Project Origin Returning to Origins
Monolith manages to reclaim the F.E.A.R. name from Activision Blizzard's garbage.
Project Origin was a game scarred by the flurry of developer buyouts that the industry has seen in recent years. As it was approaching completion on the shooter F.E.A.R. for Vivendi, developer Monolith was purchased by Warner Bros. Interactive (hardly surprising given the tenure of ex-Monolith guy Jason Hall at the company). While this gave the company freedom to continue development of its Japanese horror-esque game franchise, this didn’t give it freedom to use the F.E.A.R. name. Hence, Project Origin was born.
Set in the same universe as F.E.A.R. and even sharing characters, it continues the story of creepy psychic girl Alma but introduces a new protagonist. Named Michael Becker, he is a special forces soldier who is sent in towards the end of the original game. Monolith promises the same kind of time-bending combat mechanics that marked the first game as a standout. Most exciting for me is that the powered armour suits in the style of the old Monolith title, Shogo, are included for some variety in the action. It does not, however, have anything to do with the two F.E.A.R. expansion packs, Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate, that were published by Sierra and developed by TimeGate Studios.
Sadly, we hear of this all too often in the gaming world. Thankfully, this story has a happy ending thanks to Activision Blizzard. When these two companies merged, a lot of games ended up being lost from the lineup – most notably Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters. What also happened was the opportunity opened up for Monolith to regain the F.E.A.R. moniker. With it, the company may just be able to rebuild the franchise properly rather than let it continue in the splintered way it was heading. It will be interesting to see how the newly titled F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin shapes up for its release early in 2009.
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