Why so much hate?

[SatyrToon]

I see so many people hating on F.E.A.R. 2 and the Reborn expansion as though the games were suppose to be godsent. They keep saying that both were terrible and not worth playing at all. I HAVE to disagree. Though F.E.A.R. had the better atmosphere, F.E.A.R. 2 had a lot more characterization, smoother gameplay, and a very crucial part to the storyline that could have been great. (I'm keeping F.3.A.R. out of this because it isn't cannon in the Monolith timeline. ♥♥♥♥ you, Day 1. YOU KILLED IT! YOU MURDERED THIS WONDERFUL FRANCHISE IN COLD BLOOD!)

F.E.A.R. 2 was a good game and, personally, was my favorite in spite of my favorite character not being in it at all. The characters are great, the voice acting is a little better, (Let's face it: Some of F.E.A.R.'s voice acting was pretty cringe-worthy), and they touched on a very important thing in the storyline of the games: Now that Alma's free, what next? Of course, they go into the 'She's a grown woman now' idea, but do so in a way that makes sense for her, being the strong psychic she is and also having emotions that, if not kept in check, could be deadly. They also grab you with a GREAT twist ending. I mean, how could anyone have guessed that Alma wanted... other things. Sure, she followed you around and they hinted to her attraction to you quite a lot, but going as far as that ending? A bit of a grabber.

Now, what people keep complaining abut when it comes to Reborn is that it's short and I'm just sitting here face-palming. OF COURSE IT'S SHORT! IT'S A DLC! My God! Not every DLC has to be as long as Skyrim's 'Dawnguard!' Considering that the franchise was taken from Monolith not long after, I'm surprised they managed to even FINISH reborn.

[Chocoyote]

watch the fear 2 beta gameplay on youtube and you know why.
also watch on the fear wiki site how much content and alma scenes they cut out for no reason.

[SatyrToon]

Originally posted by NaD:

watch the fear 2 beta gameplay on youtube and you know why.
also watch on the fear wiki site how much content and alma scenes they cut out for no reason.

Developers never just cut stuff out for no reason (be it time constraints, budget, funding issues [Which would make sense because WB was funding it and they are ♥♥♥♥♥) and the Beta gameplay shouldn't dictate what people think of the actual game.

[a razor named qualia]

Becase FEAR 1 exists and it was infinitely better.

[SatyrToon]

Originally posted by Sergeant Burden:

Becase FEAR 1 exists and it was infinitely better.

The Original being better doesn't make the sequal bad. F.E.A.R. 2 isn't an amazing game, but it's not bad.

[natebud]

Sorry I got a bit carrried away.

FEAR 2 is pretty bad. It is just a touch scarier than the original but that isn't hard to do. There's just so much wrong with this game. It's so boring, even on the hardest mode there's rarely any challenge. None of the guns have noticable recoil, (what's the point of giving me a three-shot burst option when I'm just as accurate spraying on full auto?) The enemies just line up, and health items are everywhere.

After FEAR had some of the best AI in any video game ever, its a real letdown when you realize how terribly stupid the enemies in FEAR 2 are. They all just run into your bullets and don't even have the ability to understand when they are behind cover. Sure they knock over stuff, but when an enemy runs across an open room just to knock over a childrens desk and hide behind it (all the while I'm shooting at him and there's much better cover back where he came from AND I can see his head, arms, and legs sticking out from every end of the desk when he's trying to hide...) I may start to question their intelligence. Enemies in FEAR 1 waited for you. If they knew they were in a good position they waited for you to poke your head out. Now enemies just charge.

I think the smartness of the enemies in FEAR 1 was dependent more on the level design than anything, when you ran into soldiers it was usually in wide open environments where the cover was taller than you and there were multiple ways for the enemies to flank you. You'd have to run all over the place just to not get shot in the back of the head (on Hard mode). In this game you just end up fighting through so many cramped corridors where the premier cover (small tables) can't even hide a single enemy. There wasn't a single moment playing where I had to do anything other than stand still and shoot, even in the arenas.

Also this game is not really scary. There's neon everywhere and jumpscares gallore! Here's a fun drinking game. Take a drink every time the screen flickers or the radio starts buzzing with static and then nothing else happens. You'll be dead before the second interval. And Alma, ALMA! The first time you appear behind me I might be a bit startled, but when you're doing it for hundredth time and you're also throwing in some QTEs in for good measure, excuse me if I'm not the slightest bit scared anymore. This isn't to say that FEAR 2 doesn't have some scary moments. That guy with the briefcase was a real surprise and a joy to fight and dealing with those ghosts in the school was terrifying (the first time at least). But the scares just get so repetitive after a while that they just become meaningless.

Also there is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much flavor text in this game that tells you barely anything half the time. I had over a dozen notes before I made it past 20 minutes of play and I've read every single note I've found from the beginning! I much prefer the answering machines from FEAR. They didn't take you out of the moment like these documents do (pausing the game and opening your calming blue interface). I also like how half the time the notes appear as CDs, makes me wonder how Becket reads them so well without a computer. Either he's absorbing them into his google-glass or what he was reading was just scribbled on the jewelcase in sharpie.

Also worth mentioning: using the mech was great.

Also also: for some reason Zoey from L4D is in this game. And I don't mean they just look a little bit similar, I mean it IS Zoey from L4D. It's the same face model and even the same voice actor. I just found that odd. (FEAR 2: 2009, L4D: 2008)

I really don't like FEAR 2. The combat is bland, the scares get increasingly cheap over time, and I really don't like FEAR 2. But then again I haven't even finished the game yet. I made it to the subway but had to turn it off after that mundane turret sequence. Maybe it gets better? I don't know, but I cannot play any more today. This game depresses me and now I can't stop sighing.

[SatyrToon]

Originally posted by natebud:

Sorry I got a bit carrried away.

FEAR 2 is pretty bad. It is just a touch scarier than the original but that isn't hard to do. There's just so much wrong with this game. It's so boring, even on the hardest mode there's rarely any challenge. None of the guns have noticable recoil, (what's the point of giving me a three-shot burst option when I'm just as accurate spraying on full auto?) The enemies just line up, and health items are everywhere.

After FEAR had some of the best AI in any video game ever, its a real letdown when you realize how terribly stupid the enemies in FEAR 2 are. They all just run into your bullets and don't even have the ability to understand when they are behind cover. Sure they knock over stuff, but when an enemy runs across an open room just to knock over a childrens desk and hide behind it (all the while I'm shooting at him and there's much better cover back where he came from AND I can see his head, arms, and legs sticking out from every end of the desk when he's trying to hide...) I may start to question their intelligence. Enemies in FEAR 1 waited for you. If they knew they were in a good position they waited for you to poke your head out. Now enemies just charge.

I think the smartness of the enemies in FEAR 1 was dependent more on the level design than anything, when you ran into soldiers it was usually in wide open environments where the cover was taller than you and there were multiple ways for the enemies to flank you. You'd have to run all over the place just to not get shot in the back of the head (on Hard mode). In this game you just end up fighting through so many cramped corridors where the premier cover (small tables) can't even hide a single enemy. There wasn't a single moment playing where I had to do anything other than stand still and shoot, even in the arenas.

Also this game is not really scary. There's neon everywhere and jumpscares gallore! Here's a fun drinking game. Take a drink every time the screen flickers or the radio starts buzzing with static and then nothing else happens. You'll be dead before the second interval. And Alma, ALMA! The first time you appear behind me I might be a bit startled, but when you're doing it for hundredth time and you're also throwing in some QTEs in for good measure, excuse me if I'm not the slightest bit scared anymore. This isn't to say that FEAR 2 doesn't have some scary moments. That guy with the briefcase was a real surprise and a joy to fight and dealing with those ghosts in the school was terrifying (the first time at least). But the scares just get so repetitive after a while that they just become meaningless.

Also there is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much flavor text in this game that tells you barely anything half the time. I had over a dozen notes before I made it past 20 minutes of play and I've read every single note I've found from the beginning! I much prefer the answering machines from FEAR. They didn't take you out of the moment like these documents do (pausing the game and opening your calming blue interface). I also like how half the time the notes appear as CDs, makes me wonder how Becket reads them so well without a computer. Either he's absorbing them into his google-glass or what he was reading was just scribbled on the jewelcase in sharpie.

Also worth mentioning: using the mech was great.

Also also: for some reason Zoey from L4D is in this game. And I don't mean they just look a little bit similar, I mean it IS Zoey from L4D. It's the same face model and even the same voice actor. I just found that odd. (FEAR 2: 2009, L4D: 2008)

I really don't like FEAR 2. The combat is bland, the scares get increasingly cheap over time, and I really don't like FEAR 2. But then again I haven't even finished the game yet. I made it to the subway but had to turn it off after that mundane turret sequence. Maybe it gets better? I don't know, but I cannot play any more today. This game depresses me and now I can't stop sighing.

Well, everything you stated here is a matter of opinion. I honestly didn't pay attention to the weapons nor the AI, though I didn't honestly tell any difference between that of 2 and the original. Besides, I'm not a really big FPS player and could care less about 'recoil' or any of that other stuff. I playe the F.E.A.R. games for their story and sub-plots. The ending to F.E.A.R. 2 was a REAL twist for me and leads to what Monolith wanted to be a serious climax had they been allowed to keep the franchise.

Another thing is that both games don't really have any honest scares. Most of F.E.A.R.'s horror was in its atmosphere, which was great and what made it so good. I'm not saying F.E.A.R. is bad. I loved F.E.A.R. and it IS better than 2, but 2 isn't a monstrocity and doesn't deserve even a quarter of the hate it gets. Look at F.3.A.R. for a VERY good example. F.3.A.R. was how bad ANY of it could have been had WB had their way in the first place. I think F.E.A.R. 2 would have been seen a little better had F.3.A.R. been made by Monolith. The things that happened in it would have made so much more sense, but Day 1 retconned so much NEEDED INFORMATION and screwed over the story so bad that they turned this great franchise into almost a rail shooter. A Monolith dev. is even quoted saying that F.3.A.R. was a disgrace and went in the OPPOSITE direction from what they wanted to do. Monolith was also put on strict constraints by WB who decided what was what and basically ruined a lot of the good things that Monolith wanted in the game.

At least in F.E.A.R. 2 they kept the coplex level designs. In F.3.A.R. they were one step away from just drawing a yellow line on the floor for you to follow. They also screwed over ALL THE CHARACTERS and tried to force a romantic relationship on Pointman without anything more than a little while as squad members between he and Jin.

Lastly, I hated Stokes (I hate all the female characters in the F.E.A.R. games. They're just so annoying), but her voice actor shouldn't lead as a bad mark against the game. She's a cheap actor to get and they were on a tight budget. Harold Keegan is also voiced by the same guy who did a LOT of voices for the Half-Life games. Valve games are great, but they use cheap actors and so does Monolith, Paxton Fettel's voice actor being the exception. (A little note about F.3.A.R. is that Michael Becket is voiced by Robin Atkin Downs who voices the Medic in TF2.)

Either way, like I said, F.E.A.R. 2 isn't an amazing game, but it's not bad. Sure, Monolith could have tried to do more with what little they were given, but their were being funded by ♥♥♥♥♥ who forced them to do things that probably should have been left to the dev. team.

[natebud]

Alright its not the worst game ever but it could be significantly better. And when you go immediately from FEAR to FEAR 2 the differences are really noticable.

Firstly, I don't have anything against Zoey from L4D, it was just a weird thing I noticed. I mean they look identical between games. And I did also recognize that Keegan is the "I dream of cheese" guy from HL2. I also also agree with you that the voice acting isn't that great in both games. FEAR 2 is a bit more realistic I suppose. But this mostly translates into generic military talk and an overdose on the word "♥♥♥♥." While FEAR's voice acting was more out of place with all of your comrades being really uncaring about the whole situation. "Looks like this man's flesh melted off and exploded. LOL!" Betters was alright though. And Paxton was well acted. I guess it was just anyone that was a fellow commando that had decent voice acting. The games get much better when you're on your own though.

Also the thing I meant with the recoil was that in the original FEAR, guns weren't that accurate especially if you just fired endlessly. This meant that you had to pick your shots. This coupled with the leaning mechanic, made fights feel especially desperate. Especially when the enemies were so aggressive and smart in the just the right ways. In FEAR 1 if you saw an enemy at any time (if he was alert to you) he was probably shooting at you and would continue to do so until you hid or shot back at him. Those guys were always accurate and you had to try to match that accuracy while also trying to catch them off guards. In FEAR 2 every gun is accurate all the time and there's always ammo around. For example the Hammerhead doesn't feel as useful as the Penetrator (to me at least) because the Assault Rifle and SMG in FEAR 2 are just as accurate as the Hammerhead. When you got the Penetrator in FEAR it felt powerful. Sure it had a slower firerate, but it made up for that with increased accuracy and damage unmatched by the other weapons available at the time. In short the shooting is too easy to feel tense like FEAR 1.

I've never actually played FThreeAR since I'm playing the games in order, though I don't think I'll pick it up as it doesn't really look that good. I didn't really know anything about the development of FEAR 2 though it is very believeable that WB were responsible for the game's imperfections.

I did however notice that the original FEAR came out on PC, then was ported to consoles a year later but FEAR 2 came out simultaneously on consoles and PC. Perhaps they had to cut some stuff like so that it was equal on consoles and PC? This is just a theory though. More realistically, WB were just terrible to Monolith, but who knows...

I don't know, maybe I'm just running into more problems than usual. I've seen enemies kill themselves with their own grenades, I've shot laser weilding enemies through cracks in the scenery where they can't see me (and they don't move to get out of the way of my bullets) until they die... When those crawly guys first appeared, one ended up hanging from a wall endlessly and just watched me shoot him until he died (I have the screenshots to prove it too). When you first got a chance to fight those invisible commandos that killed Serpent Knuckles they ended up running around in circles not being able to attack me just because I was standing in the doorway between rooms... And that ain't scary!

And I really really really wish there was a way to take off Beckett's neon future sunglasses so I didn't have a pair of blue parenthesis on the edges of my screen at all times.

FEAR 2 isn't the worst game ever, but even so its just frustrating to see so many things changed for the worse that could have been easily fixed if just tweaked slightly.

[SatyrToon]

Originally posted by natebud:

Alright its not the worst game ever but it could be significantly better. And when you go immediately from FEAR to FEAR 2 the differences are really noticable.

Firstly, I don't have anything against Zoey from L4D, it was just a weird thing I noticed. I mean they look identical between games. And I did also recognize that Keegan is the "I dream of cheese" guy from HL2. I also also agree with you that the voice acting isn't that great in both games. FEAR 2 is a bit more realistic I suppose. But this mostly translates into generic military talk and an overdose on the word "♥♥♥♥." While FEAR's voice acting was more out of place with all of your comrades being really uncaring about the whole situation. "Looks like this man's flesh melted off and exploded. LOL!" Betters was alright though. And Paxton was well acted. I guess it was just anyone that was a fellow commando that had decent voice acting. The games get much better when you're on your own though.

Also the thing I meant with the recoil was that in the original FEAR, guns weren't that accurate especially if you just fired endlessly. This meant that you had to pick your shots. This coupled with the leaning mechanic, made fights feel especially desperate. Especially when the enemies were so aggressive and smart in the just the right ways. In FEAR 1 if you saw an enemy at any time (if he was alert to you) he was probably shooting at you and would continue to do so until you hid or shot back at him. Those guys were always accurate and you had to try to match that accuracy while also trying to catch them off guards. In FEAR 2 every gun is accurate all the time and there's always ammo around. For example the Hammerhead doesn't feel as useful as the Penetrator (to me at least) because the Assault Rifle and SMG in FEAR 2 are just as accurate as the Hammerhead. When you got the Penetrator in FEAR it felt powerful. Sure it had a slower firerate, but it made up for that with increased accuracy and damage unmatched by the other weapons available at the time. In short the shooting is too easy to feel tense like FEAR 1.

I've never actually played FThreeAR since I'm playing the games in order, though I don't think I'll pick it up as it doesn't really look that good. I didn't really know anything about the development of FEAR 2 though it is very believeable that WB were responsible for the game's imperfections.

I did however notice that the original FEAR came out on PC, then was ported to consoles a year later but FEAR 2 came out simultaneously on consoles and PC. Perhaps they had to cut some stuff like so that it was equal on consoles and PC? This is just a theory though. More realistically, WB were just terrible to Monolith, but who knows...

I don't know, maybe I'm just running into more problems than usual. I've seen enemies kill themselves with their own grenades, I've shot laser weilding enemies through cracks in the scenery where they can't see me (and they don't move to get out of the way of my bullets) until they die... When those crawly guys first appeared, one ended up hanging from a wall endlessly and just watched me shoot him until he died (I have the screenshots to prove it too). When you first got a chance to fight those invisible commandos that killed Serpent Knuckles they ended up running around in circles not being able to attack me just because I was standing in the doorway between rooms... And that ain't scary!

And I really really really wish there was a way to take off Beckett's neon future sunglasses so I didn't have a pair of blue parenthesis on the edges of my screen at all times.

FEAR 2 isn't the worst game ever, but even so its just frustrating to see so many things

changed for the worse that could have been easily fixed if just tweaked slightly.

I kid you not, when I played F.E.A.R. not two minutes after talking to you, I walked into a room and I and a Replica soldier stared at eachother for an entire twelve seconds before he slowly turned and shot at me.

[SatyrToon]

Also, I don't even consider F.3.A.R. cannon. It's that bad.

[FreakeR]

Best thing about this game: untz untz untz SNAKE FIST HSSSSSSa untz untz untz

[SatyrToon]

Originally posted by FreakeR:

Best thing about this game: untz untz untz SNAKE FIST HSSSSSSa untz untz untz

XD

[natebud]

I kid you not, when I played F.E.A.R. not two minutes after talking to you, I walked into a room and I and a Replica soldier stared at eachother for an entire twelve seconds before he slowly turned and shot at me.

Alright fair enough. FEAR ain't perfect and FEAR 2 does get better after you get into the subway. The bus falling, the nuclear power plant, that giant crater in the middle of the city and that monorail sequence were all pretty good. AND the snakefist song was pretty great. I even felt a little remorse when I shot Keegan at the end. Seems like the best parts of the game, for me at least, were when you didn't have to shoot at anything at all. Monolith had to ability to build atmosphere, its just too bad there's so much forgettable combat and cheap static-laden jumpscares stuck in between. This game needs to take it slow more often.

Also that second mech sequence was terrible! Five seconds of damage from anything and the screen starts flashing with so much static and cautionary warnings that you can't even see! And it lasted like 15 minutes! Most of the time was spent just waiting for it to repair! And then you just walk 30 yards in it and it ends. Those missiles are useless too.

Maybe I should just replay it on Normal and run around judo kicking people. This game isn't really that bad. I just wish the combat wasn't so miserable.

[SatyrToon]

Originally posted by natebud:

I kid you not, when I played F.E.A.R. not two minutes after talking to you, I walked into a room and I and a Replica soldier stared at eachother for an entire twelve seconds before he slowly turned and shot at me.

Alright fair enough. FEAR ain't perfect and FEAR 2 does get better after you get into the subway. The bus falling, the nuclear power plant, that giant crater in the middle of the city and that monorail sequence were all pretty good. AND the snakefist song was pretty great. I even felt a little remorse when I shot Keegan at the end. Seems like the best parts of the game, for me at least, were when you didn't have to shoot at anything at all. Monolith had to ability to build atmosphere, its just too bad there's so much forgettable combat and cheap static-laden jumpscares stuck in between. This game needs to take it slow more often.

Also that second mech sequence was terrible! Five seconds of damage from anything and the screen starts flashing with so much static and cautionary warnings that you can't even see! And it lasted like 15 minutes! Most of the time was spent just waiting for it to repair! And then you just walk 30 yards in it and it ends. Those missiles are useless too.

Maybe I should just replay it on Normal and run around judo kicking people. This game isn't really that bad. I just wish the combat wasn't so miserable.

I felt really bad for keegan.

[Χάρης]

As a fan of the first F.E.A.R. I felt that they tried to make 2 similar to 1 by using the same sounds, models, textures etc. . Don't get me wrong though, it's pretty decent.

However adding DLC to a F.E.A.R. is a big no. Expansion? Yes, but not that 1 hour DLC crap.

[SatyrToon]

Originally posted by Χάρης:

As a fan of the first F.E.A.R. I felt that they tried to make 2 similar to 1 by using the same sounds, models, textures etc. . Don't get me wrong though, it's pretty decent.

However adding DLC to a F.E.A.R. is a big no. Expansion? Yes, but not that 1 hour DLC crap.

It was more of a pet project that they didn't get to honestly finish.