F.E.A.R.

Now you know the true meaning of FEAR.
"There are plausible scientific explanations for everything that followed, but I think it was really just a question of hatred. It is the way of men to make monsters; and it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers."
—Harlan Wade

First Encounter Assault Recon (F.E.A.R.) is a special operations unit working for the United States government. Their purpose: to deal with paranormal threats to national security.

As the game starts, the player takes on the role of F.E.A.R.'s new Point Man. In his first briefing, F.E.A.R. learns of a secret military project Perseus being run by Armacham Technology Corporation in the city of Fairport. The project, the development of a battalion of telepathically controlled "Replica" Super Soldiers, has gone haywire. The Replica battalion's telepathic commander, an unstable operative named Paxton Fettel, has led them in an uprising. It is now F.E.A.R.'s job to hunt down and kill Fettel, ending the uprising. But things start to get complicated when Alma, a little girl in a red dress, shows up and starts annihilating F.E.A.R.'s 1st SFOD-D ("Delta Force", a real-life U.S. military special operations unit) escorts, then vanishes.

F.E.A.R. is a First-Person Shooter set up as a horror movie. The player must survive long enough to unravel the secrets of Project Perseus and its parent Project Origin while battling the Replica forces, ATC security teams and experiencing increasingly disturbing visions. It is not a Survival Horror game, however, but a near-future sci-fi action game with strong horror elements.

Two mostly non-canon expansions, Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate, have been released. The former chronicles' the Point Man's efforts to escape the city following the events of the main game, while the latter concerns a second F.E.A.R. team's attempts to secure sensitive information about Project Perseus during the events of the first two games.

The sequel titled F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin was released in Spring 2009. In this game, the player controls a Delta Force operative named Michael Becket, who is sent to capture Genevive Aristide, CEO of Armacham Technology. Things get worse. Becket undergoes a brutal surgery and experimentation that leaves him a target for Alma, who hunts him down while he himself tries to evade ATC troops and Replica soldiers in order to destroy Alma for good.

The DLC (downloadable content) F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn was released in Fall 2009. In the DLC, the player controls a Replica called Foxtrot 813, who encounters and becomes Paxton Fettel.

F.E.A.R. 3 (written as F.3.A.R. in some ads) was released in June 2011. The story opens nine months after the events of F.E.A.R. 2, with the Point Man being interrogated in an Armacham prison. Paxton Fettel appears, and the two stage an escape, with Fettel accompanying his brother back to the warzone that Fairport has become.

Make sure to check out the character sheet. Not to be confused with the name for a certain Ratatta moveset.

Tropes used in F.E.A.R. include:
  • Abandoned Hospital: Once the "tutorial level" is done with, Project Origin properly starts off this way. Until it becomes clear it's not "abandoned" so much as "hastily evacuated", and the guys they're running from are knocking on the door. Plus, as a bonus, it gets subverted when it turns out the entire hospital is itself underground with a fake holographic skyline, presumably to fool all the patients into thinking they're in a normal hospital.
  • Advancing Wall of Doom: One multiplayer mode of F.E.A.R. 3 has this involved. Believe it or not, it's titled F**cking Run.
  • AKA-47: Any weapon resembling a real one, especially those which aren't at the quirky BFG level.
  • All There in the Manual: The game developers released a great deal of background plot information for the canon game series (especially regarding Armacham, the various Projects and Alma), but only in a promotional pre-order booklet for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
  • An Axe to Grind: One of the weapons used by cultists in F.E.A.R. 3.
  • And Call Him George: Pretty much what happens whenever Alma makes physical contact with Michael Becket.
  • And I Must Scream: Alma.
  • Artifact Title: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin has little to do with the First Encounter Assault Recon organization. It does, however, have everything to do with said project.
  • Artificial Brilliance: The A.I. of the Replica Soldiers was toted as perhaps the best enemy A.I. seen in a FPS game to date...
  • Artificial Stupidity: ...except when it's a fight between two computer-controlled characters, probably because the A.I. has been built to respond to actions undertaken by a human player. If, by any chance, the human player sees two sides duking it out, it'll be nothing more than a simple exchange of bullets, the winner decided by who survives the gunfight. The bad guys will more likely ignore your friends and go after you, assuming you show up in the same firefight.
  • Art Shift: The character designs in all three games are noticeably different. There was a deliberate shift in design between F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2, and the shift in the third game is due to the franchise having been transferred to a different developer. Surprisingly, the art design in F.E.A.R. 3 is largely consistent with that of F.E.A.R. 2; the major, most jarring shift is that Paxton Fettel has a completely different face in F.E.A.R. 3 compared to his appearance in the first 2 games.
  • Attempted Rape: Any time Becket has to fight Alma hand-to-hand in F.E.A.R. 2. The ending of F.E.A.R. 2 makes it confirmed rape...
  • Awesome but Impractical: Typically applies to the BFGs, especially when you're talking about ammo abundance. As such, they generally suffer from Too Awesome to Use. F.E.A.R. 2's FL-3 Laser and Type-12 Pulse Weapon are notorious examples, the former for its ammo hunger, which is only worsened by its poor aiming system and the latter for its extreme rarity.
  • Awesome Yet Practical: The HV Penetrator and Hammerhead both fire large metal spikes. Ammo is uncommon, but not rare, and they don't use much to start with. They're also extremely powerful and accurate enough to work as a sniper rifle, and in the case of the Penetrator, can be obtained early in game.
    • In the later stages of the first game, ammo for the wonderfully overpowered Particle Beam becomes fairly easy to find.
  • Babies Ever After: In the Point Man's ending of F.E.A.R. 3, at least, this is implied, as he is shown carrying off his baby sibling after Alma gives birth.
  • Back Stab: In both games, shooting an unaware enemy typically results in an instant kill. This doesn't work on the Giant Mooks though. F.E.A.R. 3 lets you pull off an actual Back Stab, either with the Point Man's knife or Fettel's psychic attacks.
  • Badass Normal: Delta Force leader Doug Holiday manages to do just fine against everything the supersoldier Replica battalion throws at him, despite not having the superhuman reflexes of the Point Man. Alma pretty much curbstomps him though. The nameless Delta operative from the Play Station 3 exclusive bonus mission also does pretty good until he and his team get liquidated by Alma at the end.
  • Bad Boss: The Phase Commanders in F.E.A.R. 3 who, among other things, threaten "dismemberment"(!) if their orders are not carried out.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Project Origin allows Aristide to try to get her job back, and Alma pregnant with who is essentially the Anti-Christ. Yeah.
  • Bag of Spilling:
    • F.E.A.R. Extraction Point starts Point Man off without weapons, ostensibly justified by having just survived a nuclear explosion.
    • F.E.A.R. 3 starts after Point Man has been captured and imprisoned by Armacham for an unspecified length of time.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Lt. Stokes' uniform. To be fair, her actual body armor provides just as much coverage as those worn by the male members of Dark Signal. It's just her underlying shirt that's a few inches too short. Genevieve bypasses the armor entirely by shooting her in the stomach at the end of the game.
  • Beehive Barrier: The Power Armor and Elite Power Armor units in F.E.A.R. 2 have these as energy shields, while the Replica Assassins have their invisibility shield look like this.
  • Better to Die Than Be Killed: Literally, when playing as Paxton Fettel. If your host body is killed, you lose all your psychic power; burning out means you lose about half of what you need to possess someone. In a firefight, it can be better to burn out of a body instead of allowing it to be killed because it means you can bodyhop faster, or retain some juice in order to provide support for the Point Man.
  • BFG: Many kinds to go around with. Just by mentioning the first F.E.A.R. and its two expansion packs alone will give you an automatic cannon, a Grenade Launcher, a robotech rocket rifle, a frickin' laser carbine, a gatling gun, a flesh-vaporizing Disintegrator Ray and a chain Lightning Gun.
  • Big Bad: Alma, though Genevive Aristide is really pushing it. Then again, Alma does help you repeatedly in Extraction Point by clearing away Replicas and leading the Point Man into areas to navigate his way to pick-up. F.E.A.R. 3 casts a different light on the overarching narrative, painting Harlan Wade as the true Big Bad.
  • Big Screwed-Up Family: Dear lord. Paxton Fettel hopes to have a reunion in F.E.A.R. 3, just in time to greet the youngest sibling.
  • Blackout Basement: One paranormal sequence in Project Origin. Expect it to smell like Nightmare Fuel.
  • Body Armor as Hit Points: Averted in the first game, where body armor only absorbs a portion of damage, based on the armor penetration rating of the gun you get hit by. Played pretty much straight in the second game, where only a couple enemy weapons could piece armor at all.
  • Book Ends: One of the first things the player hears from Fettel in the first game is "They deserved to die. They all deserved to die." One of the last things Fettel says during The Stinger in the Point Man's ending is a repetition of those lines.
  • Boring but Practical: While you can carry three weapons, you're making it a harder for yourself if two of those weapon aren't the shotgun and assault rifle in the first game. These weapons don't do anything special, but they do the job, cover short and medium ranged battles, and you can find plenty of ammo. Expect to be juggling weapons as you encounter ammo for them with the cooler guns.
    • Depending on how accurate a shooter you are, you may wish to switch the assault rifle out with the Penetrator. The Penetrator has better armor-piercing ability at the expense of less readily-available ammunition and no automatic fire mode.
    • The Riot Shield in the third game. You can't move very fast with it equipped, and it limits your peripheral vision somewhat, but comes with an accurate gun and provides solid protection from attacks coming at you from the front. Also, one of the most reliable ways to take on a Phase Commander is to box him into a corner and just keep the pressure on him while using the shield as cover, occasionally going into slow-mo to heal, and then running away when he's about to explode.
  • Boss in Mook Clothing: Any Power Armor unit in either game. The minigun-wielding Heavy Riot Armor and super-fast, super-durable Nightcrawler Elites in Perseus Mandate. The Remnants (psychic super zombies) in Project Origin.
  • Boss Rush: The bonus mission "Arena" in Perseus Mandate features most of the game's Boss in Mook Clothing enemies dropping in to beat up on you in between waves of regular Replica soldiers. First a Heavy Armor soldier, then a REV-6, then a Heavy Riot Armor wielding a minigun, and finally a huge Leviathan mech walker that serves as the final boss.
  • Bullet Sparks: Taken to an ridiculous degree. Anything you shoot that isn't concrete or flesh will create more sparks than welding.
  • Bullet Time: The Point Man and Becket have Super Reflexes, which is depicted in-game by allowing them to temporarily enter bullet time. In F.E.A.R. 3, any time Point Man uses this ability, time also slows for Paxton Fettel- allowing him to use a special psychic shockwave attack.
  • Button Mashing: Some sequences in F.E.A.R. 2 require you to do this, usually to push... beings away from you.
  • Canon Discontinuity:
    • Monolith considers the two expansions, which were made by other developers, non-canon.
    • And while those expansions were well crafted and certainly worth playing, on some level it is thankful that they were retconned because that means that Jin and Holiday might still be alive.
    • F.E.A.R. 3 also largely ignores the events of the first-party F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn DLC, in that Fettel is still an immaterial psychic ghost and seemingly anchored to Point Man, instead of a Psychic Commander reborn in the body of Foxtrot 813. On the other hand, it is hinted that the Fettel the Point Man works with might just be another projection like the Creep, just in the shape and identity of Fettel instead of Harlan Wade.
    • Elements from the expansions seem to be utilized in the canon storyline (i.e. Fettel's resurrection, the use of plane crashes, hospitals, and subways, the Point Man being separated from the main F.E.A.R. unit and the military, the Origin Ward and so on). One can possibly even include Extraction Point in the main canon, if one ignores Jin's death.
  • Cherry Tapping: It is possible to complete the entire demos of both games with just grenades and melee attacks.
  • Cliff Hanger: Endings of both main games, as well as the Reborn DLC.
  • Cloning Blues: Brutally averted by the Replica, to the point that it makes them even more terrifying than you'd think.
    • They appear to be Fettel's clones, although the ones you actually see unmasked are horribly deformed. There's a strong possibility that those could have been messed up at some point in their development though, since they aren't part of the main fighting force. The Replica you control in Reborn has a perfect, unmarred Fettel face.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Terry Halford who, in the middle of explaining how to survive Alma's rampage, goes off on a brief tangent about hippos and how, when they fight, "they fling shit everywhere".
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Colonel Vanek from F.E.A.R. 2. To quote his words when you fight him:

"FUCKFUCKBITCHFUUCKBITCHBITCHFUCKYOUFUCKFUCK."

    • Enemies often swear when you shoot them, which can get hilarious in Slow-Mo mode. "FFFUUUUCCCKKKK!" "SSHHHIIIIIIT!" "FFFUUUUCCCKKKK!"
      • Hell, the Replica will swear at the drop of a hat. "Do you see anything?" "Shut your fucking mouth!"
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Some enemies can dodge anything from point-blank grenade explosions to lightning. Yes, they dodge lightning. Even more blatant since this is in a game where you can slow the game down to watch your shots make contact, but still not score a hit.
  • Contagious Powers: At first, the Point Man's superhuman reflexes were what made him unique from everyone else. Now, a whole bunch of people have them... Becket, Keegan, the F.E.A.R. Sergeant, Nightcrawler Elites, the Nightcrawler Commander, even Replica clone soldier Foxtrot 813! The Sergeant and the Nightcrawlers aren't considered canon though, and it's justified in the other cases. Beckett and Keegan get their powers from experimental surgery and Foxtrot 813 is, like all Replica, a clone of Fettel.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Genevive Aristide in particular, but all of Armacham, really. In F.E.A.R. 2, they send a virtual army of mercenary commandos to snuff out all the evidence of Projects Origin, Harbinger and Paragon, and the latter theoretically involved the killing of children (Alma going nuclear had already killed them).
    • Aristide isn't worried about a psychopathic dead girl trying to destroy the Earth. She just wants her job back. Stokes lampshades this.
  • Cosmic Deadline: Quite noticeable in F.E.A.R. 3. The game has a clear beginning, middle and finale. However, it literally jumps straight from the middle to the finale without any form of transition in between. It's especially jarring since the finale pretty much wraps up the storyline for the entire trilogy of games, so you'd think there'd be more of a build-up to it.
  • Covers Always Lie: The covers for the expansion packs Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate prominently feature a soldier in the foreground with a large explosion in the background. The implication being that the soldier is the main character. However, they are not. The soldier on the cover of Extraction Point is a Delta operator, not the Point Man, and the soldier on the cover of Perseus Mandate is a Replica Tactical soldier (one of the bad guys!), not the Sergeant. They get away with this because at no point in the game do you get a clear view of your own character. Project Origin has a similar cover, but at least the character shown is actually the character you play as.
  • Crate Expectations: Introduced in the two F.E.A.R. expansion packs, where they can contain anything from weapon caches to Heart Containers.
  • Creepy Child: The child version of Alma. Though growing up doesn't make her one iota less creepy.
  • Critical Existence Failure: The Point Man seems to be instagibbed when his health hits zero. The Replica are pretty easy to turn into Ludicrous Gibs, as well.
  • Crowbar Combatant: Yet another weapon favored by the cultists is the crowbar.
  • Cult: The Fairport civilians who survived the nuclear explosion and were driven insane by Alma appear to have formed these, complete with body mutilations, creation of makeshift temples, and sacrifices.
  • Cyberpunk: Replace cybernetics with Psychic Powers, and this is pretty much what the entire setting is, complete with a shockingly-powerful Mega Corp.
  • Darker and Edgier: While the blood and atmosphere was quite bleak in the first game, the disturbing factor continued to grow with each installment. An increasingly apocalyptic atmosphere, more terrifying baddies, betrayal and rape all contribute.
  • Death by Sex: This is pretty much what happens if Becket dies trying to fend Alma off hand-to-hand. It is implied that the Telesthetic Amplifier's enhancing of Becket's psychic power is the only thing that lets him survive being raped by Alma at the end of the game.
  • Death by Childbirth: When Alma finally gives birth in F.E.A.R. 3, her body seems to burn away into red light, and she seems to relax and be at peace. It's not made clear if Alma is actually gone, however.
  • Death Glare: The Point Man's glare in F.E.A.R. 3 could probably make Admiral Adama quail in terror.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Oddly enough, a literal example in Becket. The only reason he's dealing with Alma is because Genevieve Aristide made him a telesthetic beacon so Alma and the Replica troops would be drawn to him. The result is that while Alma is chasing Becket, Aristide can find the Point Man without interference.
  • Depth of Field: Used a great deal in F.E.A.R. 2, particularly while aiming, to make the camera focus on what the character is notionally looking at.
  • Destructible Projectiles: It's also hinted, in fact, that stuff like grenades, mines, bombs and even mid-flight rockets can be destroyed. In other words, you trying to explode an incoming enemy rocket early at its owner's face for a kill is an encouraged mechanism.
  • Determinator: Alma. Not even being in an induced coma stopped her from trying to get revenge and mind-controlling Paxton Fettel. She literally refused to die for six days without life support, and when she finally did, it didn't slow her down much.
    • The Replica also fit under this as a whole. Once a psychic commander gives them a task, they will stop at nothing to complete it, at the cost of their own lives.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: A well timed kick is enough to ward off Alma when you confront her near the end of the game.
  • Disc One Nuke: You can obtain the Penetrator in an early level in the first game, where it'll two-shot pretty much anything short of a Heavy Armor unit.
  • Double Entendre: The final level of Project Origin is called "Climax". Guess what Alma does in that level.
  • Double Standard Rape (Female on Male):
    • No... no, it's not.
    • And F.E.A.R. 3 confirms it. Beckett's response to being raped by Alma is confused hatred and rage, with Becket demanding that the Point Man kill the unborn child.
  • Downer Ending: Some of the games end this way, See Kill'Em All below. Paxton Fettel's ending in F.E.A.R. 3 certainly qualifies.
  • Downloadable Content: F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn.
  • The Dragon: Paxton Fettel.
  • Drop the Hammer: A few of the cultists wield hammers.
  • Easter Egg: There's a bit in Project Origin where you fight from a school stage that was interrupted mid-play. You can hide behind a cardboard donkey, and the Armacham soldiers will immediately say "The ass! He's behind the ass!".
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Alma. Justified, given that she spent most of her life in stasis. Dying probably didn't help either.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: Both of the first two games have these, but the one in F.E.A.R. 2 is so huge that it encompasses a whole hospital and you spend nearly a third of the game's levels just getting to the surface. There's even a ridiculously huge underground train network.
  • Eldritch Abomination: As the games progress, Alma becomes less of a vengeful, violent psychic spirit and more of a reality-twisting force of nature exhibiting powers that are beyond human control or comprehension.
  • Elite Mooks:
    • The Replica become these in F.E.A.R. 3 for ATC. Generally, most squads from Interval 05 and onward will have a mixture of both lighter ATC mercenaries and heavily-armored Replica troops who are far tougher and stronger.
    • You also have the very elite Phase Casters. These guys have Deflector Shields, a nasty laser weapon, and the ability to summon endless waves of regular Mooks unless you take them out quickly. On top of that, there's the Phase Commanders, who carry F.E.A.R. 3's jacked-up Penetrator and like to taunt you throughout the levels leading up to fights with them.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: The endings of both games. F.E.A.R. ends with Fairport devastated by a nuclear explosion and Alma stowing away on the Point Man's evac chopper. Project Origin ends with Alma pregnant with Becket's child with the implication that the child is a strong psychic already, and she isn't even born yet.
    • The ending of Extraction Point, or at least it's a possible prelude to the end.

"A war is coming. I've seen it in my dreams. Fires sweeping over the earth, bodies in the streets, cities turned to dust... retaliation."

  • Enemy Chatter: Replica and Armacham troops regularly communicate through radio conversations that you can overhear.
  • Enemy Mine: The Point Man and Paxton Fettel team up in F.E.A.R. 3. Fettel is playable in co-op. Take this as you will.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Even Genevieve Aristide finds the fact that Harlan Wade supplied some of the DNA used to impregnate Alma to be absolutely sickening.
  • Every Bullet Is a Tracer: At least in the case of the first F.E.A.R. game.
  • Evil Counterpart: The final battle against Keegan in F.E.A.R. 2. Well, not so much evil as succumbing to The Virus, but he has the same powers as you do (plus the ability to clone himself!) and are more or less in the same boat, so it seems to count.
  • Evil Laugh: Paxton Fettel gets in a few good ones in F.E.A.R. 3. He also chuckles evily any time he possesses an enemy.
  • Evil Versus Evil: In the first game, the Replica soldiers and the surviving ATC security forces are hostile to each other as well as to the player, and you will occasionally encounter gun battles in progress between the two.
  • Expansion Pack: Two for the first game: Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate.
  • Expendable Clone: The whole point of the Replica Soldiers.
  • The Faceless:
    • The Point Man is never seen without his face-mask in the first game.
    • Averted in the sequel with Sergeant Becket, though the restrooms you can view yourself in are dark.
    • The third game finally averts this, showing both the Point Man and Becket's faces.
    • The Sergeant from Perseus Mandate actually has a full model, face included, though as with the base game, you can never actually see much more than your arms and legs.
  • Faceless Goons: The Replica. Turns out later on, there is a very good reason for this.
  • Faking the Dead: In the third game, the cultists will often pretend to be one of the many corpses littering the environment, only to get up and attack when you get close.
  • Fan Disservice: Alma walks around completely naked in her "adult" form, but all of the scenes involving her nudity are rather... disturbing. We also can't forget that she ends up raping you.
  • Fetus Terrible: Alma gets preggo via Becket, who knows what she'll spawn. The official strategy guide claims it's the Antichrist. Turns out it's actually pretty harmless. Both endings involve one of the two player characters adopting it as their own child, though one can only wonder how it'll turn out.
  • Fiction 500: Armacham's reach and power seems to be expanding with each installment. They're practically an NGO Superpower by F.E.A.R. 3, as they appear to have their own personal army, and be in military control (as in, openly flying armed helicopters, driving armored personnel carriers, and patrolling the streets with mercenaries in ATC uniforms) of the slums of an unspecified city in an unspecified Spanish-speaking country.
  • Fission Mailed: The final battle of Project Origin.
  • Flash Back
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Perseus Mandate. Done twice to enforce Chen's eventual death.
      • The F.E.A.R. Sergeant sees a vision of an underground area (which is revealed to be a research facility later on), where he helplessly watches Chen get pulled down in a puddle of black liquid.
      • During a detour to yet another underground area to survive a nuclear explosion, Chen disappears from the Sergeant's sight, only to show up dead in a pool of blood a couple of hallways later.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: Alma in Project Origin: at least she deserves credit for trying.
  • Freudian Excuse: The entire first game.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Alma, of course. At one point in Project Origin, she comes sprinting at you naked like a demon out of hell.
    • There's also the Abominations, which repeatedly jump at you and you have to either kick them off or hit them until they let go.
  • Fun with Acronyms: First Encounter Assault Recon.
  • Gainax Ending: F.E.A.R. 2 ends with a literal Mind Screw and pregnancy.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • At the end of the F.E.A.R. 3 campaign, the points you've scored as either Pointman or Fettel will determine the ending.
    • In the Point Man's ending, he shoots Fettel repeatedly in the head until he goes down, just like all the Armacham mooks up to that point. In Fettel's ending, he possesses the Point Man, just like he's been doing to the Armacham mooks to that point.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the F.E.A.R. 3 cutscenes, it's made abundantly clear that no one else can see Fettel except for Point Man, not even a powerful psychic like Becket. In actual gameplay, every basic Armacham mook can both see Fettel and fill him full of lead.
  • Gas Mask Mooks: The Urban Replica Soldiers from the first game.
  • Gateless Ghetto
  • Ghost City: With real ghosts! When one of the other characters tries to come up with a rational explanation for the deserted city, another points out that "Cities don't empty that fast."
  • Giggling Villain: Alma can be heard giggling several times in the first game.
  • Godiva Hair: Adult Alma.
  • Go Out with a Smile: In the Point Man's ending for F.E.A.R. 3, after Alma gives birth and he picks up the newborn, she visibly relaxes and seems to be at peace, before disappearing.
  • Grand Theft Me: This is Paxton Fettel's plan for Foxtrot 813, or, in short, you, in Reborn. In F.E.A.R. 3, he can do this to enemies to fight alongside the Point Man.
  • Guns Akimbo: The Point Man can wield two pistols at once. Lampshaded in the manual because apparently he was trained for it specifically because of his heightened reflexes. Gets really silly/fun when he's dual wielding fully automatic pistols in the console ports... which apparently Holiday can do too. This returns in F.E.A.R. 3.
  • Happy Place: The recurring hill, tree, and swingset in Project Origin is the closest thing Alma has to one. You come across it in Project Origin. It's a small, sad and sits in the corner of a small concrete ditch. If you walk up to it then Alma appears right behind you. Without any of the Interface Screw that is associated with the hallucinations.
  • Harder Than Hard: Extreme difficulty in the first game: enemies do roughly the same amount of damage you do, resulting in you having roughly the same durability as a basic enemy Mook (the difference being there's one of you and hundreds of them). Hard mode in Project Origin was transformed into Harder Than Hard with the version 1.02 patch, which causes all enemies to do about 300% normal damage (i.e. you die in about 8 assault rifle shots or 10 submachine gun shots, and you're pretty much screwed if you take a single shotgun blast or sniper rifle shot).
  • Heal Thyself: The first-aid kits scattered around the levels.
  • Heart Container: Health and Reflex boosters in the first game, Reflex boosters only in the second.
  • Hellish Copter: The choppers in this series have a recurring habit of getting blown up or crashing into things. Reaches ludicrous levels in F.E.A.R. 3.
  • Heroic Mime: The Point Man and Becket never speak (nor do any of the bonus mission or expansion pack characters (i.e. Doug Holiday, Delta Force Operative, F.E.A.R. Sergeant) when you control them. Oddly, averted with Replica clone soldier Foxtrot 813, who does talk (and is pretty badass). Paxton Fettel talks all the time in F.E.A.R. 3, whether you're playing him or not. Whether he's "heroic" is another matter entirely.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Senator David Hoyle.
  • Hiss Before Fleeing
  • Hit Points
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Col. Vanek is killed by his own shotgun.
  • Hope Spot: So, Becket's even more powerful than Paxton Fettel, and there's even a 50% chance he's psychically powerful enough to fight Alma and make her head explode? Yeah right, like they'd really let you kill the series mascot. Sure enough, in the end you're not even given a chance to try.
    • In Perseus Mandate, Chen is dragged offscreen and attacked by the same creatures that killed Holiday and Jin in Extraction Point. There's a lot of off-screen shooting and screaming, then suddenly Chen emerges victorious and even manages a cocky quip. About five seconds later, he's viciously killed by yet another new enemy type.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Alma progresses to one by the events of Project Origin and hits full-on Cthulhu-esque Reality Warper Eldritch Abomination status by F.E.A.R. 3. Also, there's the Creep, which is so horrifying that it frightens Alma. And for good reason: it's the twisted personification of all the worst aspects of her father.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Replica battalion has a number of powered armored troopers. A new form is added for additional "fun" in Perseus Mandate. You get to pilot one in F.E.A.R. 2 and two more in F.E.A.R. 3.
  • I Am Your Father: As it turns out, Paxton Fettel is Alma's son. But wait! It gets better: he's also the Point Man's younger (by one year) brother, meaning that for the first game, that creepy little girl who seems like she's trying to kill you is YOUR MOTHER. This also makes Harlan Wade his grandfather and Alice Wade his (unknowing) aunt. Story-wise, this would seem to imply that Alma's actions against the Point Man in the first game where all about trying to get her first-born son back (the flashback to his birth does show her screaming for them to "GIVE ME BACK MY BABY!").
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: A completely silent variant involving Alma, toward Becket, when he's strapped into the Amplifier.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Fettel displays some cannibalistic tendencies, mostly with the intent of 'absorbing' his victims' knowledge. Whether this actually works or not is not discussed.
  • The Immodest Orgasm: Alma does this while raping Becket at the end of F.E.A.R. 2. The sound itself, however, is distinctly unsexy.
  • Implacable Man: The Creep in F.E.A.R. 3 a.k.a. the psychic memory of Harlan Wade.
    • Alma herself also counts, as not even the explosion of the Project Origin facility slows her down.
  • Improvised Weapon: Most of the weapons used by the cultists in F.E.A.R. 3. Fettel can use these whenever he possesses a cultist.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: The award for finishing the second game (and the name of the last level) is "Climax". This is the level where you get raped.
    • Towards the end of the third game, the Point Man falls off a bridge and into water. Fettel appears before him and says, "If this is part of your plan, I'd say things are going... swimmingly."
  • Infinity+1 Sword: The Pulse Weapon in Project Origin can turn an entire room full of enemies into crispy skeletons with one shot... and you only get fifteen shots in the entire game.
  • Initialism Title
  • Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: No matter what high explosives or rocket launchers you are carrying, you can't blow open things that aren't meant to be blown open.
    • This gets even worse in Extraction Point, where two people you could have saved stand behind a chain link fence so they cannot be reached, but at least you can open some doors with explosives.
  • Interface Screw: Your interface glasses act weird whenever Alma is around or you run into a EMP grenade.
  • Invisible Anatomy: Averted. You have to put your weapons away to climb ladders and go swimming, and can see yourself while looking down and after explosions.
  • It's Up to You: Your SFOD-D escorts have a bad habit of being wiped out as a level loads. In Perseus Mandate, friendly soldiers do help you out in a few firefights, but they're not exactly very good.
  • Kansas City Shuffle: The background material reveals that the entire ordeal Becket goes through in Project Origin is all planned by Genevive Aristide to distract Alma so Genevive's goons can retrieve and weaponize the Point Man.
  • Kick the Dog: Near the end of F.E.A.R. 3, Paxton Fettel kills Sgt. Becket for reasons which in hindsight seem entirely pointless. It serves to remind us that despite the sincere help he's provided (including saving Point Man's life at least three times), Fettel is still an insane psychopath.
  • Kill'Em All:
    • Extraction Point ends with EVERYONE that survived the original game dead. Perseus Mandate ends on a more upbeat note: not only does almost everyone survive to the end and escape, but also the ghost of the one guy that did die shows up and seems to say goodbye and congratulate you for making it.
    • Ditto for Project Origin. By the endgame, everyone in Becket's squad has been killed except Sergeant Morales, with the Lieutenant's fate up in the air, as she was gut-shot and bleeding out.
  • Lack of Empathy: Genevieve "I Don't Care That There's An Insane Ghost Running Around Killing People, I Have A Resume To Protect" Aristide.
  • Lampshade Hanging: On the Redshirt Army treatment of 1st SFOD-D: F.E.A.R.'s credits declares that "No Delta Force Operatives were hurt in the making of this game."
    • In the opening of the first game, it's noted that "no one takes F.E.A.R. seriously. Really, soldier clones?".
    • When Terry Halford mentions his codename "Snake Fist", Stokes' immediate response is: "...are you fucking kidding me?"
  • Landmine Goes "Beep-Beep!": Landmine detonation mechanisms in this game work like the Bouncing Betty, but the deployment and trigger mechanism... not so much.
  • Large Ham:
    • Colonel Richard Vanek.

I don't care if it's King Tut! You fucking kill them!

    • Becket, of all people, has a moment in F.E.A.R. 3.

Becket: Horrible... she raped me. Do you hear me, Armacham?! SHE'S! FUCKING! PREGNANT!

  • Late Arrival Spoiler: The official website for F.E.A.R. 3 explicitly notes that the Point Man and Fettel are brothers and that their mother is Alma, these being the major spoilers of the first game. It doesn't say a whole lot else though.
  • Leitmotif: Alma gets a rather touching one in the sequel, which serves as the game's main music theme. The ATC faction, in particular Colonel Vanek, have a four-note militant trumpet one.
  • Letters 2 Numbers: Instead of F.E.A.R. 3 (like F.E.A.R. 2 before) they went with F.3.A.R.
  • Light Flicker Teleportation: Alma likes to move suddenly closer when the lights go out... more prevalent in the first game than the later ones.
  • Ludicrous Gibs: Most egregiously with the shotgun, which sometimes tears enemies into several large pieces. Presumably, it uses special high-explosive pellets. There is also the energy gun that vaporizes armor and flesh in a couple of seconds, but leaves the skeleton charred but otherwise intact.
    • Literally any weapon in the entire series is capable of doing this to enemies when you're using bullet time. Seems appropriate, given Monolith's earlier first-person shooters.
    • The Elite Powered Armor from Project Origin and the Enhanced Power Armor from F.E.A.R. 3 come with infinite-ammo gatling guns that are capable of ripping apart most enemies.
    • In F.E.A.R. 3, if Fettel uses a melee attack at close range while suspending an enemy, said enemy will explode.
  • Made of Iron: The Point Man survives being blasted out of a third story window by a massive explosion... and doesn't even have a scratch on him afterwards. He tops it off later in the game by surviving a nuclear blast, and in Extraction Point is actually blown out of a subway tunnel by a huge bomb, flies several dozen feet through the air, and finally lands on the roof of a nearby parking garage (granted, the last two cause him to black out for a while).
    • In Perseus Mandate, the Nightcrawler Commander final boss can survive more damage than a Power Armor mech unit!
    • While escaping an exploding facility in Project Origin, Becket steps on a collapsing floor, falls a few dozen feet, and bounces off a steel I-beam. While that'd easily be enough to break a normal person's spine, Becket pulls himself up and continues forward (granted, he does seem to pass out briefly).
  • Magic A Is Magic A: In F.E.A.R. 3, when Becket is possessed by Fettel in a cutscene. When Fettel possess NPCs in the game, they tend to explode after a while. Guess what happens to Becket a minute later.
  • Mama Bear: Alma. Do. Not. Mess with her kids. She exhibits this behavior toward Becket too; at one point, she kills an Abomination controlling Replicas trying to kill him. The reason doesn't become apparent until later on.
  • Mana Meter: The Point Man and Becket have a 'reflex' meter which allow them to enter Bullet Time mode, where they move much faster than their enemies until it drains. The Sergeant from Perseus Mandate and Foxtrot 813 from Reborn have this as well, and all four are capable of increasing the length of it by picking up reflex boosters.
  • Marionette Motion: The undead soldiers under the control of the Remnants move this way.
  • McNinja: The Replica Assassins, who having cloaking devices and move insanely fast, were apparently developed as a result of research into operating in zero gravity environments.
  • Mega Corp: Armacham is ridiculously well-equipped and has massive resources. In the first game, it's almost reasonable, with only a few lightly-armored security troops and one Elaborate Underground Base. But by Project Origin, there are no fewer than five Elaborate Underground Bases, the ATC Black Ops units are pretty much a self-sufficient Private Army that could probably conquer most third-world countries, and there are several thousand Replica troops minimum, with their own mixture of armored support and aircraft. And its implied they virtually own Fairport.
    • By the timeframe of F.E.A.R. 3, the only people left in Fairport are Armacham goons.
  • Melee a Trois: Put together, the whole plot of F.E.A.R. from F.E.A.R. 1 to F.E.A.R. 3 is a fight between the U.S. Military (F.E.A.R. and 1st S.F.O.D.-D.), the Armacham Technology Corporation, the Replica battalion, Alma's apparitions and cultists, the Creep, and, if you count F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate, Senator David Hoyle's hired Nightcrawlers. Owing to Artificial Stupidity, any firefights between computer-controlled soldiers would be a simple exchange of bullets and nothing else.
  • Mercy Kill: Keegan finally regains himself briefly during the last fight of F.E.A.R. 2 and begs Becket to put him out of his misery, which Becket obliges with a pistol (provided the player button-mashed enough).
  • Mind Rape: Often, repeatedly. And in one case, quite literally.
  • Mind Screw: The final battle and ending of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin makes this one as literal as humanly possible.
  • Mood Whiplash: Latin chanting begins as you make your assault on the Amplifier, slaying dozens of Replica in your last ditch effort to destroy Alma, then you get in the APC and shoot a bunch of Replicants with the heavy machine gun to almost comical heavy metal, along with one of your squaddies cheering you on, yelling such taunts as "I hear bullets taste like chicken!" and "Sit the FUCK down!", and then it swings straight back into Alma mind raping you.
  • Mook Maker: In F.E.A.R. 3, the enemy "phase caster" troops apparently teleport fresh soldiers into battle.
  • Musical Spoiler: The scare chords seem to give away more scares than they create in Project Origin.
  • Never Found the Body: F.E.A.R. operative Spen Jankowski. Brutally inverted in the sequel, where you most definitely find Redd Jankowski's body.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: So, the Point Man overloading the vault reactor and nuking Auburn helped us how exactly? Thousands of people are dead, Armacham has free reign in the chaos to destroy evidence of their involvement and Alma wasn't harmed in the slightest.
  • Nightmare Sequence: Some of the Point Man and Becket's hallucinations. Possibly Project Origin's ending.
  • No-Gear Level:
    • In F.E.A.R., several psychic vision sequences in the final Interval inexplicably make all of Point Man's weapons vanish and equip him with a pistol.
    • F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin strips Becket of his gear after the first level, as he is critically injured by the nuclear explosion (from the first game) and taken to Armacham's hospital where he later wakes up.
    • In F.E.A.R. 3, Point Man manages to lose his entire inventory at the beginning of every single level. In the later levels, he at least starts out armed, but often only with a basic pistol and submachine gun at most. An attempt is made to justify this by having nearly every level begin with Point Man recovering from some destructive event, such as a helicopter crash, a flood, falling off a bridge, etc, in which he'd naturally lose much of his gear.
  • No Name Given: The Point Man.
  • Noodle Incident: Perseus Mandate hints that F.E.A.R. used to have had hard times doing their work.

Betters: I want him taken into custody. That means alive... I don't want a repeat of Amarillo.
Chen: That was an accident.

  • No OSHA Compliance: A lot of the environments seem to be designed to facilitate gameplay more than for their ostensible purpose. At one point in the first game, Point Man has to climb up a ladder in an elevator shaft, which leads to a closet, which leads to an office area. The doors are all unlocked, meaning that anyone can just mosey into the closet, misstep, and then fall to their death.
  • Not So Different: By the end of F.E.A.R. 3, Fettel's motivations are not dissimilar from Harlan Wade's, with him echoing Wade's line regarding them becoming "like gods". It is hinted that the "ghost" of Fettel might just be an amalgam of the darker aspects of Fettel's personality and memories and given form and purpose by Alma's powers, like the Creep was for Harlan Wade's memories and personality.
  • Obvious Pregnancy: Alma at the end of Project Origin. To put it nicely, the end of the game has some unfortunate implications. In short, Alma is quite obviously pregnant mere seconds after raping Becket. May be an aversion of the Law of Inverse Fertility since Alma clearly wanted the child and one can assume Becket didn't. This could quite possibly lead to The End of the World as We Know It since it's implied that Becket is close to if not at least as powerful a telepath as Alma, making their child an insanely powerful psychic being. Possibly justified as Alma is a psychic and her being obviously pregnant could simply be an illusion to show off the fact that she is.
    • F.E.A.R. 3's official site confirms that nine months have passed since the events of the first game, though it makes no mention of Becket. The rapidly-ticking clock seen within the final battleground would imply that Becket was sealed within the amplifier for those nine months, though it seemed to him to be a few minutes, tops.
    • Anytime adult Alma is seen in F.E.A.R. 3, Obvious Pregnancy ensues.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: Most of Alma's schtick mainly boils down to this. Genevive Aristide pulls one off herself in the finale of Project Origin.
  • Oh, Crap!: When you fight Col. Vanek in Project Origin, you have to button mash to fight him hand-to-hand. The final sequence has you force his own shotgun to his head. You are treated to a close up view of the state-of-the-art face control technology slowly make his expression go from homicidal rage to a pitiful, realistic look of total fear, and if you tap fast enough, you blow off his head. Manage to keep tapping fast on seeing that face?

Nightcrawler: He's too fast!

    • ...or when you chuck a grenade.

Replica: Fuck!

  • Older Than They Look: Chronologically, Alma's somewhere in her forties.
  • Ominous Music Box Tune: Alma's music box.
  • Ominous Walk: Alma loves this one.
  • One-Hit Kill:
    • Several of the Melee attacks on weaker foes, including the sliding ankle kick of death.
    • Fettel has a unique one wherein if you psychic lift an enemy and then use a melee attack while close to them, they simply explode.
  • One-Man Army: The Point Man, as well as Becket. Holiday also gets this status in the Xbox 360 port, where he manages to take down several dozen Replicas, multiple Heavy Armors and an Assassin without any slow-mo powers.
  • One Bullet Clips
  • Online Alias: Snake Fist in F.E.A.R. 2.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghosts are capable of forming physical bodies, becoming pregnant, and bearing children. It is not made clear if this is possible for all ghosts in the setting or simply something that Alma can do, considering her Reality Warper powers.
  • Over the Shoulder Murder Shot: Early on, Paxton Fettel is occupied over a labcoat's body. He looks back at the camera to reveal the blood smeared around his mouth.
  • Parental Incest: Harlan Wade supplied some of the DNA used to impregnante Alma to make both Fettel and the Point Man.
  • The Password Is Always Swordfish: "The password should be... Snakefist." Told to you by the guy who is using "Snakefist" as his alias. Oh, and Snakefist also happens to in universe be the title of a movie series so popular it has at least seven movies in it....
  • Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Random corpses will occasionaly fall off of balconies or out of the ceiling. Or from pools of blood.
  • People Puppets: The "Remnant" boss enemies in F.E.A.R. 2. Well, more like zombie-puppets, but same effect.
  • Personal Space Invader: Alma does this a lot in F.E.A.R. 2. With good reason.
  • Pet the Dog: Genevieve Aristide keeps Alma's music box in her apartment to remind herself of just how guilty she is.
  • Pipe Pain: One of the cultists' arsenal of melee weapons.
  • Point Man I Am Your Mother
  • Powered Armor/Mini-Mecha: The Replica EPA from Project Origin. It comes with a rechargeable Deflector Shield, unlimited gatling gun and missile rounds, and an auto-repair system that can fix the damage from anything that doesn't literally blow the mech to pieces.
  • The Power of Love: In a perverse way. Alma gets a third form, that of her looking normal, after falling in love with Becket.
  • Powers Via Possession: Any soldier possessed by Fettel gains the same healing factor as him.
  • Private Military Contractors: ATC's Security and Black Ops units. Its Replica soldiers were intended to be marketed as a PMC. Armacham also has a more conventional PMC element that appears in F.E.A.R. 3 that acts as a private conventional military. They were the only side with PMCs, until the somewhat more superior Nightcrawlers hired by Senator Hoyle in (the non-canon) F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate came along.
  • Product Placement: All of the intel laptops in the first game are Alienware. And the desktops are Dell.
  • Protagonist Without a Past: But oh, they do so much with it.
  • Psychic Powers: Paxton Fettel, Alma. The Point Man has them too, manifesting in his reflexes. Becket possesses psychic potential, but he doesn't get Bullet Time until after he undergoes the Harbinger treatment.
  • Real Is Brown: Inverted: a shift to a monochromatic or desaturated color palette indicates that Reality Is Out to Lunch.
  • Reality Warper: Alma's Psychic Powers.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Harlan Wade. In his eyes, at least. From most other perspectives, it is hard not to see his final actions as just making everything worse.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: In Project Origin, Alma's eyes are now a dull red.
  • Redshirt Army: The members of Delta Force (1st SFOD-D) who are assigned to assist the F.E.A.R. unit die quickly and in droves; it's rare to have one survive the first scene he appears in, assuming he wasn't already dead when you found him. Much less of a case with Dark Signal.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: One city (and its outlying suburbs) and counting.
  • Rogue Agent: The Point Man is this as of F.E.A.R. 3. He also doesn't appear to have had a shave or haircut in those nine months.
  • Room Full of Crazy: In F.E.A.R. 3, the main menu shows the Pointman and Fettel as children in their Armacham holding cell. As you level up your profile by earning points, Fettel will gradually fill the room with insane scrawls of Alma, monsters and hellish landscapes. Once the scrawls get big enough, Pointman will be visibly frightened and ends up hiding in a corner as Fettel's scribbles take over the entire room.
  • Scare Chord: All the time.
  • School for Scheming: Wade Elementary. Test subjects for TK become psychopaths. Then again, if you've played the first game, you should automatically know anything associated with the Wades is bad news.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Alma was put in an induced coma and sealed in a telesthetic suppression field after Armacham found her psychic powers too overwhelming to control. It didn't stop her. Dual credit for unsealing her goes to Genevive Aristide and Harlan Wade.
  • Second-Hour Superpower: In the second game, Becket gets his power in the second level after his surgical operation.
  • Sequel Difficulty Drop/Sequel Difficulty Spike: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is noticeably easier than the first game; health and armor pickups restore 100% instead of just a partial amount, enemies can survive less damage, and the developers have admitted that the A.I. was dumbed down to compensate for the slower aiming of a console controller compared to mouse aiming. Conversely, F.E.A.R. 3 brings the difficulty level back up, with dramatically improved A.I. that's noticeably faster, smarter, and more mobile than in Project Origin. Also, while you have regenerating health, you no longer have armor, and can survive less damage in one go.
  • Sequel Hook: In F.E.A.R. 3, during the Point Man's ending, Paxton Fettel's monologue during the video of his synchronicity even has him swearing revenge on the Point Man for killing him again.
  • Sexy Walk: Alma tries this throughout F.E.A.R. 2 as she stalks Becket. Key word: tries.
  • Shell-Shock Silence: While not particularly overwhelming, mild ones will happen if you stand next to an exploding warhead.
  • Shout-Out: The subway levels in Project Origin look exactly like the subway levels from Condemned: Criminal Origins. Given that Monolith made both games, it's highly likely they used the same level resources.
    • Many of the weapons in Project Origin are apparently manufactured by companies from Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, Monolith's first 3D first person shooter. Snake Fist is even wearing a Shogo 2 T-shirt. Also, newspapers found throughout the game make reference to the formation of the UCA, the One World Government from Shogo.
    • Some of the insignias in F.E.A.R.'s multiplayer are shout outs to other games by Monolith, among them one that has Cate Archer's face, and another that has a bloody handprint.
    • While Monolith explicitly rejected the plotline of the two outsourced F.E.A.R. expansion packs as noncanonical, Project Origin has several scenes and gameplay additions that echo similar ones introduced in the expansion packs, indicating there's not complete bad blood between the teams. Examples include the laser weapon, being able to melee open doors, the hospital and subway levels, and the crashing airplane.
    • The Reborn DLC has Fettel posessing the player Foxtrot 813's body in a church, which could be an allusion to Fettel's first appearance in Extraction Point.
    • A radio report referencing Shogo can be heard in a secret room in one of the final levels of F.E.A.R., after which the Shogo theme song plays.
    • Instead of Starbucks, Project Origin has "Boomer's Coffee". Doubly amusing in Reborn when it shows up and you're playing as a clone soldier.
    • The "Armacham" name, along with the basic idea behind the MOD-3 Rocket Launcher and the MP-50 cannon, originated from Shogo.
    • Jin Sun-Kwon?
    • The Delta Force commander in the first game is called A. Shepherd.
    • Look carefully at the desks you pass in the first game. The mounds of paperwork include T.P.S. Reports (and a memo regarding them). One desk even has a red stapler on it.
    • One of the weapons used by the cultists-and Paxton, when he possesses them-in F.E.A.R. 3 is the crowbar. The achievement for killing 20 enemies with a crowbar is called "Head Crab Removal".
    • One of the cheats in the first game ("kfa") references the "mpkfa" cheat from Shogo and Blood, which itself was a reference to the "idkfa" cheat from Doom.
    • One of the magazines in the first game has a cover that reads "Event Horizon Found". While that might by itself refer to the black-hole phenomenon, the second game has "Liberate tutame ex infernis" written in blood, in the room in which Becket first fights Abominations. That same room also has "Can he see?" written in blood, and whomever "he" may be in-game (Becket himself?), it functions nicely as a Shout-Out to the fate of Sam Niell's character.
  • Squishy Wizard: In F.E.A.R. 3, Paxton Fettel has less health than the Pointman and can't use guns, but compensates with an assortment of psychic powers including firing psi blasts, throwing explosive barrels (plus grenades and gas tanks) with telekinesis, possessing enemies to use their weapons and abilities, and being able to see and use hidden paths.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Alma, toward Becket. But the reason doesn't become apparent until later in the game.
  • Standard FPS Guns: Runs the whole damned gamut.
  • The Starscream: In F.E.A.R. 3, if Paxton Fettel wins at the end, he possesses the Point Man, promises to raise the third Prototype as his pawn, then bloodily consumes a screaming Alma to gain her power.
  • The Stinger:
    • At the end of the first game, Genevieve Aristide and the unnamed U.S. Senator discuss the fallout from the events the uprising, with Aristide mentioning that the "First Prototype" was a complete success.
    • At the end of the third, a video is shown of Paxton Fettel's first Synchronicity Event.
  • Stopped Clock: In F.E.A.R. 2, all clocks are stopped as a result of the events of the first game.
  • Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Alma.
  • Stripped to the Bone: Alma often does this to people she doesn't like. So does anyone with a Disintegrator Ray weapon.
  • Suddenly Voiced: Becket gets a few lines in F.E.A.R. 3. The Point Man, however, gets none, even though he has been given a face.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Becket dies at the end of the next-to-last level of F.E.A.R. 3.
  • Suicidal Overconfidence: F.E.A.R. 3's Phase Commanders have no concept of retreat (even if the city is self-destructing around them) and insist everyone Hold the Line, thinking that they're more than a match for you, even if other Phase Commanders have tried and failed.
  • Superpowered Mooks: The Nightcrawler Elites in Perseus Mandate have the same Slo Mo ability as the player character, which they use to zoom around in short split-second bursts. They're also unaffected by the player's Slo Mo and will continue to move and shoot at normal speed.
  • Superpowerful Genetics: Becket and Alma's kid apparently has inherited both of their powers, squared, seeing as it has developed the ability to speak before even being born.
  • Super Soldier: The Replica soldiers, as well as the Point Man, and the entire Project Harbinger team.
    • Elite Mooks: The Replica Elite, who carry the aforementioned repeating cannon BFG. In the sequel, they wear metal armor suits and can soak more than twice as much damage as a standard Replica soldier.
    • Giant Mook: Replia Heavy Armor soldiers are more than 6 and 1/2 feet tall, wear a heavy suit of armor plates, can absorb more than a full drum mag of assault rifle fire before dying, and in the expansion packs some are armed with miniguns.
  • Surprisingly-Sudden Death: Alma in the first game, when she murders your squad at the water treatment plant. A Replica Assassin also kills Snake Fist in the same sudden manner.
    • In F.E.A.R. 3, this role is played by "The Creep", a powerful, individual apparition unlike any of Alma's usual spooks.
  • Take Cover: One of the gameplay changes in F.E.A.R. 3 is a cover system that lets you pop a little bit around a corner and back just to peek if you don't want to just blast away.
  • Tempting Fate: On the freeway battle in Interval 06 in the third game, an Armacham pilot will call out over the radio that "He can't take two of us!" right before two armored helicopters go after you while you're in an EPA. Guess what happens next.
  • Ten-Second Flashlight: F.E.A.R. is one of the most serious offender. F.E.A.R. 2 gives you an Infinite Flashlight instead, coupling with...
  • Tentative Light: When something scary is about to show up, lights go out.
  • Title Drop: In F.E.A.R. 3.
  • Tragic Monster: The final battle against Sergeant Keegan in F.E.A.R. 2.
  • Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Most of the weapons are standard firearms, but there are man-portable particle beams, powered armour and clones.
    • A document in F.E.A.R. 2 claims that Alma was first sealed in the Vault in 1987 (two days before her eighth birthday), and she gave birth to the Point Man when she was fifteen. Monolith has confirmed that the Point Man is 31 years old during the events of the first game, which sets the story right around the year 2025. This is further supported by the dates on the cameras in F.E.A.R. 3, which show both Paxton Fettel and the Point Man in November 2005, making their younger versions that appear in the flashbacks 10 and 11 years old, respectively.
  • Uncanny Valley: Alma and the Replica were deliberately designed to be this way in-universe. Even in her "healthy" adult form in F.E.A.R. 2, Alma is just... off enough to make it clear that she's not natural.
  • The Unfavourite: For Harlan Wade, the Point Man was this when compared with his brother.
  • The Unfought: Project Origin promises an incredible psychic battle between protagonist Michael Becket and Big Bad Alma. It doesn't happen. Instead, you get a somewhat anticlimactic Battle in the Center of the Mind with your Evil Counterpart, while Alma rapes your comatose body.
  • Understatement: Snake Fist, regarding Alma: "They took her babies away. She didn't like that."
  • Unstoppable Rage: Alma. In fact, calling it that is probably a massive understatement. That girl is pissed.
  • Updated Rerelease: The first game oddly has two, the "Platinum" and "Ultimate Shooter" collections. The only difference is the first is in disc form and includes a bonus episode of the P.A.N.I.C.S. machinima, while the second is for digital distribution.
  • Urban Warfare: The majority of battles take place in homes, office buildings, warehouses, malls and underground tunnels. Most of the setting, in fact, is in tight spaces.
  • Variable Mix: Quiet places typically have ominous ambient music, until dead apparitions or living enemies show up.
  • Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: The Napalm Cannon in Project Origin has wonky hit detection, a relatively low rate of fire, and does fairly mediocre damage. The ammo's even extremely rare after the first few levels.
  • Videogame Set Piece: A lot of the really creepy hallucinations the Point Man and Becket experience, and most of the Peek-a-Boo Corpse moments.
  • The Virus: Alma gets upgraded to The Virus status in F.E.A.R. 2, especially with regards to the members of your squad after they get subjected to the "Harbinger" treatment. And poor citizens of Fairport turned into ghosts or zombies.
  • Visible Invisibility: Replica Assassins have a slight Predator-like distortion effect to the cloaking devices, but it's actually subtler and more difficult to spot compared to similar enemies in other games in the genre. In F.E.A.R. 2, this was changed to a bright blue bloom effect that was very easy to spot if you knew what to look for, which combined with their reduced speed somewhat Nerfed the threat posed by Assassins.
  • Walk It Off: The Point Man and Becket can regenerate back up 25 health points, although since this is only enough to survive one or two bullets, picking up medkits and body armor is still the primary means of restoring lost health.
    • Played completely straight in F.E.A.R. 3.
  • The Walls Are Closing In: It's one of the Point Man's dream sequences in F.E.A.R. Extraction Point. It's actually all scare and no pain.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Jankowski in the first game. It's heavily implied that he was killed by Alma, but the reason for seeing his apparitions throughout the game as well as his vital signs remaining active is never elaborated upon. Word of God confirmed he's dead: the player was originally intended to find his body, but it was cut when it was realized it was much scarier without it.
    • In Project Origin, in the beginning of the second level, an ATC Black Ops lieutenant named Samuels shows up briefly, and is mentioned in dialogue a couple of times later. He has his own unique character model (whereas all other non-plot-important characters are carbon-copies of each other), which makes you think he'll show up again later in the game. He's never seen again.
  • What the Hell, Player?:
    • At the beginning of the first level of Project Origin, Redd Jankowski (younger brother of Spen Jankowski from the first game) calls you out if you start acting bizarrely (i.e. swimming in the fountain, or blowing up a few cars).
    • In the first game, during the part where you sue the elevator along with Alice Wade, leaving the elevator to fight the Replicas will result on getting comments from Alice like "You're going to get us killed!". And, after you've killed all the attacking Replicas, she says "You don't have to kill everyone!".
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The precise location of Fairport is unspecified, and the city itself is so generic that it could be anywhere in the United States. F.E.A.R. 3 implies that it is located somewhere in the southern parts of the country, as the Point Man is able to fly a helicopter from the prison in the unspecified Spanish-speaking country to Fairport.
  • Who Forgot the Lights?: The game lets the player set the light level, but encourages just barely enough light to see. It's more atmospheric that way, after all.
  • Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Harlan Wade has extremely little affection or caring for Alma or her children, and despises them for what they have become.

"My children... Alma... you were to be my legacy... but you are all monsters."

  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Alma, possibly Paxton Fettel.
  • Won't Work On Me: In Perseus Mandate, Nightcrawler Elites are unaffected by your Slo Mo power, and continue to move and fire at normal speed, because they have their own Slow Mo power.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Alma, see The Woobie in the YMMV page.
  • Wrench Whack: Yet another weapon of the cultists.
  • Yandere: In Project Origin, Alma.
  • Your Head Asplode:
    • In F.E.A.R. 2, scoring a headshot with a sniper rifle would blow an enemy's head clean off. In F.E.A.R. 3, this can be done with any sufficiently powerful weapon.
    • In the stinger of the third game for the Point Man ending, this is taken to hilarious extremes, as soldiers pour into the room with tranquilizer guns and repeatedly have their heads blown up by Fettel.
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