene sus momentos pero de verdad no vale la pena, ni hablar de la historia y de lo mal balanceado que están las dificultades.

I remember when F.E.A.R. 2 was first announced and it blew up the gaming world. It was a long anticipated sequel to one of the best FPS games on PC, and surprisingly it was also coming to current consoles which I felt held the game back some, and this infuriated some longtime fans. You continue where the first game left off and must go back into the destruction that the nuke caused and try and stop Alma once and for all.

The story and characters are worse than the first game and make absolutely zero sense. I still don’t know why Alma wants to kill everyone and who Beckett really is (your main character). The game focuses more on action over atmosphere and scares, unlike the first game. There are some really creepy scenes with the elementary school being by far the best with poltergeists chasing you in dark hallways. It’s sad that the horror element took a back seat and the game just doesn’t feel as good as the first game.

The shooting, however, has improved a lot with more responsive controls, faster paced gunplay and a slightly higher variety of weapons. The enemies are still generic soldiers called Replicas that are just bullet sponges and don’t offer anything interesting to the game. There are two mech sequences added to the game where you can crawl inside one and devastate foes. Outside of feeling powerful, these scenes felt more like filler than anything else. Another continuing issue is the level design. The game is full of generic desolate city streets, hallways, metal and concrete buildings with catwalks and industrial decor. It’s the same as before just with more detail and better visuals.

Slo-mo does make a return here, but I didn’t need to use it as often as the first game as this game is much easier. Instead of hoarding 10 medkits you get up to 3 and body armor to help absorb damage. You can still upgrade your Reflex meter by finding syringes and data pads are scattered everywhere for story tidbits. I have to say I miss the answering machines and Alienware laptops scattered around as it felt more organic and required less reading in such a fast-paced game.

The game looks really good even today. Larger environments, higher resolution textures, better models, physics, and overall lighting effects really stand out and this game looks far from ugly, just boring and generic. The game tried to switch up the setting with more outdoor environments and less indoor, but it doesn’t really matter as the game is still highly linear. It just doesn’t feel like F.E.A.R. did and that’s a shame as you can tell there was a careful placement of each scare and less focus on action.

Overall, F.E.A.R. 2 is a great sequel and worth your time for a weekend playthrough. It isn’t memorable, there’s nothing special, but the occasional scare and interesting horror elements, as well as fantastic shooting, make for a good game.

FEAR 2 é definitivamente uma das piores sequências que eu já joguei e olha que minha expectativa estava bem baixa graças a todos os comentários de colegas que já haviam finalizado a franquia.

O enredo e os personagens são péssimos e não fazem sentido ou conexão, o que acaba sendo extremamente confuso para quem veio do primeiro, pois a história principal é quase a mesma coisa. Infelizmente, isso me deixou bem triste já que o meu interesse sempre foi entender mais sobre a antagonista.

A gameplay também nem chega aos pés do primeiro, pois a inteligência artificial que foi tão destacada e elevada como referência se perdeu. Basicamente, você pode entrar em uma sala, ficar na porta e esperar os inimigos chegarem em fila única, ou seja, não existe mais aquele medo de ser preso em uma sala com 5 inimigos vindos de várias direções ou emboscadas extremamente preparadas.

Outro ponto que achei extremamente inferior foi a ambientação que em geral é repetitiva e pouco agradável. Para não ser totalmente negativa, acho que o único local que realmente conseguiu impactar alguma coisa foi a escola, pois existe algumas cenas com Poltergeist que realmente trazem uma diferença.

Acho que o ponto mais grave de todo esse jogo foi a péssima utilização de jumpscares, ação e a quantidade de piscadas e mudanças abruptas enquanto o jogador anda pelo mapa. Sério, teve um momento que eu precisei parar de jogar graças a dor de cabeça que as luzes piscando a todo momento estavam me causando.

No fim, acho que vou fingir nunca ter jogado a continuação de FEAR e imaginar que o jogo acabou daquela forma, assim como aconteceu com NOLF.

So I finished this and had mostly positive things to say about it as a shooter.

Then I watched a GrimBeard video and he commented once you're in a giant mechsuit, the game has actually become the antithesis of fear and instead has insulated you in the safest conditions a shooter could possibly provide.

It takes a big man to change his mind because of one comment. I'm a big man. You know what. Fuck it. I had nothing positive to say about it as anything but a shooter with some nice environments. But now I'm fairly sure those things mostly sucked too.

So, like, yeah. Bad game.

Coming hot off the heels off playing F.E.A.R.'s expansion packs - Extraction Point & Perseus Mandate - I had some higher hopes for this. I knew it wasn't terribly well received but the reception was better than F.E.A.R. 3 so surely that meant something? Not really.


- Story & Characters -
Characters have even less depth than the first game, and some of the dialogue is just painfully stupid & corny. Story is... there, I guess. Nothing to really say about it. The ending was flat out dumb and massively threw off the game's pacing.


- Gameplay -
Gunplay and the combat dynamic have taken a big step down from the first game. Most guns sound very weak, with bizarre changes in their look and feel. They did the shotgun horrendously dirty in this, it feels and sounds like a peashooter compared to the god-tier VK-12.

Enemy AI also feels like a big step down. They seem outright dumb at times, standing still and eating shots without ever returning fire. There were a few glimpse of what could've been with them: flipping over cover, crashing through windows and the various voice lines indicating they had a clue of what was going on, but generally not very interesting to fight.

All they really had to do was copy over the gunplay & AI from the first game and the rest would've taken care of itself, but they felt the need to so drastically alter the core formula to what every 7th gen console shooter felt like at that time.


- Visuals & Performance -
Environmental variety is much greater than the first game, which is about the only positive thing I can say about the visual design. Levels are very linear with not much in the way of exploration. The entire game's art style has changed to this ugly semi sci-fi look, with bright lights and dull color palettes stuck onto enemies, which makes visibility even worse amongst the abundance of post-process effects on screen at any given time. It's aged the game horribly.

Performance on a Ryzen 7 3700x and GTX 1660 SUPER running Windows 11 wasn't great either. While I never ran into stuttering or unplayable framerates, it would still often drop frames down to below 70 at times, which is odd for a game this old. Not a huge deal but something worth noting if your PC is on the weaker side.


- Conclusion -
The two positives this game managed to gain from me:
- Greater environmental variety
- Alma's hot now, I guess? Not sure how to feel about that since you could classify it as necrophilia

Pretty disappointing overall, cannot see myself coming back to this ever. I don't understand how some people think this is better than Perseus Mandate. That expansion, for all it's faults, is much more fun than this.