3D Performance with F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

You'll see Alma quite a bit in the game

One of the limited outdoor areas

Because it's based on an updated version of the Jupiter Extended (Jupiter EX) game engine first used in F.E.A.R. back in 2005, Monolith's F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin doesn't require the latest and greatest DirectX 10 hardware to run well; in fact with its DX9 renderer the game performs quite fluidly on older graphics cards like the GeForce 7800 and Radeon X1800, even with the game settings cranked up to their maximum values. Despite this, we were still eager to see how the game performs with today's latest hardware, as the series has a large following of fans who enjoyed the original shooter.

Playing with F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. 2 is built largely off the same fundamental gameplay that made F.E.A.R. so great, with martial arts attacks and slow-mo "bullet-time" like action, just like the original. And of course, you can't miss the game's emphasis on the paranormal, with Alma playing a starring role in the game from start to finish.

Nuclear holocaust

Poof!

Monolith has added several layers of polish to the package with F.E.A.R. 2 though. The game's AI has been improved: commandos dispatched to kill you will work together in teams, with one group pinning you down while others will attempt to flank or overrun your position. It's the aggressiveness of the enemy AI that's so impressive, while they will certainly hold their ground and not move from their position, more often than not they will continually advance towards you. All too often in many of today's shooters enemies are content to sit and watch as you patiently pluck them off one by one. In F.E.A.R. 2 your best defense is a good offense. Now that doesn't mean you should charge in headfirst guns blazing, but with enemies always on the move looking for cover (or creating it by kicking over tables), camping in one spot while sniping at enemies really won't work as effectively as it does in other shooters.


Like your enemies, you can also knock over tables and other objects and use them as cover, but this isn't as effective a tactic as you'd think; by the time your character has completed the motion you could've just as easily been taking out bad guys, as most engagements are typically pretty quick.


Basically if you enjoyed the combat in F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. 2 will feel pretty familiar, this is a good thing in our opinion as the original was well regarded in this respect.

Enhanced Graphics

Besides improving the A.I., Monolith has also added a layer of polish to the Jupiter EX engine. For F.E.A.R. 2, Monolith has added HDR lighting as well as motion blur and depth of field to the game engine. These are much needed effects that most gamers pretty much take for granted nowadays, and help immerse the player into the action: when a grenade goes off near your position Monolith uses these effects with great success to disorient you.

Grenade just went off nearby. Motion blur used to disorient you.

Particle effects and watch out for the canisters as they go BOOM when hit by bullets!

Like its predecessor, F.E.A.R. 2 also continues to include a healthy dose of particle effects for sparks and ricocheting bullets.

As we mentioned earlier, the game runs at very good frame rates even if you don't have the latest hardware. This is due in part because of the age of the game engine; while Jupiter EX was pretty demanding three years ago, today's latest cards are several times faster than the GeForce 6800 and Radeon X800 cards that were popular in F.E.A.R.'s heyday. But also the game's design helps to boost frame rates: since the majority of combat takes place indoors, your graphics card doesn't have to render vast outdoor areas, which can hamper frame rate.


Even when you do step outside in F.E.A.R. 2 the areas are pretty small, nothing like the vast outdoor scenery you'd see in a game like Fallout 3 or Far Cry 2.

To showcase the performance of F.E.A.R. 2 we've gathered nearly two dozen GPUs for this article, with cards ranging from the venerable Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB all the way up to the latest GeForce GTX 295 from NVIDIA. We've got the complete list of cards represented in this article on the next page.