Video game review: Dark "F.E.A.R. 2" is a beautiful horror show

Game title: "F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin"

Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed) PlayStation 3

Studio: Destineer

Rated: M for Mature

Score: 9 out of 10

THE REVIEW:

Television shows that specialize in "ghost hunting" feature participants lauding the fact that during "supernatural" experiences the hair on their neck stands up and they get chills as evidence that something ghost-related is happening.

"F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin" causes the same effect from the comfort of your couch and you can be sure nothing out of the ordinary is happening at all.

The game is a chilling (literally), first-person shooter and part horror-thriller that is hard to put down. It effectively mixes the draw of armed combat with first-rate horror that immerses the player much more effectively into the story line than almost any of the dime-a-dozen "scary" movies being thrown at audiences these days.

At the center of the fear is Alma, a little-girl wronged by a corporation trying to enhance her in-born psychic powers. Because they can't control her they have locked her away in absolute darkness with mental dampeners and the nightmare of her mind is reflected in the real world as she gains more and more influence in the physical realm.

Players must oppose enemy forces who wield a variety of weapons and battle techniques, which eventually fall into the hands of players. Even on the easiest settings the game's artificial intelligence is solid, with combatants seeking cover and using explosive objects against the player. Alma and her "wrongness" provide the backdrop for this ongoing battle while a few environmental ghosts pop up as well as psychic visions that leave players a bit disoriented and definitely creeped out.

The game employs the technique perfected in Japanese cinema where evil characters pop suddenly from distance to close proximity and move awkwardly while doing it, leaving the viewer with a sense of sickness and wrongness that contributes wonderfully to the horror experience. Alma isn't kind to enemy combatants either, giving the player plenty of scenes of bloodshed and adult levels of gore and mayhem after she wipes the ceiling, floor and walls with their bloody, dying, often screaming bodies.