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| Michael Beckett, in the ruins of Fairport, about to jump into a mech. |
Michael Beckett is a Special Forces operative who has been sent to arrest Genevieve Aristide, the president of Armachan Technology Corporation, when the final events of F.E.A.R. take place and the city of Fairport is caught in a massive explosion. Now Beckett has to cross through the ruins of Fairport looking for Aristide while having to fight off the soldiers and monsters under control of Alma, the psychotic ghost who was responsible for the explosion.
The game is a standard first person affair. Beckett goes through a level, like the ruins of Fairport or a school, shooting everything that comes across his path with various weapons strewn around the levels. Usually the enemies are soldiers that become better equipped with stronger weapons as the game goes on, but sometimes Beckett will run into large robots or fast moving, invisible assassins.
The main unique twist to combat in Project Origin is Beckett’s ability to make everything slow down. Beckett can speed himself to the point that everything appears to be moving slowly whenever he wants, including enemies. This allows Beckett to dodge around enemy fire and defenses, which is helpful since he is usually outnumbered.
Unfortunately, the slow motion effect harms the game play as much as it makes it unique. The enemies can duck behind cover and other impressive tactical feats, but anything the enemies offesnes enemies make can by overcome by the slow motion effect. All the player has to do is turn it on, run and shoot all the enemies while they are moving slowly, then duck behind something while the slow motion bar refills. It makes almost all of the combat, except for parts at the end, really easy.
Sometimes during a level someone will attack Beckett up close. This requires the player to repeatedly press a button until Beckett is able to push the enemy away. These instances are more annoying than anything, and when they happen during the scary parts they are so jarring that they make the whole situation less terrifying.
Every so often Beckett will come across a giant robot which he can pilot. From the pilot’s cockpit Beckett will able to kill tons of enemies at once. Since the area that the robot can move around is limited, and Beckett cannot be harmed while in the robot, these are pleasant diversions at best and tedious filler at worst.
The other big draw of Project Origin is its horror elements. Throughout the game Beckett will encounter hallucinations created by Alma. These usually take the form of flickering lights, mysterious sounds, objects flying around, ghosts, lots of blood, and Alma herself walking around. Except for the ghosts, most of these hallucinations are harmless.
The biggest problem with Project Origin is the very horror elements it sells itself upon. The scary parts of the game are not really scary, which is a shame since the same scary elements in the first F.E.A.R were so effective. Usually when something scary is about to happen, it can be predicted. They usually happen right after a large fight, so all the surprise is gone. It would have been much better if there was a sense of terror constantly throughout the game, instead of having the scary parts in predictable little segments.
Even more disappointing is how not frightening Alma herself is, compared to her appearance in the first. This is largely because the player, either through playing through the first F.E.A.R. or reading the material found early in the game, knows Alma’s history, which really takes the mystery out of her. That and she appears as a naked teenager, which just is not as scary as a little girl.
The story is not really impressive; Beckett chases after Genevieve, Alma interferes, Genevieve gets away, Beckett learns a little more about Alma. It gets pretty repetitive quickly.
F.E.A.R. 2; Project Origin had a lot to live up. It failed and is largely unoriginal and not as scary. If there is a second sequel it will hopefully have something new to it, or at least learn how to actually scare people.
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