Introduction And Thoughts On FEAR 2

Contrary to the title, not much introduction is needed. Chances are you are someone I know or followed this link from someone I know. To the first, welcome friends. To the second, welcome as well. I will be using this blog to outline various projects, talk about games, complain about games, and share random thoughts (thus the title of Brain Dump).

Today's topic is Alma from FEAR: specifically how she changed from FEAR 1 to FEAR 2 and why it made FEAR 2 less scary and slightly cheesier than FEAR 1. There are major spoilers below, just so you know.

In FEAR 1, Young Alma was a little girl in a red dress who was used as a major scare set piece. Most often, she'd appear at the end of a hall, or turn a corner, and the player would charge after her, wondering where she went. She also interfered with the player's HUD and flashlight to both spook the player, as well as set up for other scares. Finally, she'd sometimes just appear behind you and giggle. As far as horror set pieces go, she was very creepy, and used to great effect.

Near the end of the game, Alma changed from a (roughly) five year old girl to a corpse-like, anorexic young woman lacking any form of attire. Long, dirty black hair covers her eyes and chest, and her movements changed from 'scared little girl' to 'psychotic she-wolf'; at least, when you could see her move. Sometimes, she'd move several feet at a time, erratically, in time with strobe lights, as if she were teleporting. In one iconic scene, she slowly sauntered towards you down a flaming hallway, and her hips moved in a creepy yet delicious fashion.

Both variations of Alma from FEAR 1 are scary, but for different reasons. Young Alma is scary since she has the body and mind of a child, but the power of a havoc-wreaking demigod. You see her run around, hear her cry and sometimes laugh, all the time wondering what she is. Then you round the corner, see a room full of blood and body parts and think 'whoa shit'.

Older Alma's main scare source is a little different. She's more violent, and her presence usually signified a major supernatural scare coming up. For example, the player would see Older Alma make a brief appearance before they fought her minions or Point Man's hallucinations. In addition, her movements are more sensual, and she's on screen for a longer amount of time per appearance. At the 'sauntering down a flaming hallway' scene, I realized that I was honestly giving her the eye, and it made me shiver.

All this is well and good; FEAR 1 is a game that managed to make me jump a few times before it was over. Alma was used to good effect in FEAR 1. She was scary in both forms, and that's what counts in a horror game.

However, her spookiness takes a hit in FEAR 2. Most of her appearances are Older Alma, not Young Alma. When I played FEAR 2, Alma's scares weren't as creative; the only one I remember clearly is when you step inside of a subway car, the doors lock, and her shadow is cast in front of you. Moreover, she is the main focus of a recurring quick time event where the player is trying to kick her off to stop her from kissing you.

Yes. The player is trying to kick an anorexic, naked, psychotic telepath off of himself to stop her from kissing him. This leads to my reason why she is less scary: she is sexier.

When you see her move, her sensual gait has been kept, and the player gets several wonderful views of her breasts (most of the time obscured by her hair). Often, encounters with Alma end in her attempting to kiss the main player. She goes from a psychotic monster whose actions basically touch off an apocalypse to a lust-crazed telepathic corpse hell bent on tracking down the player and carrying his child.

Alma becomes too human to be scary. She becomes like that crazy girl who seduces a man just for the honor of carrying his child. Not all of this was clear at first; I knew she was less scary, but I couldn't place why. It was the ending that really explained everything.

In a nutshell, the player is strapped to a chair, sees Alma lean in for a kiss, then all hell breaks loose. You enter a hallucinatory state, seeing only flashes of her riding you in between segments of combat. When you finally finish the combat, you hear her moans, then see her explode. A few moments of darkness later, and you see Alma against a backdrop of fire, pregnant.

Once I saw it, and reflected back on all the Alma sightings, I realized that Alma wasn't scary any more at all. She had become an undead sex kitten, whose main 'scariness' stemmed from the fact that she could kill and absorb people at will. Instead of trying to be creative about using her as a set-piece, it felt like FEAR 2's main scares came from other sources as well as Alma's 'residual scariness' from FEAR 1. By the end, she stopped being scary altogether. When I stop seeing the main horror set piece as scary, and start seeing her as sexy, she stops scaring me, and the main draw to the game slowly slips away.