A good attempt at keeping the series alive, but not a true successor.
While FEAR 2 does offer great visuals and a lot more fire fighting it still feels like it comes up short of the quality and especially the frights from FEAR 1.
Graphics - An obvious upgrade from FEAR 1, while it doesn't quite compare to Crysis visually it's nothing to scoff at. Crisp visuals, good creature design and tight texture work make this title something fun to look at. Effects are a major highlight, though the particle system in this one don't seem as intense as the particle effects from FEAR 1, though this could have been done to increase visibility on the players end. Explosions look better than ever and the cloaked assassins make a return from FEAR 1 and their effects look better than ever.
Mechanics - While the game works mostly the way you'd expect, the ability to lean didn't make it into this build which makes your options during combat feel some how handicapped and cut short. Many a time I found myself pressing my old lean keys from from FEAR 1 to have nothing happen. The games addition of moving and knocking things over to form cover in real time is a nice addition, but your inability to stick to cover like in Rainbow Six Vegas or Gears of War make the cover ineffective since enemies can easily shoot you while you're behind cover, this is only highlighted further with the lack of a lean option since the only way to fire around a corner is to completely come out from behind it. Still though the core combat is a blast and the addition of the Mech suit segments in the game do give the game a much more combat oriented feel. Nothing quite matches the entertainment value of blowing through a city block in a over power two legged tank. To wrap up though a major draw back to the games design is the layout, maps feel quite bland though very detailed they feel quite static and recycled. There seems to be no dynamics to most of the levels and though the location changes the layouts don't feel as different, long hallways attached to wider areas for fire fights seems to repeat often. The school, office buildings, labs and everything feel the same though they look different. While FEAR 1 managed to make everything feel unique, with roof top battles, office shoot outs and a strange underground lab, FEAR 2 has multiple locations but they strangely all feel similar to each other.
Audio - While I typically don't comments on Audio, for reasons of excellence or below average I do. For FEAR 2 this is a mark of Excellence, while most games tend to treat 5.1 Surround Sound as just pumping the same audio stream through every speaker. FEAR 2 is a auditory treat, minutes into the game while sitting in the APC just turning my view from side to side I could clearly hear the audio shifting from right to left. As well combat feels much more intimate with full 5.1 support, the sound of glass breaking behind you while tile and such is destroyed behind you. While this title does take much more advantage of 5.1 than the first one, there doesn't feel to be as much care given to detail audio wise. One of my favorite things from FEAR 1 is after a good fire fight you could hear the shells from discharged rounds hitting the floor and rolling around, but sadly this detail did not follow into FEAR 2.
Story - One of the main keys to a scary game (or movie) is a well written plot and dialogue. FEAR 2 has neither, while not of the extremely low quality seen in Hollywood. Dialogue feels expected and bland and in some was budgeted. The first time I heard the name "Snake Fist" I almost turned the game off in fear of a sudden plummet in budget. The story rides briskly but fails to be anything but typical. While many games start strong, tend to go weak in the middle and then pick back up in terms of story and events, Fear 2 seem to start strong and slowly decline till the credits roll. The ending must be one of the most anti-climatic endings ever, while not poor it simply does not have the kick the first FEAR did. I remember the end of FEAR 1, with a giant nuclear blast coming at you really got the heart pumping. The end to FEAR 2 on the other hand is not only short and uninteresting it's actually slightly confusing, I found myself sitting through the credits to see what little Easter Egg was hidden after the credits only to find nothing.
Overall - While FEAR 2 doesn't live up to the quality of FEAR 1 it's by no means a bad game, the game starts strong as a Horror Shooter but quickly levels out to a high action blow'em up shooter. Which isn't a bad thing at all, just not what one is expecting when going for a title like FEAR. The combat is much thicker this time around, instead of the small skirmishes from time to time like in the original fear, at times in FEAR 2 it will feel like you're holding off a small platoon. While this is great, the AI this time around actually feels less intelligent. While in the original enemies would communicate and work together to flank you, enemies tend to drive straight at you in hordes. While this thickens combat directly it may leave some of the more experienced gamers feeling left out as combat doesn't require much thinking or maneuvering to win a conflict. Others may also find the weapons in FEAR 2 over powered, this may pass though as you proceed further into the game. While early on a couple of rounds from the games Sub-Machine Gun or a single blast from the combat shotgun will take an enemy down, but games end those same weapons will roughly triple in the amount of ammo required for a kill. Finally comes the multi-player, while the original boasted some pretty good online play, FEAR 2 comes in weak in comparison. Levels feel uncared for and bland, the online play it's self feels sluggish and last minute. The long wait times inbetween each round become plain annoying.