Monolith Productions' horror/shooter F.E.A.R. was one of the best games of 2005. So when it was announced that a sequel was coming no one was surprised. What was surprising was the news that the game would definitely not be called F.E.A.R. 2 or any derivation thereof due to the rights of the F.E.A.R. brand remaining with the publisher Vivendi, who would not be publishing the sequel.

It's all very boring really and all you need to know is that the game you need to play after beating F.E.A.R. again is called Project Origin. Project Origin continues the story of the terrifying child/monster Alma and her rampage through reality.

Our time with Project Origin at E3 was unfortunately brief but the short level we were able to play through showcased some of the game's new features. Reflex time, horrific imagery and top-notch shooter action are all carried over from F.E.A.R., but Monolith aims to crank everything up a notch with this second game. Project Origin chronologically starts around 30 minutes before the end of F.E.A.R., so you'll get to experience the cataclysmic ending of F.E.A.R. all over again from a different viewpoint, and now with prior knowledge of the events.

The violence and horror of F.E.A.R. return in Project Origin.

The combat promises to be even more dynamic this time since the environment plays a major role and A.I. has been beefed up. Not only can the player flip over tables or open car doors to take cover but the enemies have been made extremely aware of their environment and will also take advantage of situations that could provide cover.

With that in mind those same objects can become liabilities; for instance when the car you're taking cover behind takes enough damage to explode. Enemies are also aware of the combat advantages of using the environment against the player and avoiding hazardous situations themselves. They won't continue to take cover behind a car threatening an imminent explosion and they will try to use your own cover against you.

The AI also has a better combat state awareness; meaning if you set someone on fire with an incendiary grenade they might immediately drop their weapon and try to pat themselves out or run into a group of enemies setting them all on fire. It has been retooled with smarter behavior algorithms in order to create emergent gameplay opportunities and respond better to combat stimulus.

Another major change from the original game is the way the player's health is handled. F.E.A.R. used the old-style metric health gauge with a simple number representing the player's well-being. This has been replaced with the more modern-shooter recuperation model where you will quickly regenerate your health to full if you can stay out of harm's way for a minute. The idea is to keep the action going and to eliminate any time spent rummaging for health packs.

Monolith mentioned that one of the most frequent fan requests was to operate the powered armor suits that were seen in F.E.A.R. and with Project Origin they have answered that request. The suit we were able to jump in during the demo was an EPA or Elite Powered Armor sporting dual mini-guns and a rocket cluster pod. The suit is every bit as powerful as it sounds chewing through enemy soldiers and the smaller powered armor suits with relative ease.

Answering fan requests Monolith has included playable Elite Powered Armor in Project Origin.

In a situation where the EPA takes considerable damage it will forcibly eject the player, power down and repair itself. Once the repairs are complete the player is free to jump back in and continue to wreak havoc on enemy forces. Taking the EPA for a spin was the highlight of the demo and also gave us a good indication of the environment's destructibility. Nothing mows through concrete like dual mini-guns attached to a mech.

The biggest draw for Project Origin may be the fact that it continues the story from F.E.A.R., further fleshing out the events of the first game as well as continuing the chronology in a new direction. Monolith promises to deliver more creep out scenarios and ghostly imagery similar to the first game but also dropped an unsettling tease for Alma's involvement. In F.E.A.R. Alma was a presence but not a real enemy per se. She was something you'd see out of the corner of your eye or catch a flash of here or there. Monolith took some sadistic pleasure in breaking the news to us that Alma may not be a little girl anymore and then dropped the bomb by saying, "She can touch you now." Sleep tight, kids!

Project Origin will be released on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 and is tentatively scheduled for fourth quarter 2008.

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