Welcome to this issue of The Game Doesn't Stop, I'm Joey.
Before we introduced a lot of horror games to everyone, what monsters, zombies and the like appeared in these games. As long as our firepower is strong enough, then there is nothing to fear. But the game I want to introduce to you today, I didn't expect that this rule does not apply. Even if our character is fully armed and full of firepower, we will still be shocked by the strong fear that "her" brings. This is the "Extreme Panic" series, a first-person thriller shooter released in 2005, and the fear it brings has become a lingering nightmare for players like its name.
The "Extreme Panic" series currently has 3 canons, and the other 1 generation also has two expansion packs, "Evacuation Point" and "Perseus' Instructions". and the Rebirth DLC for Extreme Panic 2. However, neither of these DLCs was launched by the studio that made the ontology, and it has little to do with the plot of the series, and can be regarded as a spin-off work. After the release of "Extreme Panic 1", Vivendi saw a business opportunity and wanted the studio to continue to make money by making DLC, but at that time the studio had already started the development of the formalities, and the two sides did not negotiate in the end, so Vivendi found another "Time Gate" studio to be responsible for the production of the expansion, although the two expansions added new enemies and guns, but the quality was not as good as the main body.
"Extreme Panic 1" was a cool shooter in the early days when the game was still distributed on disc, and at that time, I only thought that the well-equipped soldiers on the cover were cool and even futuristic. As a result, I didn't expect that some terrifying pictures after entering the game were very impactful for me at that time, and I was directly scared and afraid to play. Those images have been shadows for years, and even now, for me who has been through a lot of battles, many scenes in the game still shock me.
The game adopts a very standard linear chapter format, the English name F.E.A.R. literally means "panic, fear", but in the game's worldview, in 2002 the US Army formed a secret force (First Encounter Assault Recon) in response to paranormal phenomena. In a generation, our protagonist, as a new recruit to the team, is facing an extremely dangerous mission.
Intelligence reveals that a man named "Feitel" is commanding an army of telepathically controlled clones who attack a company called ATC and brutally kill the people inside. To do this, we need to go to the investigation to find out the truth of the matter.
In Extreme Panic 2: Project Origins, we will play as another member of the special squad: Beckett, who is on another covert operation while the protagonist of our generation is on a mission, and it seems that this operation has an ulterior relationship with the story of our generation.
When the game reaches three generations, players will re-play the protagonist of one generation and continue the story of one or two generations, at which time they will learn the truth behind the entire story, as well as two completely different endings.
The picture of the generation is like the scene structure of the "Half-Life" era, which will be relatively simple from now on. But its light and shadow effects are excellent at the same time. The chandelier in the game will shake because of the player's shooting, especially this projector, which is full of details even now. Of course, these light and shadow effects also reinforced its scary atmosphere, and the physics engine was very advanced at the time. From this shot at the door lock, the rebound of the lock can see its excellent physical feedback. And the second generation released in 2009, inherited the core gameplay of a generation, after 4 years of research and development, the production team has greatly improved the texture, modeling and fluency of the game, it is difficult to imagine that these two works, using the same game engine, while the picture is improved, the game is still full of details, this time the player can also interact with the environment, by overturning the table or knocking down the shelf, to create cover for themselves.
Many of the scary elements in the game are supernatural and supernatural, and not physical enemies such as zombie monsters can be killed. No matter how good the weapon in your hand is, you can't hurt it. Those "ghosts" still have an overwhelming advantage, and players can only let her wreak havoc. The second generation went to the elementary school to carry out a mission, and it felt like returning to the scariest school in "Escape 2". Coupled with the extremely undurable flashlight of the 1st generation, the frequent exploration of suddenly running out of power into the dark, the eerie sound effects and whispers of the surrounding ropes, the occasional radio interference, ghosts and the elusive little girl in red all make players worry.
In the second generation of the game, the horror atmosphere has become more frightening with the upgrade of technology, and in the dark basement, our flashlights have become dimmer due to interference, and the ghosts that constantly appear around us are waiting for opportunities, and we have to be careful at every corner. This time the little girl in red became even more terrifying, and various supernatural creatures would even have "intimate interactions" with us.
In addition to supernatural interference in the game, the core enemy is the clone army led by the villain. These clone soldiers are well-equipped, and in addition to ordinary infantry, as the game progresses, you'll encounter heavily armored soldiers armed with nail guns, invisible Nightstalker assassins, and even war mechs.
But at the end of the day, extreme panic is still a shooting game. In order to balance the horror atmosphere with the cheerfulness of the shooting game, the production team set up a rich and cool weapon system for the game.
From the early pistols, to the submachine guns, shotguns and assault rifles in the middle stage, to the later sci-fi weapons such as individual bazookas, ion emitters, etc., players have a lot of choices. I especially like the nail gun, although the rate of fire is slow but the damage is high, when the enemy is close to the wall, we will shoot at the wall, and the button cannot be buttoned, which has the feeling of a corpse shooting variant of "Dead Space". The much-maligned "neck aim", which was criticized in the first generation, has been improved in the second generation, and this time players can finally use sights to aim. When using a grenade, you can know the timing of the explosion, which is convenient for "warm thunder" throwing. In the medium term, you can also drive war mechs, turn on thermal imaging, and give enemies a bit of heavy technology shock.
In addition to the use of weapons, the game can also use "physical skills" to fight, melee moves will change according to the player's operation, after reducing the difficulty, you can become a "generation grandmaster" and experience the joy of a sliding shovel to shovel enemies away.
The protagonist also has the superpower of "bullet time" for some reason. In the face of groups of enemies, the visual effect produced after turning on bullet time allows players to experience the game's attention to details, such as "air scratches" caused by bullets in flight, sparks from guns and splashes of wall fragments, which will bring a strong visual experience. However, due to the complex scenes and jelly-like blood of the latter two works, it has lost its original visual enjoyment for a generation.
But I want to tell you that the game became a classic was not the advanced physics engine effects of the time, nor the scary bridges. The game's enemy AI is not much compared to even if it looks like many games now, and even won the Best AI Award at GameSpot in '05.
On plain difficulty, a casual charge will be beaten by the enemy. Then some viewers said that it would be good to sit a little, hide from the cover and grind the enemy to death one by one. "Extreme Panic" does not play this set with you, especially in high difficulty, the AI will launch a counterattack when it finds you hiding, and the cooperation is extremely terrifying. The AI will throw grenades at you to hide, then alternate cover from multiple directions to outflank you. In many cases, you basically can't beat their set of tactics, and you can only win by constantly reading the backboard a few times. Many of the other games are "little deaf and blind" AI enemies, but in this game you even accidentally shake the flashlight, and they can detect it and react immediately.
Due to the success of the "Call of Duty" series at that time, Warner, as a high-level publisher, decided to focus on the action aspect, plus the new production team has no right to speak, making the three generations completely become a sudden game, and there is basically nothing scary in the game. In addition to controlling the protagonist of the generation, players can also play with friends, one of whom controls the villain of the generation, Faytale, and cooperates with the protagonist. In the third generation, the experience system has been added, and players need to complete challenges, such as killing enemies with specific weapons, finding collectibles, etc. to gain experience points, and when experience points are full, upgrade to unlock melee abilities, extend bullet time, or increase ammo capacity rewards.
The game has a shorter flow and a double ending waiting for the player's choice, of which I think is most interesting is that if the player and a friend are online, in the choice of ending, it will determine how much both sides score, and the side with more points will unlock the corresponding ending. If you play solo, you need to complete the level with one generation of protagonists, use another character, and play all over again.
Although the plots of these three works are coherent, I personally highly recommend playing the 2nd generation first. After all, in terms of graphics and gameplay, 2nd generation is the best. If you think it's not bad, you can play 1st and 3rd generation again.
The game time is not long, the plot of each generation is basically about 8-10 hours, because the generation is an old game, there will be some compatibility problems, resulting in playing for a while may drop frames, need to be repaired by patches, and the entire series does not support official Chinese, need to install additional Chinese patches. In addition to the single-player story, the "Extreme Panic" trilogy has added a multiplayer mode, allowing players to enjoy the story while also fighting each other.
The overall plot of the game is slightly obscure, and players need to gradually understand the truth through telephone recordings and computer data left behind by the environment. Some of the voice text messages are a bit trivial, and it is likely that playing the level is at a loss for the plot. In the second generation, the overall plot will be slightly clearer, and by collecting information scattered throughout the map, players will gradually understand the meaning of the game name and "origin plan".
In general, the game has various patches, as a classic IP, it is very worth the player's experience. What is the divine nature of the little girl in red that we keep encountering? What exactly is the "Origin Plan" throughout the series
—The following is about the ending and spoilers, please read with caution—
If you're too scared by the little girl in red to play the game, let me tell you a little bit about the plot.
As a member of the F.E.A.R., we were given this extremely dangerous mission, and according to intelligence, Feitel took a hostage at an abandoned local hospital. Many doors of the hospital are sealed, revealing a hint of weirdness, behind one of the doors, if the player repeatedly switches will trigger an Easter egg, a little girl in red stands in the corner and laughs innocently, and then says "Daddy I hate you", who this little girl is and why she hates her father, we don't know at this time. During the search, the protagonist begins to see hallucinations, resisting these horrific sights, and we find our destination step by step. However, it was discovered that the hostages had died tragically. And Feitel ambushed here and stunned us. But the strange thing is that he didn't kill us, this guy has a weird ability to get this life's memories by eating humans. When we woke up again, the opponent was long gone.
We don't know exactly what Feitel's purpose is. Tracking signals from satellites indicate that army of clones have been found in wastewater treatment plants. This time, we will act jointly with Delta Force and will surely arrest him. By the time we arrived, these enemies were already killing here. And strangely, the squad that was supposed to be with us, after a fierce gunshot, no news, arrived at the meeting and place, and was greeted by blood stains and three white bones, while the protagonist fell into a hallucination, in the illusion, the little girl walked towards the squad, the members resisted but eventually died violently on the spot, it seems that this little girl is absolutely extraordinary. With apprehension, we are now on our own, searching for this place alone.
Along the way, we find that Feitel seems to be looking for people involved in an incident, constantly torturing or eating them to obtain an unknown secret. We found a victim who, before he died, told us that Feitel was looking for "Alma" and "Origin Project", but died before he could finish speaking. Who is "Alma"? And what is the "Origin Plan"?
We can only move on, and just grab Feitel and understand his motives.
Combined with a series of actions by Feitel, the squad commander feels that everything is directed at ATC, a high-tech company that has been secretly carrying out certain plans before. Now we can justifiably enter the company's investigation in the name of hunting down Faitel.
The former giants are now in shambles, and the area has long been occupied by Feitel's clone troops, and the remaining employees have been slaughtered. He seems to have a lot of hatred with the company and looks like he wants to ruin it all. But we managed to find the survivor, a fat man named Norton, an engineer who could help us hack into the company's servers as long as we helped him remove the security system here. However, when we turned off the security, we saw him escaping through the surveillance, and did not forget to taunt us before leaving. We couldn't understand the fat man's behavior and had to look for the server alone.
After the successful restart, we learned the secret of this company, the so-called "origin plan" by combining the internal leftover information. It came from a top-secret experiment born in the Vietnam War, when the military felt that communications between soldiers and command were vulnerable to interference. Just like playing "Radio Commander" back then, if there is a little interference or a problem with the transmission of orders, it is easy to lose the battle. To solve this problem, ATC created Project Origin, and they successfully developed a high-performance clone soldier.
And Alma, which Feitel looked for all the way, is the key to the company's "origin plan", her father Harlan discovered her powerful superpowers when Alma was still young, so Harlan handed over his daughter to ATC for experiments, and he also entered the company's top management. As Alma grew older, she began to try to resist the company personnel, did not cooperate with the experiment, and even threatened the life safety of the company personnel, for this reason, the company put Alma into a coma and sealed in a spheroid body deep in the laboratory, when Alma was 15 years old, the company made her pregnant and gave birth to Feitel by implanting genetics. Fei Tel inherited his mother's powerful psionic energy and was trained by the company as a psionic commander. However, Alma can still use psionic energy in a coma, and cause great harm, and the company has no choice but to kill her and permanently seal her in a secret laboratory.
Although Alma's physical body died, with strong spiritual power, after death, she turned into a powerful ghost and wandered around, and the little girl in red we encountered along the way was Alma's spiritual body.
For a long time, Feitel had a spiritual connection with Alma, and thus discovered his mother's past experiences and grievances. After he becomes the commander of the clone soldiers, he can already use telepathy to control the clone soldiers. In order to find out the whereabouts of his mother, Feitel, who holds military power, directly defected, turning the clone army into his own private army. Before constantly eating people to obtain memories, in order to finally find the location of the mother who was sealed. There is no way the company asks the US government for help, hoping that the protagonist's squad can solve Feitel.
However, when we learned the company's dark secrets from the server, ATC discovered that the matter was exposed, and ordered its security personnel to destroy it with us. In this way, on the one hand, we have to deal with the clone soldiers, on the other hand, we have to face the pursuit of ATC security forces, and constantly chase Feitel between the cracks to survive.
Struggling to make our way to the abandoned building marked in classified documents, Alma also constantly influences us with illusions along the way, as if trying to stop our progress, and there is a secret laboratory in the depths of this building, where the fat man who has been thwarting us before also appears. It turns out that this guy is not an engineer. Because the plan was revealed, the fat man came to delete all the documents of the "Origin Plan" on the orders of the company's top management, and at the same time blew up the laboratory.
However, Harlan did not want his daughter to be destroyed by the company, so he did not hesitate to come to this laboratory in person, intending to lift the seal of Alma's spirit body, and raised his hand to give him a shot after meeting the fat man.
The fat man fell to the ground, and this time he finally stopped making trouble in the face of us, and before he died, he only wanted us to stop Harlan's crazy moves. Alma, who is tightly sealed, can still use powerful spiritual energy to interfere with us from time to time, and if it is released, the whole world will be in chaos.
When we are about to catch up with Harlan, around a corner, we meet the target of the hunt all along: Feitel, who is eating a corpse, and the little girl Alma is by his side, once again hallucinating us, in which Feitel taunts us for not knowing anything and reveals a secret to us.
Alma didn't just give birth to Feitel at that time, but also gave birth to a child before that, and that is our protagonist, no wonder we also have bullet time superpowers. The protagonist loses his memory for some reason, and his brother Feitel and his mother constantly hallucinate us, and even the abandoned hospital that led us to it at the beginning is the birthplace of the brothers.
What they do is hope to awaken the memory of the protagonist, and Alma also observed us for a while and discovered that the protagonist is indeed her eldest son. At this point, Faitel wanted us to work with him to free his mother from bondage. This sudden blood curse made us look dazed, which meant that my brother knocked us unconscious before, and my mother still came to scare us from time to time. Now tell us to stand with them for a "family fun"?
Thinking about what had happened, we firmed our conviction and a bullet pierced our brother's head. The protagonist who came out of the hallucination looked at the lifeless corpse on the ground without a trace of confusion in his heart, and the clone soldiers in the building also stopped their activities because of the loss of the commander.
Just as we slowed down, Harran lifted Alma's spirit seal. Although Alma's physical body had died before, her powerful spiritual energy was released to give her spirit body a concrete and reborn life. In the face of Alma's powerful spiritual energy, we are subjected to strong electromagnetic interference, and Harlan, who used his daughter as a test object, also deserves it, and turns into a pool of flesh and blood under the resentment she released.
Alma is aware of our existence and wants her other child to spread her resentment, she longs for revenge and wants to kill everyone who has been cruel to her through our hands, but the determined protagonist resists Alma's temptation. Looking back, I found that the situation had become more serious, and Alma, who was completely free, had changed from a little girl to an adult woman, and after decades of imprisonment, she had already described as withered. Her powerful spiritual power has summoned many supernatural beings, and at this point, we can only try to destroy the laboratory's reactor, hoping to destroy this place to stop her emergence.
Watching the lab as the reactor overloaded in the distance erupted with a white light, the ensuing shock wave knocked us to the ground. Alma's terrible vision disappeared with it, and the squad members arrived in time to rescue us, looking at the mushroom cloud rising in the city from the plane, as if it was all over....
As Alma climbs into a helicopter, the story of a generation comes to an abrupt end. In the second generation of the game, just as our protagonist enters the laboratory, there is also a special forces unit on the other side of the city performing covert operations. Our other protagonist, Beckett, is among them. They were ordered to take one of ATC's top brass: Genevieve.
Due to the exposure of the "Origin Plan", ATC sent a large number of mercenaries to destroy evidence, and made a "purge list". Kill all those who know of the Origin Plan. In this way, the company is kept secret.
And Genevieve is also on the list, the apartment she is in has long been occupied by mercenaries. We broke into it with our squad and engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with these soldiers. However, we found other confidential documents of the company in the apartment. The plan of a "prophet" mentioned above is implemented simultaneously. What's even more strange is that Beckett's unit is all on this "Prophet Project" list.
At the moment, there is no time to think about it, it is important to rescue the target first. After clearing the safe house of the enemy and rescuing the mission target. At this moment, it happened that a generation of protagonists detonated the laboratory, and the shock wave caused by the explosion knocked us to the ground dozens of kilometers away.
Beckett was hazy on the operating table, sometimes real, sometimes hallucinating, and under Genevieve's command, doctors were transforming our bodies. As consciousness is restored, we wake up looking at the unfamiliar ceiling.
A group of mercenaries rushed towards the hospital, this time seemingly targeting us. In the process of escaping for his life, a mysterious man joins the communication channel, who calls himself "Snake Fist" and seems to know the truth of many things. He believes that if our protagonist dies, then everyone will be finished, and he wants us to escape and meet him in elementary school.
The explosion of the previous laboratory, not only failed to destroy Alma, but also freed her, the protagonist's squad was disturbed from time to time, under her powerful spiritual energy, summoned a large number of products that did not belong to this world, regardless of the enemy and me to kill, we were powerless to resist, we could only watch the captain die because of this. But strangely, Alma didn't make a move on us.
According to "Snake Fist", ATC has been looking for a new way to cultivate a new psionic commander without relying on Alma after facing the out-of-control Alma and only ending her life. For this reason, the "Prophet Project" was born. The operation implants "diodes" as mental amplifiers in the experimenter's body and injects a variety of compounds to improve the experimenter's agility and strength. The previous surgery we underwent was part of Project Prophet, and Beckett was able to have bullet time abilities like a generation of protagonists. Then Genevieve lures us into the apparatus, which strengthens the spiritual energy again so that Alma will be attracted to us.
The regrouped squad suffered heavy losses, only four survived, and Genevieve disappeared after giving me a boost of spiritual energy. In order to end this chaos, the search for "snake fist" seems to be our only answer. Following his instructions, we arrived at an elementary school and soon discovered that it was not simple, and that ATC controlled the school and, under the guise of teaching, was secretly conducting human experiments on children who came to school. It is hoped that from these children an Alma-like psionic energy will be induced.
Children with potential will be tagged and added to the "Prophet Project" to be trained as future psionic commanders. At the same time, the company also conducts secret detection of personnel in the special forces and selects suitable candidates in the team. Our protagonist and teammate Keegan were selected in the test, and the other members of the squad became more or less candidates for the plan.
After sensing the extraordinary spiritual energy in us, Alma changed her previous withered appearance, instantly became graceful, and tried to "unite" with us many times, trying to absorb us.
We ended up meeting snakes in the lab's safe house. He tells us that the only solution to the current situation is to go to Silent Island, where Alma used to live in the experimental base, and if we can use the spiritual amplifier in the base to greatly improve our spiritual energy. In this way to compete with Alma, there is still a chance to turn the tide.
On the way to Silent Island, Alma seems to sense our intentions, and the hallucinations become stronger, and teammate Keegan can't bear to become insane, and even shows great aggression towards us. On the island of silence, the swing that has appeared many times in hallucinations unfolds before our eyes, which is Alma's favorite activity in her lifetime, she spent her miserable childhood here, and in the repeated ravages, she became the evil spirit that is now full of resentment, and all we can do is completely destroy her and let her rest in peace.
Deep in the base of the experiment, we find the spirit amplifier, a machine like the sphere that had imprisoned Alma before, and as Beckett sat in her chair and prepared to face Alma, Genevieve, who had been missing before, staggered over, trying to stop our reinforcement.
It turned out that she had been using us from the beginning, and from the beginning of the operation, it was to make us become Alma's bait, and after constantly attracting her spirit body closer, she hoped to use this sphere to imprison Alma again, and if this crisis was solved, she would be able to sit on the throne of the top of ATC again.
The whole city has been reduced to burning ruins, and now she thinks about her future. Bound to a chair, we watched as she shot her teammates, and Genevieve tried to explain something to us, only to be knocked away by a force that came from Alma, who at the moment ignored Genevieve and focused on our protagonist.
As she gets closer, we enter the hallucination, a place of eerie desolation where the long-lost Keegan reappears and attacks us. After some fighting, we stopped the phantom of our teammates, the last switch was activated, and Alma was finally disintegrated by our powerful spiritual power and reduced to ashes. However, this elaborate illusion. While we were in a fantasy, He used us to bond and get pregnant. After fusing the protagonist's powerful spiritual energy, Alma, who becomes the mother of cataclysm, waits for the birth of her child, which will bring the most tragic revenge to the world.
In the third part of the game, nine months later, in the South American prison, the protagonist of the generation is interrogated here, but strangely, Feitel, who was originally shot in the head by us, appears here and interrupts the interrogation by possessing the soldier to rescue us. Like Alma, he lost his body and soul became free, but unlike Alma, he differed in that he was. In the 2nd generation rebirth DLC, it is explained that Feitel's spirit body can be reborn again by directly occupying the body of another person by "taking away".
Feitel tells us that the mother is pregnant and about to give birth, and the fetal movements caused by pregnancy cause a large surge of spiritual energy. Influenced by the spirit of Alma, many cultists who believe in Alma have appeared, all kinds of strange creatures are rampant, and the whole world is about to fall apart.
To stop this, the mother and the fetus must be destroyed together. To this end, the brothers temporarily cooperate and move towards Alma's location. The biggest message of the three generations is to complete the protagonist's life, after Alma gave birth to the protagonist and his brother Feitel. The two spend long days at the institute, but our protagonist cannot perceive the presence of the mother. Only Feitel can echo it and display powerful psionic energy.
For this reason, Harlan, as the overseer of the project, was very disappointed that we did not inherit psionic energy, but we showed great agility, which made him decide to train us as soldiers to make up for the failure of the plan. Then the ATC top brass decided to erase our memories and send us to the F.E.A.R. SQUAD. In order to avoid the name and personality, he was given a code name: Point Man. The younger brother was groomed as the commander of the clone army, and the two brothers followed very different paths.
The recovered soldier follows his younger brother Feitel to the experimental facility where they were imprisoned in childhood, and their mother is nearby, but Alma and her brothers, their fears and collective memories of Harlan since childhood, become their lingering nightmares, and then manifest into a huge evil spirit, and now all they can do is face their fear.
After an inner struggle, we banish the shadows of our childhood. Pushing open the door, in front of him lies the mother who is about to give birth. At this moment, his younger brother revealed his true purpose, he wanted to take advantage of his mother's weakness, absorb her spiritual energy, and make himself a god-like existence. But what we want is to destroy the fetus in the womb and the mother together, so that the world does not die. Seeing that his brother was about to disrupt his plans, Feitel flew over to fight us in an attempt to stop us.
At this point, the choice of double ending will be entered, and if the player scores higher than the sharp soldier in the course of the game, it will go to a bad ending. He took possession of the sharp soldier's body in the grappling, removed the baby from Alma's bloated body, and the mother looked at him in horror, using her own child as a tool. After devouring his mother, Feitel, who gained power, was destined to destroy the world.
If the top soldiers score much higher than Feitel along the way, the game will go to a good ending. The sharp soldier can seize the opportunity in the entanglement and shoot Feitel three times in the head, this time completely killing Feitel. Listening to the baby's cry, the sharp soldier finally moved his heart of compassion, and Alma, who had completed the delivery, looked at the child in front of him, with a trace of maternal love in his eyes, which was a performance that Alma was no longer so terrible in the entire series. She knew that this child handed over to the sharp soldier would not be as tormented as she used to be, and would have a new life. Alma's powerful resentment slowly dissipated as the sharp soldier picked up the child, and with it dissipated the haze that shrouded the entire world.
Thank you for watching this issue of the game is not enough, like the audience friends can pay attention to like the collection and forward, I am Joey, we will see you in the next issue.