F.E.A.R. (video game)

F.E.A.R. redirects here. For the single by British musician, Ian Brown, see F.E.A.R. (single).

F.E.A.R.
File:FEAR box art.png
Developer(s)	Monolith Productions
Publisher(s)	Vivendi Universal
Engine	Lithtech: Jupiter EX
Platform(s)	PC (Windows)
Release	October 18, 2005 (NA)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Monolith Productions. It is published by Vivendi Universal and was released on October 18, 2005 for the PC.

A single player demo of the game was released on August 5, 2005, and a multiplayer demo on September 29, 2005. A special DVD Director's Edition was also published, including 'making of' documentaries and a promotional comic book.

The game is notable for its innovative features: bullet time (called SlowMo, similar to Max Payne but in first-person), martial arts moves, and advanced artificial intelligence.

Story

Template:Spoiler "The story begins as an unidentified paramilitary force infiltrates a multi-billion dollar aerospace compound. The government responds by sending in Special Forces, but loses contact as an eerie signal interrupts radio communications. When the interference subsides moments later, the team has been literally torn apart. As part of a classified strike team created to deal with threats no one else can handle, your mission is simple: Eliminate the intruders at any cost. Determine the origin of the signal. And contain this crisis before it spirals out of control." - Press Release

The game's horror element also includes allusions to Japanese-style horror movies such as The Ring and 'The Shalebridge Cradle' level of the game Thief: Deadly Shadows, in that F.E.A.R. uses the idea of a terrifying little girl, instead of the more obvious first person perspective scare tactics used in horror-survival games such as Doom. Admittedly, this concept is relatively common in horror films.

The Team

The F.E.A.R. team was formed during 2002 as a covert branch of the United States Army to defend various national security interests against threats of a paranormal or supernatural nature. However, teammates rant that no one takes them seriously, given the unbelievable nature of what they fight against.

Regardless, F.E.A.R. has the prerogative to use deadly force and heavy weapons against perceived threats, including assault rifles, combat shotguns, and even rocket-propelled weaponry, as well as experimental energy weapon systems.

Arsenal

The weaponry available in the game is mostly based off heavily-modified real-life equivalents, though the token overpowered weapons of first person shooters such as the rocket launcher are present.

Unarmed

The protagonist is capable of executing basic martial arts maneuvers on the enemy, mainly roundhouse, flying and sliding kicks, along with normal punches. Their lethality is incredible considering the strength of the common weapons in the game; it is not unusual to see a few players in multiplayer using solely nothing but unarmed combat to get by successfully, especially in crowded areas where avoidance is harder.

If holding a firearm, punches are replaced with the gun being used as an improvised mêlée weapon.

Rakow HP-14 Pistol

A semi-automatic firearm firing the .40 S&W cartridge. Its is extremely accurate, has a fair amount of power and can be used to make reliable long-distance shots with controlled firing. The weapon is based physically on the HK USP40, but with an exaggerated ability to bear 18 rounds, which is more on par with the HK USP Expert and Match models when loaded with 9mm ammunition.

In single-player, finding a second pistol will allow the player to dual-wield them. In multiplayer, the pistols come in a pair by default.

Sumak RPL Submachine Gun

The RPL is a fully-automatic firearm with incredible recoil, making its use beyond indoor environments unfavorable. The weapon is based off a variant of the well-known 9mm MP5 SMG with retractable buttstock (permanently collapsed), tactical flashlight and a simple optical sight. The aforementioned features mentioned however are ostensibly aesthetic and hence useless. The magazine's 50-round capacity is also generous, considering the real-world counterpart carries only 30. Arguably the game's definitive spray and pray weapon.

Vollmer VK-12 Combat Shotgun

The VK-12 is a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun that is very effective against any enemy not bearing heavy ballistic protection, and often can take down an enemy with a single shot. The weapon can hold up to 12 rounds of ammunition, and shows off the game's ability to render gore by being able to shear off body parts and occasionally tear people in half at the waist. Its real-life counterpart is the Franchi SPAS-12 with the folding-stock permanently kept away, and should be noted that the game yet again exaggerates the weapon's holding capacity; the real-world firearm can only carry 8 rounds in the magazine.

Rakow G2A2 Assault Rifle

The G2A2 is the all-arounder of the bunch; it's fairly accurate, has good ammunition capacity and manageable recoil characteristics. Arguably the most common weapon found in the game, it is also a favourite to take online into multiplayer matches, with some even using it as a makeshift sniper weapon.

The weapon is based off of several variants of the real-life .223 Remington (a.k.a 5.56 x 45mm)-chambered HK G36 assault rifle, namely the HK SL8 civillian variant sporting rifle, but with several large differences. The in-game weapon fires only in fully-automatic, while the real weapon is semi-automatic. The weapon in-game carries 45 rounds of 5.56 x 45 mm NATO ammunition, which is significantly more than the actual weapon's standard 10-round magazine. The game seems to attempt to justify this by giving the G2A2 what appears to be a double-sided helical magazine to feed from, in the style of similar magazines by Calico Light Weapon Systems or much like the famous Beta C mags.

Baksha ASP Rifle

The ASP is a 3-round burst-fire bullpup assault rifle. Unlike the other weapons in-game, the ASP stays true to the magazine capacity of the weapon it appears to be based on, the IMI Tavor TAR-21, at 30 rounds. It is accurate, as burst-fire should be, and comes equipped with a scope for sniping duties. Unlike the real thing, however, the weapon fires the veritable 7.62 x 51 mm NATO cartridge instead of the 5.56 x 45mm NATO. The weapon bears only 12 rounds online.

Armacham HV Penetrator

An entirely-fictional weapon, the 25-round HV Penetrator is a fully-automatic firearm that instead of firing bullets, lobs large 10mm bolts that can impale people struck by it into walls. Indeed, it is possible to see them lodged all over the place into surfaces, items and people after a firefight. The weapon was designed to be essentially a very large nail gun.

If the user properly aims the weapon while standing still, the HV Penetrator is absolutely accurate.

Armacham Type-7 Particle Weapon

The Type-7 particle beam weapon is yet another weapon with no real-life counterpart. It is the de facto sniper weapon of the game, firing a completely-accurate blue-purplish particle beam. Unless the target is one of the highly-armored enemies, a single hit at any point on the person will cause his instant destruction, leaving behind only the weapon he was holding (most likely for game-design considerations) and a blackened, smoking human skeleton. The weapon comes equipped with a scope as per its nature and an integral rangefinder good for distances up to 1km, or approximately 62% of a mile. The weapon can fire 10 shots before reloading.

Andra MOD-3 Rocket Launcher

The MOD-3 is a fictional weapon, taken directly from another of Monolith's games, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. This odd item feeds from a 15-rocket magazine, and fires a group of 3 rockets flying in a triple-helix formation. This weapon will instantly annihilate all but the most heavily-protected enemies such as the exoskeleton soldiers.

Obregon MP-50 Repeating Cannon

Also from Shogo: MAD, the MP-50 is a massive weapon that feeds from a sideways 50-round magazine, and tears apart just about anything with ease. Even if the target is missed, the rounds generate a shockwave on impact that can cause serious damage to anyone and anything in the immediate vicinity. The front assembly of the weapon is partitioned into two and counter-rotates after every shot, purely for aesthetic purposes.

N6A3 Fragmentation Grenade

The N6A3 is nothing more than a fragmentation grenade equipped with a timer, but will immediately detonate on contact with a live target. These are best used to flush out enemies hiding behind something or around corners.

AT-S Proximity Mine

The AT-S is an anti-personnel blast mine equipped with a proximity sensor, but can be blown up by being fired upon. Hiding these near choke-points in a map is a great way to virtually guarantee a kill online, and are often used to cover one's tracks or lay traps.

M77 Remote Bomb

The M77 Remote Bomb is a tactical weapon at its finest. To further improve its role as such, the bomb itself is adhesive and will stick to surfaces...including other people. Once deployed, all it takes is for the original deployer to activate the remote detonator and the bomb will go off, with a very good chance of killing everyone in the blast range.

Characters

Allies

This section covers the F.E.A.R. team as well as a single Delta Force member.

"The New Guy" (you)

Little is known about the player character, who is referred to as "The New Guy" by some of the F.E.A.R. team members, aside from his gender, and the fact that he has been on the team for only a week. He wears a mask, as seen in his reflections and game promotional artwork. His reflexes are well beyond the human norm, allowing him to perform maneuvers with surgical accuracy in an extremely short span of time, an ability portrayed in the game as the world "slowing down" around him. It is not known if he is a normal person with exceptional skills, or if he has been enhanced in some unnatural manner. Speculation as to his origins are fuelled by a flashback at the beginning of the single player demo where the player appears to be laying down, staring up at a man who looks like a doctor saying, "You will be a god among men".

At the end it is revealed that the protagonist was the first child of Alma and thus Origin's "first prototype", explaining the mysterious visions he has as psychic phenomena. Alma has always known the location and identity of her sons, Fettel and yourself. It becomes apparent later that it is not her intention to kill you, merely to lead you in a non direct fashion such as manipulating Fettel to her location. There are however inconsistancies that could be interpreted in one of two primary fasions. The first is that Alma who is dead, wants to be reunited with her sons and the only way to do this is by them both dying. It is you who kills Fettel, while he kneels in front of you waiting. It is apparent that he doesn't fear death. When you release Alma from her tomb, she sends out shadows to collect your soul and bring it to her. The second fasion is that as the children of Alma, it is on some subconcious, or indeed psychic level, that both Fettel and yourself are trying to help fight the inner demons of Alma's mind. At no point in the story is Alma shown to be hostile towards you, or Fettel for that matter. It is a common theory in fiction that two siblings (mostly always brothers) are given either an excellence in academia, or in physical ability. To this theory, it is possible that you are the physical to Fettel's mental. Fettel however, may not be strong enough to fight Alma's demons, as depicted in the "dream" sequence just prior to Fettel's death. He is never present when the shadow like demons are attacking you, and it is never shown that he is the cause. This could be a test of your abilities to fight the demons that plague Alma's mind, and have done since the beginning of her mental disturbance which Harlan Wade mentions in a video file near the vault. If Fettel is unable to fight the demons, then he may see himself as obselete. It was his goal since contact with Alma, to help her, with the inability, he would rather choose death than go back to a lab if things should end with Alma being unable to protect her younger son. You however, have the physical ability to fight the demons, and throughout both their dream state, and their physical transition into the real world, you battle them, and win. The final sequence with Alma killing you to the touch is a final enigma, which could be believed to be a metaphor about restraint. At the time of your birth, Alma was denied the touch of her child, you were taken off for whatever tests that the Origin team had in mind, and Alma was returned to the vault. The "dream" sequence where you die if Alma touches you, could be how she sees her situation regarding her eldest son.

It is widely speculated that the entire mission to capture and eliminate Fettel was in fact an elaborately devised field test for the main character, designed to evaluate his strengths and weaknesses and assess his ability to operate in a hostile environment. This is all but confirmed by Genevieve's final communique with the mysterious "Senator", in which she proudly announces the success of the "first prototype", suggesting the player character may in fact have been a puppet of Genevieve's machinations all along.

Rowdy Betters

Commissioner Betters is the F.E.A.R. team coordinator, and is in charge of briefing and monitoring the status of F.E.A.R. field operatives via the Hannibal-3 spy satellite during missions. He relays information as necessary to and from fellow teammates, and stays out of direct action, instead operating from mobile command facilities through wireless communications equipment.

Leo Jankowski

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Leo Jankowski

Jankowski is a bald and foul mouth veteran of the F.E.A.R. team. He lacks faith in the protagonist's capabilities, especially since the protagonist was transferred to F.E.A.R. only a week before the initial events in the game. He believes the protagonist's lack of experience makes him unsuitable for the solo mission in the single player demo. In the final retail version of the game, the sequence of mistrust continues, with an overheard conversation between Jankowski and Jin, in which Jankowski admits to feeling uneasy around the protagonist, claiming to feel as though he is being looked right through. This is one of the earliest indications that the protagonist may be special or unique in some way. By the end of the game, it is very clear that Jankowski's intution was quite correct. Leo Jankowski is possibly a reference to a Deus Ex Invisible War character of the same name.

Later in the game Jankowski disappears, but the rest of the team he was with were found to be dead. Although it is never explicitly shown, Jankowski is assumed to have been killed while investigating the South River Wastewater Treatment Plant for signs of Paxton Fettel, as evidenced by brief, hallucinatory appearances in the form of a ghostly apparition. Life signs of his that are detected at the Armacham building are assumed to be merely lingering traces of his ghost which continues to haunt the main protagonist, or perhaps Alma or Fettel used the 'apparition' of Jankowski to frighten the protagonist character by suggesting that if Jankowski can be killed, so can he. Though the details of his death are not known, it's clear that his eyes were plucked out prior to death. Earlier in the game he calls for you saying "Where are you?" If the player uses slow-motion whenever he appears and approaches his apparition quickly enough, the player will see Jankowski is missing his eyes.

Jin Sun-Kwon

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Jin Sun-Kwon

Jin is a level-headed Korean American woman of small build that serves as the team's combat medic and is in charge of in-field forensics. Her parents were from Seoul, but she was born and raised in the USA.

Jin is also the only character who appears to be fond of the player/protagonist, describing him as "cute" when asked of him by Leo. Douglas later jokes (after the helicopter crash) about the player being "your [his] girlfriend", however she seems to have a genuine liking for the protagonist.

She was originally designated as a sniper in the very early builds of the game, but this role was removed when developer Monolith found itself unable to integrate scenarios into the game in which she could snipe. Her original sniper outfit can still be seen, in the elbow pads she wears, and that the index fingers on both her gloves are called red, i.e, her "trigger" fingers.

Douglas Holiday

A member of Delta Force, Holiday is a demolition expert. He makes occasional appearances during the game, at one point defusing a hostage wired with plastic explosives.

In the developers' initial vision for the game, Holiday was to be a member of the F.E.A.R. team who would handle explosives and other demolitions tasks. A lack of opportunities to feature him throughout the game eventually compelled lead designer Craig Hubbard to relegate him to the role of Delta unit leader. He can also be seen in promo pictures of the game wearing the F.E.A.R uniform during a fire-fight.

Enemies and Minor Characters

This section covers the notable employees of Armacham Technology Corporation as well as Paxton Fettel and Alma. It should be noted that not all persons listed here are necessarily trying to actively work against F.E.A.R., they are merely in this category for the sake of completeness.

Paxton Fettel

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Paxton Fettel

A product of Armacham Technology Corporation's secretive Origin project, Paxton Fettel commands an entire battalion of highly-trained, heavily-armed clone supersoldiers that take orders directly from Paxton telepathically, a system developed by Armacham in a U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored project known as 'Perseus'. However, the soldiers still rely on using military jargon over radio chatter to communicate amongst themselves, ("Echo 12, we have reports of a possible intruder in your vicinity." "We haven't seen anything." "Roger, keep your eyes open.") and are able to act fairly independently within the confines of Fettel's mind control.

While he is a cannibal and is seen throughout the game devouring the remains of his victims, he indulges in the primal act not to sustain himself nutritionally, but to apparently absorb people's memories by consuming their flesh, as touched on in the Dark Horse Comics publication that accompanied the DVD edition. He is first seen kneeling in a cell at Armacham Technology Corporation, before being released by the mysterious Alma.

In the comic again, and confirmed early in the game, it is learned that Alma fused minds with Fettel, showing him the "pains" that ATC caused her and who was directly responsible for them. He keeps muttering that "they" deserve to die, "they" later being revealed to be everyone related to the Origin project. He often appears to the player for brief moments of time before dissolving into ash; these are hallucinations directly caused by Fettel's psychic abilities.

It is revealed near the end that Alma was his mother, and that leading his battalion of cloned super soldiers into rebellion during the game was an effort to locate the facility where Alma's body was being stored, and free her. He is killed by the protagonist near the end of the game in the secret underground facility.

Harlan Wade

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Harlan Wade

Harlan Wade is an elderly scientist who has worked at Armacham for decades, where his daughter, Alice Wade, also works. He pioneered the Origin project, and ironically was also the one that initiated the shut down of that very same project. He is the man seen at the very beginning saying "You will be a god among men", referring to the protagonist, the first 'prototype' produced by Origin. He is infuriated when Armacham decides to try and reopen the original location of the Origin facility after decades of lockdown, and in the end when he hears of their plan to destroy the Origin facility outright, decides to release Alma, stating that "She has suffered enough, don't you think?".

Alma shares his surname, and although it is not stated in the game what their relationship is, he is most likely her father. He is something of an enigmatic character, and it is not clear how much guilt, if any, he feels for the horrible things Alma endured as part of Origin.

He is killed immediately by Alma upon opening the Vault in which she was kept, reduced to a pile of bloody bones. He seemed to have no intention to avoid this however, stating earlier in a recorded video that "It is in the nature of Man to make monsters, and it is in the nature of monsters to destroy their makers".

Alice Wade

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Alice Wade

Alice Wade is the daughter of Harlan Wade, and is an employee of Armacham Technology Corporation. As of the game, she was part of a task force working on analyzing contamination down at a water purification plant, which Armacham had interest in because of its location downriver from the Origin facility, and feared it would be traced back to them. She has a mild fear of flying.

She spends her initial appearance as an anxious person, and subsequently panics and runs off from protective custody after the UH-60 Black Hawk transport arriving to rescue her was shot down by a Mil Mi-24 Hind under the control of Paxton's clone soldiers.

She is later taken prisoner and killed by Paxton Fettel. Her corpse is partially cannibalized when the protagonist reaches her.

Genevieve Aristide

An unseen character, Genevieve Aristide is the president of Armacham, and is the female voice heard speaking to an unknown senator during the game's introductory sequence. She tried to have the secret facility where Alma was held reopened despite Harlan's resistance and warnings, but only regretted it later when the first few teams sent down did not return. It is likely that she decided to use this opportunity to test out the other prototype, the protagonist, as at the end of the game after the credits, she proclaims the prototype a success.

Aldus Bishop

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Aldus Bishop

Aldus Bishop is an employee of Armacham and, along with Alice Wade, has been assigned to a special taskforce dispatched to investigate reported disturbances in the Auburn district in the past 10 years.

In the game, Bishop is taken hostage by Fettel's forces, awaiting interrogation by Fettel regarding the location of senior Origin researcher, Harlan Wade. When the protagonist reaches him, he is found to have been brutally beaten by his captors as well as booby-trapped with C4 explosives, which are promptly defused by Delta force member, Douglas Holiday.

Had Bishop not been rescued by the protagonist, he would most likely have faced the same fate as Fettel's other cannibalized victims, Charles Habegger and Bill Moody.

Unfortunately, he is killed by the very organization that hired him, Armacham Technology Corporation, just as he is being evacuated by helicopter. His execution serves as a chilling reminder of the extent to which Genevieve Aristide is willing to go cover up the events surrounding the Origin experiments, even if it means killing her own employees.

In the later stages of the game, Bishop, like Jankowski, appear a few times to the player. His apparition apparently being used as another way to frighten the player and provide a background of what Bishop and Alice Wade might have uncovered about Armacham.

Norton Mapes

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Norton Mapes

Norton Mapes is a grossly overweight, geeky engineer employed by Armacham, and one of the only survivors following the attack by Fettel's clone soldiers. Mapes has a taste for the fictional snack Cheezee Pooz and proudly wears a "RTFM" beltbuckle. In addition, he was being threatened with legal action by Alice Wade for sexual harassment.

When the protagonist first encounters him, he requests assistance in disabling the facility's security system in exchange for his help in resetting the network server hub.

Shortly after disabling it, however, Mapes reneges on his promise and actively tries to sabotage and impede the protagonist's progress, mainly by unleashing ATC custom-designed gun turrets on the player, which have been scattered throughout the building.

For unknown reasons, he is extremely loyal to Genevieve Aristide. Near the end of the game, at Genevieve's behest, he is seen attempting to destroy all classified information regarding ATC's activities with the Perseus and Origin projects in the Origin facility. He even tries to wipe out the facility entirely, but is stopped short by Harlan Wade, who shoots him just as he is about to enter the vault. Mapes' fate is unknown, though it is likely that he perished when the facility exploded. (It has been incorrectly speculated that he escaped, since his body is not seen when the player leaves the vault. However, Mapes was shot on the bridge leading to vault door 1, while the protagonist later makes his escape through a different vault door, marked 2.)

Alma

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Alma in the shadows

The identity and mystery of Alma is the very core of F.E.A.R. First appearing in the introduction, Alma's presence is felt constantly throughout the game, with hints and glimpses of her life made throughout the game's use of visions and info the player gathers through Fettel & laptops found throughout the game. She appears as a little eight year old girl wearing a red dress. She has a disturbingly blank and mask-like face almost completely obscured by long black hair. Right from her first appearance, it is never quite clear if she is real, or only exists in the minds of the people seeing her.

In the introduction, it is made clear that she has a strong relationship of some kind with Paxton Fettel, whispering to him and seeming to approach the door of his cell, which opens upon her arrival, revealing an empty corridor. Fettel screams, and activates the troops under his command, beginning his murderous rampage.

Alma is seen repeatedly by the player, often only out of the corner of his eye, appearing standing in the shadows or darting quickly out of sight. As her appearances are almost always accompanied by scenes of extreme violence, this rapidly becomes very unnerving. Sometimes all that is heard is her soft, giggling laugh, or indistinct words whispered as though in the player's ear.

The full extent of Alma's powers is unclear, as much of what is seen of her is just hallucination, but she is able to kill people by apparently boiling or liquifying their flesh, leaving them as just charred skeletons lying in pools of blood. At the end of the game when she is released from the Origin vault, she begins to open up portals from the nightmarish world that the player has previously found himself in. As these portals open, they allow dark spectres that the player encountered in the world of visions to enter the real world. Apparently, once allowed to fully awake from the Vault, Alma's psychic abilities were completely released, allowing her nightmarish creations to appear.

Alma's surname is Wade, and she seems to have been the daughter of Harlan Wade, a scientist working for Armacham Technology Corporation. Her mother is never mentioned in the game. Alma was born a very powerful psychic, apparently very attuned to negative emotions, something which caused her to become quite disturbed, leading Harlan to believe she will never live a normal life.

Harlan Wade created the Origin project, the goals of which were to genetically engineer a highly powerful psychic, possibly for military purposes. It was decided early on in the project that if the genetically-designed 'prototype' gestated in the womb of a psychic mother, the results would be more favorable. Alma was eight years old when chosen to be the mother, and fifteen years old when the first prototype was born. She was placed in an induced coma while pregnant. The first prototype born was the player's character, a fact hinted at throughout the game but only revealed at the very end. The second prototype born was Paxton Fettel.

When Fettel was ten years old, he underwent what is referred to by Armacham scientists as a 'synchronicity event'. The exact details are unclear, but apparently Alma--despite her comatose state--was able to make psychic contact with him and either inadvertently or purposely turn him psychotic, where he subsequently killed several people. Following this incident, the Origin project was shut down and "the vault" (the shielded cell where Alma was kept) sealed against any entry. Evidently this is when the life support in her cell was also deactivated, and Alma's body died six days later.

Just prior to the start of the game, Genevieve Aristide orders a re-opening of the vault as the first step in the resurrection of Origin. This, apparently, lets Alma's spirit loose. She makes contact with Fettel (now a psychic commander of a battalion of cloned soldiers as part of the Perseus project), and another synchronicity event occurs. Fettel immediately begins his rampage, with the specific goal of hunting down everyone involved in the Origin experiments, claiming, "They deserve to die. They all deserve to die."

At the end of the game, Harlan Wade re-opens the vault, setting Alma free. Her ghost is a naked, 15-year old emaciated girl whose first act is to kill Harlan. After this, through the actions of the player, the Origin facility is destroyed in a massive explosion. Onboard the Black Hawk helicopter that rescues the protagonist and is circling the devastation, the copter jerks noticeably. Almost immediately, at the very last moment right before the credits roll, a bloody, naked Alma appears over the side, preparing to pull herself up into the cabin. It seems that something is still unfinished in her restless soul.

There are three possible ways in which the story could continue after the closing titles. Each one is in some way a form of closure for the particular story of F.E.A.R, but they are by no means a block end for the game in terms of sequals. The first way is that it is Alma's intention to kill you for destroying your own brother. Fettel openly shows that he wants to help Alma, but is in the end unable to or is denied. This could show that Alma's lack of mental stability would enable her to use "eye for an eye" justice even on her own sons. The second way is that it is Alma's intention to finally let go, and leave the realm of reality by doing what she wasn't able to do when she gave birth to you (and presumably Fettel), hold you. With that done, she could merely fade, or become lifeless in every other sense other than flatlining. The third and final way is that Alma wants to live again, and try the "happily ever after" theory with her remaining son. It is said that Alma died not long after giving birth to Fettel, if that is so, then why keep the vault at all? It could be that while Alma is indeed clinically dead, a single factor can revive a human being. anything from the smallest electrical discharge (from brain, static, or mechanical activity) can kickstart the body. It could be possible that Alma was revived in the absence of anybody at the vault when it was "sealed".

Organizations and terms

This section covers the other organizations at work within the game, as well as a summary of the terms presented within the game.

Delta Force

The Special Force Operational Detachment - Delta (or SFOD-D) is present along with F.E.A.R. during the duration of the game, though they are relegated to primarily off-screen roles. The Black Hawk transports present within the game belong to them.

Although they are ostensibly there to assist you in your mission, this proves ultimately irrelevant as through some circumstance or another they are separated from your character, often by having them die, through some contrived means, at or soon after the commencement of a level.

Armacham Technology Corporation

ATC for short. A fictional corporation, ATC has been in operation since 1964, according to an in-game news report. This time frame seems reasonable given the fact that the two individuals produced by the Origin project (the player character and Paxton Fettel), are at least in their mid-twenties at the time of the game. A globe-spanning conglomerate, ATC prides itself on being on the cutting edge of technology, with R&D occurring primarily for military applications, including aerospace. They have highly-efficient nuclear reactors, working cryonic suspension technology, cloning technology and can be extremely unethical with regards to their methods.

Throughout the game, the protagonist encounters several of ATC's high-tech designs. Automated gun turrets equipped with heavy machine guns line the ceilings of Armacham's closely-guarded floors, powered armor exoskeletons under Paxton's control wreck havoc with impunity and shrug off anything weaker than explosive/high-caliber weapons, and laser-armed compact VTOL patrol UAVs flit in and about the floors checking for intruders.

ATC uses a TPS Letterhead similar to that of Initech from the movie Office Space. Their logos are very similar.

Project Origin

It is never made quite clear what the ultimate goal of the Origin project is (and further questions are raised by the very end of the game), but it was created as a means of genetically engineering extremely powerful psychics, very possibly for military purposes, as some kind of super-soldier. (Following the fallout from Origin, one of the prototypes produced by it, Paxton Fettel, was used in a project called Perseus, which involved a single psychic commander issuing orders to cloned soldiers via telepathy.)

The project was carried out in secret in an underground military facility which ATC purchased from the government in the 1950's. This would ensure that the project could be kept going without fear of interference. The original plan for the project was to find a psychic and clone them, perhaps modifying their mind to produce greater powers. The psychic chosen was Alma Wade, apparently the daughter of project founder Harlan Wade.

Alma was apparently an extremely powerful psychic, even at a very young age. She apparently suffered from severe nightmares, and it was deduced that she was highly receptive to negative emotions. She was forcibly inducted into Origin the age of eight, and according to the Dark Horse Comics supplement that comes with the Director's Edition DVD, was subjected to unethical, painful and plainly cruel treatment and experimentation. Also featured on the DVD is a live-action video featuring an interview between Alma and a doctor, which shows that even then, although she was functionally mute and virtually unresponsive, she was extremely adept at manipulating people psychically, seemingly with the goal of making them afraid.

The original plan was to simply create the first prototypes of the project from her DNA, but Harlan Wade was not convinced that psychic abilities were entirely genetic, and thus the project was changed: Alma would be impregnated with the genetically-engineered (from Alma's own DNA) prototypes. She was to be kept in an induced coma for the rest of the project, and would supposedly give birth to the prototypes during artificially-stimulated labour.

Origin produced two male prototypes. Alma was fifteen when her first son, the protagonist, was born. She was in a drug induced coma during labor but awoke and is seen yelling "No!" as her first son is taken away. This prototype was initially deemed a 'failure', and some unspecified time later, she was impregnated with a second son, Paxton Fettel. When Fettel was ten, she linked her mind with his, triggering what Origin researchers dubbed a "Synchronicity Event". During this, Fettel "went crazy", and killed several people. Following this incident, Origin was shut down and the facility sealed. According to Harlan Wade, she died six days after they 'pulled the plug'.

Alma's mind, however, still refused to die. The Auburn industrial district directly above the facility, became an abandoned, desolate urban wasteland, as anyone living there fell sick or suffered acute psychological problems. This was thought for a time to be thanks to chemical or radiological pollution, but was in fact some form of 'psychic fallout', negative energy absorbed by Alma and returned a hundred-fold.

Just prior to the start of the game, Genevieve Aristide, president of ATC, tried to reactivate the facility as the first step of ressurecting Origin, sending teams down there to assess suitability. It would seem that the re-opening of "the vault" allowed something of Alma's spirit to escape, resulting in the deaths of the teams Aristide sent down, and with Alma once again making contact with Fettel, triggering another Synchronicity Event.

The Origin facility (along with the entire Auburn district) was destroyed at the end of the game in a massive explosion, thanks to the efforts of the player.

Trivia

• At some unknown point during game development, John Mulkey the lead level designer swore he saw a shadow in the restroom mirror at the office and told a colleague. The colleague went into the same restroom and would only agree that the atmosphere was "creepy". The restroom in question had one non-working light and one that was flickering. John Mulkey insists that he saw it though no one seems to believe him. They don't go to that restroom much anymore.

• The original E3 video in which Alma slaughters a team of three in a corridor made it into the final build of the game, but in severely-altered capacity. Early on in the game, the action shifts to a water purification plant, with the players' character having to leave his team-mates temporarily to work the gate controls. When he comes back, they are all dead and the psychic flashback which plays bears great similarity to the E3 video.

• The level included in the single-player demo was comprised of elements from several maps stitched together. It is not an actual level from the final build.

• The music that is heard in the cinematic introductory sequence was originally slated to be played at the ending of the game. The team found that it fit the sequence's pacing and moved it to the beginning. It is interesting to note that the music chosen for the sequence was not supposed to remain; it was simply a placeholder until a more appropriate musical piece was constructed. However, the development team liked the placeholder music so much that it remained through the development phase to the final version.

• A significant number of the preview videos contain footage that did not make it into the final game. As such they shed some insight into how dramatically the development process can alter a product before release.

• A car chase sequence was originally planned for and even had extensive drafting during the development of the game, but was eventually removed as, in the words of Craig Hubbard, "It didn't work out the way we hoped it would". The car itself, however, made it into the game in a limited capacity; it is the same one that the protagonist starts the first level in.

• Leo Jankowski is also the name of a character in the game Deus Ex: Invisible War.

• In some levels, there are signs that say 'Heater And Refrigerator Maintenance'. This is a reference to the organization H.A.R.M. in the game No One Lives Forever, also developed by Monolith. The signs have the stylized "H" logo from H.A.R.M. in the background. Early in the game the protagonist's supervisor ask her "What does H.A.R.M. stand for" to which she replies "I haven't figured that out yet." Similarly, in the sequel some H.A.R.M. memos contained a motivational catchphrase "Remember what H.A.R.M. stands for!" but it was never revealed in either game.

• The vending machines in F.E.A.R. displaying "Fizzy Cola" also appear in Monolith's Condemned: Criminal Origins. These vending machines are also found in Monolith's No One Lives Forever.

• If players wait until the credits at the end of the game come to an end, they will hear an interesting phone call from Genevieve Aristide to the senator. Here she states that the first prototype, ostensibly the protagonist, was a complete success. (This is possibly a reference to the more recent incarnations of the Metal Gear series of games which have all ended with a phone call after the credits which contains large plot revelations, which often are referenced in the following game).

• As promotional material, and for the sake of elucidating some of the game's backstory, publisher Vivendi Universal filmed a series of minute long, live action vignettes which served as a prequel to the events in the game. The series centers on a particular interview with Alma conducted by an Armacham scientist, Dr. Green, who initially tries to develop a rapport with her interviewee but gives up when Alma is clearly unreceptive to her questions. She is slowly driven insane by Alma's psychic powers and at the end of the series she is seen cowering in fear and muttering incoherently.

• At one point in the game inside the Aramacham HQ, there is a cubicle with a red stapler and a sheet that says "TPS REPORT" on the desk, in other areas a yellow sticky note can be found with the phone number to "Chachkies". This is a nod to the film Office Space. Armacham-headed TPS reports are also seen on many of the bulletin boards throughout the game.

• Many model "8311 XHT" fume hoods are seen throughout the labs in the Armacham HQ and Origin Facility. This is most likely a tip of the hat to the notable science fiction film THX 1138.

• An envelope that can be found in some of the office cubicles has the recipient as, "Monolith Productions" followed by a full address.

• Fettel's jacket was originally slated to be present on a secondary bad guy, but was later integrated onto Fettel after the traits of the two were merged solely into Fettel as the team found that a single villain worked better into the overall plot of the game.

• In a later level of the game, there is an office where a radio plays the theme song from Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, one of Monolith's first games.

• In addition, while it lacked a major plot role, the Armacham corporation appeared in Shogo as the manufacturer of one of the game's Mecha.

• One of the cheats is "kfa", which may come from Doom's idkfa cheat. This could be a small injoke about Doom, similar to the mpkfa cheat found in Shogo.

• As very prominent product placement, all the laptops in the game bear the Alienware logo and name. Additional non-ingame advertising includes the SoBe No Fear energy drink on the back of the comic, the Masters of Horror TV series in both the manual and comic, and solely in the manual: a F.E.A.R.-specific Alienware rebate ad, an ad for the Sound Blaster X-Fi technology, and a final ad for the D-Link DGL-4300 router.

• In one of the missions players receive a radio transmission from A. Shepherd, SFOD Coordinator. This might be a reference to Half-Life: Opposing Force, where the main character is called Adrian Shephard.

• In a later portion of the game, what appears to be a photocopy of somebody's buttocks can be found on one of the desks.

• Inside The Vault facility, there is a sign in one of the offices saying "Remember/its Quantity/Quality/Safety/In that order"

• There is an office where a radio plays a news segment about a totally chromed motorcycle entering the freeway, blinding all the drivers and causing a large accident. The radio voice signs off as "Radio Free Chronus". In the same office there is a white board with a drawing of a cowboy on a horse, with names such as "tex.abc" and "chaps.dtx" with arrows drawn, this is also seen in Shogo. Among other things, there is a sign on the whiteboard that says "Sheepskin Vent".

• When in the elevator with Alice Wade, the music that is playing is the exact same music that can be heard in the movie The Blues Brothers when Jake and Elwood are in the elevator.

• In the first level, Paxton Fettel informs you the name of his latest victim was Charles Hambeggar, aka "Chuck Hambeggar". This is an obvious reference to hamburgers, and the fact that Paxton is a cannibal.

• The game's POV indicates the protagonist of F.E.A.R. is of average height, which makes him appear slightly shorter than many of the game's other characters. In most first-person shooters, the protagonist is of above-average height and the POV generally shows you to be a head taller than other characters.

• If you install the sdk, there are bits and pieces mixed in among the game files (primarily audio files in the 'voice' directory) of different story paths that were apparently being considered during development.

• One has Alice being reunited with her father, then just Alice being killed. Fettel makes a comment along the lines of "that's why I let the old man live, so he could see her face one last time..."

• Another has Mapes helping Fettel get into the vault, and locking you out. There are audio files of the dialogue between them. Instead of Mapes telling you to divert power from the doors/destroy the reactor, you overhear him telling Fettel this information instead.

• Another has Mapes coordinating ATC security troops at the docks. There are audio files of intercepted transmissions of him giving orders by walkie-talkie. There is also an audio file, presumbably intended for when you meet Mapes yourself, where Betters says something like "that voice sounds awfully familar, you don't think that could be the same guy who was coordinating ATC security at the docks?" There are also textures for a car with Mapes' name attached.

• There was also quite a bit of voice work done for a training section, including a line where Betters says something like "I just realized, you never signed your transfer papers. That means you're not even getting paid for this shit." Another has Jin saying "I'll be the one to stitch you up if you get injured."

• In addition, there are in some cases multiple files for the same basic bit of voice work, with very subtle differences. Among these are different versions of Mapes' responses when you meet him, including a different reading of the line "no, you can't, it's on a separate network" without the condescending tone to it. There are also a number of Holiday's lines which seem to have been performed for a white version of the character, that, or the voice actor had a bad head cold.

• In an alternate bit of Betters dialogue, instead of "THAT's what Fettel is up to, he's going home," he instead says (in a sarcastic tone) "..., he wants his mommy."

• There is an alternate file where Mapes introduces himself as "Norman Mapes."

• Throughout the game, there is a science magazine that has "Event Horizon Found!" on the cover. This is a reference to the plot of the horror movie Event Horizon.

Reaction

On February 2, 2006, the game won the "Best Graphics" and "Best Technology" awards at the 2006 Imagina Games Awards. [1]

Game Reviews

• PC Gamer magazine: 92%
• Maximum PC magazine: 8 out of 10
• Joystiq: 8.5 out of 10 (85%)
• Gamespot: 9.1 / 10

See also

• First-person shooters
• PANICS, the F.E.A.R. promotional machinima project by Rooster Teeth Productions.

External links

• F.E.A.R. Official Website
• F.E.A.R. Version 1.03 Patch
• F.E.A.R. Wiki
• FEARgame.pl (fansite)
• FEARgame.net (Fansite)
• F.E.A.R. Tweak Guide
• F.E.A.R. Fans (Fansite)
• List of mirrors for single-player demo
• F.E.A.R Portal
• IGN: F.E.A.R.
• UGO's Future of Gaming - F.E.A.R.
• F.E.A.R at MobyGames
• F.E.A.R. fan fiction contest at The Horror Channel
• F.E.A.R. news coverage at The Horror Channel
• Interview with John Carpenter about F.E.A.R. at The Horror Channel
• NTSC-uk's review of F.E.A.R.