Scared double

by ERIK LEIJON

Halloween may be eight months away, but the dead of a Montreal winter seems like the ideal time to get goosebumps in the form of a couple of frightening shooters: supernatural first-person sequel F.E.A.R. 2 (Multi/Warner Bros., Monolith) and old school shooter-on-rails House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii/Sega, Headstrong). Both are instances where the cumulative experience exceeds the well worn parts; each title is steeped in horror film and gaming traditions, yet are both so well-refined and stylized that after playing either, gamers will be sleeping with one eye open.

For film buffs, F.E.A.R. 2 will recall recent Japanese-influenced screamfests with ominous lighting, creepy looking children and eerily foreboding silence. Alma, a pint-sized, dark haired girl whose evil spirit presence drives protagonist Sgt. Michael Becket crazy, is the centre of the sci-fi survival horror action. The game streamlines a lot of what the 2006 progenitor did well—smart enemy AI capable of flanking and using cover, maintaining a dark atmosphere throughout and a good mix of horror elements and traditional shooting action. F.E.A.R. 2 accomplishes these feats yet again—while embedded in the action, my knuckles were chalk white and I was believing in the story, but with a bit of reflection, I found the game to be lacking in terms of innovation.

It’s hard to fault F.E.A.R. 2 for not blowing away the original, but since 2006 and Doom 3 before it, we’ve seen titles such as Dead Space, Resistance 2, The Darkness, Condemned 2 and others that have added new ways to get freaked out, or new gameplay elements to bring another layer of sweat to gamers’ trembling brows.

F.E.A.R. 2 has some of the most intelligent enemy AI around, and the physics of getting shot—where enemies will lose the use of limbs or get sent flying in amusing ways—will keep players on the edge of their seats. Afterwards, it’s a head-scratching revisiting of the impossibly convoluted storyline and the horrid dialogue (especially from the unfortunately named Snake Fist) and one will wonder what separates F.E.A.R. 2 from every other horror-based FPS.

Skinless mutants crawling on the walls, fleeting visions and buckets of blood have all been done before, and the humdrum character development is where the game stalls at very good, never attaining something truly great. F.E.A.R. 2 should have attempted to include more supernatural portions of the game beyond a few neat visuals. The slo-mo combat was included in the first and remains an essential method to getting out of hairy situations, but the developers could have come up with other, similarly cool ideas.

At the opposite end of the spectrum—although equally enjoyable—is House of the Dead: Overkill, which borrows stylistically from old horror B-movies. It’s a rails shooter like previous House titles, so all the player needs to do is point the Wii remote at the screen and fire till there’s nothing moving on the screen.

Each level has a different horror movie theme with a unique, usually hilarious trailer. It’s not a Wii game for children, as the only thing flying more furiously than bullets is F-bombs courtesy of the game’s two stereotypical cop buddy heroes. Rail shooters are a dying breed, but Overkill is proof there’s still fun to be had shooting hundreds of zombies, relying purely on reflexes. It’s also the rare Wii game where the developers didn’t skimp on presentation, and it only adds to the game’s entertainment factor. It’s not a particularly long game, but a raucous retro-style shooter with a B-movie feel.