Analysis(In Depth): How BAD Is F.E.A.R. 2 Really? - JarekTheGamingDragon 

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My disapointment is that FEAR became The Pointman Saga instead of focusing on FEAR as the unit. Hell, they are a fkin Federal Ghost Busters unit, I want more crazy shit they meet on the job, not Pointman's family issues

Fun fact: extraction point was meant to be the end of alma's story. FEAR 2 would have focused on a different F.E.A.R. squad sometime afterwards dealing with a seperate, unrelated paranormal spooky thing happening. Each entry was gonna focus on a different story revolving around the F.E.A.R. team and the weird paranormal shit they are constantly told to deal with and investigate. IIrc the destruction of fear 1's city was going to essentially just be covered up and the mission considered a failure, with the next entry in the series just changing subject to an unrelated spooky event that needs to be investigated. edit: I forgot to mention fear 2 was originally going to be a consle spinoff while monolith focused on the real fear 2, but the suits made them focus on the consle spinoff and that became the official second entry of the series.

I really liked fear 2. It isnt better but l liked it a lot.

Yeah, definitely. FEAR 2 had some cool stuff but FEAR 1 is just perfection.

FEAR 1 will always be one of the greatest fps games of all time, but I will not sleep on FEAR 2 because I actually don't mind it. I've always said this, FEAR 2 isn't that bad, its just a bad sequel.

And so we ended up inventing 2 different Fear timelines.... because from being a swat like member encountering spooky shit we jumped into killzone with ghosts 18:55 lol that's a cursed reload right there.

"I'm with my best buds pranking Alma" is the best description I've ever heard for this game. Such a bore of a game of couldn't bother finishing it

This was that era where they shoved iron sights into every game, regardless if it made sense for that game or not.

Ah yes, can't mention F.E.A.R. without the shotgun. The only thing that kept me going through F.E.A.R. 2 was the info tidbits. Otherwise it felt dry and flat as a cardboard. Though the biggest sin is the enemy voice downgrade. It was immensely satisfying to encounter enemies in F.E.A.R. 1: H O S T I L E!!!!!! * enemy retreats to cover * * you bounce grenade off the wall and engage slowmo * (slowmo) F * C K!!!! * enemy disappears into fine red mist *

So basically, FEAR became a victim of the time where every game wanted to be Call of Duty. I'd say it's nice that we are out of that, but now every game wants to be Fortnite, so it's definitely not better.

The one good thing about the FEAR sequels is that Jin lives in the Monolith timeline. I was significantly affected by her death the first time round when I played Extraction Point.

And now monolith are making Batman Arkham: Lord of the rings edition.

Nearly every problem that FEAR 2 has (dumber AI, control issues, lack of side mouse button support, weaker lighting, etc) can be traced back to the same core; focusing on the consoles first, and the PC second. Heck, I remember reading in a magazine that the devs stated that it was being made primarily with consoles in mind, and they seemed to be proud of that fact.

Graphics don’t matter art direction dose that’s the issue with fear 2 visuals I think that’s what you where geting at with the visuals

It still sad fear 3 left a cliffhanger and we're not getting a fear 4

You might wanna keep an eye out for Trepang2. It's basically the sequel F.E.A.R never got.

we desperately need a real sequel/spiritual successor to FEAR 1. nothing beats the combat encounters in that game compared to any fps

Played FEAR 2 for the first time few weeks ago and I have to say that it was pretty fun. Especially the level variety was just heads above the original. I still prefer combat in F1 tho.

I still hate how they ruined the aesthetics of the enemies in FEAR 2. In FEAR 1 the replicas and ATC security had practical equipment (well aside from the elite replicas anyway with their dumb masks). In FEAR 2 they're wearing armor and fatigues with lights all over them like they're cosplaying as a Christmas tree.

Watching Holiday dying in extraction point might have been the most traumatizing thing I ever experienced. But in Fear2 i never (except in the school section) got scared.

Don't forget the ai in F.E.A.R. 1 almost had some kind of morale system, your dominating them then Replica 1 says "Flank him!". And number 2 says "No", that refusal to do something effective because of how well the player is doing makes them feel both more alive and believable and the reverse is true where they are kicking your ass and charge due to morale being high. God damn it I need to reinstall F.E.A.R. again, damn you Jarek.

Monolith has a history of nailing things first time, then they screw it up when they try to make a sequel. Condemned: Criminal Origins is better than Condemned: Bloodshot in every way, despite the latter being a sequel

I loved FEAR 2. I play through the campaign every 3-4 years. The multiplayer was a blast, too, especially the toy soldier maps.

We need some kind of fear remake, or a soft reboot. Imagine FEAR but with the tech used in Control. Imagine the lighting, the particle effects, the environmental effects. Speaking of Control, imagine the Point Man being tasked with retaking a building taken over by anomalies. I want it so bad

For me personally i don't care about graphics from a tech standpoint i care from an art design standpoint

It didnt really bother me that FEAR 2 had aim down sights, but the removal of leaning left and right made aiming in combat feel terrible

Y'know, the irony is that if I were a RU-vidr I'd eventually find myself in the same position as you. I'd end up referencing games like Warframe so freakin much I'd HAVE to make a video out of pure principal.

I would love if you analyse Wolfenstein new quadrology. Not only New Collosus but everything

I have always maintained that Fear 2 should be where players start the franchise. As I did. Doing so, Fear 2 plays like a lot of familiar shooters so the disappointment of it not playing like 1 doesn't hurt the game, glitches aside. Story wise, not knowing what happened in Fear 1 added a great deal of mystery for me that was intriguing. Who is Alma? Why did a nuke go off in the city? What are replica's? I loved Fear 2 so much that I got Fear 1 and was in for a huge treat. Thus, Fear 1 actually felt like the sequel for me. It expanded on what was started with the sequel. Had I started with Fear 1 like most, I would have also disliked 2. But doing it this way, made 2 a good game for me.

I feel like yes, FEAR 1 is significantly better than FEAR 2, yet I enjoy it as an FPS game. It has its moments and the gameplay still is great imo. If you compare it to FEAR 1, it will feel meh, but compared to a lot of the titles that came out at the time, yeah, I had a great time and still enjoy it today

Wait, those blue dot dudes your fighting in FEAR 2 ARENT Replicants? Damn. I really really miss the grounded feel of the first FEAR. ATC Security looks like your basic security firm, the replicas look slightly higher tech, SFOD-D looked phenomenal.

FEAR 1 was a fucking masterpiece. and in my head Extraction Point is the true ending and where the series ended for me. FEAR 2 just felt like a chore to play.

Hey Jarek, great video as always! By any chance have you ever played a game called Brink (2011)?

Ngl don’t mind the color in FEAR 2. What I do mind is the excessive bloom, and how it goes from mostly dynamic lights to static pre baked

Well yeah obviously, but I think the real problem is with fear 3

Oh god if you had difficulty finally doing this video due to your disappointment with the game then I can’t imagine how you feel about F3AR. You should balance it out by doing a video on FEAR and why it’s so amazing.

Incredible, in the span of just a few hours, Armacham Technology Corporation went from being a 5 billion dollar company, to a 100 billion one. Such growth has never been seen before, or since.

I wish that this series would get a sweet reboot or remake of some kind. I think it’s time to revisit the franchise

8:40 I remember playing the hospital level in Wolfenstein 2009 (one of the best levels in that game) and thinking this feels heavily inspired by F.E.A.R and its expansions. And sure enough it turned out to be a gigantic inspiration for the devs at Raven Software. The Veil Assassins (first encountered in that specific level) were an homage to the Replica Assassins in F.E.A.R and and the same was true for the level itself. And this might be slightly controversial, but that Hospital level in Wolfenstein 2009 is one of the best levels in the entire Wolfenstein franchise. And I agree that the same can be said for the Hospital level in Extraction Point. It is one of the best levels in the entire F.E.A.R franchise.

I also like the method of storytelling in Fear 1 much more than in Fear 2. Also, I'm not sure if I had a broken audio file but every time I opened a log in Fear 2 it would make this harsh buzzing noise and I would just pick up the log, exit out of it, and ignore the in-game stuff.

If FEAR 2 had essentially kept the storyline of extraction point or rather continued the story, and kept the visual styling of the sierra timeline and gameplay with higher quality visuals and *maybe* some new additions here and there it would have been so much better.

What were the writers smoking when they wrote in the part where Alma and the MC "get it on"?!

i always remember my dad playing this when i was younger; i remember absolutely nothing from it

Some talented moddersomewhere should "demake" fear 2 into fear 1. Literally just the levels. Keep the enemies and guns as they are in fear 1.

I love how when you reload that p90 assault rifle hybrid thing, you smack the red dot sight. I feel like that'd eventually put it off center.

I love all fear games, even 3 . Fear 2 might feel really different and my main complain Is that the melee Is bad and the levels are really linear because otherwise there are some aspects i prefer over the first game, like the setting. The second chapter of fear 2 Is one of my most favourites chapters un any fps

Around 4:30 boulder punch also mentioned a lot of criticisms of the first game were offices and industrial buildings but they were designed for the games ai and to also give you the feeling of fighting in a city than a battlefield which I liked a lot!

I love fear 2. It’s a solid, polished FPS with great atmosphere and a cool story. It’s not bad. The original is definitely better though

While Fear 1 may be better, I still enjoyed Fear 2 and even Fear 3.

I believe it was dxfan who best brought up 2 major reasons for atleast the gameplay being such a negative departure from FEAR 1 (though the second might have impacted the story): 1. Though John Mulkey was on the team during FEAR 1, during 2's development, he started forming a idealistic crush on the "more realistic/visceral" feel of COD's aiming and sprint bursts to cover or to close the distance. I forgot if had more creative liberties in 2 because of becoming more of a head of the design or due to team problems. What supports the angle that John is responsible for the poorly done gameplay style change however is the fact he ALSO worked on aliens colonial marines where the gunplay and movement had the same problems and were stemmed from the same design ideal overfixiation. 2. FEAR 2 was the originally planned spiritual sequel that was initially in the works while the original ip rights were out of their hands. However when the ip was ultimately bought back, the plan became to cement project origin as a console first side sequel and make a proper sequel be more thought out in being a truer to the og by putting more focus on pc first/console second like a excelerated life span of og FEAR's releases. However both projects started to have problems with the true sequel just plain having trouble getting off the ground, so they focused more on the broader audience and further along Project Origin seeing as the immediate consoles release market would be more profitable and prevent simular problems they had with the co-development of blood 2 and shogo long ago. Beyond that however, its a victim of both conflicting design decisions and writing. Much like rpg have their share of amazing and stinker quests, different devs/writers handled each section of the game with a simular general basis in mind but differ direction to execute their vision of it while using Mulkey and his guy's gameplay (which is why we get something as good as the school level while everything else is a flop, same as why halo 1's library is a flop with some other flood levels close to it but everything else generally is great). Shame to see monolith ditch the ip after such a wrecked and divisive development. Anyways, Sidenote to Jerrek and fellow fans: keep a eye on Trepang 2 and try the demo if you havent already, it feels like a proper spiritual sequel to FEAR 1/ extraction point. They even released some more indev footage that looks sweet.

The lack of support for side-buttons is absolutely inexcusable considering the first games on the engine way back in 1998 supported them. It had to have taken more effort to remove or otherwise break support for them than it would have to just keep them working for this game. Also, something you didn't mention was that one of the cool new additions to the game - sections where you get to go on a rampage in an EPA - is mitigated by the fact that every time you jump into one, the game arbitrarily shuffles what slots your weapons are in, and there's no way to put them back where you want them except by finding a new weapon entirely to juggle everything around.

It's a fun enough, well-paced shooter, and a terrible sequel. The fights being shooting galleries rather than enemies being initially unaware of your position and then reacting semi-dynamically is such a downgrade it might as well not be the same series as FEAR. The story is ick. Making the victim (Alma, obviously) into a scary supernatural monster is an extremely common horror trope, but it feels gross here even before the ending happens. Armacham went from the morally detached middleman carrying out a military contract to a scifi evil conglomerate that lords over an entire city. It's like nobody was allowed to play or even watch any of the first game and only had vague notes to go by.

I have the unpopular experience of remembering this fondly at the time and being blown away. I remember being surprised when I understood it wasn’t liked.

You're forced to wander aimlessly much of the time. A pace-killer. The devs are too vague about what to do and go. Shows its age there, I guess. Great fun, then a total bore, great fun, total... you know what? Let's play something, anything else.

Finally someone did it. That's why I decided to follow up with your contents.

I was so disappointed of F.E.A.R 2:Project Origin. It is because Replica Forces are designed differently from the first F.E.A.R game look at Replica Heavy Armour. It look so different. Unfortunately Replica Heavy Riot Armour didn't appeared. there are also new enemies like Specimen.

I agree, extraction point should have been the true sequel. Also a tortured soul on a bloody vendetta having sex with you and getting pregnant as the result??? Ouch...

AI can seriously make a game incredible. I recently replayed Batman Arkham Knight, that games AI is severely under-appreciated. The AI constantly adapts to your tactics, they group up, one covering the front and one covering the back, they call out the position of bodies to friendlies, they make plans and counter your abilities. It made the stealth sections of the game SO entertaining. Fear 1 is another great example, AI that constantly adapt and communicate with each other.

"For a long time I never realized those soldiers were ATC soldiers" This, so much. The enemies in this game basically have no personality. Even the replicas sound like generic soldiers spouting off fluff.

In the first F.E.A.R. I was hiding behind a wall and then one of the replica soldiers just shout " shoot the extinguisher " and I was dead it blew my mind when I reload my save he rushed at me with a shotgun it was awesome

It's weird because when fear 2 came out I remember liking it more than 1 (I think it's because I originally sucked at 1) however after playing through them recently it's clear fear 2 is a step back from 1

I remember playing the FEAR 2 multiplayer on X360. My fondest memory is when I was using the BFG-like weapon, ended up killing the entire enemy team with it, and shortly after receiving a message telling me to kms for using it. Good times.

18:54 So... lemme get this straight... The pistol's slide locks back even if it isn't empty. Then it seems to be instantly released upon the insertion of a new magazine (okay, this bit in particular isn't completely unreal). However, the PC then pulls the slide back! Uh-huh...

I watched a bunch of the trailers and it looked like a bunch of content got cut

What happened to the A.I. in this crap? The enemy AI literally MADE the original, along with the great sound, weapon feel, particle effects and lighting. Everything gone in this one.

Oof there are instances of the original game's brilliance in this, but just instances, tree on still island and ashen corpses on streets as examples. Imagine if we got a squeal to Extraction Point where Paxton turns against his mother (his mocking during Reborn and his fear 3 ending indicate hes looking out for himself despite his "family" prattle), Point Man have to stop both while seeing the scenes above. Campaign could explore scenes of various types of "fear," while having themes of trauma and lashing at others. But we got...F3AR, sad.

I also didn't like how everyone can have superhuman reflexes after a "surgery" now. The pointman has this since birth through some abhorrent genetic meddling, and it was not even an intended outcome, it's a side affect of the failed telepathy experiment. It does kinda ruin the epicness that the first game built aroud the "successful failure first prototype".

As stupid as 3 was it did have pretty awesome arena moments and the mech sections were really fun, more memorable than 2.

Tbh its hard to make something that improves a masterpiece

I think that graphics only matter in Story based games. Nowadays the most popular games are multiplayer PVP only, and in those games I do believe that graphics do not matter hardly at all

Trying to play FEAR2 on hard difficulty wasnt fun. I think the 3 Medkit limit ruined my fun

MGS1 Graphics aren’t the best when you look back at it but it’s still a Masterpiece

The disabling extra mouse buttons was probably done because of a specific bug with logitech mice in FEAR 1. In FEAR 1 if you ever used a logitech mouse it would often cause insane stutter to the point where the game was pretty much unplayable, and the only solution was to disable the extra mouse buttons. Monolith apparently tried to patch it out but it was so hard-coded into the engine it couldn't be fixed (this is why the same problem happens in Condemned: Criminal Origins). Since FEAR 2 is using FEAR 1's engine, they probably just decided it was easier to make the game based around not needing extra buttons and disable them so it didn't have this problem, since switching engines would've been significantly more difficult.

I actually liked the AR and SMG in Fear 2 better but that’s it, otherwise first is superior

Fear 1 isn't sold on the Microsoft store. But currently, fear 2 is $5....what even?

I think I read that the reason FEAR 2's laser weapon lists to the top left is because the weapon is used in game by heavily armored units, so for a normal guy its supposed to seem unwieldy. It do look broken tho.

My most vivid memory of the campaign was running down corridor after corridor in a replica soldier manufacturing facility and all the pods containing the replicas begin opening up one by one, left and right. Just speaking of it gives me the chills...

imagine a simple mod, that would replace all FEAR 2 weapon sounds with one from OG FEAR it would change so much at least in the gun feel

My biggest disappointment gameplay-wise was in fear 2 you can't shoot grenades. In fear 1 it made me feel cool as a kid. I would throw the 'nade between 2 enemies and shoot it before it lands. Man, that was awesome.

wtf, who says FEAR2 is bad? What?

Fun fact, the asp is actually in F.E.A.R 1's single player. It's very rare, and only found as an environment drop, but you can find it on a mission here and there

Longest video on your channel but your f.e.a.r videos are great really show your passion and talent

Fear 2 was one of my first games in steam, back at 2009, but even back then I didn't finished it because how tedious it was.

I genuinely enjoyed FEAR 3 more than 2, I guess it just felt like 2 didn't know what it wanted to be.

Failed to Escape Alma's Rape

I can't play it for more than ten minutes at a time. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put motion blur and lens flares in the game but that shit starts hurting my eyes whenever I have to start whipping my head around to shoot at stuff

22:30 Just wanted to note that in this game the way that you can best distinguish the Armacahn baddies and the Replica baddies is that the Armacahn hired goons do not communicate with each other while the Replica troops do. I'm surprised you didn't pick up on that because you go without this sort of combat radio chatter throughout most of the game and then when the Replica are suddenly introduced you get all that chatter back. I think they intended that to be one of those moments to put a smile on the face of fans of the original. The actual chatter isn't as reactive or thorough as the original but they did make this conscious decision. Also I actually disagree with the Hammerhead being better. If you try to use it ADS it's really inaccurate and the gun pins enemies way less often which means trying to headshot an enemy you'll miss at least one shot even if you're shooting a stationary enemy from a steady stance in slomo, they usually take multiple headshots from the Hammerhead, and even when you do headshot them they usually just fall down like it were normal damage. There's a few negative criticisms I disagreed with so I was surprised to disagree with you when you had something nice to say about one of the guns.

The only thing Fear 2 does better in my opinion is being able to aim down sights. It probably wouldn’t add much to Fear 1 but it would satisfy my tick

An aspect of the original F.E.A.R (and to a lesser extent the sequels) you didn't mention is not only are they a love leter to John Woo films and Japanese horror, but the story of F.E.A.R is heavily inspired by Metal Geat Solid. Clone soldiers? Mechs? Insane Psychics? And something I've always thought about Project Origin was how Monolith kinda lifted the Condemned aesthetic more so than the aesthetic of the original F.E.A.R. and even then, it wasn't as good as Condemneds atmosphere either. I did enjoy Project Origin when it came out, but not nearly as much as the original and for basically all the reasons you stated here.

16:20 I find it odd... that the melee is less effective in fear 2, leading you to believe that the hitboxes are just "more accurate". The first person model in Fear 1, is the 3rd person model, so you see exactly where your foot is actually going. In Fear 2 they wanted a prettier 1st person model, so now, you have no idea where your melee is actually landing...

Nothing pisses me off more than a short sprint meter. After playing Black Mesa I can't deal with it anymore in Half Life 2. Plus Half Life 2 has so many big open maps It makes it even worse. sv_infinite_aux_power 1 all day!

I wonder why I even was on the official Project Origin forums, it as if we, fans, were talking to air. I don't think they really listened to us that much but only took into account feedback from their old forums: NOLF fans who couldn't stand the serious tone of the original F.E.A.R. The demo that was delivered, didn't even look too much like the original footage that was shown initially. Also I heard stories, there were 2 games being made at once, one for pc and the other for console. The one for pc got shafted along the way. Project Origin was a complete disappointment in the end.

None of the FEAR games are *bad*. Not even F3AR.

I'm wanting a fear 4 where half the game is a third person stealth type game playing as Alma's third child, a girl who is on her way to becoming as warped as her mother, but on the run from armacham, kinda like a reverse horror where you butcher and scare the fuck outta the enemy, tearing locations apart, all that, and the second half can be pointman trying to get to his sister first, constantly a step behind, the levels are essentially the same layout but left in the state the player leaves them in as the kid and the enemy type changes depending on whether the kid massacred or spared the enemy

Graphics are not what matter, the way they are set up does

In my opinion, F.E.A.R. 2 actually has a solid gameplay. But as for narrative and campaign is relatively short. It took me only 6 hours to beat the sequel. Three hours for F.E.A.R. 3 because that F.E.A.R. is really bloody short and lack of scare and atmosphere. Gameplay however is pretty decent.

I'm really surprised that despite generally being regarded as "Not as good as the first" that fear 2 actually has a 93% approval rating on steam. Fear 1 has an approval rating of 94%. Which really gives the false impression that the games are of similar quality when they're not. The only thing thats better in Fear 2 imo is the story, but gameplay wise fear 1 is significantly better. I'd even go so far as to state that fear 1 has better art direction (but not necessarily better graphics). Sound design is worse in fear 2. Lighting is worse in fear 2. The fighting arenas are worse. The AI was supposedly improved, but the level design and enemy design makes them perform worse. Its overall just a significantly worse game, but it still has a good rating on steam. I don't get it.

Yup, I agree with you devoting that time to the game's visuals, they do matter. It doesn't look that bad technically, just distasteful. Like these sparkly gifs with sugary cartoon animals holding hearts.

To be fair, a lot of the infantry act like a giant frat, I wouldn't be surprised if Delta Force acts similarly and has fun in combat like that