Thanks for stopping by friends! FEAR 2 is on sale right now for just a little over 3 bucks! Click this link to snag it and let GOG know I sent ya. af.gog.com/game/fear_2_project_origin_reborn?as=1672895661 Also, here's the links for the No HUD Mod and my buddy Import Gaming FTW's channel: No HUD Mod - hudfreegaming.fandom.com/wiki/F.E.A.R._2 Import Gaming FTW - ua-cam.com/video/krEJgZiqjY4/v-deo.html
I feel like you're not not exactly remembering original FEAR too well. You complain about levels in FEAR 2 being boring and linear. How's that different from the original and how exactly does it make them inferior in the sequel? 1st FEAR's levels were extremely boring and linear. Not mentioning that they all looked like they just copied and pasted them over and over. How's that better than FEAR 2? I liked the game overall, but after finishing it for the 1st time I sort of started hating office environments in shooters. The level design was pretty lazy in both of them to be completely honest.
It's crazy how much the industry changed in the 3ish years between Fear 1 & 2. The first FEAR being one of the last big budget PC first titles. The rise of COD and everyone copying it. The 7th generation and HD gaming era with increased budgets and fewer risks. Consoles becoming the focus with PC ports as afterthoughts.
Absolutely. If you were playing Fear 2 for the first time and you didn't know any better, you might assume the two were made a decade apart based just on their design. They just feel like totally different eras in gaming. Which, I guess they are.
I still say that fear should have been an episodic series that has a different paranormal villain and enemy faction each title that’s self contained as opposed to bringing back alma each game
That was the plan for the Vivendi timeline. What ultimately became FEAR 3 originally started out as unrelated to Alma, Fettel et al. The story was to follow a FEAR unit as it tried to track down a scientist who had opened a portal to another dimension.
This was my first F.E.A.R. game. Played on the PS3 back in the day. Loved it. It’s what got me to play the first game, and finding out just how much better the original was.
I'm there's plenty of people like that. The era brought so many old franchises into new homes. The 360 and to a lesser extent the PS3 were so damn popular, and they got so many PC ports. It was an overall force for good, as far as bringing classic PC games to console players.
@@Malice_doll Mine was replaying the demo of the first game on the OXM disc that had it. Replayed that so many times back then when that specific magazine issue first came out.
I loved F.E.A.R. 2 and still play it today. I first played F.E.A.R. 1 on the original PS3 and it was a buggy mess that keep crashing on me and I loved it. When the second game came out the moment I finished school I sat down and played it all in one sitting, my dad was mad that I played through the entire night. The first two games will always be one of my favorite games with the third I didn't like the story nor the focus on arcade like multiplayer but I did like combat so I played the wave mode where you survive as long as you can a lot.
I actually really like this game, obviously not as much as the first, but there's something about it that I really like, and one of them is the beefy sniper shot sound
Steve Gaynor was a level designer on Perseus Mandate and after FEAR 2 was released, he wrote a blog post breaking down why the level design didn't work. Well worth a read - I can't post the link, but the title is "Basics of effective FPS encounter design (via F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2)"
FEAR 2 holds a special place in my heart not only being my introduction to the franchise and the story of Alma, but also being the first ever horror game I would not only play by myself but beat on my own as well, I know there's a bit of a internal rivalry in the FEAR fandom between the first and the second game on their similar yet differing horror styles, but the second game scared me to a point the first game would never reach until I finally found it's "FEAR Files" expansion pack list... The way many of the scares in the game were set up to have multiple trigger points based on where you were or where you were looking did a great job at blurring the lines and casting the illusion of "dynamic horror" which was rather rare at the time, some personal favorites were the pool room of Aristides penthouse (where there's two seperate occasions Alma herself can appear behind you stalking you and moving with you like Lisa from Silent Hills PT) the hospital bathroom shortly after you wake up, and of course the entire elementary school.
They don't make games like this no more. Shame. Always loved the "special forces fighting against or succumbing to supernatural stuff" trope. Such a wasted potential that wasn't built upon further beyond the FEAR franchise, Clive Barker's Jericho and the Nightmare House 2 mod for HL2.
There's the Underhell mod too. Sadly they never made more than the prologue and first chapter, but it's still a really fun homage to F.E.A.R./Metal Gear Solid.
Except for the stuff in the story he did not talk about Alma or the horror stuff in the game at all. Thats a big and important part of the Fear games and the main reason why i like and play them personally.
When I played FEAR 2 the first time, Alma's presence felt threatening and scary, like in FEAR. After finishing FEAR 2 and going back to play it later though, knowing Alma's "intentions" with Beckett from the start made her appearances, not quite comforting, but almost like a little guardian at the peripheries
22:44 mark "Damn, its just now hitting me how bad we need more government conspiracies in our first person shooters and yes that does count as mentioning Deus Ex" couldn't agree with you more dude. Also, anyone who references Deus Ex (2000) gets a 10,000 brownie points in my book.
1:06:46 It looks like the current console generation is the first to support Variable Refresh Rate (like G-Sync or Freesync on PC), meaning a dip below 60 FPS doesn't automatically cut your screen's refresh rate in half (traditional vsync).
I've had the 3 F.E.A.R games in my steam library since 2015 and just after your review I booted up the first one and I beleieve I'll give this one a shot as well
I've been really settling down into a full series replay of FEAR over the last week or so, and this getting posted right in the middle of it was a very welcome surprise! Great video as always
I miss watching your videos Jared and I'm bit behind some of them but you put a ton of work and effort into it so I need to binge watch a few. Other words thanks for the video and all the content my man.
2:40 Oh shit, I didn't even know that. Looks like we all need to be thankful that F.E.A.R. didn't suffer the same fate as Raven's Wolfenstein and remains widely available to this day.
I replayed all three games shortly after your first FEAR video and, once again, FEAR 2 wins out for me. The more diverse levels and kind of batshit rollercoaster of a story just worked better for me. It's one 2000s-era video gamey-ass video game too which I really appreciate. Really looking forward to the FEAR 3 vid. I played through it at least 3 times in my life and couldn't tell you a thing about it.
A great review I have a friend who is really into Monolith games and I've been trying to get him to start up the Fear series. I'm sure he will eventually
I'm surprised you didn't mention the inconsistency between difficulties, Jared. Normal is coma inducing easy, while Hard enemies have god like aim and dish so much damage you will be dead in nano seconds it will become a frustrating experience.
I was wondering if I was imagining the lack of impactful feeling weapons in this game. That's my main memory of this game. Surely this is something that can be fixed with a fan mod !
I like FEAR 2 quite a bit but I feel the series would have been so much better if it just stuck to what the first game did well and expanding upon that, while also going for a completely different story where you combat some other paranormal threat, thus making FEAR more of an anthology series story-wise but faithful to the OG gameplay-wise.
Funny enough, that was the intention for the original 'FEAR 2' that would've followed up from the first game's expansions, where they would move on from Alma and ATC to focus on a new conflict revolving around teleportation experiments bringing in mutants from another dimension in the fashion of Doom/Half-Life/Dead Space. That concept got clumsily recycled for 'FEAR 3' in the form of those weird Phase Soldiers who literally came from a separate story from anything related to Alma.
I miss so much this type of FPSs. Making your way in the middle of a mystery, one man army, almost alone against the world, with a very atmospheric ambience, solving puzzles and pieces of the plot here and there. FEAR, Bioshock, Half Life, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Doom 3, Singularity, Quake 4, TimeShift... Just to name a few. I know they are linear, but in a way that you get immersed, invested, and when you realize a lot time has passed by while you are playing and you are having a lot of fun. It seems it's time to fire up a good session of retro FPS extravaganza!
Control is a game about paranormal activity that’s monitored by a secret bureau; it’s even made by the same devs that made the first two Max Payne games.
Hi, Jared! Since it's the spoopy month, I figured I'd share a recommendation. You and Jo might like the Yomawari series. It's more of a puzzle game than a horror game, but what the series does with the trope blew my mind sometimes, so I hope it does the same for you
Great review! Also, thank you for having the mention on the lower left of which version of the game and what resolution it is run in. I only saw this in your videos and I love it! :)
Without going into too much detail I do like F.E.A.R.2 quite a bit. Sure I prefer the first game over it any day but I did enjoy my time with it. The sound design for the guns felt off and many times I could just memorize the enemy locations and spawns and beat the encounter basically early. I have to say I do like the over saturated gore effects while in slow-mo and I like the look of the game a lot. Almost the same thing with Dead Space as it has this "realistic" but still a but cartoon-y look to it. Im so glad you didn't crap onto this game like almost everyone I've ever watched did. This is exactly why I enjoy your videos. Even if the game happens to be underwhelming or disappointing, you still try to find atleast something good about it.
I personally find FEAR 2's art style the best iteration in the series, perhaps because it embraced a colorful futuristic aesthetic more reminiscent of '90s and '80s sci-fi (particularly cyberpunk anime, which Monolith were big fans of) and that distinguished it from the many 'grittier' shooters prevalent at the time. FEAR 1's felt bland by comparison and 3 veered too hard into being embarrassingly edgy.
Fun fact: the 360 version actually did not get an fps boost patch. From what I read, the original version ran at an unlocked framerate and the series x simply took advantage of that. No patch required!
My man, your videos have been all I’ve watched the past week…idk why it took me so long to find your channel (saw a comment on a Sphere Hunter video, thank goodness) but I’ve made up for lost time by binging your RE, SH & RE-Clone compilation videos, amongst many others. Got me to stop pussyfooting with RE Remake (I was born in ‘91, so it didn’t take long for the tank controls to feel good again), go & snag the PS1 versions of RE2/3, and grab a mix of retro & modern survival-horror releases. Excited to pop onto your Patreon & see what’s going on over there! Least I could do after binging about 10-15 hours’ worth of your content lol
Also on the subject of the lighting, the original FEAR was actually criticized a lot for a "bland" art style and a lack of variety in it's color pallet. That's why a lot of the color design went into overdrive.
1:02:00 just a heads up I don't think that's the level of detail distance you are seeing. I think that's shitty anisotropic filtering. Most games used trilinear filtering instead of 16x like you would usually use on PC. It's basically a filter to help the quality of textures when looked at from odd angles if you aren't familiar. Not a criticism just thought it might be something you'd be interested in checking out. Edit: 1:08:00 higher resolutions increase the distance of anisotropic filtering plus xbox back compat upgrades I believe increase it to 16x as well if I am remembering correctly.
The first I played through on PC and was one of many games that made me upgrade my PC to play it as best as could afford at the time. I have never played the second game on PC, only PS3, yet have own it for many years on Steam. I think time to download and finally play it on PC.
Fun fact: Even if FEAR2 is a 2009 game, this is one of the last AAA games possible to be ran on the 2003-2004 lineup of ATI X800 series GPUs, that support Pixel Shader 2.0b, given this lineup didn't have Pixel Shader 3.0 capabilities. Even if FEAR2 is extremely easy to run, I wouldn't necessarily expect FEAR2 to run all that well even on an ATI X850 XT&PE.
Honestly even though project origin was my first fear game I played and beat the other ones and yeah project origin is definitely one I still enjoyed I definitely do agree with you on how most of the gun play and gameplay mechanics weren’t as good as the first one but I still fully love your take on what you liked and what you didn’t. Watching these videos are my comfort videos and thank you for releasing a lot of cool and interesting videos.
@@AvalancheReviews Eh, I can wait. I'm genuinely extremely curious to hear your thoughts on the game. It's so far removed from the original, but I've always felt it's a genuinely great game despite that, and more people have been giving it another chance in the last few years.
a remaster or remake of the F.E.A.R trilogy and expansions all in one game is a 'take my money' situation as far as im concerned......i love all three games.
I really enjoyed playing FEAR 2 on PS3 a few years ago. I got all the single player trophies, including the ones for Reborn. But I couldn't Platinum it thanks to crap multiplayer only trophies. The multiplayer for Fear 2 was shut down when Gamespy went under. Funny enough, you can still play FEAR 3's multiplayer as it offers offline bots and split screen options. Same for co op too. More games need to do this. Can't even get split screen back for Halo now, epic fail.
You’re missing a bit that the signature look of the first game (great look) is heavily inspired by stencil shadows look of Doom 3. F2 is far more CoD inspired. So their signature look while great - was also heavily inspired by other game.
I absolutely hated how they killed him off in the 3rd game like canon fodder.. I couldn’t finish the game after that I was pissed. I’m glad I didn’t because I heard the game was so bad the devs regretted making it
my virgin playthrough of all 3 games was on ps3...and i loved them especially 3 (my first platinum). That being said i snagged the trilogy on steam for cheap...and i look forward to playing on the steam deck more than my gaming laptop.
Oh wow you even mentioned the ps3 resolution settings! I used to fight with those so much between games back in the day 😂 your image quality knowledge is so amazing for a youtube reviewer. I love it
This was my first dive into the F.E.A.R. franchise, and since I wasn't that into games of these kind like Medal of Honor or CoD it was a good game for me to get it on with FPS' besides the Halo franchise, or at least the original trilogy. What I liked about this game though was the slow-mo mechanic and even though many say they dropped the fear factor I found the hospital and the school pretty damn scary even though I was in highschool back then. The thing I didn't liked was the fact that many of it's arsenal felt really weak in the damage department. Sometimes is better to get close and personal than wasting a full clip of machine gun to down even the regular enemies. What I found funny though was the fact you could change the difficulty of your game anytime you please and that way you could cheese one of the hardest achievements like it was nothing by just getting your game rank up the difficulty at the last checkpoint before finishing a mission and it actually counts as if you've finished the level at the hardest setting. Obviously the ending was a cliffhanger to tease a sequel but I think they handled it wrong as it felt too rushed and when you are getting to grasp the endgame it just ends too abruptly.
@@AvalancheReviews Forced V-Sync at a 60 fps cap and 16xAF specifically. Some games got a boost to 4K. Some to 60 fps up from 30. Some to 4K60. Some exceptions got even 120 fps (I think Mirror's Edge Catalyst is one such example).
I digged the Extraction Point expack and somewhat liked Perseus Mandate, before they were called non-canon. Now sadly this sequel and the third one. Along with the first kept knocking each other off and sometimes barely felt like a Trilogy that held together.
F.E.A.R. is one of my favourites fps ever, and F.E.A.R. 2 was a really fun game. Now i'm really curious to see what you are gonna talk about 3, im my opinion an absolute disrespect for the series, while it "fixes" some of the problems that most people had with the second, introduces some abismal new ones. I just hope that i can see your opinion on it soon.
I played these back-to-back and yeah, they're very different games. I enjoyed them both, but FEAR was the more suspenseful and fun shooter. They're both fun, but the first was the best. Haven't played FEAR 3 as I hear it's a COOP experience and it's hard to find someone to play an old Coop game with.
I enjoy F.E.A.R 2 even with its problems, although I personally prefer its sequel, it has the weaker horror and story of the trilogy, but it compensates with a more satisfying gunplay, pretty decent level design and from what I understand (since I haven't played it, yet) its co op and multiplayer modes are fun; in its own right F.E.A.R 3 is a solid arcade shooter in a similar style to other games like Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Still the original is the best one and a must play classic.
Still have all my 360 day one physical copies here. Plus the pc ones and the collector's edition for the ps3. I love this franchise, even the last one (I know I know) since I've always been a console gamer I rarely played any games above 30fps. Sometimes when an xbox one title hits 60fps I almost can't believe my eyes heheheh. If u didn't live literally across the globe from me I would have lent my 360 and the game to you no problem. Well. Can't wait for F3AR's review. keep rocking brah.
I like the expansion of the story for this universe especially on Almas life. Though I was not expecting that scene at the end and my last reaction to the game was "what the fuck". I will admit that this game is way easier than the first as in the first the AI would move around and sneak so much that I actually died a few times. Though I still find the general gameplay fun in Fear 2 and this time the ps3 actually got a better port compared to the Fear 1 port. Fear 2 also felt a little less horror than 1. Which was kind of disappointing since one of the reasons Fear 1 caught my attention was that it was a horror shooter and it did give some good creepy atmosphere while 2 had some moments it still lacked compared to the first. Then part 3 came is pretty much put a bullet to the head of horror in the series.
I loved the worldbuilding revolving around expanding the scope of Armacham's control of the city, and Alma's characterization is a really creepy yet tragic twist for a villain. Can't think of many other horror games that feature the male protagonist being the target of sexual violence besides Outlast, and I would bet Outlast took some inspiration from F.E.A.R.
The DLC addressing criticisms feels like they knew the whole time that these were bad changes but had their hands tied by the publisher. A lot of developers will negotiate with the publisher and get given spin offs or DLC as a compromise.
Regarding the graphics: if you fire up the first and the second F.e.a.r. on max settings on a modern system with MSI Afterburner statistics, you will find out that both games consume almost similar "horsepower" of your GPU. The truth is, Monolith had to cut most of impressive effects from the sequel to make it run on consoles as well as the first game and at the same time to look more like average 7th gen FPS (which means more geometry, different shading, improved textures and complex lighting). Same frame budget - completely different look.
The shotguns being piss week is an exceptional travesty due to the fact most hardcore FPS gamers agree that FEARs shotgun is one of the best ever as well as another classic from Monolith Bloods sawn off double barrel.
I love fear 2. Originally i played on 360 but recently replayed 360 version on series x with fps boost, it felt amazing. Not too many action games can squeeze in horror. I dont remember fear 1 having any horror, i could be wrong. Fear 3 failed at its attempts. Fear 2 is the best in the series imo, the story is insane lol.
I give them credit. Not a lot of horror games have your main characters last encounter with the supernatural entity go that way. Very uh fanfiction I guess.
Thanks for stopping by friends! FEAR 2 is on sale right now for just a little over 3 bucks! Click this link to snag it and let GOG know I sent ya.
af.gog.com/game/fear_2_project_origin_reborn?as=1672895661
Also, here's the links for the No HUD Mod and my buddy Import Gaming FTW's channel:
No HUD Mod - hudfreegaming.fandom.com/wiki/F.E.A.R._2
Import Gaming FTW - ua-cam.com/video/krEJgZiqjY4/v-deo.html
I look forward to you covering Monoliths Condemned and Condemned 2. The sequel plays well but the tone and story are...exrtra.
Hope you cover FEAR 3 in the future. The couch co-op in that game is a lot of fun.
You should check the comment section. Someone claiming to be you posted a reply in my and some other comments to contact him for a prize.
I feel like you're not not exactly remembering original FEAR too well.
You complain about levels in FEAR 2 being boring and linear. How's that different from the original and how exactly does it make them inferior in the sequel?
1st FEAR's levels were extremely boring and linear. Not mentioning that they all looked like they just copied and pasted them over and over. How's that better than FEAR 2? I liked the game overall, but after finishing it for the 1st time I sort of started hating office environments in shooters. The level design was pretty lazy in both of them to be completely honest.
@@Phantom6.6.6
I wasT to play
It's crazy how much the industry changed in the 3ish years between Fear 1 & 2. The first FEAR being one of the last big budget PC first titles. The rise of COD and everyone copying it. The 7th generation and HD gaming era with increased budgets and fewer risks. Consoles becoming the focus with PC ports as afterthoughts.
Absolutely. If you were playing Fear 2 for the first time and you didn't know any better, you might assume the two were made a decade apart based just on their design. They just feel like totally different eras in gaming. Which, I guess they are.
I still say that fear should have been an episodic series that has a different paranormal villain and enemy faction each title that’s self contained as opposed to bringing back alma each game
That is a cool concept
Great idea!
That was the plan for the Vivendi timeline. What ultimately became FEAR 3 originally started out as unrelated to Alma, Fettel et al. The story was to follow a FEAR unit as it tried to track down a scientist who had opened a portal to another dimension.
@@Bertaut oh my god but that sounds so good ; I guess they only brought Alma back for marketing purposes
XP is the best FEAR2
This was my first F.E.A.R. game. Played on the PS3 back in the day. Loved it. It’s what got me to play the first game, and finding out just how much better the original was.
I'm there's plenty of people like that. The era brought so many old franchises into new homes. The 360 and to a lesser extent the PS3 were so damn popular, and they got so many PC ports. It was an overall force for good, as far as bringing classic PC games to console players.
Amateur, my first F.E.A.R. game was on Roblox in 2010
@@Malice_doll Mine was replaying the demo of the first game on the OXM disc that had it. Replayed that so many times back then when that specific magazine issue first came out.
Nothing gets me quite as hyped as a new Avalanche Reviews video - time to kick back and listen to a smooth-voiced man talking about horror games.
My man!
I love FEAR 2 and I replay it every now and then, it reeks of that late 2000's edginess.
It definitely does. It would be hard to explain to anyone who wasn't playing games at that time, but it just IS that era.
Me too, I really didn't like how FEAR 3 continued the story after 2. Poor Beckett.
@@Gruntvc they did him dirty on FEAR 3
@@Lord_Deimos his death was pretty funny tho
@@Lord_Deimos It's so weird that they went through the trouble of fully voicing him as well for just 2 scenes after him not saying a word in F.E.A.R 2
One of my favorite "comfort shooters". I replay it once a year
There is something comfy about it.
I actually found the sniper rifle in this game intensely satisfying to use
the sniper is amazing playing with a mouse. it just literally destroys everything with a single headshot.
I'm pretty sure the swing area intentionally had the emotional impact you mentioned. It's brilliant environmental storytelling.
Yeah, the underwhelming nature of it actually underscores just how tragic Alma's life was. Even the one peaceful place she had was a pitiful ditch.
I loved F.E.A.R. 2 and still play it today. I first played F.E.A.R. 1 on the original PS3 and it was a buggy mess that keep crashing on me and I loved it. When the second game came out the moment I finished school I sat down and played it all in one sitting, my dad was mad that I played through the entire night. The first two games will always be one of my favorite games with the third I didn't like the story nor the focus on arcade like multiplayer but I did like combat so I played the wave mode where you survive as long as you can a lot.
I miss sitting down and just clearing a game in one sleepless night. Those were the days...
I actually really like this game, obviously not as much as the first, but there's something about it that I really like, and one of them is the beefy sniper shot sound
Your port comparisons and technical details comments is what makes me like your videos so much more than others.
Steve Gaynor was a level designer on Perseus Mandate and after FEAR 2 was released, he wrote a blog post breaking down why the level design didn't work. Well worth a read - I can't post the link, but the title is "Basics of effective FPS encounter design (via F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2)"
FEAR 2 holds a special place in my heart not only being my introduction to the franchise and the story of Alma, but also being the first ever horror game I would not only play by myself but beat on my own as well, I know there's a bit of a internal rivalry in the FEAR fandom between the first and the second game on their similar yet differing horror styles, but the second game scared me to a point the first game would never reach until I finally found it's "FEAR Files" expansion pack list... The way many of the scares in the game were set up to have multiple trigger points based on where you were or where you were looking did a great job at blurring the lines and casting the illusion of "dynamic horror" which was rather rare at the time, some personal favorites were the pool room of Aristides penthouse (where there's two seperate occasions Alma herself can appear behind you stalking you and moving with you like Lisa from Silent Hills PT) the hospital bathroom shortly after you wake up, and of course the entire elementary school.
They don't make games like this no more. Shame. Always loved the "special forces fighting against or succumbing to supernatural stuff" trope. Such a wasted potential that wasn't built upon further beyond the FEAR franchise, Clive Barker's Jericho and the Nightmare House 2 mod for HL2.
There's the Underhell mod too. Sadly they never made more than the prologue and first chapter, but it's still a really fun homage to F.E.A.R./Metal Gear Solid.
@@mattmedrala1947 holy shit i remember thst mod lol. Nightmare House 2 was also dope
Except for the stuff in the story he did not talk about Alma or the horror stuff in the game at all.
Thats a big and important part of the Fear games and the main reason why i like and play them personally.
When I played FEAR 2 the first time, Alma's presence felt threatening and scary, like in FEAR. After finishing FEAR 2 and going back to play it later though, knowing Alma's "intentions" with Beckett from the start made her appearances, not quite comforting, but almost like a little guardian at the peripheries
22:44 mark "Damn, its just now hitting me how bad we need more government conspiracies in our first person shooters and yes that does count as mentioning Deus Ex" couldn't agree with you more dude. Also, anyone who references Deus Ex (2000) gets a 10,000 brownie points in my book.
1:06:46 It looks like the current console generation is the first to support Variable Refresh Rate (like G-Sync or Freesync on PC), meaning a dip below 60 FPS doesn't automatically cut your screen's refresh rate in half (traditional vsync).
I've had the 3 F.E.A.R games in my steam library since 2015 and just after your review I booted up the first one and I beleieve I'll give this one a shot as well
I've been really settling down into a full series replay of FEAR over the last week or so, and this getting posted right in the middle of it was a very welcome surprise! Great video as always
59:50 no need to put yourself down Jared, I love you talking about the technical side of things
I miss watching your videos Jared and I'm bit behind some of them but you put a ton of work and effort into it so I need to binge watch a few. Other words thanks for the video and all the content my man.
Thank you for watching them for so long! You've been commenting on my videos for about as long as I can remember.
FEAR 2 was my firs FEAR game too, I love it. I have played through it like 4 times, its just a comfort FPS you can just replay now and then.
2:40 Oh shit, I didn't even know that. Looks like we all need to be thankful that F.E.A.R. didn't suffer the same fate as Raven's Wolfenstein and remains widely available to this day.
I replayed all three games shortly after your first FEAR video and, once again, FEAR 2 wins out for me. The more diverse levels and kind of batshit rollercoaster of a story just worked better for me. It's one 2000s-era video gamey-ass video game too which I really appreciate. Really looking forward to the FEAR 3 vid. I played through it at least 3 times in my life and couldn't tell you a thing about it.
A great review
I have a friend who is really into Monolith games and I've been trying to get him to start up the Fear series.
I'm sure he will eventually
Great comparison between the two games. I had no idea FEAR 1 had that much of an impact on the genre.
Your intros have no right slapping as hard as they do! Keep up the great work Jared!
Booted up the first entry the other day, and it occured to me that my boy hadn't put out a follow up to the first game. Thanks Jared.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the inconsistency between difficulties, Jared. Normal is coma inducing easy, while Hard enemies have god like aim and dish so much damage you will be dead in nano seconds it will become a frustrating experience.
I was wondering if I was imagining the lack of impactful feeling weapons in this game. That's my main memory of this game. Surely this is something that can be fixed with a fan mod !
Great video brotha. You and gmanlives are always dropping that heat.
I always felt that Condemned was FEARs hybrid. 👍
I like FEAR 2 quite a bit but I feel the series would have been so much better if it just stuck to what the first game did well and expanding upon that, while also going for a completely different story where you combat some other paranormal threat, thus making FEAR more of an anthology series story-wise but faithful to the OG gameplay-wise.
Funny enough, that was the intention for the original 'FEAR 2' that would've followed up from the first game's expansions, where they would move on from Alma and ATC to focus on a new conflict revolving around teleportation experiments bringing in mutants from another dimension in the fashion of Doom/Half-Life/Dead Space. That concept got clumsily recycled for 'FEAR 3' in the form of those weird Phase Soldiers who literally came from a separate story from anything related to Alma.
Never played number 2 but the first fear holds some pretty sweet memories from back in the day
I still remember playing it on that old Dell pre built we had in the dining room
@@AvalancheReviews that thing RULED!!!
I miss so much this type of FPSs. Making your way in the middle of a mystery, one man army, almost alone against the world, with a very atmospheric ambience, solving puzzles and pieces of the plot here and there. FEAR, Bioshock, Half Life, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Doom 3, Singularity, Quake 4, TimeShift... Just to name a few. I know they are linear, but in a way that you get immersed, invested, and when you realize a lot time has passed by while you are playing and you are having a lot of fun. It seems it's time to fire up a good session of retro FPS extravaganza!
Wolfenstein New Order?
@@morkgin2459 Good Point! 🍻
@@GYTCommnts that isn't exactly new either because it came out in 2014.
Control is a game about paranormal activity that’s monitored by a secret bureau; it’s even made by the same devs that made the first two Max Payne games.
Excellent. Was putting off a playthrough of Fear 2 but you've given me a reason to start.
Hell yeah!
@@AvalancheReviews
this video inspire me to attempt to reupload this game to my channel and the suffering so im glad someone talking about the games
59:45 all of this technical talk is what I’m here for
Hi, Jared! Since it's the spoopy month, I figured I'd share a recommendation. You and Jo might like the Yomawari series. It's more of a puzzle game than a horror game, but what the series does with the trope blew my mind sometimes, so I hope it does the same for you
Great review! Also, thank you for having the mention on the lower left of which version of the game and what resolution it is run in. I only saw this in your videos and I love it! :)
Without going into too much detail I do like F.E.A.R.2 quite a bit. Sure I prefer the first game over it any day but I did enjoy my time with it. The sound design for the guns felt off and many times I could just memorize the enemy locations and spawns and beat the encounter basically early. I have to say I do like the over saturated gore effects while in slow-mo and I like the look of the game a lot. Almost the same thing with Dead Space as it has this "realistic" but still a but cartoon-y look to it. Im so glad you didn't crap onto this game like almost everyone I've ever watched did.
This is exactly why I enjoy your videos. Even if the game happens to be underwhelming or disappointing, you still try to find atleast something good about it.
I personally find FEAR 2's art style the best iteration in the series, perhaps because it embraced a colorful futuristic aesthetic more reminiscent of '90s and '80s sci-fi (particularly cyberpunk anime, which Monolith were big fans of) and that distinguished it from the many 'grittier' shooters prevalent at the time. FEAR 1's felt bland by comparison and 3 veered too hard into being embarrassingly edgy.
Fun fact: the 360 version actually did not get an fps boost patch. From what I read, the original version ran at an unlocked framerate and the series x simply took advantage of that. No patch required!
That music box tune burned into my brain again. Well thank you....
The plan is proceeding perfectly......
Always a pleasure to see a new video from you, let alone over an hour!
My man, your videos have been all I’ve watched the past week…idk why it took me so long to find your channel (saw a comment on a Sphere Hunter video, thank goodness) but I’ve made up for lost time by binging your RE, SH & RE-Clone compilation videos, amongst many others.
Got me to stop pussyfooting with RE Remake (I was born in ‘91, so it didn’t take long for the tank controls to feel good again), go & snag the PS1 versions of RE2/3, and grab a mix of retro & modern survival-horror releases.
Excited to pop onto your Patreon & see what’s going on over there! Least I could do after binging about 10-15 hours’ worth of your content lol
Also on the subject of the lighting, the original FEAR was actually criticized a lot for a "bland" art style and a lack of variety in it's color pallet. That's why a lot of the color design went into overdrive.
1:02:00 just a heads up I don't think that's the level of detail distance you are seeing. I think that's shitty anisotropic filtering. Most games used trilinear filtering instead of 16x like you would usually use on PC. It's basically a filter to help the quality of textures when looked at from odd angles if you aren't familiar. Not a criticism just thought it might be something you'd be interested in checking out.
Edit: 1:08:00 higher resolutions increase the distance of anisotropic filtering plus xbox back compat upgrades I believe increase it to 16x as well if I am remembering correctly.
The first I played through on PC and was one of many games that made me upgrade my PC to play it as best as could afford at the time. I have never played the second game on PC, only PS3, yet have own it for many years on Steam. I think time to download and finally play it on PC.
I love F.E.A.R. 2! Alma scared me so badly.
Literally just subscribed to you, and you’ve just uploaded. Very nice!
Well that's damn good timing on my part. HA!
man, some times in the video it sounds like the soldiers are popping and shooting popcorn at you
Im happy to see another New Avalanche video! Makes my day when I see one pop up!
Fun fact: Even if FEAR2 is a 2009 game, this is one of the last AAA games possible to be ran on the 2003-2004 lineup of ATI X800 series GPUs, that support Pixel Shader 2.0b, given this lineup didn't have Pixel Shader 3.0 capabilities.
Even if FEAR2 is extremely easy to run, I wouldn't necessarily expect FEAR2 to run all that well even on an ATI X850 XT&PE.
Oh very in-depth and goodie video. Me think it worth a purchase it in my list of buy in future after playing metro first .
Good call. Metro kick ass
@@AvalancheReviews yah metro and metro last line remake mhm so will give it cookie try and kick tush
This video made me buy the game again couldn’t help myself. Keep up the good work Avalanche.
Honestly even though project origin was my first fear game I played and beat the other ones and yeah project origin is definitely one I still enjoyed I definitely do agree with you on how most of the gun play and gameplay mechanics weren’t as good as the first one but I still fully love your take on what you liked and what you didn’t. Watching these videos are my comfort videos and thank you for releasing a lot of cool and interesting videos.
This was a great vid Jared! Looking forward to F.E.A.R. 3 in 9 months
Don't you think you're expecting a little too quick of a turnaround from me?
@@AvalancheReviews Eh, I can wait. I'm genuinely extremely curious to hear your thoughts on the game. It's so far removed from the original, but I've always felt it's a genuinely great game despite that, and more people have been giving it another chance in the last few years.
@@AvalancheReviews you're right that's a tad presumptious. Cant wait to hear F.3.A.R. in 2024!
a remaster or remake of the F.E.A.R trilogy and expansions all in one game is a 'take my money' situation as far as im concerned......i love all three games.
Oh man, I have fond memories of the FEAR series. If only I had a pc to play it again 🥲
I really enjoyed playing FEAR 2 on PS3 a few years ago. I got all the single player trophies, including the ones for Reborn. But I couldn't Platinum it thanks to crap multiplayer only trophies. The multiplayer for Fear 2 was shut down when Gamespy went under.
Funny enough, you can still play FEAR 3's multiplayer as it offers offline bots and split screen options. Same for co op too. More games need to do this. Can't even get split screen back for Halo now, epic fail.
You’re missing a bit that the signature look of the first game (great look) is heavily inspired by stencil shadows look of Doom 3. F2 is far more CoD inspired. So their signature look while great - was also heavily inspired by other game.
Something like the first FEAR would be so cool in VR
I've played through every FEAR game I had no idea that's how they came up the call sign "Snake Fist". Lmfao 🤣😂
I absolutely hated how they killed him off in the 3rd game like canon fodder.. I couldn’t finish the game after that I was pissed. I’m glad I didn’t because I heard the game was so bad the devs regretted making it
my virgin playthrough of all 3 games was on ps3...and i loved them especially 3 (my first platinum). That being said i snagged the trilogy on steam for cheap...and i look forward to playing on the steam deck more than my gaming laptop.
I remember going to gamestop the same week the original came out, and someone walked in and asked for F.E.A.R. 2
Oh wow you even mentioned the ps3 resolution settings! I used to fight with those so much between games back in the day 😂 your image quality knowledge is so amazing for a youtube reviewer. I love it
This was my first dive into the F.E.A.R. franchise, and since I wasn't that into games of these kind like Medal of Honor or CoD it was a good game for me to get it on with FPS' besides the Halo franchise, or at least the original trilogy.
What I liked about this game though was the slow-mo mechanic and even though many say they dropped the fear factor I found the hospital and the school pretty damn scary even though I was in highschool back then.
The thing I didn't liked was the fact that many of it's arsenal felt really weak in the damage department. Sometimes is better to get close and personal than wasting a full clip of machine gun to down even the regular enemies.
What I found funny though was the fact you could change the difficulty of your game anytime you please and that way you could cheese one of the hardest achievements like it was nothing by just getting your game rank up the difficulty at the last checkpoint before finishing a mission and it actually counts as if you've finished the level at the hardest setting.
Obviously the ending was a cliffhanger to tease a sequel but I think they handled it wrong as it felt too rushed and when you are getting to grasp the endgame it just ends too abruptly.
Good stuff Jare, really liked this in depth retrospect
Uhg bro, the nostalgia hits so hard. Used to be sccared as shit at 10 years old playing it with my cousin, good times!
1:08:00
Backwards compatible games on the series X apply an automatic anisotropic filter
Interesting! I wish I knew that before. It would have made for a fun little factoid to mention.
@@AvalancheReviews Forced V-Sync at a 60 fps cap and 16xAF specifically.
Some games got a boost to 4K. Some to 60 fps up from 30. Some to 4K60. Some exceptions got even 120 fps (I think Mirror's Edge Catalyst is one such example).
I digged the Extraction Point expack and somewhat liked Perseus Mandate, before they were called non-canon. Now sadly this sequel and the third one. Along with the first kept knocking each other off and sometimes barely felt like a Trilogy that held together.
And around what you said around 19:00. I only feel text documents are cheap without voice acting unless the game is built around Text
This is the game that got me into horror games in general.
F.E.A.R. is one of my favourites fps ever, and F.E.A.R. 2 was a really fun game. Now i'm really curious to see what you are gonna talk about 3, im my opinion an absolute disrespect for the series, while it "fixes" some of the problems that most people had with the second, introduces some abismal new ones. I just hope that i can see your opinion on it soon.
59:50 - hey i'm still watching here!
I played these back-to-back and yeah, they're very different games. I enjoyed them both, but FEAR was the more suspenseful and fun shooter. They're both fun, but the first was the best.
Haven't played FEAR 3 as I hear it's a COOP experience and it's hard to find someone to play an old Coop game with.
As always sucede a great surprise to see you upload a New video, keep the great work
Yesterday I was just looking to see if you made a video on this game since you did Fear 1 and well, here it is lol.
It only took me like 9 months. HA!
I enjoy F.E.A.R 2 even with its problems, although I personally prefer its sequel, it has the weaker horror and story of the trilogy, but it compensates with a more satisfying gunplay, pretty decent level design and from what I understand (since I haven't played it, yet) its co op and multiplayer modes are fun; in its own right F.E.A.R 3 is a solid arcade shooter in a similar style to other games like Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Still the original is the best one and a must play classic.
Still have all my 360 day one physical copies here. Plus the pc ones and the collector's edition for the ps3. I love this franchise, even the last one (I know I know) since I've always been a console gamer I rarely played any games above 30fps. Sometimes when an xbox one title hits 60fps I almost can't believe my eyes heheheh. If u didn't live literally across the globe from me I would have lent my 360 and the game to you no problem. Well. Can't wait for F3AR's review. keep rocking brah.
Multiplayer might be the only thing you didnt cover, cause you covered evrything and more :D
Always love to wake up to an avalanche
Barrett Wallace approved this message
Best part of waking up!
I like the expansion of the story for this universe especially on Almas life. Though I was not expecting that scene at the end and my last reaction to the game was "what the fuck". I will admit that this game is way easier than the first as in the first the AI would move around and sneak so much that I actually died a few times. Though I still find the general gameplay fun in Fear 2 and this time the ps3 actually got a better port compared to the Fear 1 port.
Fear 2 also felt a little less horror than 1. Which was kind of disappointing since one of the reasons Fear 1 caught my attention was that it was a horror shooter and it did give some good creepy atmosphere while 2 had some moments it still lacked compared to the first. Then part 3 came is pretty much put a bullet to the head of horror in the series.
I loved the worldbuilding revolving around expanding the scope of Armacham's control of the city, and Alma's characterization is a really creepy yet tragic twist for a villain. Can't think of many other horror games that feature the male protagonist being the target of sexual violence besides Outlast, and I would bet Outlast took some inspiration from F.E.A.R.
FINALLY, ANOTHER LONG VIDEO
Hope ya like it!
@@AvalancheReviews Loved it. You have a talent for reviewing. Can't wait to see more!
The DLC addressing criticisms feels like they knew the whole time that these were bad changes but had their hands tied by the publisher. A lot of developers will negotiate with the publisher and get given spin offs or DLC as a compromise.
dang, I really love long videos like this
Regarding the graphics: if you fire up the first and the second F.e.a.r. on max settings on a modern system with MSI Afterburner statistics, you will find out that both games consume almost similar "horsepower" of your GPU. The truth is, Monolith had to cut most of impressive effects from the sequel to make it run on consoles as well as the first game and at the same time to look more like average 7th gen FPS (which means more geometry, different shading, improved textures and complex lighting). Same frame budget - completely different look.
I mean it looks like the baddies have armour. So it kinda makes sense why they don't flinch like that crawly guy
That underlying hum is really messing with me. Good job Ave
The shotguns being piss week is an exceptional travesty due to the fact most hardcore FPS gamers agree that FEARs shotgun is one of the best ever as well as another classic from Monolith Bloods sawn off double barrel.
I really really just loved that game even now
My annoyance with FEAR sequels is that it became "The Pointman saga" instead of being basically about fed ghostbusters
underated comment
Fear 2 is on sale on the Xbox store just a heads up $6 for the next 11 days or so.
I love the school level
I love fear 2. Originally i played on 360 but recently replayed 360 version on series x with fps boost, it felt amazing. Not too many action games can squeeze in horror. I dont remember fear 1 having any horror, i could be wrong. Fear 3 failed at its attempts. Fear 2 is the best in the series imo, the story is insane lol.
I give them credit. Not a lot of horror games have your main characters last encounter with the supernatural entity go that way. Very uh fanfiction I guess.