Project Origin Video: Reactions

Well looky who decided to show up?

Yes, your delinquent games blogger has returned from his prolonged hiatus. There isn't any one reason to explain why I've been away for so long. Having recently returned to the life of the working stiff, I'm discovering a dramatic change to my daily timetable. The days seem shorter and when I'm not engrossed in work or stuck in my commute, I'm either gaming or sleeping. Very little time to write... until now.

I've actually got a backlog of reviews lined up, including a piece about a certain shooter game involving space marines and purple aliens. Starts with an "H", but the entire name escapes me at the moment. Damn aging and its deterioration of my memory.

In any case, all of that game critiquing will have to wait until another day when I'm feeling spry enough to blog again. This post is dedicated to my waking up at noon today, logging into IGN and discovering this tasty video of the first 17 minutes of Monolith's upcoming, Project Origin.

Blast the jump for my impressions...

The peeps over at Monolith made a big hullabaloo over the summer in their search for a new name to the sequel of their creepy FPS, FEAR. With that name locked up with ex-publisher, Sierra, a contest was held to find an appropriate title for the next game in the franchise.

THe eventual winner was Project Origin, a name that thankfully avoids the cheese of yet another ill-conceived acronym and references elements found in the original game's storyline. The sequel is shaping up for a release sometime in 2008 and by the looks of the thrilling demo video, Monolith is taking a lot of steps to improve on everything that made FEAR such an enjoyable shooter.

I was tempted to say that Monolith would be reinventing their game. Based on what I saw in the video, nothing could be further from the truth. Still, let's not take that as a knock against them. The video shows the opening cinematic of the game, which takes us in the protagonist's POV. Again, the player takes on the role of a nameless super soldier. Stern-faced doctors are performing some kind of risky procedure on your body, all the while a woman's voice over the intercom is giving orders to the medical team. In classic FEAR style, horrific flashback/hallucination sequence flash on to the screen, depicting the same doctors gutting your protagonist's body as it lays helpless on the operating table.

One the sequence finishes, it's the cliched setup of waking up disoriented in a strange place, alone and with no memory of who you are or why you're in a hospital full of dead bodies. At once, I was struck by how much improved the graphics are in Project Origin over those of FEAR. Where FEAR had a dark, flat and angular look to its graphics, the sequel sports some fantastic texture detail and some impressive lighting effects. Everything, even down to the look of the weapons, has been kicked up several dozen notches to the point where you know, without a doubt, you are watching a current-generation shooter in action.

Aside from the fine visual detail, there seems to many enhancements made to the more subtle presentation aspects. While the over exaggerated footstep noises and weapon bob effect seem to be carried over from FEAR, it all seems to blend in with the more realistic feel of the player's movements. There's a nice motion blur effect when the player's view pivots quickly and the carnage wreaked from a blistering firefight is as visceral as ever.

Gameplay-wise, it's still very much a similar game. The cumbersome leaning controls appear to be have been nixed in Project Origin along with the unnecessary aim mode which was implemented for every gun in FEAR, even for weapons that didn't have a scope! The flashlight, amazingly, seem to run on some decent batteries. As I witnessed during the demo video, the light actually stays on without any power drain! Oh the wonders of modern technology.

There seems to be more interactivity with the environments as well. The player was shown shoving aside hospital beds that were blocking doors, kicking over tables to create cover and doing all manner of cool combat maneuvers. It's a nice touch to see your guy's arm come out into the screen, if only to press a button inside an elevator. Not sure if the flying jump kick would be making a return but the player in the video did demonstrate a few swift standing kicks in order to move obstacles out of their way.

The slow-motion/fast reflexes power remains, this time with a snazzy green tone to let you know that you have it enabled, along with a corresponding slow down to all the audio effects. Grenades are now pimped out with lights to accentuate this effect and the demo player made certain to throw out a lot of them. During slow-motion, a grenade in flight is a sight to behold as it paints a glowing streak of death through the air.

Again, I can't stress how much better this game looks than FEAR. The animations are looking smooth, the details are crisp, the sound design..well, sounds great and the gameplay looks extremely suspenseful and hectic. I can only fault it for perhaps not breaking out enough from the core look and feel of FEAR. In essence, Project Origin looks like it will be enough tight corridor shooter in dark, mundane environments. The opening level in the hospital was suitably creepy, but it was hardly the most interesting setting. We'll have to wait for more previews to see if Monolith repeats the mistake of sending players through level after level of office buildings and utility basements.

The game aside, I also have a gripe about the video itself. Is it too much to ask to find a person who actually knows how to play a shooter demo a shooter game? The fool behind the controls did a respectable job moving through the level as if he was actually "in character", but his general skill was atrocious. He was a lousy shot with most every weapon and had some very erratic movement pattens while engaged in battle.