FEAR spoliers!

[Calax]

The plot starts out with the player character learning of a uprising by a Telepathic Commander (Paxton Fettel) of a battalion of clone soldiers (called Replicas, they're the main enemy that you fight). You play the FEAR point man, it's his first day on the job (FEAR standing for First Encounter Assault and Recon, the Army's supernatural divison), and his goal is to kill Fettel.

 

The plot starts unraveling when Fettel attacks Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC), most of the plot is conveyed via laptops and phone messages that you find and listen to. It started with a water analysis for contamination, there are also hints early on of a project origin and icarus. Basically the plot is this. 10 Years prior to the events of the game, a scientist at ATC decided to try to breed powerful psychics. His daughter (named Alma) was the most powerful anyone had ever seen but it seemed like she could only draw upon nightmares. She was six at the time of her last moments being somewhat free and awake. Harlan Wade (the scientist) basically put her into a coma. Once her body was fertile and up to dealing with pregnancy and birth, he knocked her up using his own genetic code. She was 16 at the time of her first birth, dispite being given enough drugs to knock out a rhino, she was still able to sense what was happening and cried for her child after she gave birth. They ignored her and put her back into her coma and after the first child showed no signs of being psychic, tried again. The second child was a psychic right off the bat, problem was that while Alma was in a coma, her mind found a way to project herself telepathically and manipulate the world.

 

When her second son (who turns out to be Fettel) was six she was able to talk to him and he went nuts. It's not detailed exactly what happened just that because of the communication something disastrous happened that caused the whole program (Project Origin) to be shut down. They took Alma, and tossed her into a cryogenic containment cell and buried the entire facility. Fettel they kept and eventually tried to use him in the Replica project. Anyway, Alma's psychic powers were so great that the people around where she was buried felt haunted and moved away. Initially it's explained in game as a water contamination, but later it's revealed that its Alma. Anyway I think the timeline got a little screwy, but enough time passes that both Alma's children grew up while she stayed frozen at age 16. Eventually the CEO of Armacham decides to clean out the site that Project Origin was buried in, and this lead to Alma being able to manipulate the physical world and talk to Fettel again. He rebels and FEAR is called in to take care of him. Alma was biologically dead but still able to psychically communicate and manipulate the world (don't ask me how, according to the game she died while in the cryo cell). Fettel during the course of the game is doing his best to find and free Alma from her cell, he is able to find all the old members of the Project Origin team and interrogates them. If he doesn't get what he wants he eats their brains to get the info. Anyway the FEAR guy chases Fettel, and eventually Fettel finds Alma's prison, but is unable to get very far within the facility because of extreme security precautions. Harlan Wade is also down there, but his motives are unclear. The Point Man through out the game has witnessed various psychic phenomena, seeing ghosts, and hearing Fettels thoughts, that sort of thing. Anyway the Point Man catches up with Fettel and kills him, starting the final act.

 

Harlan Wade, after nearly being killed by Fettels troopers at ATC headquarters, has an attack of his conscience and heads into the facility. The Point Man is just a minute too slow, and watches as Wade opens Alma's Cell and gets murdered (blood sprays the window the Point Man watches through). The point man is forced to blow up the facility in order to keep the situation from getting any worse. He also contends with ghosts that Alma sets on him to slow him down and kill him. The last fight in the game is the Point Man using his pistol on Alma as she slowly floats towards him (It's not as boring as it sounds, trust me. It's freaky). Then after she disappears (I think, it's been a while since I finished it) the Point Man makese it out into the street just in time to get caught in the blast from the reactor in the facility self destructing. He's rescued by a helicopter and two supporting characters and the final scene in the game is them all staring out of the helicopter at the mushroom cloud (non-nuclear), and being extremely happy they're alive. Then theres a loud CLUMP and everyone says "what was that" before you see Alma climbing into the passenger compartment of the helicopter, and then they cut to credits.

 

Alma has two forms in Fear1, her psychic form which looks like her when she was six (because that was the last time she was conscious), and then a nude, wet, slimy mature version (all the naughty bits are covered by her hair which hasn't been cut since she was 6). You only see the second version at the very end of the game.

 

The biggest twist in the plot however is that it's revealed, I think after the Alma fight, that the Point Man is Alma's first born son. Which explains how he's able to slow down time (actually its just his reactions getting faster rather than slowing time). One of the first "visions" he's given is actually him being born into Harlan Wades hands and Wade saying "You shall be a God amongst men."

 

The first expansion pack dealt with the main characters of FEAR trying to survive the Helicopter that Alma crashed and get to an Extraction Point to get the hell out of the city. However Sierra decided to say **** You to the developers by killing every character from FEAR off. The guy from Delta is killed by Alma, as is the forensic psychologist. Alma also both protects you and tries to kill you (from what I could tell it was her mothering instinct vs her "kill em all" desires.) Also Sierra rezed Fettel to be the antagonist again, and finially in the ultimate "**** you" move, Sierra Killed the point man at the end of Extraction Point.

 

I have NO clue what the hell was going on in Perseus Mandate.

 

 

... Ok I'm playing through FEAR1, and I got to thinking, If Alma is Fettle and the Point Man's mother, then Alice Wade is your aunt, but Alice seems to be either as young as you or perhaps younger. So did Harlan Wade have a kid WAYYYYY after he consigned his first daughter to a life of endless sleep?

[Bokishi]

Perseus Mandate was total garbage

[Morgoth]

So was Extraction Point.

[Bokishi]

Both expansions sucked cuz they're non-canon, but Perseus Mandate felt like a really crappy mod and playing it was less fun than eating a booger sandwitch

[Calax]

I played both, all I got from perseus was that I'm fighting some mercs for some reason, oh and I'm part of a FEAR team not related to the one currently on the ground, but I have the same abilities.

 

I'm reading through the primer book that they gave to Gamestop, and ATC has turned from a company that has one dark secret and interoffice politics, into the Umbrella Corporation. They control and manipulate the entire world to their own purposes, and even design the scenario of everything that's happened up till the start of FEAR. The new characters are all linked in that they were all experimented on as children in the same damn school, they don't remember everything because of drug induced amnesia, the Point Man never HAD a name to call himself, just Point Man. It's never explained how he was taught anything... Oh and ATC has control of most of the government bodies related to the city of Freeport, are able to tap military surveillance sat's to watch their projects... the list just goes on and on with this bull.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

There's something very wrong with that timeline. The Pointman would be... six? Something like that?

[Musopticon?]

And the Comb...Replica are grown in vats. Count two to two.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Screw it, I'm not playing these games for the story. This **** makes no sense.

[Bokishi]

If you follow the expansions story and then play FEAR 2, then it will make absolutely no sense at all!

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I (thankfully) avoided the expansion packs. Besides, there's a creepy little girl, a giant explosion and Combine some random dudes with armored mechs. I think that's enough to have fun.

Edited February 8, 2009 by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

[Pop]

Just watch Akira. It'll make less sense, but it's more fun. And scarier.

[Calax]

From what I can tell, Fettel and the point man 2 years apart, Fettel according to the preorder stuff, is 30. I'll need to run back through the material but it makes sense given origin was started in the 70's and the game reportedly takes place in 08. Probably the weirdest thing about the original fear is that your aunt (technically) seemed younger than you were.

 

The replicas are clones, but the ninja ones that have optic camouflage (that shows up as if they were wearing neon when in slow time) are actually earlier expiraments that had all their bones replaced with Aluminum replicas that make them lighter, faster and stronger. That's why some of the first intel you get in FEAR was about bone density and muscle mass in Zero-G.

 

Guess I got some stuff wrong in my initial assessment. I'm just wondering how the hell alma is floating around when she was killed 20 years prior to the start of FEAR.

[Tale]

I'm just wondering how the hell alma is floating around when she was killed 20 years prior to the start of FEAR.

Because she's a incredibly powerful psychic. Her ghost continues to float around.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

The "official" reason told by the devs is that she died once, and in any case it was only her physical form.

[Bokishi]

I like how alma

rapes

you at the end of FEAR 2

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

You know, even with the spoiler tags, I think I can take a shot at what that word is. -.-

 

 

Damnit, I always ruin the games I can't wait to play.

[Musopticon?]

Yeah, you guessed it.

 

Though I'm still kinda sure it was Beckett who got spoiled, not the player character.

[Calax]

Just gonna say that Alma did to Beckett what her daddy did to her (also beckett was fighting for a LONG time in his mind to get out...)

[Musopticon?]

Sorry, I got the names mixed. Who was the apparition who got his face full of ammo just before you pressed the switch and ended the sequence? The one yelling "kill me!" or something akin.

[Calax]

Sorry, I got the names mixed. Who was the apparition who got his face full of ammo just before you pressed the switch and ended the sequence? The one yelling "kill me!" or something akin.

I want to say Hawthorne but I don't think that's it.

[Zoma]

That's Harold Keegan. The same guy you char was following during the last portion of the game.

 

Man. I hope Stokes survives the shot and is playable as the protagonist in the expansion. Voice actoress the same as Cate Archer from NOLF and Zoey from L4D <3

 

Besides, I'm getting tired of playing as silent protagonists in FPS.

 

By the way, anyone caught the SHOGO 2 Easter egg in the game? MAN! If the easter egg is a hint of Mono's next project, it will be awesome!

Edited February 18, 2009 by Zoma

[Musopticon?]

If the BIG HUGE armored freaking suits weren't already a clue enough.

 

I just hope they'll embrace what made SHOGO good - cheesy writing and 80's anime complexes.

[Calax]

I admit I was frustrated by the ending, you know how Aristede just shows up out of nowhere and shoots Stokes (... why did I just get the image of Stokes and Jin making yuri?) to save her job. I mean the Delta team had to fight through hordes of Replicas and ghosts to get to the vault and Aristede is able to simply Waltz in? I hope FEAR3 has the point man fighting mommy again and maybe having to deal with his half brother.

[Zoma]

Actually, was refering to the blatant easter egg on "Snake Fists's" T-Shirt. Check it out.

Edited February 19, 2009 by Zoma

[Musopticon?]

I know you were, but it's not really an easter egg, more of a cameo by the series.