List of F.E.A.R. characters & organizations
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A list of F.E.A.R. characters & organizations is supplied here with descriptions of both characters and the organizations they belong to from the Monolith Productions' computer game F.E.A.R. - First Encounter Assault Recon, it also includes details from the expansion F.E.A.R. Extraction Point.
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[edit] F.E.A.R. members and allies
This section covers the members and allies of the F.E.A.R. team, including Delta Force members.
[edit] The Point Man (main character)
The player character, a silent protagonist, is referred to as "the F.E.A.R. Point Man" by the mission briefings and "The New Guy" by some of the F.E.A.R. team members. Little is known about him in the beginning, aside from his gender, the fact that he has been on the team for only a week and his role as "point man".
Although the Point Man's character model is never explicitly shown in-game, his reflection can be seen in water if the graphical shader settings are set to maximum. He wears a cloth balaclava mask that completely conceals his face, the same F.E.A.R. uniform worn by Jankowski, and what appear to be red goggles. He never speaks in the game in spite of seeing several surreal events (though he can be heard breathing heavily in some circumstances).
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 (SlowMo effect). In fact, while in SlowMo, the Point Man's reflexes are 5 times faster than that of a normal human, and he also moves twice as fast as normal.
Initially, the F.E.A.R. Point Man's origins and identity are unclear to the player. At the beginning of the game, the Point Man has a flashback where a young woman's voice is heard saying "No, where are you taking him!" and a doctor (who is later revealed as Harlan Wade) saying: "You will be a god among men". Later in the game, Paxton Fettel, the chief villain of the game, confronts the Point Man and asks him "What's the first thing you remember? What's your given name? You have no history."
It is ultimately revealed that he was the first child of Alma and thus Project Origin's "first prototype". This suggests that the mysterious visions the F.E.A.R. Point Man witnesses are due to psychic phenomena, and also hints that his super-human reflexes may be a product of Project Origin's research. It may also be inferred that he is the grandson of Harlan Wade and nephew of Alice Wade, though she is evidently unaware of his identity.
The final conversation between Genevieve Aristide and the mysterious "Senator" implies that Armacham used Fettel's uprising as an opportunity to field test the F.E.A.R. Point Man's abilities, in order to evaluate his strengths and weaknesses and assess his ability to operate in a hostile environment, suggesting he may in fact have been a puppet of Genevieve's machinations all along.
[edit] "Rowdy" Betters
Commissioner Betters (voiced by Jim Ward) 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. Speaking with a noticeable mid-western accent, 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.
Betters is heard from briefly at the end of F.E.A.R. Extraction Point. After Alma's presence vanishes from the hospital, the radio jamming that had previously affected the area is lifted long enough for Betters to radio the Point Man and tell him that an extraction helicopter is arriving for him on the hospital roof.
[edit] Spen Jankowski
Jankowski (voiced by Tim Gouran) is a foul-mouthed veteran of the F.E.A.R. team with a shaved head. Jankowski is the team's previous point man, and he lacks faith in the "New Guy's" capabilities, remarking that he was transferred to F.E.A.R. only a week before the initial events in the game: Jankowski believes the new point man's lack of experience makes him unsuitable for the upcoming mission. This sequence of mistrust continues with an overheard conversation between Jankowski and Jin, in which Jankowski admits to feeling uneasy around the F.E.A.R. Point Man, claiming to feel as though "he is being looked right through".
During the first encounter with Fettel's clone army, the F.E.A.R. point man's delta squad escort is killed by Alma, and his objective changes to regrouping with Jankowski's team. However, as the point man advances through the building, Jankowski disappears while investigating for signs of Paxton Fettel. Throughout the rest of the trip through the plant, Jankowski occasionally appears to the F.E.A.R. Point Man, both as a ghostly vision with his eyes plucked out and bleeding, and a spiritual hallucination walking through the plant only to crumble into dust when he is approached, all of these warning the protagonist about Alma. Later on, Jin informs the F.E.A.R. team over the radio that she has discovered human remains that might be Jankowski's, although they are impossible to identify without lab work. Betters claims that "It can't be him", as although all signs seem to point to Jankowski having been killed by Alma, his erratic life-signs are still detected by The Commissioner for quite a while both at the plant and later at the ATC headquarters. About mid-way through the point man's advancement through ATC, Betters informs him that the fire-and-rescue team in charge of searching for Jankowski have given up and aborted their mission.
In the DVD Director's cut commentary, the developers remark that the player was originally supposed to discover Jankowski's corpse early on in the game, but they decided it would be more atmospheric for Jankowski's remains to be undiscovered and his ultimate fate unknown.
During F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, Paxton Fettel confronts F.E.A.R. technical officer Jin Sun-Kwon in a psychic vision. During the vision, Fettel brags about "tasting" Jankowski's visions, a ghostly vision of Jankowski then appears and begins to approach Kwon. Kwon mentions that his eyes look strange, an allusion to the fact that Jankowski's ghost is missing his eyes.
Jankowski's ghost also appears briefly to the Point Man, during the Point Man's attempt to reach Kwon at the hospital and save her. Jankowski tells the Point Man to "hurry".
[edit] Jin Sun-Kwon
Jin (voiced by Susanna Burney) is the F.E.A.R. technical officer. A striking, level-headed Korean American woman of small build, she 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 speaks fondly of the F.E.A.R. Point Man, describing him as "cute" when asked about him by Jankowski. After a helicopter crash, Douglas Holiday still manages to joke with the F.E.A.R. Point Man about Jin being "your [his] girlfriend". Nonetheless Jin seems to have a genuine liking for the new F.E.A.R. Point Man.
Jin Sun-Kwon 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 the red index fingers of both her gloves, i.e, her "trigger" fingers.
In F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, Kwon survives the helicopter crash along with Holiday and the Point Man, but the Point Man is cut off from them. While attempting to reunite, Holiday and Kwon are ambushed by Replica soldiers, and Kwon is captured by the Replicas. However, she manages to free herself and escape while in the subway, commenting to Holiday and the Point Man, "I am not Alice Wade". Kwon then tells the F.E.A.R. Point Man to meet up with her at the Auburn Memorial Hospital.
After Holiday's death at the hands of supernatural creatures, the Point Man receives several radio transmissions from Kwon warning him of Replica forces as well as otherworldly entities hunting him. The Point Man also has a psychic vision of Paxton Fettel confront Kwon. Fettel promises not to harm Kwon, but says that he can't say the same for his mother. In her final transmission, Kwon expresses concern that the Point Man isn't coming for her, and despairs that she is going to die alone with "them".
After finally reaching the hospital, the Point Man hears Kwon scream from one floor above him. He bursts into the room, only to find four ghostly figures floating around her dead body.
[edit] Douglas Holiday
A unit leader of the Delta Force detachment assigned to accompany F.E.A.R., Douglas Holiday (voiced by David Scully) is a skilled 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 a Delta Force unit leader. Holiday can also be seen in promotional pictures of the game wearing the F.E.A.R uniform during a fire-fight.
Holiday plays a more active role in the F.E.A.R. Extraction Point expansion pack. He accompanies the Point Man through a couple of the expansion pack's earlier levels, and even assists the Point Man in several firefights against Replica forces. (The original F.E.A.R. did not feature friendly AI characters in combat).
Holiday is brutally murdered by Alma halfway through the expansion pack. He and the F.E.A.R. Point Man stumble into a room with a bloody symbol on the ground. After Holiday stands on this symbol, the lights begin to flicker, and Holiday expresses his worry. After the lights flicker a number of times more, naked, emaciated corpse-like creatures appear and with each flicker move closer. However, after the supernatural entities get closer, they disappear after one more flicker of the lights. All of a sudden, Holiday begins to contort as if punched by something unseen, and is dragged around the room by invisible forces. He is pulled to the doorway of the room, at which he grabs onto the frame, resisting the pull of the creatures now visible beyond the threshold, and tells the F.E.A.R. Point Man to "Find Jin!" before he is dragged inside. Moments later, he is shot out through the wall, and his still screaming body is torn apart with his leg being eaten, then thrown through the exit door. The Point Man then sprints outside to find Holiday's corpse, before it is pulled into a window, and disappears in a bloody splatter.
In the Xbox 360 version of F.E.A.R., Holiday is a playable character in a brief side-story mission, where he must protect Aldus Bishop. Holiday lacks the SlowMo ability possessed by the Point Man, making him a more challenging character to play.
[edit] Delta Force operatives
Several SFOD-D (Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta) soldiers appear in the game, all wearing a green camouflage uniform complete with kevlar vest and helmet and carrying a submachine gun as weapon. SFOD-D soldiers often accompany F.E.A.R. agents or other characters, like operative Passalaqua, a SFOD-D seen escorting Jin Sun-Kwon and later Holiday. Other SFOD-Ds are killed by the Replicas or become victims of Alma: e.g., operatives Atwood and MacCready are both shot by Replicas during helicopter insertion at the ATC headquarters.
An unseen SFOD-D member is A. Shepherd (possibly a reference to Adrian Shephard of Half-Life: Opposing Force), who acts as the main coordinator for the Delta Force teams and works in conjunction with Betters. He appears to be a cautious leader, reluctant to send in more of his men after losing contact with the first recon team.
In the F.E.A.R. Extraction Point expansion pack, Holiday mentions that he has made contact with scattered groups of Delta Force survivors in the city. The corpses of Delta Force operatives are also found throughout the expansion pack, mainly in Auburn Hospital, which was supposed to serve as their extraction point.
Delta Force operatives also make three brief live appearances in the expansion pack. In the subway, two Delta Force soldiers are briefly seen fighting against 2 Heavy Armor Minigunners. In the parking garage, two Delta Force soldiers can be seen battling a REV 8 Leviathan. One of them, equipped with a rocket launcher, somehow manages to set off a massive explosion, destroying the Leviathan but also killing themselves in the process. In the hospital, a Delta Force operative is violently dragged into the ceiling and torn to pieces by one of the Alma's shadow creatures.
Due to the amount of gruesome casualties the Delta Force operatives endure, the games producers included a comedic message during the credits, stating: "No actual Delta Force Operatives were harmed in the making of this game".
[edit] Armacham Personnel
This section covers the notable employees of Armacham Technology Corporation.
[edit] Harlan Wade
Harlan Wade (voiced by Grant Goodeve) is an elderly scientist who has worked at Armacham for decades. 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 F.E.A.R. Point Man, the first "prototype" produced by Origin.
In voicemails, Harlan Wade sides with Charles Habeggar in his recommendation to suspend the Perseus project, saying in one message to an employee named Mike that they should listen to the "expert advice" they're being given. He is infuriated when Genevieve Aristide decides to reopen the original location of the Origin facility after decades of lockdown, and is determined to keep her away from the vault. At the end, when he hears from Phil Vecchio of the plan to destroy the Origin facility outright, Wade decides to release Alma, stating: "She has suffered enough, don't you think?".
Alma shares Harlan Wade's 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.
Wade is immediately killed by Alma upon the opening of the Vault in which she was kept, having all his flesh blown off in a shower of blood, leaving nothing but a skeleton left. He seemed to have no intention to avoid this however, stating earlier in a recorded video that "It is the way of men to make monsters. And it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers". In F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, he can be seen sitting in a corner of a cell during a hallucination at Auburn Hospital.
[edit] Alice Wade
Alice Wade (voiced by Melissa Roberts) is the daughter of Harlan Wade, and an employee of ATC. In conjunction with Aldus Bishop, she was part of a task force studying the analysis on contamination down at the South River water purification plant. The data she had been able to collect seemed to point out that the contamination originated from a location downriver of the plant, just where ATC's Origin facility is hidden. She has a strong fear of flying.
During the game, she is rescued from Replica forces by the Point Man and requests that her father, Harlan Wade be found, stating that she can't leave without him. The Point Man escorts her to a rescue helicopter provided by F.E.A.R.
Alice Wade spends her initial appearance as an anxious person, and subsequently panics and runs off from protective custody of the F.E.A.R. team after the UH-60 Black Hawk transport arriving to rescue her was shot down by a Mil Mi-24 Hind under the control of Fettel's clone soldiers. Separated from the F.E.A.R. operatives, she rushes to the Auburn district in search of her father, but is subsequently taken prisoner and killed by Paxton Fettel. Her corpse is partially cannibalized when the F.E.A.R. Point Man finally reaches her again. In the expansion, during a hallucination, Alice Wade, like Harlan Wade, can be observed sitting on a rusty bed with her arms crossed, shaking her head.
[edit] 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 intro and post-credit sequences. She tried to have the secret Origin facility, where Alma was held, reopened despite Harlan Wade's resistance and warnings, but only regretted it later when the first few teams sent down did not return. Her original intention was to remodel the site and start over, but after it became clear that this would be impossible, she was determined to have the entire facility destroyed. It is likely that she decided to use this opportunity to test out the other Origin prototype, the F.E.A.R. Point Man, which she proclaims successful during her final conversation with the senator.
[edit] Aldus Bishop
Aldus Bishop is another employee of Armacham and, along with Alice Wade, he has been assigned to a special task force dispatched to investigate reported disturbances occurring in the Auburn district over 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 F.E.A.R. Point Man 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 F.E.A.R. team, he would most likely have faced the same fate as Fettel's other cannibalized victims, Charles Habegger and Bill Moody.
Bishop is later killed, off-screen, by the very organization that hired him, Armacham Technology Corporation, just as he is being evacuated by helicopter. His death serves as a chilling reminder of the extent to which Genevieve Aristide is willing to 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, appears once to the protagonist. His apparition apparently being used as another way to frighten the player and provide a background of what he and Alice Wade might have uncovered about Armacham.
[edit] Norton Mapes
Norton Mapes is a grossly overweight, geeky engineer employed by Armacham, and one of the few 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; anyplace he is seen is often littered with empty Cheezee Pooz bags. 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. Fearful that Wade will release Alma, Norton Mapes finally decides to help the Point Man, by telling him how to get into the vault and how to destroy it. Mapes is last seen sitting on the ground cradling his gunshot wound, as the Point Man begins his descent into the Vault.
Mapes reappears in F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, where he is hiding from Replica forces in the subway system by staying out of sight in a food stand. His Hawaiian T-shirt still has the bloodstain from when Harlan Wade shot him in the chest. It is unknown how Mapes was able to escape the Origin Facility, but he claims that the F.E.A.R. Point Man owes him a debt (probably referring to him telling the Point Man how to destroy the Origin Facility). Mapes opens a locked door for the Point Man and demands that the Point Man take him along to escape the city, but is quickly scared off by flickering lights and a ghostly howl, fleeing back into the food stand and locking himself in. It is suggested that Mapes was also at Auburn Hospital as the Point Man encounters a patient room filled with empty Cheezee Pooz bags.
Although it is unclear how Mapes managed to survive the destruction of the Origin facility; he does not demonstrate the ghostly characteristics shown by Jankowski's or Bishop's phantoms (such as vanishing in plain sight or appearing only during psychic visions) and thus there is no evidence to suggest that he is a ghost.
Another change to Mapes is his voice, making it possible that the original voice actor could not be used for the additional dialogue in the expansion pack.
Mapes also appears in a couple surreal easter eggs in the hospital:
- In the level "Malignancy", if the player shoots several times at the air vent above the painting of the waterfall in room 56B (after the nurse creature, just to the right of the door the invisible creature tries to smash), the wall in the room will open up, leading to a secret area with Mapes doing a bizarre dance in front of a weird picture. The player can then shoot Mapes to kill him. In the level "Dark Heart", after Alma's two halves reunite, a secret room can be found in the storage room by entering the vent system above a stack of white crates, then smashing the spinning fan inside to get past. Norton Mape's ragdoll body will be dancing in a multicolored room with the theme music from Shogo: Mobile Armor Division playing in the background.
[edit] Charles Habegger
The first ATC employee encountered in the game, Charles Habegger is already dead when the F.E.A.R. operatives find him, tied to a chair with his face partially cannibalized. However, his voice is later heard in several phone messages throughout the game. He was cannibalized by Paxton Fettel, likely after being interrogated about the location of the Vault. Before he died, Habeggar recommended that the Perseus project be suspended temporarily due to the likelihood of another synchronicity event. He later became angry, when someone refused to listen to his advice, stating in another phone message that the last synchronicity event, which led to the Origin project being permanently shut down, occurred when Fettel was only a child. Another synchronicity event, he said, would be much more catastrophic, now that Fettel is an adult. He also tried to convince Harlan Wade that they needed to purge the Vault. Charles refers to himself in voicemail messages as Chuck.
[edit] Bill Moody
Bill Moody first appears in a vision, in which he is being interrogated by Paxton Fettel about Alma's location. During this scene, Bill Moody claims that he doesn't know what Fettel is talking about, which is probably true, as phone messages later in the game suggest that Bill Moody does not know about the atrocities surrounding the Origin project, and that other Armacham employees ignore him when he becomes concerned about his findings. Iain Hives, at one point, refuses to give Bill Moody any information, saying that it's "strictly need-to-know," and later tells another employee named Janice to "act like you give a shit about his concerns." Bill Moody is still barely alive when the F.E.A.R. Point Man finds him, but soon dies, managing only to warn the him that Fettel is looking for Alma. He reappears in a hallucination in the expansion pack, where he can be seen clutching his head, screaming in a prison cell.
[edit] Marshall Disler
Like Genevieve Aristide, Marshall Disler is an unseen character, and is only heard through phone messages circulating between him and several other employees. It appears that he is cooperating with Aristide's plan to cover up the Origin project. When Charles Habeggar first recommends that the Perseus project be suspended, Marshall Disler backs him up on this, agreeing that the slightest chance of another synchronicity event needs to be taken seriously. Afterwards, he goes to the Perseus compound to check things out himself.
Marshall Disler might still be alive by the end of the game, since his body was never found, but it is likely that he was killed, since a distressed phone message from him indicates that he was still at the Perseus compound when the Replica soldiers attacked. Disler is also the one who found out that Alma was telepathic, as claimed by Harlan Wade in a recorded video.
[edit] Phil Vecchio
Another minor unseen character is Phil Vecchio, who is heard in voicemail messages between both Genevieve Aristide and Harlan Wade. Aristide tries to get Phil Vecchio to reason with Harlan Wade, who refuses to forgive her for "sending those poor people into the Vault." However, Phil Vecchio sides with Harlan, and tells Aristide that reopening the vault could be dangerous. It is then that Genevieve Aristide reveals her intentions to destroy the Vault, and Phil Vecchio then relays this information back to Harlan Wade.
[edit] Iain Hives
Hives is a minor character, but appears quite often in voicemails. He and his task force are researching the Origin anomalies for Genevieve Aristide. Based on what his voicemails say, it is clear that Hives doesn't know the full extent of the Origin project. However, he does attempt to keep information from Bill Moody, and ignores Bill Moody's concerns about contamination in residential areas. His limited knowledge of the project is nonetheless enough to warrant being directly targeted by ATC Security soldiers during the incident in an attempt to cover up Origin. He also warns Norton Mapes about his behavior toward Alice Wade, worrying that a sexual harassment case would bring the project into the open.
[edit] Enemies
This section covers the enemies that the player character actually fights against in the game, as well as Paxton Fettel, the F.E.A.R. team's main target, and Alma.
[edit] Paxton Fettel
(voiced by Peter Lurie) A product of Armacham Technology Corporation's secretive Origin project, Paxton Fettel commands an entire battalion of highly-trained, heavily-armed "Replica" (clone) supersoldiers that take orders directly from Paxton telepathically. However, the soldiers are able to act fairly independently within the confines of Fettel's mind control, relying on using military jargon to communicate amongst themselves. This system was developed by ATC in a U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored project known as "Perseus".
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, known as a Synchronicity Event, 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 directly involved in the Origin project. He often appears to the F.E.A.R. Point Man for brief moments of time before dissolving into ash: these are hallucinations caused by Alma's and Fettel's psychic abilities.
It is revealed near the end that Alma was his mother, and that leading his battalion of Replica 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 player near the end of the game in the secret underground facility. He reappears in the expansion pack after Alma revives him and reactivates his Replica soldiers, telling the player, "I know, it makes no sense. Not much does anymore... You killed me. I didn't like that." He reappears throughout the expansion, usually with a squadron of soldiers. At the end of the expansion, Fettel destroys the Black Hawk helicopter that attempts to rescue the Point Man at Auburn Hospital's roof and claims that the player has only delayed their doom. He then claims that a war is coming. His fate remains unknown.
[edit] Alma Wade
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 both Fettel and some laptops scattered throughout the game. She appears as a little eight year old girl wearing a red dress and has a disturbingly blank, mask-like face almost completely obscured by long black hair. In the final part of the game, however, her appearance changes to that of an emaciated young woman. Right from her first appearance, it is never quite clear if Alma is real, or only exists in the minds of the people seeing her.
She appears to be an onryō, inspired by the character of Samara from the movie The Ring a derivative of the Japanese original Ringu. The prequel interview on the DVD version of the game also shows similarities to an interview in that movie. Both Samara and Alma had strong psychic influence, were left to die alone after several days, and harbor an afterlife rage and resentment. They also manifest their appearance in a similar manner.[citation needed]
Alma was a severely troubled child, gifted with tremendous psychic powers, who suffered nightmares and apparently was attuned to the negative emotions of the people around her. Her last name being Wade is revealed at the climax of the game, giving a strong implication that she is the daughter of Harlan Wade, although technically this is never explicitly stated.
At the age of eight, she was recruited into ATC project Origin with the aim of creating psychic individuals from a psychic forbearer: she was put into an induced coma and locked in the Vault, a spherical structure located deep inside the secret Origin facility. During the project, Alma was impregnated twice, but it is never revealed who the father of her children might be. She gave birth to a first prototype, the F.E.A.R. Point Man, and then a second, Paxton Fettel, before the project was closed down. Life support was removed from the Vault, leading the ATC to believe she was dead.
Alma is capable of linking her mind with Paxton Fettel during the so called "synchronicity events", where she is able to use him as a means to take her revenge: this is clearly shown in the game intro where she whispers to Fettel and then frees him from his cell. Among Alma's other powers, she is able to kill people by a psychic attack that liquefies their flesh, something she does several times across the game. She can also create a number of different hallucinations, manifesting her own appearance or that of other people, but she can also take the player character into her dream world, where Alma is even able to summon malevolent phantoms known as "Nightmares". Alma also seems to display other powers associated with the mind. It is assumed she can perform pyrokinesis, as seen during one encounter when she sets off fiery explosions through an entire corridor, hurling the Point Man through a window. It can also be inferred that she has some level of telekinesis, as random objects move with her approach, or even in her absence. It is important to note that the Point Man may be simply hallucinating, an effect of Alma's psychic abilities.
Alma is seen repeatedly across the game, often only out of the corner of the player's eye, standing in the shadows or darting quickly out of sight. Her appearances are usually preceded by a static radio transmission, logged as "Unknown Origin". As her appearances are almost always accompanied by scenes of extreme violence, this rapidly becomes extremely unnerving. Sometimes all that is heard is her soft, giggling laugh, or indistinct words whispered as though in the player's ear.
In the Extraction Point expansion pack, the role Alma plays begins to become more confusing. Though the hallucinations and apparitions continue to appear, she can be heard seemingly asking the player for help right before such events. In one instance she whispers, "Don't let them hurt me..." immediately before the appearance of otherworldly creatures. Even more confusing is an encounter in which she kills a squad of Replicas that are pinning the player down. Afterwards, the player hears her whisper, "You're safe now".
It should be noted that two instances of Alma can appear: a small girl in a red dress and a naked, older Alma with long hair. When the former appears, Alma is either observing the Point Man or aiding the Point Man, usually by clearing enemy troops in his way. (Being the F.E.A.R. Point Man' mother, this might indicate the part of her with humility and her motherly side.) When the latter appears, Alma is trying to hurt and slow the progress of the Point Man either by physically attacking him or sending Nightmares after him. Near the end of the expansion pack, the two instances of Alma can be seen converging. After the convergence is complete, the Point Man is able to reestablish communications with FEAR coordinator Betters (such communication was previously impossible due to interference most likely caused by Alma).
[edit] Alma's apparitions
In the last stages of the game, Alma is shown to have the ability to summon ghostly apparitions, called Nightmares. These creatures have the form of dark shadows and appear only as an upper torso, attacking the protagonist with a simple mêlée attack, destroying themselves in the process. They also tend to attack in large numbers.
In the expansion F.E.A.R. Extraction Point more creatures are introduced. One is a wall-crawling spider-like entity whose abilities are currently unknown; another is a nearly invisible, humanoid phantom with glowing red eyes that relies on melee attacks similar to those of the Assassins and are occasionally seen killing Replica soldiers. There is also an emaciated corpse-like apparition which appears during the deaths of Douglas Holiday and Jin Sun-Kwon. In one part of the Auburn Memorial Hospital, one of these corpses can be seen turning into one of the invisible phantoms mid-jump against some double doors, making the doors unable to open and blocking the player from that entrance.
[edit] Replica soldiers
These are cloned "super soldiers" that operate under the psychic control of Paxton Fettel as part of the Perseus project; they comprise the bulk of the opposition the F.E.A.R. Point Man encounters. They have no special abilities aside from their speed and skill, which are considerable. Despite their psychic link to Fettel, they rely on radio chatter to communicate between themselves, such as: "Echo 12, we have reports of a possible intruder in your vicinity.", "We haven't seen anything.", "Roger, keep your eyes open.". This both gives away their position and informs the player when the majority of a unit is wiped out (from their communications asking for help or reinforcements). While the soldiers are able to operate somewhat independently, they show no individual traits aside from call signs ("Echo 12", "Echo 5" and so on) and their faces are never shown. Several radio transmissions indicate these soldiers can take orders from another Replica soldier, but nothing further is revealed about their rank or hierarchy.
Several different types of uniforms can be seen, but only one of these seems to signify anything unique: the soldiers guarding the Vault at the very end of the game have a red, white, and black uniform paired to white masks with glowing yellow eyes. These soldiers are referred to as "Replica Elites": they can survive somewhat more damage than regular Replica soldiers, and some carry "Obregon" MP-50 Repeating Cannons.
A new type of Replica soldier appears in the F.E.A.R. Extraction Point expansion pack. These Replicas wear a steel helmet with steel plate armor over a black bodysuit. A few of them carry the new Type-12 Laser Carbine weapon introduced in the expansion pack.
A conversation near the game's start indicates the Replica soldiers are highly trained. This implies that they have some ability for independent thought and memory. It may be that the soldiers require Fettel's control to simply turn on and provide updated intelligence, but otherwise act and behave as humans, clearly showing human characteristics such as anger, surprise, and profanity.
The prequel video on the DVD version of the game indicates Alma is able to receive information from the Replica soldiers, although so abstractly she does not know who or what they are. It is possible she was communicating with prototypes of these soldiers and not the ones in the game.
[edit] Heavy Armor
These Replica soldiers are outfitted with a heavy and cumbersome armor suit, giving them a large degree of protection, but drastically reducing their speed and maneuverability. They are armed primarily with the Heavy Penetrator nailgun, although some are deployed with the Armacham Type-7 Particle Weapon or the Rocket Launcher as well.
They are significantly taller and larger than other Replica soldiers and, when killed, they emit a loud growling/wailing sound that seems inhuman, although it is never made clear precisely what the sound is. It is interesting to note that at the end of the low-pitched scream, unclear radio communications can be heard, which quickly fade to static and then stop.
Highly durable, a Heavy Replica soldier can survive roughly 6 times as much damage as a normal Replica soldier, and require more than a full clip or magazine of ammo from most weapons to bring down. It seems that the Heavy Penetrator nailgun is the best gun for killing them. They also appear to have some degree of superhuman strength, as early in the game one of them is seen peeling open a metal door by ramming it with his shoulder. In the expansion pack, a Heavy Armor is shown knocking down a concrete subway wall.
In the F.E.A.R. Extraction Point expansion pack, a new type of Heavy Armor soldier is introduced, carrying a riot shield in one hand and a minigun in the other.
[edit] REV6 mech soldiers
Mech soldiers are rarely encountered units that are often dropped into combat zones by a helicopter. These foes comprise of a Replica soldier wearing an experimental ATC powered armor unit, which is equipped with either dual arm-mounted rocket launchers or dual lasers similar to those possessed by the ATC UAVs. They are not just powerful in firepower, but also perform monstrously damaging punches, which can knock the player completely off balance. Mech soldiers are heavily armored and extremely hard to kill, as they can survive more than a dozen times as much damage as a normal Replica soldier, requiring the usage of explosives and heavy weapons to best deal with them. Despite their large size, Mechs are highly maneuverable, with about the same speed as a regular Replica soldier.
[edit] REV8 Leviathan
Only seen twice in FEAR Extraction Point, these units are tougher and stronger then REV6 units. They are equipped with the same type of weapon as the REV6; rockets. Their strength and armor is incredible, allowing them to charge through steel-reinforced concrete structural supports with little effort. Since they are able to survive approximately 3 times as much damage as a REV6 Mech soldier, a ridiculous amount of heavy weapons and explosives is required to disable these units.
[edit] Assassins
These special, rarely encountered stealth soldiers were created by Armacham's Icarus Project before it was shut down. Being specially bio-engineered Replicas, they possess amazing speed and agility. They are also equipped with special cloaking devices that allow them to become nearly invisible, resulting in a visual effect that resembles the stealth technology seen in the movie Predator. Assassins can attach themselves to walls, and give away their presence by a sound similar to rubber stretching, which may be the adhesion device holding them to the wall. While they are extremely fast, they rely on physical mêlée attacks rather than weapons to attack, this is due to the fact that their stealth technology only cloaks itself and anything inside of it, items such as grenades or firearms would not be concealed and a floating weapon would give away their position. They fight with hit-and-run tactics, striking first then retreating into other rooms, onto walls or ceilings, or to higher ground. They make no sound when killed, but produce several harmless bolts of electricity.
[edit] ATC security guards
ATC Security personnel are simply normal humans wearing light armor vests, assigned to guard Armacham Technology Corporation from outside threats. They deploy with a number of different weapons, ranging from SMGs to various types of assault rifles or shotguns. ATC Security is under orders to cover up ATC's illicit activities, which includes silencing witnesses and attacking anyone who may interfere with their objectives. This involves executing Bishop, as well as at least a few other employees. They also use the same team tactics used by Replica soldiers--flanking the player, covering each other, and using grenades to flush the player out.
Noticeably, ATC security guards communicate with each other significantly less than Replica soldiers. It is unclear whether this is because they are less coordinated, or if they simply do not speak as much to save on voice acting data (as ATC guards use a different voice set than Replica soldiers).
[edit] UAVs
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are rarely encountered, floating mechanisms most likely built by ATC. UAVs have three extensions that radiate from their center, tipped with small jets to get around. The player only encounters these mechanized craft a few times, and are given away by a sound that is similar to a gunshot and a bright blue glow. They are armed with a laser blaster that can be quickly fired, possibly obstructing the player's aim. The lasers they use to attack don't do much damage, but when UAVs attack in groups, they can overwhelm a player. The player only needs to use several well aimed shots before he destroys a UAV. It should be noted that in early parts of the game, schematics for the UAVs can be seen strewn across desks and tables.
[edit] Defense turrets
Defense turrets, like the aforementioned UAVs, are encountered only a few times. The first time is when the player reaches Norton Mapes after he runs away. The second time, Mapes presses a button which activates a turret. The turrets are capable of causing fair damage and take quite a few shots before being destroyed. These turrets are fully automatic, and are tripped by a motion detector security system, which consists of a loud alarm, followed by the turret being lowered from the ceiling. Later in the level, the player is able to take control of the turrets and use them to clear the rooms of enemies (wherever the turret is stationed). If the turret is destroyed and the player is using it, he is forced off of the controls. The turret's health can be read by three bars at the corner of the screen. If one of the bars turns from green to red, beeping can be heard. When the turret is only a few shots away from being inoperable, a large crack in the lens can be seen, obstructing the players view, as well as alerting him that the turret is almost destroyed.
[edit] Organizations and terms
This section covers the other organizations at work within the game, as well as a summary of the terminology presented within the game.
[edit] F.E.A.R. 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, it is apparent that F.E.A.R. operatives are rarely taken 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.
[edit] 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 the Point Man in his mission, this proves ultimately irrelevant as through some circumstance or another they are separated from the player, often by having them die, through some contrived means, at or soon after the commencement of a level. In the expansion, the player is tasked with rejoining the remnants of the SFOD-D. Unfortunately, they also die via contrived means.
[edit] Armacham Technology Corporation
A fictional corporation, Armacham Technology 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 cryogenic 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 Fettel's control wreak 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.
The status of ATC is unknown after FEAR ends. In the expansion, the Point Man finds numerous ATC labeled boxes though Replica soldiers are seen moving them through the game. The Point Man also enters an ATC warehouse with Replica soldiers inside and dead ATC security guards lying around.
ATC's logo sharply resembles that of Initech from the movie Office Space. The similarity is likely intentional; one can find "TPS Report" sheets and red staplers on desks in the office (both were recurring jokes in the film).
[edit] Project Icarus
An ATC bioengineering research project that stemmed from studies on microgravity related health problems. Icarus was later cancelled by ATC in favor of a new project code-named "Perseus". Apparently all that was left of Icarus after its closure are a number of "prototype" soldiers gifted with lightning fast agility and extraordinary strength.
[edit] Project Origin
It is never made quite clear what the ultimate goal of the Origin project is, but it was created as a means of genetically engineering extremely powerful psychics, very possibly for military purposes, as some kind of super-soldier. The project was carried out in secret in an underground military facility which ATC purchased from the government in the 1950s. 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 him or her, perhaps modifying his or her mind to produce greater powers. The psychic chosen was Alma Wade, apparently the daughter of project founder Harlan Wade.
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 labor.
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 (later found to be the player, i.e. the Point Man) 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".
Later Genevieve Aristide, president of ATC, tried to reactivate the facility as the first step of resurrecting Origin, sending teams down 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. Free to once again make contact with Fettel, Alma triggers a second synchronicity event, which causes the crisis F.E.A.R., and thus the Point Man, is called to put down.
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 character.
[edit] Project Perseus
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. Fettel's ability to control the cloned soldiers is what made a synchronicity event with Alma so dangerous. The Perseus project was based in a facility separate from the main ATC headquarters, as evidenced by several phone messages reporting 'gunshots' at the 'Perseus facility', pleading for 'all available security teams to be sent to lock this place down'. It is shown that the Replica soldiers involved in the project left the Perseus facility to fan out to their respective objectives via wheeled armored personnel carriers closely resembling armored cars and at least one heavily armed Hind D gunship.
[edit] Auburn police
Their involvement in the game is minimal. The player never sees them nor does he ever come into contact with them. From the numerous news radio reports in the game, it is known that they blocked off and evacuated the Auburn water treatment plant as well as ATC headquarters during the various crises there. They are nowhere to be seen in F.E.A.R. Extraction Point.
