Walk down a grey corridor. Walk down another grey corridor. And another. And another. Oh & look, another grey corridor. OOOoooo, what’s this? A red sofa in a grey room leading onto another grey corridor. Amazing. Wait a minute….. Am I playing FEAR 1 here?

Turns out I'm not. I’m actually playing its sequel, Project Origin. Could have fooled me, guess they were trying to keep it faithful to the original or something. As you can guess, it doesn’t start out too well. & to be brutally honest it doesn’t really get that much better.

Its not a very positive start to a review but I've not really felt this ‘meh’ after or while playing a game since Halo. Or maybe even the original FEAR – however that managed to end on a pretty exhilarating note. That was the thing with the original FEAR though, it managed to have its moments where it could really impress you with its atmosphere & genuinely scary moments. We know the sequel can be just as tedious & repetitive but can it be just as entertaining at parts too?

In short – yes. It manages to have just as many impressive moments & thanks to the improved shooting mechanics the whole experience is more enjoyable than the first. It even does manage to inject some variety to proceedings as you progress through the game.

Apart from spending time in grey corridors – which do still make up the majority of the game – you get to walk in the nuke-ruined streets of the city which has a lovely orange filter & more disturbingly, civilians burnt to the spot. You get to take control of a huge mech suit up to & through a parking lot and……… Well actually that’s about it, but it’s an improvement nonetheless.

As for why you’re in these places & why the city has been nuked, I cant actually tell you. Not because there’s a massive spoiler or anything. Just simply because I cant remember, it wasn’t the most enthralling of stories. Alma’s back as a teen & you need to stop her. That’s about all you need to know really. If you are interested in more there’s little diary blog, things that count as this games token collectables that you can pick up to flesh the story out more.

Now the atmosphere which could be quite tangible in the first, can be just as impressive (& at one point more) than the 1st. Which is definitely a good thing. But just like before, this mostly takes the back seat to shooting generic, suited up bad guys in corridors. When it does try it can be brilliant though – teen Alma is nowhere near as disturbing as the child version though, it has to be said.

The most impressive part is when you reach the school. Yes it’s a cliché in horror media, but it is used to stunning effect in this game. I can honestly say it will go down as one of my all time favourite sections in any game. Think the mannequin level in Condemned. It is truly nerve-racking. All of Monoliths skills at creating atmosphere, shocks, tension & pant-soiling, fire everywhere gameplay comes together here perfectly with excellent lighting, sound & enemy usage. Superb.

Its such a shame then that, that level is just a 1 off in the entire game, with no other section even attempting the same terror & just end up throwing enemies at you.

Luckily the shooting mechanics are adequate although still not entirely satisfying. Some of the weapon can be quite fun though – impaling enemies with the nail gun or splitting them in half with the laser will normally raise a smile. As will the mech suit which has an sickening appeal whereby you can reduce enemies to a cloud of red smoke. The game is more than playable & its not painful fighting through the game to get to a moment like the school or just to reach the (pretty poor) ending. Its not a long game either which helps it from becoming too much of a chore before you do actually reach the end.

The problem is everything just seems adequate. It doesn’t really do anything that special & it never had me feeling like I had to play it or carry on playing it. Apart from – you guessed it - the school section. By all means pick it up cheap if you want, it is enjoyable enough. Just dont go expecting much.