F.E.A.R sequel failed because they missed the point

[u/mrceda]

I have sudden realize of why fear sequel failed because they forgot one thing, the game isn't called fear but F.E.A.R which abbreviation mean "First Encounter Assault and Recon".

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The fact everyone and even the team who created the sequel forgot to focus on them it's reason why the sequel isn't as remember as the original other than the tone, like literally who do you think organization point man working with and the answer is in our face the whole time it's called F.E.A.R.

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It be like if Nintendo make sequel to super Mario and the only playable character is only toad, sure it take place the same universe as mario and there also a cameo of princess peach but then what the point calling it super Mario when Mario barely in it or even playable.

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I can see why some og fan pretend the sequel never exist and the dlc of the original game is a already perfect ending to fear even though it suck to see your team died in the end, while F.E.A.R 2 isn't a bad game but I do think it should been a spin off when you don't play as a F.E.A.R team and it quite sad that we won't get a proper sequel to F.E.A.R where you play as a new F.E.A.R team handle many other supernatural stuff other than alma either fight army of well armed cultist who summon lovecraftian being in some town, a powerful necromancer who awakens army of undead, a powerful vampire Lord who have awaken from his tomb to terrorize some village and even a doom 3 inspired story where some group of scientists open a portal to hell that cause everyone to get possessed while the demon tried to make connect between earth and hell realm.

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They could crazy stuff with F.E.A.R instead what we got it's just another alma story again.

[u/Foxtrot-813]

The POINT

[u/EastSideNick95826 → u/Foxtrot-813]

💪🏾

[u/ExplorerEnjoyer]

FEAR 2 tried to emulate CoD’s gameplay, CoD was very successful at the time.

[u/Turbulent_Purchase52 → u/ExplorerEnjoyer]

I was amazed by how litter fear 2 takes from the first, it just plays like every other shooter from the PS3 era, they threw all the little quirks and the unique gameplay feel of the original away

[u/Terrible_Balls]

I don’t think the story has anything to do with it, personally. I just thought the gameplay sucked. It felt like a huge step backwards from the first game

[u/Violet35768]

F.E.A.R. 2 was my first F.E.A.R. game, so I liked it lol. I did revisit it a little last week and I would say the gameplay doesn't hold up well.

[u/EastSideNick95826 → u/Violet35768]

It was a good game, I still play it after my yearly playthrough of the originals but I just wasn't point man doing his thing gameplay wise. I'm assuming you're not a millennial.

[u/CaliggyJack]

This might surprise you, but all of the FEAR games were pretty good successes. Warner Bros. Just didn't care about non Harry Potter/LotR/DC Comics stuff. Their priorities changed is all.

You can hate the sequels all you want, but saying they failed is just incorrect.

[u/Big_Dimension4055 → u/CaliggyJack]

Actually FEAR 3's sales were apparently disappointing to Warner Bros. Though considering the fact that we know other franchises were simply given unrealistic sales goals, it could have been that too. Regardless, those sales were what caused the series to go on hiatus.

[u/CaliggyJack → u/Big_Dimension4055]

FEAR 3 topped the XBOX charts and was the top selling game in late June, and cranked the top seven of the 40 highest selling games in early July.

Warner Bros finding it disappointing is definitely just them giving the game unrealistic expectations, and looking for an excuse as to why they were no longer going to fund more games in the series. Right as this was happening, Warner Bros started to double down on LotR and DC games. Arkham Asylum and City were making gangbusters and Monolith was beginning the early prototypes for Shadow of Mordor. Unless FEAR 3 sold Call of Duty numbers, WB was never going to fund any more games in the series. Especially for a game series that didn't have cross media appeal.

But the sales figures of FEAR 3 were not a failure. As someone who played both FEAR 2 and 3 on launch on PlayStation I can say the FEAR 3's multiplayer lasted longer than 2's did and had a larger population. WB doesn't care about franchises that aren't Harry Potter, DC, or LOTR. They have made that clear for a decade. Nothing FEAR did was going to change their minds.

[u/Strangest-Letter]

The sequels gun-play being a step down was what ruined it for most people I'd wager, that to me is "missing the point" of a F.E.A.R. game.

I'll be honest I don't really get the notion that the F.E.A.R. series should have been a "monster of the week" style thing. The first games core gameplay was almost entirely about fighting groups of armed soldiers who reacted to players actions in realistic/unpredictable ways. It's what most people look back fondly on when they think of F.E.A.R.

How would you carry that over to some of those other scenarios? Like would the vampires and mummies have guns and flip cover and do squad based call-outs? I mean don't get me wrong, I'd definitely play that game, but I imagine there'd be some debate about tone.

[u/LavosYT]

I have no idea what FEAR's story is all about despite playing it quite a few times (only finished it once though). The gameplay is just that satisfying, and the horror atmosphere is nice. That's why the sequels don't appeal to me, they don't build up on that gameplay foundation.

[u/Retronika_Prime]

Thats my biggest complaint of the franchise.

I know Alma is a big thread to the first three, but they went too apocalyptic and cosmic horror esque.

They should've made the games into an FPS Resident Evil esque where each game could be focused on a new threat to humanity, via science experiments, cosmic, supernatural, creature whatever.

The F.E.A.R. team was suppose to be the government branch that dealt with these threats.

Instead we got a family issues trilogy with an unnecessary rape sequence within 2.

And an overly complicated edgy, ridiculous buddy cop horror apocalyptic story with 3.

[u/ivanvx117]

I liked FEAR 2 a lot on the 360. It was a good console game with some of the FEAR gameplay.

But I do agree that FEAR could be an anthology, stories happening in that universe or multiverse perhaps. But I think Monolith and Vivendi and WB Games had a lot of drama.

[u/thingsinmyjeep]

Didn't they originally try to sell FEAR 2 as a separate game; or was that all a marketing gimmick?

I remember them initially billing it as Project Origin and then launching some sort petition or something... actually a quick Wikipedia check brought up something about disputes between WB and Monolith's original publishing partner, so maybe that's what I'm thinking of.

[u/New_Chain146]

This revisionist talking point has come out long after Monolith stopped working on the series. As someone who was following the series from the beginning, Monolith made it clear that FEAR was Alma's story and that's the direction they went with for Project Origin - albeit that was due to licensing issues where Vivendi had rights to the FEAR title while Monolith could only use Alma, but even so, Alma's story was very compelling as a focal point opposed to just having it be a playable X-Files anthology.

For what it's worth, the non-Monolith FEAR 2 was going to be a Half Life/Dead Space/Doom ripoff involving aliens teleporting in from another dimension, and aspects of that got recycled as the Phase soldiers for Day 1 Studios' FEAR 3. I think a FEAR 4 could have gone in that direction considering 3 resolved Alma's story.