One of the best first-person shooters I've played of recent is FEAR. I was so enamored with the bullet-time gunplay and supernatural horror story that I went out and bought the expansion pack set for the 360 as soon as it came out. So imagine my thrill when at this year's E3 I got to checkout Monolith's sequel – Project Origin. With more open environments and tons of gun fighting action, Project Origin is set to be the true sequel every FEAR fan has been waiting for all this time.

I Don't Like You That Way

Project Origin starts about twenty minutes from the end of the last game, which had you – as the main character – detonating a transformer in order to destroy a scientific research lab, where a woman with immense psychic powers named Alma was being held against her will. I wanted to find out even more about the story, but sadly the developers were pretty hush-hush, which is okay since the first game worked so well because of the slow pace in which the story revealed itself.

The demo I saw had our main character thrust into the middle of a war zone, which looked as if it might be taking part in the rubble of the city you helped destroy in order to try and destroy Alma. The level was full of destroyed buildings, rubble everywhere, and looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off there. One of the complaints many players had about the first game was that it was too claustrophobic since almost all of the game happened in corridors and the business hallways of a building. The expansions Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate changed some of this, but nothing to the effect that Project Origin is going for. The game is still very linear – even when the stage is set outside – but it doesn't necessarily feel linear. Though the main character was still moving forward and not being able to roam around, the interactive nature of the environment and multi layers helped make the level feel like a truly expansive section of the game. The game will include more open areas, but that doesn't mean players won't be heading down some indoor corridor areas like in the first game.

The game also features a ton of destructibility, which is partly for show and yet part of the cover gameplay as well. The thing that made the first game such a hit was the AI of the soldiers, which would properly flank, retreat, create cover, jump and roll over obstacles to clear paths or get out of the way of your slaughtering. Instead of sitting back and releasing the same soldiers on everyone with very little improvement, the AI system has been enhanced to provide an even better experience. One new maneuver involves the AI coming across a car, opening one of the doors, and then using that has cover. Unlike the first game, however, players will now get to use the same cover options that are available to the AI. Do you want to open a car door for some quick cover? Simply pop open a door and crouch down. Do you want to knock a table over that's standing in your way? If so then you'll be able to do that too.

It's The End of The World As We Know It

The AI is also very realistic in terms of behavior as well, such as calling for backup and working as a group. The developers showed off the intelligence level of the AI by setting a soldier on fire during one scenario. Once on fire, the soldier ran around trying to snuff himself out, which he eventually did and then began shooting at us once again. Besides trying to snuff themselves out, enemies will also actively seek out things like water in order to douse the flames out. It was pretty funny to watch, but shows just how in-depth the new AI is going to be when the game ships.

There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered, such as what multiplayer options are there going to be in the game, what role Alma will play, and how much of the game is gun fighting and how much is the supernatural hallucinations that made the first game so eerie and unnerving. I was extremely impressed by the quick demo I saw, however, and can't wait to learn the answer to those questions myself when the game finally hits store shelves.