It’s appropriate that F.E.A.R’s sequel takes place in a city gone nuclear. The newly and insipidly named Project Origin blows everything you hated about its predecessor to pieces, while retaining everything that made the original such a celebrated shooter.

The section we played at X’08 opens, teasingly, in a long white hallway; a dreaded image that embodies the repetitive environments that F.E.A.R ultimately became infamous for. As you walk down the stale corridors you’ll soon realize that it’s a subway terminal, the wide open and freeing streets are above.

A strange feeling washes over while traversing the apocalyptic, rubble filled avenues; this is undeniably F.E.A.R, though it’s torn down and built anew. Occasionally guided by one of the designers from Monolith Productions, he assures us that they took the criticisms shot at the original game to heart. And the highly polished playable results solidify his words.

While the truly linear level design of the original allowed for some brilliant enemies, it didn’t go as far as to justify the tiresome aesthetic and design. Now, despite the endless drove office buildings being turned on their head, the unpredictably smart enemies remain. Dodging, kicking over cover and working cohesively as one frighteningly smart unit; they are creepily aware of their surroundings, and will do anything to take you down.

You can, too, interact with the highly dynamic environments. As you walk past an abandoned car – one of many in the deserted streets – a prompt comes up during a firefight to open the car door and use it as cover. Anything you can do, your enemies can probably perform just as well. And who knows? Maybe they can give you some pointers.

The openness and dynamism of the environments not only retools the gameplay, but also the visuals. Clouds of nuclear dust billow about the scenery, chunks of fallen structures litter the road and an apocalyptic aura permeates the screen. Worries that the same tedium might come out of these environments can be put to rest, because for Monolith it’s all about variety this time. Though, claustrophobic horror will make several appearances, but we’re told that these sections will fit nicely and vary the pacing.

After mowing down hordes of enemies with some incredibly tight controls and impressive ballistics for about fifteen minutes, a giant Mech appears for the purposes of unleashing a hellfire of destruction. In fact, it gets so messy that it proves difficult to make out enemies amidst the enormous clouds of smoke and exploding bodies. And then, all but at the climax, our tantalizing playtime ends.

There is very little, if anything, that didn’t manage to impress in our time with Project Origin. But perhaps the brief slo-mo effect could become integral and entwined in gameplay, because at the moment its main purpose seems to be a little too cosmetic.

A game such as Project Origin lives on its variety, and though that has undoubtedly become part of Monolith’s design philosophy, only the final result can prove the success of their aspirations. And thankfully we will see it in 2009, seeing as the game still needs time to culminate in more minds and get past the burden of its derivative new name. An exercise in atmosphere, brutality and taking criticism to heart, this is one to watch.