F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

Developers
	Monolith Productions
Publishers
	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Russia	Noviy Disk
Engines
	LithTech V5
Release dates
Windows	February 10, 2009
Reception
Metacritic	79
IGDB	76
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, Shooter
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Horror, Contemporary
Series	F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R.	2005
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate	2007
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin	2009
F.E.A.R. 3	2011
F.E.A.R. Online	2014

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, FPS and shooter game in the F.E.A.R. series.

General information

Official manual

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		2 DVDs
Retail		StarForce 5.70.009.002 DRM - Russian release Known as the Extended Edition
Retail		SecuROM PA DRM
GOG.com		Includes F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn. Unavailable in Germany.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam		Complete Pack also available. The store page is unavailable in Russia, but the game may be received as a gift. Censored version available in Germany.
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)		SecuROM 7.42.0001 and SecuROM PA DRM

Demo

A free demo is available on Steam. It also works for countries where the full release is not available. A non-Steam version is available from ModDB.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Reborn	Steam version cannot be activated or purchased in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. However, the GOG.com version is available internationally.

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patch for the base game is v1.05.

Unofficial patches

KasKillo's FEAR 2 Fixer enables custom FOV, a windowed/fullscreen mode switch, disabling intros and HUD.

Mouse deadzone and sensitivity problems

The game suffers from a deadzone for small mouse movements and an unusually high sensitivity, even on the lowest settings.

Use FEAR 2 Mouse Fix for raw mouse input

Skip intro videos

Skip intro videos
Download this file. Go to <path-to-game>\Game\interface\videos. Replace the video files with the files in the archive.

Mouse movement innacurate

Limit framerate to 60

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\WBGames\FEAR2\<user-id>\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/16450/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\WBGames\FEAR2\<user-id>\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/16450/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

"Performance" settings.

"Performance" advanced settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			"Widescreen" option must be turned off in advanced performance settings or image will be stretched 16:9. HUD is limited to the 16:9 screen area.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FSAA. In windowed mode, force AA in the graphics driver. Users with an Nvidia graphics card can force high quality SGSSAA with the 0x004010C1 AA flag in the Nvidia Profile Inspector.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Adds noticeable mouse input lag.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Field of view (FOV)

This game uses vertical FOV. See FOV Calculator for help.

Edit configuration files[citation needed]
Go to the installation folder. Edit autoexec.cfg with a text editor. Add FovY XX in a new line, where XX is the desired vertical FOV.

Use a command line argument
Use +fovy # command line argument to set the vertical FOV (e.g. +fovy 80).

Windowed

Set windowed mode[citation needed]
Go to the installation folder. Edit autoexec.cfg with a text editor. Add Windowed 1 in a new line.

Input

Keyboard settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Primary and alternate mappings available. After the latest patch, Delete cannot be bound due to being used to delete key bindings.
Mouse sensitivity		Use FEAR 2 Mouse Fix to address high sensitivity problems.
Mouse acceleration		Use FEAR 2 Mouse Fix for raw mouse input.
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Logitech GamePanel

Animated icons, healthbar, armorbar, and ammo number can be displayed on the LCD panel.

Displayed values are mainly useless as everything is already displayed as part of game interface.

G19 color screen is displaying only monochrome screen data.

Display	Notes
Arx Control application	Not supported.
G19 color screen	Limited support. Displaying G15 monochrome screen data.
G15 monochrome screen	Animated health and armor icons with their bars showing taken damage (full vs empty bar). Number of ammo (remaining bullets and full clip numbers).
LCD emulator	G15 monochrome screen works properly. G19 color screen displays monchrome screen data in black and white.

Side mouse buttons

Map mouse buttons to keys
Download XMouseButtonControl. Assign "Mouse Button 4" and "Mouse Button 5" to the desired keys.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, SFX, dialog *Lowering too much can cause problems, using volume mixer to adjust key volume is advised
Surround sound		Up to 5.1 output and also can use Windows Sonic for headphones
Subtitles		"Captions" under Options → Game settings
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese				Fan translation (includes Reborn); download
Czech
Czech				Fan translation for Reborn; download
French				The Reborn (Renai.) campaign was not dubbed.
German				The Reborn (Phönix) campaign was not dubbed.
Hungarian				The Reborn DLC is in English, but a fan-made translation is available.[citation needed]
Italian				The Reborn (Rinato) campaign was not dubbed.
Japanese				Retail only; download for digital versions. Reborn is completely in English, with the only difference made being the font.
Polish				The Reborn DLC is in English. Fan translation for the DLC.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation by 'GameVicio'; Base game or Base game + Dlc download
Russian				The Reborn DLC is in English on Steam, even though the retail version has it fully localized.
Spanish				Some audio not essential to the story was not subbed nor dubbed. Reborn (Renacido) campaign has no dub (tested with GOG and Steam).

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play		See this Steam guide to restore the online multiplayer.
Asynchronous multiplayer
Crossplay

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			Use Helix Mod: FEAR 2 - Project Origin for better support.
TriDef 3D			Works well with no 2D artifacts. Crosshair can be disabled by mod.
vorpX		G3D, DirectVR Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest
Novint Falcon

Issues fixed

Crash on startup

Caused by an incompatibility with the sound drivers or audio codecs.

Manually install codec
Navigate to <path-to-game>\Support. Open WMFADist.exe with WinRAR or 7Zip. Copy l3codeca.acm to <path-to-game>.

Slow level loading

Occurs only on Windows Vista and 7, because of the special graphic stack WDDM.

Disable Windows Aero

Peripheral audio channels cut off

The game does not properly play sounds coming from any direction except front and indirect sounds (player actions, music, interface, reverb). This makes it difficult to use audio cues during gameplay, such as when getting shot or hit from behind, resulting in unfair deaths.

Set sound properties to 96000 Hz
Notes This will also fix the "sound acceleration error" on Windows 8.1.

Low audio and missing sounds

The game uses forced 5.1 surround sound, regardless of Windows settings. If set to Stereo in Windows audio settings, sounds will be missing and audio will be extremely low.

Set Windows audio channels to 5.1
Notes Headpones or 5.1 Surround Speakers recommended

Keegan mission bug

Keegan doesn't move and cannot get through the broken gate.

Restart mission
Notes Quick fix is just to restart the mission entirely- not by checkpoint, the whole mission by going so 'start' in the main menu, then 'mission select.'

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok Physics
Interface	Scaleform GFx
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	GameSpy	GameSpy services have been shut down.

Disable the HUD

Use mod
Download Fear2noHUD mod. Copy content to the installation folder. Notes Removes the crosshair and key bindings can not be seen in the menu. To create a crosshair use OverlayXhair or similar software.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP2, Vista SP1		XP SP3, Vista SP1
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz (Vista) AMD Athlon 64 3000+ AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Vista)		Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB 1.5 GB (Vista)		1.5 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	12 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon X700 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 2.0b support		Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512 MB of VRAM Shader model 3.0 support
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0c compatible