I think it is a bit disingenous to claim Fear 2's backstory for Alma is 'just a rehash'. It goes into a lot more detail on the surrounding stuff, and Alma's motivation isn't 'love' it's 'most compatible situation for me to get a child'. Alma was impregnated twice for the purpose of a non-voluntary experiment (which is honestly the least disturbing detail about that situation), she was shoved into a sense dep tank/kept comatose while the kids were developing, and BOTH TIMES, she was brought out just long enough for her to give birth and watch her kids be taken from her by the same father that ruined her. At which point they decided they were going to shut off the life support to the sensory deprivation tank because she was rightfully upset. This led to her LINGERING IN THAT VOID for over a decade. Only to suddenly have a mental touch with one of her kids, and ask them for help. I don't think she intended to send Fettel off the deep end the way she did, but it is an early sign of the type of mindset Alma has. The unintentional corruption she visits on the world around her with her rage and pain being broadcast from an overwhelmingly powerful psychic ghost. You see hints of this throughout all three games, where Alma's power casually creates an apocalypse/drives people insane around her with no direct input or desire. The only things that saved Point Man and Beckett from that, is Alma's desire to protect them. In Point Man's case, because he was her kid (and she learned her lesson after breaking Fettel by accident), in Beckett's case, because she needed him to father the child she wanted. Beckett is described as not just psychically strong in the available data in-game, but also as being morally upright. Alma is a scared, angry child (mentall maturity-wise) lashing out at the world, in all 3 games. In 2, her motivation is to leave a legacy that isn't tainted by Harlan Wade, she is OBSESSED with the idea of having another child, one she knows won't be put through the kind of hell she was, that Point man and Fettel were. She wants to do something to assuage her guilt over failing them, to make a MEANINGFUL choice for once in her life, that leaves something beyond destruction and pain. That's why what goes down with Beckett goes down. That's why she seems content/accepting when she fades at the end of the pointman ending of FEAR 3. All she wanted, at the end of everything, was to leave behind SOMETHING good, and Point Man is the only one she could really trust with that desire, at that point. Alma is not a mentally stable person to begin with (literal rage/grudge ghost that lingers only until goal is complete, before apparently moving on), so expecting logical, sensible reasoning is silly. The Creep in F3AR is a lingering manifestation of Alma's trauma around Harlan Wade, that took on it's own life. Look at Alma's actions through the lens of a traumatized child, with the knowledge of the context surrounding her life, and suddenly she is a lot less random, a lot more intelligible as a character. The games have, from the first game onward, been a story around Alma Wade and the results of her trauma. Around how Humans make their own worst monsters. As much crap as you can rightfully give the gameplay in Fear 2 and F3AR, the core story beats are actually fairly consistent and sensible. Where they sort of fail, is that they don't outright TELL you all this, they don't tell you all the backstory, and leave you to find it in notes and stuff in-game. F3AR made an attempt with cutscenes to drive the point home, but still sort of failed because there was no reasonable way at that point, of contextualizing things without an obscenely long info dump.
Awesome classic my friend! Nice work on this! Big like #4😃💯
I think it is a bit disingenous to claim Fear 2's backstory for Alma is 'just a rehash'. It goes into a lot more detail on the surrounding stuff, and Alma's motivation isn't 'love' it's 'most compatible situation for me to get a child'. Alma was impregnated twice for the purpose of a non-voluntary experiment (which is honestly the least disturbing detail about that situation), she was shoved into a sense dep tank/kept comatose while the kids were developing, and BOTH TIMES, she was brought out just long enough for her to give birth and watch her kids be taken from her by the same father that ruined her. At which point they decided they were going to shut off the life support to the sensory deprivation tank because she was rightfully upset. This led to her LINGERING IN THAT VOID for over a decade. Only to suddenly have a mental touch with one of her kids, and ask them for help. I don't think she intended to send Fettel off the deep end the way she did, but it is an early sign of the type of mindset Alma has. The unintentional corruption she visits on the world around her with her rage and pain being broadcast from an overwhelmingly powerful psychic ghost. You see hints of this throughout all three games, where Alma's power casually creates an apocalypse/drives people insane around her with no direct input or desire. The only things that saved Point Man and Beckett from that, is Alma's desire to protect them. In Point Man's case, because he was her kid (and she learned her lesson after breaking Fettel by accident), in Beckett's case, because she needed him to father the child she wanted. Beckett is described as not just psychically strong in the available data in-game, but also as being morally upright.
Alma is a scared, angry child (mentall maturity-wise) lashing out at the world, in all 3 games. In 2, her motivation is to leave a legacy that isn't tainted by Harlan Wade, she is OBSESSED with the idea of having another child, one she knows won't be put through the kind of hell she was, that Point man and Fettel were. She wants to do something to assuage her guilt over failing them, to make a MEANINGFUL choice for once in her life, that leaves something beyond destruction and pain. That's why what goes down with Beckett goes down. That's why she seems content/accepting when she fades at the end of the pointman ending of FEAR 3. All she wanted, at the end of everything, was to leave behind SOMETHING good, and Point Man is the only one she could really trust with that desire, at that point. Alma is not a mentally stable person to begin with (literal rage/grudge ghost that lingers only until goal is complete, before apparently moving on), so expecting logical, sensible reasoning is silly. The Creep in F3AR is a lingering manifestation of Alma's trauma around Harlan Wade, that took on it's own life.
Look at Alma's actions through the lens of a traumatized child, with the knowledge of the context surrounding her life, and suddenly she is a lot less random, a lot more intelligible as a character.
The games have, from the first game onward, been a story around Alma Wade and the results of her trauma. Around how Humans make their own worst monsters.
As much crap as you can rightfully give the gameplay in Fear 2 and F3AR, the core story beats are actually fairly consistent and sensible. Where they sort of fail, is that they don't outright TELL you all this, they don't tell you all the backstory, and leave you to find it in notes and stuff in-game. F3AR made an attempt with cutscenes to drive the point home, but still sort of failed because there was no reasonable way at that point, of contextualizing things without an obscenely long info dump.
quite a tldr for coping with the fact that fear 2 sucks and fear 3 is trash
Fear 2 sucks balls, amd 3 even more, sticking with extraction point as canon