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Alternate Title: “Bang Bang Gunshoot game with a ghost sometimes.”

F.E.A.R. 2 is just an incredibly generic game.

I mean, I don’t know. There are some good parts, I suppose. For one, the Soldier AI in the game is just as top-notch as it was in the original. What I played in the original was fun because the enemies were fun to fight against. You felt like you weren’t in a shooting gallery. Granted, you were much more survivable than them, of course, but they at least, for the most part, acted like someone who would like not to be killed. This holds over really well in this game, and the AI for the soldiers is excellent. It makes the combat in the game quite fun.
In addition to that, the guns in this game feel really good. Granted, not like… Modern Warfare levels of good. Infinity Ward has that shit down to an art! But they’re quite close. The enemies take a few more shots than I would like, but every gun feels unique and powerful in its own way. Except maybe the pistol. But it’s the pistol, so… I guess that’s to be expected, even though I love a good, worthwhile pistol. But yeah, if nothing else, even though they toned down the shotguns from the first game, where they made you a god, the shotguns in this game in particular still feel more powerful than anything else in any other game, and it’s really satisfying to use them. Basically, the weapons are pretty nice.

But man, I don’t know. There are issues. For one, there are enemies other than the Soldiers. “Oh, good! Variety is good!” you say. But the AI for these creatures is the exact opposite of the intelligent manner of the soldiers. They just run up to you, and you fire randomly, and they die. No challenge. Nothing interesting. They’re just generic monsters. The worst, however, are the “puppeteers.” At least these create a different combat scenario, where corpses are reanimating, and you have to find the puppeteer and kill him. But it’s frustrating as fuck, because whenever you get the guy in your sights, he uses this light blast to disorient you, so you only get to fire maybe 2 rounds at him, then you have to find him all over again. It’s pretty bullshit.
The controls, too, are kind of pointlessly different than CoD4. Not enough to completely throw you off, but it’s annoying. I mean, I hate to say that all shooter controls need to be the same, but come on. They do. It’s been standardized by now. Valve kind of gets away with it in Left 4 Dead because the game is so fantastic and they’re Valve. If you’re not bringing that kind of pedigree, and this game isn’t, I need to be pressing the same buttons to do similar things. Melee needs to be on clicking the right stick, etc. Seriously.
The “horror” elements aren’t scary either. Just like the first game, it’s very formulaic. If you’re in a “horror” section, you don’t need to shoot, just run forward. You are in no danger. They added ghosts that hurt you, in this one, to try to fix this issue, but all that does is frustrate you when you get lost and can’t find the exit, because you still can’t shoot at them, so you just have to run. There’s no terror and no tension. I just found myself annoyed that the camera effects were being all weird so I couldn’t find the exit.

Mostly, though, the game hinges a lot on its story to set it apart and make it a game worth your time. However, there’s simply nothing there. Well, okay, let me rephrase: There may be something there, but it is all in little intel notes you find spread around. It’s not actually in the gameplay or the game. You move from location to location with little obvious purpose. The way buildings are connected makes little sense. There are some characters, but they’re just kind of there. You’re alone 90% of the time, and you don’t even have a “Cortana” voice in your head. When you do, it’s almost jarring, and they’re saying things unrelated to the action, like just filling in exposition to attempt to explain why you are where you are. The game also ends abruptly, and certainly doesn’t seem to have your character follow any sort of significant arc or anything. You’re just a guy with a gun, shooting unrelated guys with guns.
I’ll admit: I listened to podcasts during the entire playthrough of the game. Nothing I was reading in the subtitles and nothing from watching the game made me wonder what was going on, or made me interested. One could probably say I didn’t give it a chance. Okay, that’s fine. But the game didn’t show me anything that wanted to make me do as such. In comparison, I paused, listened to, and paid attention to every cutscene in Red Faction: Guerrilla. Now, there’s little doubt in my mind that Red Faction had a worse plot than F.E.A.R. 2. But Red Faction was constantly doing things that made me excited. It made me invested in the awesome shit going on. I wanted more, so I paid attention. In F.E.A.R., I was just moving along for achievements and more guys to shoot. It didn’t draw me in, and it is its job to do so. I feel no remorse in saying the story is not interesting due to that.

Anyway, it was a fine enough weekend rental sort of game, though. As I said, the gunplay for most of it is very entertaining. It’s probably a better shooter than, say, Wolfenstein, which I also enjoyed and is also a great weekend shooty game. Feel free to give it a play. It won’t hurt. It’s not really purchase material, though.