FEAR 2: Project Origin

We got to see a few levels of FEAR 2: Project Origins today, and one of the key devs - Dave Matthews of Monolith Productions - was on hand to walk us through the game.

From what we've seen so far, FEAR 2 has all the same stuff that made the first one such a sleeper hit - brooding soundtrack, a gloomy atmosphere of impending doom, and lots of blood-soaked corridors populated by skinny chicks with greasy long hair. It's scary, too, and we're not looking forward to the patented Atomic BrownTrousers(tm) test - playing it in a dark room with sound turned way up with nothing but a skittish cat for company.

And it's a VERY LOUD GAME TO BEGIN WITH. If our neighbours aren't complaining after a half hour, we'll take it as sign to upgrade our speakers.

"We had to look at a lot of other influences this time around," he said, talking about the impact of J-horror on the first title. "We looked at Eastern European stuff, like Nightwatch and Daywatch, and even American films like SAW. We really wanted to capture that gut-wrenching feeling you get when your faced with a horrific dilemma."

One of the things he seems particularly excited to be able to talk about now is the game's multiplayer element. "We've got six modes of gameplay - all the usual stuff - but what we really love is our EPA mode."

The EPA is a heavy suit of powered armour, and it features in some levels in the singleplayer game. In the multiplayer Armoured Front mode, each team will be able to unlock one of these beasts. "We've had maps in place for over a year and we still have to create new servers for the dev teams to play - it's that popular amongst us all."

A demo for FEAR 2 will be available at the end of this week, and full game will be released on February 13.