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

We've finally caught up with FEAR 2 - so far, so bloody and atmospheric.

We're a little late to the party with FEAR 2. First of all, we can only fit in so much gameplaying time, and, frankly, we've been spending every spare waking minute playing Empire: Total War. Thankfully, a recent update to the preview code rendered our saved game unplayable, so, in a spot of pique (I'd destroyed France by 1706! Argh!), we got FEAR 2 up and running.

Of course, that was an epic process in and of itself, involving dealing with removing the preview code (which I could never get to run properly anyway), messing about with Steam, and then waiting about four hours for the game to patch.

Finally, however, we settled down to some supernatural run and gun.

So far we're only about a level and a half into the game, but it's a lot of fun so far. The pacing is vastly improved on the original - which is saying something - and the story unfolds naturally alongside all the action you could possibly want. The horror elements are very well-handled, especially some of your premonitions sequences, and the game's writers even have good go at introducing some subtle foreshadwing into their storytelling repertoire.

However, the meat of the game - running around, dropping into slow motion, shooting up badguys - is kind of... well, old school. There's nothing wrong with old school, don't get us wrong, but does a game that prides itself on gritty supernatural-realism (you know what we mean) really need armour power ups, health potions and your standard linear flow of weapons unlocks?

It's an odd take, and even odder given the excellent enemy AI (well, so far, anyway) and the unforgiving damage model - unforgiving for the enemy, anyway. You - super-mind-stud that you are - are nigh invulnerable as long as you have armour on. Sure, it's early days yet, and some of the bosses we've seen in in media previews look like they'll add signifigantly to the game's threat levels.

So, we're kind of reserving judgement at the moment on this one - the firefights are certainly solid fun, with the ability to flip items to use as cover, and some limited environmental destruction. But we're going to have to get deeper into the game before we can form a more solid opinion.

Keep an eye out for a fuller review and some in-game screenshots in a few days. In the meantime, catch up on our last FEAR 2 story here.