F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin came with a 62 page book explaining the Armacham Technology Corporation’s history, all of its interconnected projects, and the motives of some of its big movers and shakers. As well, it details the events of the first game and how it all relates to the setup of the sequel. All of this information is available to you in the game as well, in the form of electronic intel updates scattered across every level, but piecing it all together like that is clearly not the preferred method according to the developer’s intentions. From the very start, you can tell that they wanted players to focus their minds elsewhere. It worked fantastically.

Instead of, like in the original title, working from a point of complete ignorance and discovering bit by bit the true nature of the enemy, the happenings of the setting, and your role in the game, there is no big mystery to unravel here. Even the ending is implied, given a few of the finer details and some player interpretation. Some reviewers are bitter that the spirit of the original is lost in this transition, but it’s all about context. Unlike the first game, the eerie visions don’t creep you out because you have no idea why they’re happening; this time, you know why, but it’s scary because of what that means for your character. Just because you fear the unknown does not mean that a horror game needs to have one thousand unanswered questions. All that you have to focus on from start to finish is how you and your character interact with Project Origin’s world. While few new developments are revealed, the game does have a few more cerebral moments. The emphasis is no longer on thinking and processing new information, though, but experiencing and enjoying an expansion of the F.E.A.R. universe. This is why it changes relatively little (plot-wise) from the original game, and why it actually starts thirty minutes before the first even officially ends.

What a blessing, too. What you do experience is a top notch game, and it really took me by surprise. The atmosphere is unreal, appropriately forming action and suspense sequences alike. The game might have some clipping or collision issues once or twice, but that doesn’t mean these guys didn’t have an attention for details. All the little things set the mood, from the music to the set pieces to the ambient ethereal voices and sounds, and it all works in conjunction to give players a feeling of total dread after a short while has passed. Before too long, you know that you should be afraid. By the time you’re here, though, the game stops going for the obvious scares, instead keeping you on your toes expecting something to jump out at you that never actually comes. When you finally relax, breathing easy knowing that nothing is about to leap into frame and try to rip your throat out, that’s just what happens.

As scary as the horror bits can be, the action sequences are even more fun. Some levels are puzzles, requiring a moment of consideration before you can move on from one room to the next, but most are designed to intelligently guide you without railroading or being painfully obvious in their efforts to keep you moving forward. So seemingly seamlessly, you move from horror movie moments to action shooter, storming hospitals and elementary schools with guns blazing, bullets floating by your head in slow motion. The enemies and weapons constantly vary throughout the game, and their intelligence (and an appropriate difficulty curve) keeps each encounter dangerous enough to feel fresh, if not memorable. When the bad guys throw down a vending machine and kick over a table to use for cover before lobbing a grenade next to me, and I sprint over to a low wall, throwing myself over and ducking behind just as the explosion catches up, it makes these guys a pleasure to kill. Shots connect, snipers amputate, rockets decimate, mechs annihilate, and the combat just gives you this great feeling of satisfaction that you don’t find in every modern FPS.

One of the greatest things about F.E.A.R. 2 is that nothing felt like filler, trying to pad out levels or add in anything inappropriate (aside from the multiplayer, but if you’re buying this game for deathmatches then you’re reading the wrong review). There are sequences where you hop into an APC’s turret and fire massive explosive shells at enemy troops, and a few where you climb into a giant exoskeleton and murder everything in sight, but it never felt like they were reaching too far. It felt cool as hell, and they knew it. At one point, hopping into the turret to provide cover fire is actually almost a reward, granting players one last blast of fun before they set off to see the game through to conclusion.

The best part about this game, though, is that you can enjoy yourself from start to finish while still being totally aware of Monolith’s guiding hand. You can tell when they mean for you to be scared that an abomination is going to burst out and scream at you and you can tell when they want you to just cut loose, blowing clone soldiers into sexy little chunks of gore, but it doesn’t interrupt or corrupt the experience in the slightest; it’s because you’re already scared or cutting loose, playing F.E.A.R. 2 like they wanted you to play it. If you let yourself, you’ll love this game.