PC, PS3, Xbox 360: F.E.A.R. 2 Developer Q&A

Interview of Dave Matthews, Art Lead at Monolith Productions was conducted by Simon "Soulrift" Ludgate and Capt. Maverick of GameSHOUT.com and GameSHOUT Radio. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we all did. Thanks Dave.

GameSHOUT: Without spoiling the new storyline, how does the original FEAR storyline transition into the new FEAR 2 storyline?

Dave: F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin begins about a half hour before the end of the first game. You play as Michael Becket, a Special Forces soldier who has been sent to retrieve Genevieve Aristide. When the bomb goes off it throws everything into chaos, and Becket must discover what has happened. Because so much of the F.E.A.R. world is about Alma and what she’s doing, the big mystery is why Becket becomes important to her.

GameSHOUT: Our favorite feature of FEAR was the time dilation effect. How will take make a return in FEAR 2?

Dave: Becket does have the same ability to use his heightened reflexes to get an advantage while in combat. We’ve enhanced the ability for F.E.A.R. 2 to ensure that players have as much of an opportunity to take advantage of this skill as possible. How Becket comes to possess these abilities is another mystery that players will discover as they make their way through the game.

GameSHOUT: FEAR featured a very simplistic inventory system where players could carry only a limited selection of weapons, constantly having to exchange them for new weapons found in the environment. Will FEAR 2 expand armament possibilities and choices, such as with customizable weapons or inventory management?

Dave: The emphasis in F.E.A.R. 2 is on the world, the story, the combat, and the AI, so we felt that adding a more complex inventory system would have distracted from the main focus of the game. One of the things we’ve done to increase players’ options is to add a fourth weapon slot, which allows gamers to have their standby close, medium, and long range weapons while still giving them the freedom to explore with some of the new power weapons that have been added to the game. Speaking of the power weapons, players will now be able to get their hands on a flamethrower, a laser, and a couple of other really cool weapons that

are extremely fun to use and experiment with.

GameSHOUT: FEAR was also criticized in that many felt that the personal weapon inventory was way too limited. Will there be more weapons available to the player in their inventory at one time or is that set to stay the same?

Dave: I guess I already answered this question before, but yes we felt that three weapons was a bit limiting as well, and it’s interesting to notice how adding just one more weapon to your personal repertoire really opened up how players make their way through combat encounters knowing that they can experiment and try new weapons without having to sacrifice their other favorites.

GameSHOUT: What other improvements can we expect to see in the coming inventory?

Dave: We’ve refined how you select weapons and have made the process more intuitive and immediate. The arsenal selector allows you to quickly switch between weapons, and minimizes the time you spend out of combat. There are new grenade types as well, each of which have different effects and uses in combat.

GameSHOUT: One of the major criticisms of FEAR was the repetitive nature of encounters and the limited number of enemies. What steps are you taking to expand the encounter possibilities in FEAR 2?

Dave: Players often suffered from office fatigue by the end of the game. When the designers sat down and began thinking about the sequel one of the first things they wanted to address was the variety of environments. When gamers play F.E.A.R. 2, they are going to see very quickly how much work went into expanding the game world both in theme and in size. The designers also laid out a color map of each of the game’s chapters, with the intention of using a color palette that evoked the moods they wanted to illicit. If they wanted players to feel uneasy, they would use one palette, aggression, another, feelings of familiarity, yet another. It’s a subtle detail and we hope players notice and enjoy it as much as we do.

GameSHOUT: Can we also expect to see more and different enemies in FEAR2? How will this play out in the multiplayer version of the final game?

Dave: We’ve increased the number of enemies the player will encounter, each one more deadly than the last. Some of them are the result of Alma’s power, others came about through Armacham’s machinations. A lot of work has gone into creating monsters that gamers will find extremely creepy and unsettling to fight.

GameSHOUT: FEAR featured very distinct 'shooter' and 'horror' portions, and players quickly learned which type of game they were in, and this bifurcation of game play led to less scary horror scenes and less scary shooter scenes too. How will FEAR 2 merge the two aspects to ensure a less predictable game design?

Dave: The goal when making a game that blends such disparate elements is to carefully balance what happens and when and blend them seamlessly into each other so you don’t know what to expect next. There are several moments in the game where you find yourself bursting through a door barely surviving one of the hardest encounters in the game only to find yourself assaulted by Alma. We want the player to feel like they are on an emotional rollercoaster where they don’t know whether they are going up or coming down. When you keep them in an unsettled or unbalanced mood, players are put into a very receptive state to be scared or forced into a fight or flight response.

GameSHOUT: FEAR, when it was originally released on the PC, had a very satisfying control and accuracy feel to it, reminiscent of "good old" FPS games. The recent rise of console shooters and their clumsy controllers have driven designers to create lackluster shooters with large, forgiving targeting algorithms. Will FEAR 2 sacrifice the precision that made weapons like the Predator so fun in order to appeal to the less skilled console gamer?

Dave: There are certainly a lot more variables involved when developing a multiplatform game, but the potential for rewards are much greater as a result. Because we are developing all three versions of F.E.A.R. 2 in tandem, this allows us to take advantage of the strengths of all three platforms. We aren’t building the game on a primary SKU and porting to the others. Each platform has its own team and, as an example, when a piece of art is generated we make sure that it works as intended on all three versions. Our goal is to make sure that regardless of what platform you play our game on you’re going to get the best possible experience, and play the game exactly as intended.

GameSHOUT: In every game, it seems that the developers tend to have their “greatest pride”…that one or two things that really stand out making this game truly unique from any other game. What would the Dev Team for FEAR 2 say is that “pride and joy” in this project?

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Dave: F.E.A.R. 2 has had a lot of love put into it, and I think it shows at every aspect of the game. Artificial Intelligence and the overall presentation certainly come to mind, but the combat set pieces, the Elite Powered Armor (EPA), the creature design, etc… everything has received the utmost attention to detail and I think it shows.

We at GameSHOUT agree with you Dave after seeing just a small part of the game. Great attention has been paid to the most minute details and it shows in the game. Look for the review of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin right here on GameSHOUT in the coming days.

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