TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Basic Tips
II. Sanctuary
III. Awakening
IV. Discovery
V. Withdrawal
VI. Replica
VII. Ruin
VIII. Top
IX. Elementary
X. Nurse's Office
XI. Snake Fist
XII. Keegan
XIII. Epicenter
XIV. Approach
XV. Climax
I. Basic Tips
F.E.A.R. 2 follows closely in the form of the first game, so having played the original will make it that much easier to get through the game. That said, it's not a particularly difficult shooter and you can make it through on Normal difficulty without being having dead-on aim. If you're gunning for trophies/achievements such as completing the game on Hard, things will be a slightly more challenging yet hardly grueling. A few key tips will help you out, though:
Cover--It's important not to get overwhelmed by enemies by rushing into battles. Instead, use the corner of walls and objects in your surrounding environment for cover. Some objects can be tipped over for cover; while these suffice, it's better to avoid using them and take cover along walls and other natural points of cover that don't require extra time to position.
Reloading--Always reload whenever there's a lull in the action. Even if you're down only one bullet, reload anyway--that one bullet could make the difference between finishing a mission or dying.
Slow-Mo--Don't forget that you have an ace up your sleeve. Tap triangle/Y button to activate slow-mo and gain the edge against enemies. When facing a squad of Replica soldiers, it's essential; even when facing one or two foes, don't feel bad about using slow-mo to get a good shot. Since it recharges, there's no reason not to use it as much as possible.
Health Injectors and Medkits--Always pick up health injectors and use medkits when you need them. It sound obvious, but it can be easy to forget that you have medkits available in the heat of a hard fight. A quick tap on the directional pad can make all the difference from finishing a level or having to replay through a boss battle.
Melee--It's best to avoid using melee as a means of attacking enemies. Not only do you rarely get close enough to actually pull them off, but melee attacks just aren't that strong. Stick to guns.
II. Sanctuary
"You have been diverted from an assignment to assist an SFOD-D mission in the Auburn industrial district. Your new orders are to proceed to the private residence of Genevieve Aristide of Armacham Technology Corporation and take her into protective custody. She will instruct you where to escort her."
When you've woken up completely, walk forward and follow the visions of Alma as they appear. Walk into the glowing yellow pool. Now, you find yourself in a ground transport. Freak out a bit from the creepy music box and startling hallucination of Alma and then receive your first mission briefing.
Your objective is to locate Armacham President Genevieve Aristide and haul her in. First things first: you need to meet up with the team members in the lobby of the cushy apartment building of which you're standing before. The front door is blocked, so you need to head through Boomer's Coffee shop to the right and use the maintenance area to infiltrate. Jump over the railing at the bottom of the stair and go through the door there. Flip on your flashlight so as to navigate through the darkened room. Exit through the door to meet up with Griffin.
You're now in the lobby of Valkyrie Tower with the rest of the team. [INTEL #1, "Security Concern": Enter the office behind the front desk by jumping over it. Inside next to the bookcase and copier is your first piece of intel.] Form up with the team when instructed, then take the elevator up with Stokes.
Three enemies are waiting for you as soon as the elevator doors open. Stokes will take out the first one, you need to shoot up the second one behind the first. The third is at the right of the elevator behind an armchair. Move through the open door to the next room where you encounter a handful of enemies. Stay behind the potted plant and shoot them as they appear. They're not particularly tough. There's a health pick up to the left of the plant if you need it. Once the area's clear, meet up with Stokes at the entrance to the Ellis Gallery where she hacks the door. [INTEL #2, "I.M. Transcript #1": To Stokes's left is another piece of intel.]
Go inside. [INTEL #3, "Bad News": As soon as you get inside, pick up the intel on the coffee table at your left.] Continue down the hallway, sprinting when you reach the glass section to avoid the helicopter's fire. Grab the armor vest on the crate immediately after the glass walkway, then continue forward through the double doors to the left. [INTEL #4, "Good luck": A piece of intel sits on the coffee table in the middle of this room.] Head through the door near the back of the room and jump over the short wall inside. There's a medkit to grab on a crate.
Go through the next door, grabbing the grenades and ammunition from the ground. You're in an art gallery joined by a handful of enemies. Using cover, eliminate them by chucking one of the grenades to the center of the room then popping up and firing on them. There are a couple health injectors and armor vest to grab in the middle of the room when you're done clearing it out.
Now you're on the roof of the building. Replenish your stock of grenades with the two next to the door. Wait for the helicopter to drop off two guys and then throw a grenade to get rid of them. Immediately go up the stairs and crouch next to the tree at your left. From there you can fire on three more enemies. A couple more are waiting inside the restaurant, so head in and take them out. Afterward, collect the armor vest and health injector behind the bar. Walk under the metal curtain and through the double doors to enter the kitchen where you must fight another set of enemies. Melee works well here. Grab the medkit behind the stove before continuing.
The next room has a locked door that you can't pick, so you need to smash the window and head back outside. Before hopping out of the window, though, kill the patrol on the rooftop. Jump onto the window washing trolley and quickly run to the other side. Crouch and work your way through the vent to reach the fancy pool. At the top of the waterfall are a pair of health injectors and some ammunition. To get them, as well as an armor vest, head through the showers and down the hall to find the door to the balcony.
Open the door next to the showers to continue. Move down the hallway to reach the penthouse living room and kitchen area. Some enemies discussing Aristide are congregating there, which makes it easy to lob a grenade and kill them quickly. Do that then take out the remaining forces. If you lose health, there are a couple health injectors near the kitchen, as well as the two poolside. [INTEL #5, "Termination notice": On the counter in the kitchen is a piece of intel.]
Take the stairs upstairs and melee the guy that bursts through the door. [INTEL #6, "To-Do list": On the ground in the hallway is a piece of intel.] Move forward to the master bedroom. Close the music box to access a hidden room. [INTEL #7 and #8, "Info: SGT Becket" and "Info: SFC Keegan": There's intel on the floor as soon as you enter the hidden room.] Continue through the green-lit door to speak with Aristide. After that, exit the room and follow the visions of Alma to the living room.
III. Awakening
"Your mission was interrupted by a catastrophic explosion that seems to have originated in the Auburn industrial district of Fairport. The extent of the damage is impossible to estimate. The fate of your team is a mystery."
After waking up from surgery or whatever it was that those crazy doctors were doing to you, head out of the hospital room to find a weapon and figure out what's going on. [INTEL #9, "Memo: M. Becket": Before leaving the room, though, grab the intel masked as a hospital record file near the door.] Walk down the hall. [INTEL #10, "Info: 1SG Griffin": Turn left before continuing forward and enter the first room on your right. Inside is a piece of intel. There's also a medkit in the other room down the hall.]
Go past the nurses station and through the double doors next to the vending machines. Make your way through the halls to Recovery 106. [INTEL #11, "Info: SGT Jankowski": It's in Recovery Rm. 105. To get in there since the main door is blocked, head through Recovery 106 and go through the bathroom. The intel is on the counter in 105.] Exit Recovery 106 back to the hallway using the door to the left. At the T-junction, go left and through the double doors. [INTEL #12, "Surgical notes": Instead of turning left, go right to reach an office where this piece of intel can be picked up.]
Jog up the stairs. [INTEL #13, "Check the news": In the office with the computer on the second floor across from the glass guard railing, there's also a piece of intel on the desk.] Continue down the only available hallway on this floor. After being spotted, run through the "Staff Only" door. Continue to make a surprise visit with Aristide who tells you to report to the T.A.C. lab.
Before you do that, why not grab that medkit you saw behind the chain link fence? Exit the room where you spoke with Aristide and take a left into the first room to grab the medkit. Move forward to the next room. [INTEL #14, "Urgent warning": Right as you enter the room you should see the intel on a counter.] Exit the room and get your slow-mo briefing. You'll need it to deal with the guys ahead. Either slow-mo and melee the two dudes or pick up one of the guns and shoot them quickly. Make sure to pick up the grenades before leaving.
In the next area, a couple of guards burst through double doors to attack you. Chuck a grenade at them to kill them quickly. Move forward, preparing to fight about a dozen enemies in the area. It's best to take the first room on your left, engaging the guys that appear there first. After you take out the three in that room, head back into the hallway to fight a couple more. When they're done, head through the glass-walled room to fight two more hazmat suit enemies before continuing.
Looking down on the second floor through the glass, there are three guys harassing a woman who has locked herself in the security office. Smash the glass and thrown a grenade at them. If you don't manage to get them all, stay on the second floor and kill whoever remains before jumping down. Drop down and call the elevator at the end of the room. [INTEL #15, "Info: 1LT Stokes": Inside a stall in the women's bathroom is a piece of intel. The bathrooms are located near the security office at the dead end.]
As soon as you press the button to call the elevator, enemies start streaming in from the other side of the room. Your best bet is to use the edge of the wall near the double doors next to the elevator and lob grenades as the guards drop down. If any survive the grenade blast, you can easily shoot them from cover.
When all the enemies are defeated, the elevator arrives (of course). It's not a quiet ride, though. As soon as the doors reopen, you have three enemies firing on you. You can either try killing them or simply crouch and exit the elevator via the service catwalk. Make your way to the elevator lobby, but before you bash open the door kill the two enemies looking down into the elevator shaft. There are another couple guys hiding behind cover further in the room, so when you open the door be prepared to take them out. One is to you right behind a turned-over table and the other is at your left taking cover at the corner of the wall.
Move through the hallways until your reach a glass door that requires an access card. Fortunately, you can get one from the poor guy in Patient Room 207 to the left of the secured door. [REFLEX INJECTOR #1: Backtrack to the first sliding glass door and use the key card on it. Walk through it and into Storage Room 211 to get your first injector.] Swipe it through the terminal to the right of the door on the wall to continue. Pass the morgue on your right, moving along until you reach the break room. Six enemies to deal with here, so be careful about sticking your head out from cover. Lob a grenade into the middle of the room, then clean up the remaining guys. There are more enemies in the small room across from the break room, as well as the adjacent hallway. There's a combat shotgun dropped by a couple of enemies here, but it's not all that great. Stick to the submachine gun.
Take the adjacent hallway to reach the morgue. [INTEL #16, "Diode Implants": There's a piece of intel on a desk in the area behind the reception area.] Weave through the hallways and rooms to reach an elevator. Jump onto the cot, then down to the top of the elevator. Kick the cot out of the way and the elevator moves up. Pry open the doors to proceed.
Collect the armor vest and ammunition near the desk and head down the hallway into Office 202. [INTEL #17, "Admitting patients": In Office 201 waits a piece of intel on a desk.] From inside Office 202, kill the enemies that are waiting in the next area. Shoot, then move to the left of the door to evade their bullets. Go through this area and pick up the medkit in one of the cubicles in the next.
A laboratory follows after the cubicles, which contains a few enemies. Stay close to the door between the cubicle room and laboratory. Chuck grenades, if you still have some, at the guys at the far end of the room through the windows. Another couple enemies to your left can be killed easily by shooting a gas tank at the corner of a counter there. Walk through the lab to encounter a couple more enemies that shouldn't pose much of a problem. Head up the hallway to reach another key card door.
Through the door is a reception area with a desk. Go behind the desk and take the hallway there to arrive at the T.A.C. Lab. [INTEL #18, "Evaluation report": In the area behind the desk you should see an open vent near the ground. Crouch and crawl through it to reach another room. Bash open the grate and pick up the intel inside.]
After the cutscene and you're back in the game, make an exit out of the lab. A handful of soldiers block the exit, so chew them up with your submachine gun and head back to the reception area. More resistance is to be expected as you backtrack, so be quick to fire. Use cover and proceed carefully to the stairwell in reception. [INTEL #19, "T.A.C. overview": This intel is resting on top of the railing when you enter the stairwell.]
IV. Discovery
"An Armacham black ops team cut you off from Lt. Stokes but was inexplicably annihilated. In the confusion, Lt. Stokes lost sight of Genevieve Aristide and is attempting to locate her while you try to find a way around. Also, someone going by the alias 'Snake Fist' has been helping you, although his motives aren't clear."
Start by exiting the stairwell and getting a prompt about how to change grenade types. Helpful information considering there's a couple incendiary grenades sitting on the couch ahead. Don't run into the reception room quite yet, though. See those yellow canisters set alongside the pillars? Shoot them to kill any soldiers standing near them. More will come forth from the edges of the room, so prepare to fight them as well. If your health starts to get low, pick up the armor vest on the couch facing the center of the room.
When you walk to the center of the reception area, expect to hear the elevator chime and a couple more guys to drop down and fight. Before heading upstairs, you can grab a medkit in the offices behind the staircase. Reach the top of the stairs and the elevators ding again; two more soldiers come out. You can take cover behind the bulletproof glass window at the top of the stairs, popping out to quickly shooting them. [INTEL #20, "Demolition plan,": The security office at the top of the stairs has a piece of intel.] Make your way around the room to the elevators. There's an armor vest at the end of the balcony near the double doors if you need it before taking the elevator.
Your new objective upon stepping out of the elevator is to find a way out of . . . wherever you are. Go down the hallway until you reach the flashing yellow hazard light on the ceiling. Directly ahead are a few enemies, so proceed slowly and take them out. In the Admitting office is a medkit. Grab it, if needed, and then head into the opposite room with the fire in it (Nurse's Lounge). Crawl up into the air duct in the back room connected to the Nurse's Lounge.
