Trepang Studios’ retro-revival FPS game filled me with nostalgia even before I loaded up the game. Set in the post-Halo 2000s, when the single-player FPS became more grounded and tactical, it channels Monolith Productions’ FEAR in ways both subtle and not. Despite being a nostalgic throwback, it’s somehow strangely fresh in its mechanics and its own way surprisingly innovative.
Fighting my way through the streets of Chicago – complete with a riverfront harbor not too dissimilar from a certain gunfight in Modern Warfare 2 – I was almost immediately reminded of FEAR. Trepang2 wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and although that might sound like a bad thing, particularly in single-player shooters which are already laden down with familiar inspirations and design choices, it’s not.
Strangely, it feels like something new while looking back. I’ve played several games and read plenty of articles with the same intention (which counts among them the superb Rivalry), and while they all based enough on competitive shooters such as Halo CE to feel familiar, Trepang2’s most obvious tribute – the focus power – is by far the most overt.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; given how beloved bullet time is as a dynamic, it doesn’t feel like a cheap homage. Instead, Trepang2 uses it as a framework for players to get really creative with combat. Its use is, broadly speaking, a form of slowdown – think of it as ‘focus’ or ‘bullet time,’ if you will. You’ll activate it after taking damage, and once it’s activated your movements will slow to a crawl.
It’s intentionally built to replicate FEAR’s, and I almost never used it beyond its initial slowdown function; there are plenty of ways to take advantage of it. You can seize enemies off their feet in order to allow for combat grabs and throws, sweep their legs before lining up headshots, or even charge forward while lining up a precise reload. I never felt limited, even with Normal difficulty – once I’d figured out how to get creative with it, I was pulling off all sorts of creative and action-packed combat sequences that felt straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster.
That, coupled with its mostly decent enemy AIs, means that things can get pretty intense on Normal. I got quite a few game overs on the Chicago street level alone, because I strayed too far from cover and got whittled down by enemies I wasn’t paying enough attention to. There are a few illogical moments, particularly with regards to melee combat; an assault rifle to the face had me staggering a good foot back, but I regularly knocked enemies sprawling into doors and other environmental obstacles, knocking them out.