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Armacham Technology Corporation
A major defense contractor for the United States military, Armacham develops extremely high-tech weapons in a variety of fields, including aerospace, robotics, and the emerging field of psychic warfare. ATC also maintains and operates a large PMC force and conventional military, and was responsible for a lot of construction in the city of Fairport. However, the truth is that Armacham's military and economic power is surprisingly vast, with an enormously powerful military force, highly-advanced technology, and extensive holdings across the world, making them a classic Cyberpunk-esque MegaCorp.- Big Bad Ensemble: With Alma and Paxton Fettel in F.E.A.R. and it’s expansions, Alma again in F.E.A.R. 2, and the Creep in F.E.A.R. 3.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Quite a few of ATC's higher-ups are such.
- Evil, Inc.: They're a weapons manufacturer responsible for Alma and Fettel via horrible experimentation.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of the entire series. They were the ones who made Harlan’s experiments possible.
- MegaCorp: Emphasis in the mega aspect.
- N.G.O. Superpower: They have enough manpower and influence to effectively own significant sections of an unspecified Latin-American country.
- Playing with Syringes: Everything relating to their psychic warfare division.
- School for Scheming: Wade Elementary.
- Sigil Spam: ATC puts their logo on everything, even the crosshair for a prototype pulse weapon and (somewhat counter-intuitively) the uniforms of their black ops troops.
- Super-Soldier: Projects Origin, Harbinger, and Perseus.
Genevieve Aristide
Genevieve Aristide
Without Alma I have no leverage. Without leverage, I have no future!
Voiced by: Meg Savlov
CEO of Armacham Technology Corporation, and one of the heads of Project Origin. Attempted to restart, or at least refurbish the site of, Project Origin, at which point everything went horribly wrong.
- Action Survivor: Although it's mostly offscreen, she survives multiple run-ins with Armacham hit squads and Replica forces and manages to cross ruined Fairport to reach Still Island. She looks quite beaten down by the end of Project Origin, but still succeeds in her plan. And, unlike the Point Man and Becket, she's not a trained soldier with super reflexes. She's just a corporate suit armed only with a pistol.
- Big Bad: In F.E.A.R. 2, she shapes up to be as manipulative and callous as they come. She has no remorse for what she does to her experimental subjects, unlike Harlan Wade, eventually, and has no trauma or lack of personal agency to excuse her from responsibility, the case with Alma herself, who is so broken she hardly understands what happens around her and has no control over her Psychic Powers.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Senator Hoyle in the first game.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She uses what was likely very real fear for her own life to come off as concerned for everyone who could be hurt by the fallout of Origin's cover-up and desperate to stop it. The truth is much less altruistic.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being a major character in the first two games, she doesn't appear at all in the third.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: She wants to keep her cushy, well-paying job and she will throw innocent people to the wolves to do so.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Oddly enough, she has moments of humanity - for instance, warning the staff of the Harbinger facility that the black-ops team was coming and giving practical advice on how to hold them off, and her disgust for Harlan Wade's... method of producing the Prototypes. She seems to value loyal and compliant staff members far more than she does their living, breathing projects.
- Evil Plan: The plot to get Becket to draw Alma into the Telesthetic Amplifier to trap them both.
- Karma Houdini: She doesn't appear in the third game - not even a single mention - so it can only be inferred that she got away.
- Lack of Empathy: For the human "products" of Armacham - Alma, Paxton Fettel, the Harbinger Candidates (including Becket) - and for those who get in her way.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Practically her Catchphrase. Aristide believes firmly that all she does can be justified as protecting her own well-being, Armacham's profit margins, their staff members, and public safety. In that order.
- Moral Myopia: When she shoots Stokes and traps Becket in the Amplifier, it's not because she hates them or anything. She's just protecting herself. That happens to be at the expense of the protagonists, but she hastily assures them she's "not a bad person". So...no hard feelings?
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Though she pretends that she is interested in locking down Project Origin to keep people safe, Aristide's actions, up to and including murdering one of the people who was putting her in protective custody, and setting the other up as The Bait for Alma, give away the fact that she is far less interested in the public wellbeing or her own employees than she is about her own safety and status.
- Only in It for the Money: Reading her e-mails and notes indicates that her chief concern appears to be keeping her job and recouping financial losses.
- Rich Bitch: Her apartment is very opulent and she seems to have sponsored an art gallery in the building.
- The Scapegoat: Partly the reason she's so ruthless. The Armacham Board of Directors have decided to blame every single thing that ever went wrong with Projects Origin, Icarus and Perseus - including the existence of the projects themselves - on her and her alone. With the majority of the senior scientists dead, including Harlan Wade, and the board itself washing their hands of Fairport entirely, the blame and the punishment has to be pinned on somebody. Plus once she's dead, they can say they cleaned up the "corruption" themselves with no one left to contradict their claim.
- Took a Shortcut: In the second game, she travels by herself along more or less the same route the protagonist ends up taking, and somehow manages to get from one end of the city to the other despite it being the middle of the apocalypse and she being an older civilian with no superpowers or combat training.
- The Unfought: Understandable, since she has no combat or psychic ability whatsoever.
- The Voice: In F.E.A.R. Her appearance is revealed in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. She looks like a middle-aged businesswoman (and apparently wears contact lenses).
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite her horrific actions (and unlike Harlan Wade, a complete lack of any remorse), she does not appear, nor is she even mentioned, after the events of Project Origin. She either got away without any issue or was killed by Alma after she raped Becket.
Colonel Richard Vanek
Colonel Richard Vanek
I want nothing left to link us to Alma, or Origin, or any of the insanity.
Voiced by: unknown
Head of ATC's special operations and cleanup team and former U.S.M.C. Force Recon. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin's first antagonist.
- Colonel Kilgore: He would rather have the interfering Delta Force agents dead than alive.
- Cutscene Boss: He's fought and killed with a few quicktime prompts and some button mashing that end up pushing his shotgun under his chin and pulling the trigger.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. Vanek vocally disapproves of his employers' various ethically unjustifiable genetics programs - though mostly because he has to clean up after them.
- Large Ham: Vanek is loud.
- No Indoor Voice: He shouts and screams nearly all of his lines.
- The Nicknamer: Insulting variant. Becket's first unwanted nickname is "chickpea", and Vanek doesn't stop there.
- Oh, Crap!: Vanek understandably looks terrified when Becket overpowers him and puts the barrel of Vanek's own shotgun in his face. Then Becket pulls the trigger.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: When he's especially frustrated, every other word out of his mouth seems to be a curse word.
- Your Head Asplode: He loses his head to a blast from his own shotgun.
Harlan Wade
Harlan Wade
It is the way of men to create monsters... and the way of monsters to destroy their creators.
Voiced by: Grant Goodeve
A high-ranking researcher at Armacham, and the former head of Project Origin. In the first game, he becomes deeply concerned when Genevieve Aristide wants to re-open the program, over his objections.
- Abusive Parents: Hoo boy. And it doesn't just extend to Alma, either. Both Fettel and the Point Man got a lot of it too when they were children. One of the Point Man's flashbacks depicts Harlan putting him in a training ring as an eleven-year old against a fully-grown Armacham soldier, and when he inevitably loses, Harlan flies into a rage and beats him with a metal bucket so hard that he gets thrown into a concrete pillar.
- Asshole Victim: When the full scope of what he did to Alma and her children is unearthed, it's really hard to feel any sympathy for this guy when Alma violently liquefies him.
- The Atoner:
- Harlan is the ringleader of a group that represents about half of the original Project Origin staff, whom believe that any attempt to reopen the Vault and restart Project Origin would be a very bad idea. Not that Genevieve Aristide bothered to listen. In the end, Wade decides to set Alma free, to "save" her from the destruction of the Origin facility. Whatever his intentions, he dies instantly, Stripped to the Bone by Alma, and in death set loose what may be the harbinger of the apocalypse.
- In F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, one of Harlan's flashbacks involves him standing next to his daughter, with his voice speaking in the background, saying "You're asking me to seal my daughter away?" From his tone, it sounds like he's horrified at the prospect. His later appearances, particularly the brothers' flashbacks to how he treated them during the years when Project Origin was active, show that he hardened quite a bit.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Harlan's phone messages are never friendly. In what may be the key summation of the series, he describes what will occur as the "assfuck of the century." It's particularly notable in the ones addressed to Genevieve.
- Death Seeker: Judging from his dialogue shortly before he opens the Vault, the crushing guilt of what he had done to Alma and his grandchildren had turned him into a broken man as a result, and when Alma stalks towards him with murderous intent after he releases her, Harlan just stands there and makes no attempt to escape his fate.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's clear he and Alice were close, as he did everything he could to warn her about the Replica attack on ATC headquarters and she was more concerned about his safety than hers after being rescued. He also cared about Alma in a very twisted way.
- Face Death with Dignity: He simply stands tall and lets himself get liquefied by Alma.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of the entire series along with Armacham itself. All of the horrors perpetrated by Alma and Fettel can be traced back to Harlan Wade's experiments with Project Origin.
- Heel Realization: Realizes that Armacham completely deserves everything Alma throws at them, and willingly allows her to destroy him. Except not for good.
- Hoist by His Own PetardHarlan Wade: It is the way of men to make monsters. And it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers.
- Ignored Expert: He repeatedly tried to stop Genevieve Aristide from reopening the vault containing Alma. Aristide eventually stopped answering his calls, so Harlan's final warning to her and her cronies was to brace for 'the assfuck of the century'. He wasn't kidding.
- Not Quite Dead: Thanks to Alma's fears, he returns and manifests as the Creep.
- Parental Favoritism: He definitely cared about Alice, who treated as an actual daughter, more than he did Alma, who was little more than a test subject to him. Also, he favored Paxton Fettel over the Point Man, the latter of whom he seemed to haved foisted off on the U.S. military after he turned out to be a failure.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Harlan returns in F.E.A.R. 3 as a powerful apparition called the Creep, the psychic embodiment of Alma's fear and hatred of him.
- Stripped to the Bone: The way he finally dies. There's nothing left but a skeleton and a pool of blood.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: A Justified Trope in F.E.A.R. 3. His manifestation as the Creep is obsessed with becoming a god and regularly torments Alma and her sons, but this comes as a result of her not understanding that her father had become The Atoner after having a Heel Realization, and not acknowledging the fact that he let her free from containment as a way to make amends. To that effect, the Creep is less a manifestation of Harlan himself than it is of Alma's memories of him as an Abusive Parent.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Overlaps with Never My Fault, until the events of the first game he refuses to accept any responsibility for how Fettel, Alma or Point-Man turned out. He even blames Fettel and the Pointman for not living up to expectations. The only hint of remorse or guilt he shows is during Alma's birth when he can't even look at her and stands in the corner in shame. He grows out of this and comes to terms with his actions, ironically this actually makes everything worse.
Alice Wade
Alice Wade
"You don't mess around, do you?"
- "Hurry, let's go get my dad. I'm not going anywhere until I know he's okay."
Voiced by: Melissa Roberts
Daughter of Harlan Wade and an Armacham employee.
- Barefoot Captives: Is unshod when the Point Man finds her; whether her shoes were taken from her upon capture (somewhat unlikely since Aldus still has his shoes on when he's found) or were already missing when her captors found her (having either lost them when trying to escape or deliberately discarded them to make said escape easier if they were high-heeled) isn't elaborated on.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: From the moment she is saved by the Point Man from the Replica who take her hostage, she has nothing but complaints and objections to Betters over the comlink. As well as complaining in the elevator if the Point Man steps out on each floor to eliminate all the Replica hostiles while she cowers inside criticizing him. She quickly veers into outright Ungrateful Bastard and Too Dumb to Live territory when she decides to run off from the Point Man and search for her father alone against an army of well equipped military clones led by a cannibalistic psychic commander with a vendetta against Armacham employees like herself, to fatal and predictable results.
- Daddy's Girl: In contrast to Harlan's other daughter, this one was raised with much love.
- Dumb Blonde: Alice is supposed to be a career woman, but her naivete and poor decision making skills makes most other ATC executives look reasonable by comparison when she decides to run away from the US military's protective custody and try her own chances to evade a murderous super soldier battalion occupying Fairport. Even worse, if we interpret the blood stains on her shirt as a proof that she has already seen someone killed in front of her (or found some recent corpse), it is unforgivably stupid for her to believe she will be able to avoid the same fate by herself.Rodney "Rowdy" Betters: "Those soldiers are looking for you. If they capture you again, they're going to interrogate you. And believe me, their methods are very unpleasant."Alice Wade: "I'll take my chances."Rodney "Rowdy" Betters: "Stubborn little bitch, isn't she?"
- Dumbass Has a Point: Her ditching the Point Man and going off on her own was foolish, but she was right that using a helicopter to escape was a bad idea. Especially when the Replica manage to not only shoot down the evac chopper that was meant for her, but also the second chopper that was flying the Point Man, Jin, and Holiday to the vault just minutes later.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Relatively; she is kind and cheerful, even if spectacularly reckless and stubborn.
- Locked Out of the Loop: She doesn't know anything about Alma or Project Origin. It doesn't protect her from Fettel and Alma.
- Too Dumb to Live: Much to Betters' audible aggravation. Instead of sticking with the well armed F.E.A.R. team and Delta Force, with her Super-Soldier Point Man escort, she is adamant about finding her father instead of being taken to a safe house. She is quickly spooked by the Replica blowing up a Delta Force helicopter and runs off, heading down to the parking garage to take her car in order to reach the Auburn District alone. Not even bothering to wait a few extra moments for the Point Man to hop into her vehicle so he can escort her to the Origin Facility and protect her, even after Betters compromises and agrees to allow her to come with them to Auburn. In doing so, she is quickly captured by Fettel, taken down to the Vault with him and his Replica forces and cannibalized by Fettel as Alma watches. At which point all the Point Man can do for her is avenge her.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Towards the Point Man, Betters, F.E.A.R. and Delta Force when they attempt to rescue her from the Replica Forces and evacuate her from Armacham Headquarters, quickly taking off on her own instead of sticking by them or showing much in the way of gratitude.
- Unknown Relative: She has no idea that the terrorist leader in charge of the Replica battalion that stormed Armacham, the F.E.A.R. recon agent trying to save her and the source of the Auburn phenomena she was investigating are her nephews and sister.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She has aviophobia, and it doesn't help precisely that the Black Hawk helicopter that was supposed to carry her away was gunned down in front of her eyes. Ultimately this fear plays a part in dooming her.
Norton Mapes
Norton Mapes
- Sayonara, sucker!
Voiced by: Greg Baldwin
A grossly obese, geeky ATC engineer, one of the survivor left by the attack by Replica forces. He initially helps Point Man and the F.E.A.R. team in their task, though only for a very short time (and possibly unintentionally) before revealing he is working for Genevieve Aristide to get them all killed and bury the Alma affair.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Towards Alice, if a voice mail about sexual harassment heard shortly after you meet him is to be believed.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Wears gaudy clothes and often behaves like an idiot. For instance, he tried to hide behind a minuscule potted plant and crawl through a narrow ventilation shaft despite him being far too obese to fit through.
- The Cracker: He knows how to activate and deactivate the security system and probably can teach Betters himself a couple of hacking lessons.
- Enemy Mine: After his betrayals, he ends telling Point Man how to destroy the Origin Facility.
- Expy: He is clearly based on Dennis Nedry from Jurassic Park. Both are annoying, smug, Fat Bastard computer hackers that sabotage their own companies out of greed even if it results in a lot of deaths.
- Fat Bastard: He betrays Point Man two times and even allows himself plead for his life. He is lucky that the player can't shoot him right dead.
- Fat Slob: His desk is covered in Cheeze Pooz bags and soda cans.
- Geek Physiques: Straight, as he is a fat geek, though strangely subverted in the fragility part if one counts Extraction Point.
- Godzilla Threshold: He believes that destroying the Origin facility, which will in turn destroy the city of Fairport, is a better option than allowing Alma to escape her grave. Too bad it doesn't work.
- Karmic Death: He is shot in the stomach by Harlan Wade after trying to stop him from releasing Alma. Although he is still alive for the last time Point Man finds him, he presumably dies when the Origin Facility blows up.
- Kevlard: Probably how he survived being shot by Harlan Wade.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Or so he claims to Harlan Wade, saying that he's just doing his job. Wade doesn't care and puts a bullet in him.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The non-canon Extraction Point shows him inexplicably alive after the explosion. An Easter Egg lets you finally put a bullet in his brain as he dances to music, at least.
- Undying Loyalty: He's inexplicably loyal to Genevieve Aristide, leading her efforts to cover up Project Origin as the Point Man closes in on the truth. Harlan Wade outright calls him Arstide's "fucking lapdog".
Snake Fist
Snake Fist/Terry Halford
- You're like free pizza at an anime convention. She can smell you. And she wants to consume you.
Voiced by: unknown
An ATC researcher, initially heard as a voice in the radio calling himself "Snake Fist", who helps Michael Becket and his team sharing with them his considerable knowledge of the facts surrounding Alma.
- Badass Bookworm: Aside from being a key scientist for ATC and a cunning field researcher, he manages to guide the Dark Signal Team and avoid getting killed while locked alone in a Replica-filled Paragon Facility where even a tough soldier has a difficult time to survive.
- Cloudcuckoolander: If his lab coat, T-shirt, loose pants and sandals with socks aren't enough convince you, see the quote above for his way of speaking. You can't help but wonder where does ATC find those guys.
- Geek Physiques: Not too fat, but he is noticeably stout.
- Good Counterpart: To Norton Mapes from the first game. They are both overweight, geeky ATC people who offer to help the protagonist, but while Mapes is a Fat Bastard traitor, Halford remains as a good guy until the end.
- Off with His Head!: A particularly gruesome example is done when a Replica Assassin rips off his head with his claws. You find his head on a bench shortly after as a warning just before the Assassins start coming after you.
- Punny Name: It is not probably a coincidance that he shares his surname with Rob Halford from Judas Priest, which has a famous song named "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll".
- Voice with an Internet Connection: For most of F.E.A.R. 2.
ATC Security
ATC Security/Black Ops/Phase Casters and Commanders
Armacham's immensely powerful military division, divided into different groups. ATC Security handles day-to-day physical security and initial response, and form the primary ATC enemy in the first game and its expansions. Security is characterized by their light civilian armor, sunglasses, and caps. Black Ops, which handles dangerous covert and cleanup operations, forms the ATC enemy in the second game and its expansions, and are characterized by heavier full-body armor and a high-tech, cyberpunk aesthetic to their gear. In the third game ATC has deployed conventional military forces which have occupied the city of Fairport and are conducting a general purge of the civilian populace, now driven insane by Alma. These mercenaries are characterized by modern military-style armor and equipment and balaclavas. The Phase troops are something else altogether - energy-shielded elites who casually fling regular troops into the meat grinder and use cutting-edge technology.- Cool Shades: ATC Security all wear these. The Black Ops troops wear glowing blue ones as well.
- Elite Mooks: Each group has a particular type; Security has heavily-armored guards in riot gear (only seen in Perseus Mandate). Black Ops has elite troops clad in heavier armor and facemasks. The conventional ATC troops use Replica soldiers and Phase troops as their elites.
- Enemy Mine: Sort of. In the first two games, they were actively fighting against the Replica, but by the third game the Replica have been brought back under control and fight alongside the normal human ATC troops.
- Enemy Summoner: Phase Casters. They're equipped with technology that allows them to transport troops to a location in small groups.
- Faceless Goons: Many ATC troops have visible faces, but the more elite soldiers wear facemasks and goggles, and all of the ATC troops in the third game wear face-concealing balaclavas.
- Mecha-Mooks: The mech support units that show up in F.3.A.R.
- Private Military Contractors
- Punch-Clock Villain: In the first game the ATC Security units are mostly just armed security guards following orders to "repel all outsiders" and are generally in over their heads (though they do carry out several assassinations of people who know too much under Aristide's orders). The second and third games, not so much.
- Teleport Spam: Phase Commanders use some sort of portal-forming supertech to achieve this trope, stepping into one wall to pop out again from another.
- We Have Reserves: The Phase Commanders have no compunctions with sacrificing their troops to achieve an objective - especially if that objective is killing the Point Man. The troops, not being Replica, can often be heard obeying orders only very reluctantly or having to be threatened into line.
