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Haven't played FEAR? the LP archive has you covered. Click Here to be taken to a haunted YouTube playlist of the LP Note: Degree of haunting will vary from person to person  Latest Video: Part 15: Still Island YouTube Table of Contents Part 1: Penthouse YouTube Part 2: Hospital YouTube Part 3: More Hospital YouTube Part 4: Deeper YouTube Part 5: Arena Fight YouTube Part 6: The Streets YouTube Part 7: Basically Shogo YouTube Part 8: School's Out YouTube Part 9: Hammerhead YouTube Part 10: Snake Fist YouTube Part 11: Escape YouTube Part 12: Alternate Route YouTube Part 13: MechWarrior V2 YouTube Part 14: Tram Ride Fun YouTube Part 15: Still Island YouTube What is F.E.A.R. 2? FEAR 2 (dropping the dots from here on out), like the previous game, is a first person psychological horror shooter. While most of the game is all about shooting or slide kicking anyone foolish enough to get in your way, the game is frequently punctuated by supernatural events orchestrated by Alma Wade, the little girl who followed the player character around causing similar events in the first game. Alma is more a force of nature than an enemy that you can fight, so you are often at her mercy when you encounter her, but so are your enemies and allies. The story in FEAR 2 concerns a team of Delta Force operators (not a FEAR squad, weirdly enough) called to rescue Genevieve Aristide, president of Armacham, the local friendly evil megacorp that had held and experimented on Alma most of her life. This being a video game and all things go pear-shaped pretty quickly and there's some fighting and some wanton property destruction. Most of this is done by or against the player character, Michael Beckett, one of the Delta Force operators who has drawn the attention of Alma. My favorite part was when... Spoilertag everything until it appears in a video, please. Part of the reason I'm doing this is the bonkers story the game throws you into. That doesn't necessarily mean the story is good, but it has some really neat points. You'll notice I mention a few things like Slow-mo and Alma before we see them in the videos; these points were well known before release and I'm hazarding a guess they are the first two things most people think of when they hear "FEAR." Why FEAR 2? There's a lot to recommend this game. The story I've already mentioned, but the atmosphere is really good, the environments are really well designed and it's a solid overall shooter that had some really unique elements like slightly destructible environments, non-stupid AI and special melee moves. There's some things that count against it, like long drawn out sections that are supposed to make the player feel afraid, but the game never quite masters the tension needed to spook players when the inevitable jump scare goes off. I'll probably get more concerned with enemy soldiers moving in these sections than anything the game intends to be scary. What else can you tell me about this LP? I'm going to shoot for a pretty aggressive update schedule, probably three times a week. This will keep us moving through the game fairly quickly, but will make the very long opening segments of the game breeze by (thankfully). I'll be doing this solo for the most part. If someone makes a convincing argument for having guests I may do a couple episodes with other people. Solo commentary seems to work best for the game, though. If you want to talk about game mechanics and weapons and such feel free, I have some thoughts on the latter I'll be freely sharing. Please remember to spoilertag or just not mention story details until they happen, though. SnakeFist Finally, there's a support character who goes by the name SnakeFist on the radio. In the FEAR universe SnakeFist is apparently a long running action movie franchise. I'll be expanding on just why I bring this up shortly. Lazyfire fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Aug 5, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 21:03
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Intel Items Thanks to Kadorhal for pulling these together Interval 01 Interval 02 Interval 03 Interval 04 Interval 05 Interval 06 Interval 07 Art MShadowy posted:I've been waiting for one of the enemies to say it so I could do this; my siblings and I always wondered how it was that Beckett could be "too fast" while holding still. We eventually realised there was only one possible answer. Cast Alma Wade  One of the few returning characters from the first game, Alma had a pretty horrific life. First, she sort of had the ability to light things with her mind when she was young, which apparently didn't get much better and eventually her father, Harlan Wade, accepted the opinions of those around him and put his daughter in an isolation chamber. Alma was heavily sedated and her telepathic powers were dampened by the chamber itself, essentially killing her. Armacham isn't a nice company, though, and insisted on experimenting on her. One of these experiments was to see if Alma could be used to produce more powerful psychics and so she was impregnated at 14 with a clone of herself. Yeah, FEAR is hosed up like that. Anyways, the first "prototype" would be deemed a failure and get his memories erased and put into the army. No, that's actually the story. The clone would grow up to become the Point Man, the player character from the first game. Alma was again impregnated with a clone of herself, this one deemed successful. Ten years later Alma and her second son/self synced their psychic waves or something which caused the ten year old to freak out and murder seven of his handlers. He was forced into isolation and Alma was taken off life support and died. Even 20 years later, when Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) re-opened the Origin Facility to scavenge what they could from it, Alma's psychic signal was still strong enough to kill two teams of private security people and connect with her younger son, Paxton Fettle. This sequence kicks off the first FEAR game. Alma attempts to connect to the Point Man for much of the game, but because his psychic ability lags behind his brother's he experiences freaky visions, but not much more. Eventually the Point Man meets up with his grandfather at the Origin Facility as a repentant Harlan Wade opens up Alma's chamber, allowing her to "escape." The Point Man kills Paxton Fettle and then shoots a bunch of ghosts (seriously) and detonates the nuclear reactor that powered the Origin facility in hopes of eliminating Alma. It doesn't quite work out. Genevieve Aristide  Genevieve "Baby Doc" Aristide is the person most responsible for the current situation. She made the call to re-open the Origin Facility that kicked off the events of the first game, and she handled the situation so badly that Paxton Fettle got his mind-hands on some clone troopers that massacred most of her employees. She was mentioned in a number of the data pads in the first game, but never appeared in person. It's suggested she has heavily invested herself in the psychic and paranormal research her company does rather than the practical side of the business, which seems like a really bad business decision over the long term considering that ATC seems to have fielded zero psychics but has plenty of guns and private security to use them. Stokes  I like Stokes. She's sort of the Delta Force team's information officer and the highest ranking person in the group, though she is actually outside of the chain of command and often defers to Griffin on decisions about what to do next and so on. Stokes isn't afraid to use her weapon either, as we see in the first episode, and can handle herself in most situations. I at once applaud Monolith for not treating Stokes differently because she's a woman and need to un-applaud them because Stokes somehow found a shirt and body armor combination that doesn't quite cover her entire torso while her male counterparts wear giant flak jackets. Come on, game developers, you can do better. Also, watch Stokes during the briefing in the APC, there are a lot of really great details on display with her and Jankowski's movement in that scene that most games would leave out. Jankowski  Redd Jankowski is the older brother of the Jankowski that died at the start of the first FEAR game. He's kind of a dick and a joker and lazy and that's about it. Thanks for being in the game, Redd, I needed to see some really dead eyes as my first human interaction. Griffin  We're in familiar territory, Phil LaMarr has arrived!. Griffin is the leader of the Delta Force team sent to rescue Aristide from her former employers and don't take no poo poo from nobody, particularly Jankowski whom he seems to really dislike. Keegan  Keegan sits next to us on the APC and has an episode right before he gets shot. We had something similar going on. Maybe bad allergies? Red  For years there have been rumors of another member of the Delta Force team, all we have are these blurry photos and a short video showing...something that lives inside the APC. Will we ever know what it is? Possibly, world's a big place, time keeps on ticking, etc. Lazyfire fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Jul 26, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 21:03
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The SnakeFist Library Lazyfire Overview Pt. 1 SnakeFist's F.I.S.T. The Terror of Bloody SnakeFist Overview Pt. 2 Blind Sally SnakeFist III: Viper Fang Report from FistCon 2014 Blind Sally's morning routine SnakeFaust biosterous Goons discuss SnakeFist: Legend Professor Doctor Saves the Day SnakePunch: Chill chiasaur11 SnakeFist vs. Archie Cooked Auto SnakeFist V the lost script AltaBrown B.R.O.F.I.S.T. Lazyfire fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 21:04
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Part 1: Penthouse YouTube Our introductory level kick starts the plot and we meet the majority of characters in the game as well as get introduced to just about every mechanic there is. One thing that bugs me in the tutorial level is the really weird oversight of not giving you a full on tutorial of the melee system. It's a bit more complex than just punching a guy in the head. You have two special moves available: The jump kick and the slide kick. Both are one hit kills and pair really well with another FEAR staple: Slow Motion Gameplay. The slide kick is much more difficult to do, requiring players to hold forward and sprint and then hit crouch and melee at the same time. The rewards are that you'll bowl over multiple enemies, stay crouched and be able to fire as soon as the animation is over. Good for getting into cover or taking out a guy on a corner. The jump kick is good too, as it clears out a pretty wide area, but it takes a bit longer to execute and leaves you defenseless for a time. You also can't really run and jump kick successfully as running and jumping aren't really compatible. Luckily your character has the lung capacity of an overweight asthmatic 4th grader and can sprint for about eight feet before taking a hit off his puffer, so you won't be caught in the awkward position of hitting the jump button too late and flying right past the guy you wanted to kick too often.
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Jun 20, 2014 21:13
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Oh gods this level, I think I have it pretty much memorized by heart by now after all my recording attempts back when I wanted to make a FEAR 2 LP myself which in turn made me really really tired of it.
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Jun 20, 2014 21:32
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Lazyfire posted:The slide kick is much more difficult to do, requiring players to hold forward and sprint and then hit crouch and melee at the same time. That was a thing that bugged me too, the game changed up how to do my favorite move and never told me. I think I made it at least a third of the way through the game before I figured it out. Anyway, intel items! I'll be updating this after every video.
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Jun 20, 2014 22:32
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The next level is pretty cool atmosphere-wise. But I like how they went to all the trouble of a full, motion captured scene with that short elevator shootout when most players will just ignore it and spray wildly into the elevator.
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Jun 20, 2014 23:47
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Kadorhal posted:That was a thing that bugged me too, the game changed up how to do my favorite move and never told me. I think I made it at least a third of the way through the game before I figured it out. Thanks for posting those, I've gone ahead and given them a spot in the second post. chitoryu12 posted:The next level is pretty cool atmosphere-wise. But I like how they went to all the trouble of a full, motion captured scene with that short elevator shootout when most players will just ignore it and spray wildly into the elevator. One of the really good things the game has going for it is the ability to have some really great atmosphere. When it comes down to it the Alma stuff is hardly ever a really scary thing, but the atmosphere is always really good and makes you think every path to you is a possible avenue of attack.
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Jun 21, 2014 01:17
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They missed an opportunity at horror by not having the doctors forget to add the painlessness part of anesthesia. 
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Jun 21, 2014 03:23
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Iretep posted:They missed an opportunity at horror by not having the doctors forget to add the painlessness part of anesthesia. Or say that they can't complete the surgery due to a "preexisting condition."
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Jun 21, 2014 03:54
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oh yes oh god yes form the head FORM THE HEAD unghhhh...
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IronSaber posted:Or say that they can't complete the surgery due to a "preexisting condition." The only true horror in FEAR is the medical insurance.
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Jun 21, 2014 05:50
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I forgot about how awesome this game was. The story is "good" in the way the story in Resident Evil games are good. They are cheesy pulp-fiction with a lot of really neat plot devices. I can't wait to see the rest of this LP
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Jun 21, 2014 06:08
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IronSaber posted:Or say that they can't complete the surgery due to a "preexisting condition." "Sorry, Mr. Becket, you seem to have a torn ACL and we can't perform surgery on you today." *Creepy doctor with a bunch of knives dejectedly walks out of the room*
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Jun 21, 2014 07:39
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I never really got the "horror" in FEAR. I mean, it's pretty hard to be scared when you're armed to the teeth and able to slow time - even the jumpscares were more along the lines of "oh, look, here she comes again". That's all about the first game though - never played the sequels and this does look fairly interesting. Oh, why the hell would they make the slidekick harder? That move was respnsible for most of the fun I had with the first game.
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Jun 21, 2014 09:29
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That one scene with Alma being behind you is almost hilarious at how banal it is. Also, a drat shame you can't duel-wield pistols in this game.
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Jun 21, 2014 09:32
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anilEhilated posted:I never really got the "horror" in FEAR. I mean, it's pretty hard to be scared when you're armed to the teeth and able to slow time - even the jumpscares were more along the lines of "oh, look, here she comes again". That's all about the first game though - never played the sequels and this does look fairly interesting. The slide kick is really great still once you get he buttons down. The default controls are hosed, though, so you end up having to hold down control and W and then hit C and the right mouse button. Shift is the aim down sights button by default. You better believe the first thing I changed in the options was the controls.
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Jun 21, 2014 09:56
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Samovar posted:That one scene with Alma being behind you is almost hilarious at how banal it is. There's a similar-but-really-good bit in the first game at a ladder early on, in which it uses a 'scare' at the top to make you let your guard down for a better one at the bottom, but yeah, this one is rubbish.
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Jun 21, 2014 13:56
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WFGuy posted:There's a similar-but-really-good bit in the first game at a ladder early on, in which it uses a 'scare' at the top to make you let your guard down for a better one at the bottom, but yeah, this one is rubbish. Yes, that ladder. Everyone who's played the first game remembers that goddamned ladder.
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Jun 21, 2014 14:49
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I forgot to add it to the OP until just now, but if you don't want to jump in with no knowledge of the game, there's a pretty extensive set of LPs of the first game and the DLC that came out for it. The DLC, by the way, is in no way important to the story and wasn't even made by Monolith.
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Jun 21, 2014 16:10
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Not to mention not that good really. Played them a while ago and they were very distinctly in the meh category even if the second one which had a spin-off story was marginally more interesting than the direct sequel one.
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Jun 21, 2014 16:37
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FEAR 3, on the other hand, is skippable. Played through the majority of it and found it to be mostly dull sci-fi. It even added its own version of running zombie hordes, which hardly fit the game.
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Jun 21, 2014 17:21
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anilEhilated posted:I never really got the "horror" in FEAR. I mean, it's pretty hard to be scared when you're armed to the teeth and able to slow time - even the jumpscares were more along the lines of "oh, look, here she comes again". That's all about the first game though - never played the sequels and this does look fairly interesting. You could slidekick in FEAR 1? How did I beat that game twice and not know that?
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Jun 21, 2014 17:23
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Chaos341 posted:You could slidekick in FEAR 1? How did I beat that game twice and not know that? There are a lot of really cool melee moves in FEAR 1 that never get explained, they're something you have to look up or experiment with to find.
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Jun 21, 2014 17:44
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Damegane posted:Yes, that ladder. Everyone who's played the first game remembers that goddamned ladder. I always found the elevator scare more memorable.
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Jun 21, 2014 17:45
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I have never really gotten scared in any of the jump scare games like Amnesia or otherwise. If anything the jumpscares annoy me. What is good about Fear is that it spends most of its time building atmosphere and being omnious. The amount of fire power you have also doesn't matter when you realize its protective ability is relative to that of your enemies. As such I felt more at risk in shooters than in the forced scare-run games.
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Jun 21, 2014 18:27
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Mister Xenophobe posted:There are a lot of really cool melee moves in FEAR 1 that never get explained, they're something you have to look up or experiment with to find. Yeah, there's some stuff in the game that never gets explained and you sort of had to dig through press releases and developer statements to figure out. For example: the weapon you are using effects your movement speed and base melee damage. Slapping someone with a pistol won't do much, but you'll move faster.
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Jun 21, 2014 18:40
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Although I am a little sad that no one mentioned Monolith did the great-granddaddies of all horror-based FPS's, Blood and Blood 2...
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Jun 21, 2014 19:02
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Armadillo Tank posted:I have never really gotten scared in any of the jump scare games like Amnesia or otherwise. If anything the jumpscares annoy me. What is good about Fear is that it spends most of its time building atmosphere and being omnious. The amount of fire power you have also doesn't matter when you realize its protective ability is relative to that of your enemies. As such I felt more at risk in shooters than in the forced scare-run games. Jump scares have always been a kind of cheap trick. I don't like the feeling of getting hit by them, so (as you said) they end up just being an annoyance rather than scary. True scares come from the atmosphere and the potential to have something terrifying or jumpy coming at you; you could make a jump scare from nothing but a picture of a nude model and a loud laugh and it would still garner the same jump from the viewer if you did it quickly and loudly enough. They only work on people who are legitimately vulnerable enough to collapse into tears from that kind of fright. It's one of the things I hate about Outlast. I really want to love that game for all the things it does right and how pretty it is, but it's overly reliant on jump scares to provide the fear.
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Jun 21, 2014 19:02
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Samizdata posted:Although I am a little sad that no one mentioned Monolith did the great-granddaddies of all horror-based FPS's, Blood and Blood 2... The one game that should forever assure their place in every shooter fan's heart is a different one though.
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Jun 21, 2014 19:05
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Aww man, this game. I REALLY like it. It looks good, does some neat stuff with the atmosphere, and the story is competent for the most part given that you're dealing with things like ghosts and a nuclear explosion right off the bat. Looking forward to the rest of this LP.
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Jun 21, 2014 19:06
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... If you can, get your hands on the pre-release booklet which provides a lot of backstory on things that will come up. I think my copy of it is back in California (I'm in Iowa). Biggest thing is that this Team that Beckett is on? Not created by random chance Also, this Jankowski is the Younger brother, not the older. I know wayyy to much about the mythology of this game.
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Jun 21, 2014 19:33
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anilEhilated posted:The one game that should forever assure their place in every shooter fan's heart is a different one though. Cate Archer is indeed 100% awesomium. Ever had a fight with a ninja in a disintegrating trailer caught in a tornado? You can... And we aren't even going to mention the difficulties in finding affordable fake lava.
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Jun 21, 2014 20:45
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Almost as exciting as hunting pandas in Bristol. edit: I do feel bad for derailing the thread with referencing a better game on the first page, so - what's the arsenal differences betweens FEARs 1 and 2? Specifically, does the rail/energy weapon thing with virtually no ammo return? Because that was one gun I wouldn't mind seeing more of. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Jun 21, 2014 |
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Jun 21, 2014 21:31
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Wasn't the original concept for the Point Man's superpowers that he had cyborg upgrades? I'm sure I remember that being a thing at some point.
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Jun 21, 2014 22:29
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Wasn't the original concept for the Point Man's superpowers that he had cyborg upgrades? I'm sure I remember that being a thing at some point. Donno... Maybe for Jankowski (given that the games industry LOVES that family but I don't remember there being any hints of Cybernetics. And I'm not sure that the Point Man and Fettle are clones, I think they're the legit biological offspring of Alma, gestated in the womb and the genetic "father" could be any one of a number of scientists at Armacham (including Alma's dad). ... Like I said, I know way to much about this game series.
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Jun 21, 2014 22:36
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Calax posted:Donno... Maybe for Jankowski (given that the games industry LOVES that family but I don't remember there being any hints of Cybernetics. And I'm not sure that the Point Man and Fettle are clones, I think they're the legit biological offspring of Alma, gestated in the womb and the genetic "father" could be any one of a number of scientists at Armacham (including Alma's dad). Yup, PM and Fettle are her own biological sons with her father, Harlan Wade providing the 'majority' of the DNA used to impregnate her. Try not to think about that too much. It may have just been an early prototype of the first gam I was thinking of. I'm sure it came up at some point before the game's release.
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Jun 21, 2014 22:48
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Wasn't the original concept for the Point Man's superpowers that he had cyborg upgrades? I'm sure I remember that being a thing at some point. I remember nothing about robo-powers. My impression is that it was a result of being born from alma and psychic hand waving. The only reason why anyone but the point man and fettel would have powers is some BS having to do with corp getting derivative super soldier research from the to bros. Also whose dna is the clone troopers based off of?
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Jun 21, 2014 22:55
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Armadillo Tank posted:
Alma's dad? I think they're all pretty much his clones. I always had a soft spot for this series, the atmosphere trumps the horror every time. Although that one scene inside the elevator from the first game made me jump off my chair.
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Jun 21, 2014 23:04
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Yup, PM and Fettle are her own biological sons with her father, Harlan Wade providing the 'majority' of the DNA used to impregnate her. Try not to think about that too much. FEAR 2 retcons that "Dad is my Grandpa" thing and states that the Point Man and Paxton Fettle are part clones of Alma, part researcher genes. The Point Man was supposedly not good enough psychically to become a psychic commander like his brother, so Armacham gave him a bunch of surgical enhancements that made his reflexes really good. His visions of Alma were more because of the familial bond rather than because of his latent psychic powers. Becket is a different story, though. anilEhilated posted:Almost as exciting as hunting pandas in Bristol. Chat away. The arsenal in this game is admittedly limited. Sadly, the really cool guns like the plasma launchers and lasers of the world come with extremely limited ammo, to the point where if some of them weren't so drat cool or powerful they would be pointless. The pneumatic spike shooter gun does show up later, so look forward to that at the very least. Actually, the video after next we'll start to see some special weapons, though the game spreads them out so the next time you see one will be much later in the game.
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Jun 21, 2014 23:05
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Lazyfire posted:
Is this explained in the datapads etc? Also will you be posting that any of them?
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Jun 21, 2014 23:15
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