and the abundance of phase casters and commanders seems very weird, considering only 9 months of R&D could have happened between F.E.A.R. 2 and 3.
Technically, we're looking at the "real" tech base of the setting. Most of the stuff in the first FEAR game that we see the Replica fielding? That's outdated, Cold War-equivalent technology. All the gear ATC and the Replica are packing in the second and third games are the "real" weapons and technology of the setting.
As for the storyline in the third game, I agree that it can get confusing, but if you pay close attention they do explain most of it. Beckett was required because he possessed knowledge of where Alma and the child were (and could confirm if Alma was truly pregnant). Jin generally wasn't able to keep track of exactly where you were and what you were doing; she just had the dumb luck of being in your path thanks to the Phase Commander. Getting to the airport appears to be via the old-fashioned way: swimming really hard. You can see the Point Man climbing out of the water when he reaches the airport. The "memories" were those of the Point Man and Fettel; the Origin Ward that they were wandering around in seemed to be where Alma had gone to hide, and they were moving through the environment much how the Point Man moved through Alma's memories in the first game; the entire location seemed to be a warped reality caused by her presence, coupled with the hostile memories the brothers possessed; in this case, physically entering those memories and destroying the critical elements of those memories actually damaged the Creep itself, as it was just a construct of memories surrounding Harlan Wade.
I disagree regarding the Interface Screw taking away the fear element in the second game; if anything it enhanced it, because when I first played through, those environmental effects warned me that something was about to happen, yet that only enhanced the dread. Atmospherically, the second game was excellently done. I actually did find the third game to be really scary, but only at certain (extremely well-done) points. The supermarket was a superb piece of horror, as was the suburban environment immediately afterward. The segment on the ruined subway cars was also very nicely done. The sequences where the Creep is hunting you were also very frightening, even with a co-op player. Overall, I think the developers really hit the mark on designing environments that invoked deliberate unease and dread over the jump scares of the first game. The first game no longer scares me, but no matter how many times I've played the second one, I still feel dread and worry when I enter the school, and the TV section in the supermarket still frightens me despite going though it a dozen times.
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From horror to shooter
The original F.E.A.R. game was incredibly haunting. It had great atmosphere, good backstory and was genuinely scary. The shooter bits were pretty good as well, though the surroundings got a bit monotone, with each hallway looking like the last. The expansions were both big improvements, adding massive improvements to the shooter elements as well as being terrifying.
The problems with the series started with F.E.A.R. 2, though I still say that game was good. It simply stopped being as scary. I think the main problem was with the Interface Screw that happened when you got close to something supernatural. In F.E.A.R. 1, the Interface Screw only happened when the supernatural stuff actually started. In F.E.A.R. 2, it seems like it started a few seconds before, warning you, rather than adding to scaryness. Everything in the series also seemed to have suddenly gotten more advanced, despite the fact that F.E.A.R. 2 takes place at most a few days after F.E.A.R. "Sexy Alma" was a big problem as well, as she looked and moved in a rather silly way. For some people it might be qualify for Uncanny Valley though. Howevever, there were still quite a few scary moments (most notably the haunted part of the school), the backstory behind all the new stuff was excellent and I really liked the locations.
F.E.A.R. 3 just wasn't scary at all to me. Half of the scares consisted simply of a random Interface Screw , and with most of the others I just couldn't see what was going on due to the black tentacles around my screen. None of the new in-game elements were ever given any explanation (at least in the game itself, they might have gotten it outside) and the abundance of phase casters and commanders seems very weird, considering only 9 months of R&D could have happened between F.E.A.R. 2 and 3. There is also the issue of the story. For the first half of the game, the story was pretty decent. But as soon as Jin Sun-Kwon appears, it gets really confusing. How was Beckett supposed to stop Alma? How was Jin following my efforts? How did we get from the monster-infested water to the airport? Whose memories did we enter and how did we enter those memories? How did we reach Alma? The events in the latter half of the game are so completely jumbled that it barely qualifies as a story. The shooter elements were pretty good though.