F.E.A.R. Extraction Point

First of two standalone expansion packs for F. E. A. R.

F. E. A. R. Extraction Point is the first expansion pack for the first person shooter psychological horror video game F. E. A. R. First Encounter Assault Recon. Developed by TimeGate Studios and originally published by Vivendi Games under the Sierra Entertainment label, it was released for Microsoft Windows in October 2006 and for Xbox 360 in November 2007. The Xbox version was only available packaged with another expansion, F. E. A. R. Perseus Mandate, and released as F. E. A. R. Files. On the PC, as well as a standalone release, Extraction Point was also bundled with the original game for F. E. A. R. Gold Edition, released in March 2007, and with the original game and Perseus Mandate for F. E. A. R. Platinum Collection, released in November 2007. The Platinum Collection was also released on Steam in 2012 and GOG. com in 2015. In 2021, F. E. A. R. Files was added to Microsoft's backward compatibility program, making the games playable on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Neither expansion is now considered canon, as the Monolith Productions developed F. E. A. R. 2: Project Origin ignores the events of both. The game's story begins immediately after the original F. E. A. R. ends; the helicopter carrying Point Man, Douglas Holiday, and Jin Sun Kwon loses power and crashes. With the city deserted in the wake of the Origin facility's explosion, the trio set out to attempt to reach an extraction point. Split off from Holiday and Jin, Point Man is shocked to find Paxton Fettel is still alive, and the Replicas have been reanimated. En route to the extraction, Point Man once again begins seeing Alma Wade. However, her behavior seems different than before, and it is slowly revealed that she has a new agenda. Extraction Point was well received on PC, with critics praising its fidelity to the base game, and lauding the combat mechanics, sound design, graphics, atmosphere, implementation of "reflex time", and AI. Common criticisms included a lack of replay value, a short campaign given the $30 price, and TimeGate's failure to innovate or try anything new. The expansion went on to win PC Gamers "Best Expansion Pack" (2006). On the Xbox 360, F. E. A. R. Files received mixed reviews, with most critics preferring Extraction Point to Perseus Mandate, but finding the overall package dated and too similar to the base game.

F. E. A. R. Extraction Point is a first person shooter with gameplay very similar to the original F. E. A. R. As in the original, the player's arsenal includes handguns (which the player can dual wield), an assault rifle, submachine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle, nail gun, repeating cannon, rocket launcher, and particle beam. New weapons in Extraction Point are a minigun and laser carbine. Each weapon differs in terms of accuracy, range, rate of fire, damage, and weight. Only three different firearms can be carried at any one time. The player also has access to four different types of projectile frag grenades, proximity grenades, remote bombs, and deployable turrets. The player can carry five of each type, and can carry all four at once (allowing for up to 20 projectiles), but only one type may be equipped at any one time. Additionally, when using the remote bombs, the player must holster their weapon. As in the original game, Extraction Points melee combat is a viable combat alternative. The butts of all firearms can be used in close combat; lighter weapons, although less powerful, allow the player to move around more quickly and increase the chances of a successful melee attack. This effect is used to simulate the player character's superhuman reflexes, and is represented by stylized visual effects, such as bullets in flight that cause air distortion or interact with the game's particle system. The duration which reflex time lasts is limited, determined by a meter which slowly fills up automatically when the ability is not being used. New features in Extraction Point include the ability to bash open doors by using the melee function, as well as blast them open with explosives, and the ability to smash crates, some of which contain supplies.

The game opens with Alma Wade's physical form approaching Paxton Fettel's corpse, as Fettel's threat of war from the original F. E. A. R. is heard; "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." The game then cuts to moments after the end of the original game; the helicopter evacuating F. E. A. R.'s Point Man and Jin Sun Kwon and Delta Force's Douglas Holiday has crashed into a derelict building. All three have survived, but they find Fairport mysteriously empty. Jin speculates that it must have been evacuated due to the destruction of the Origin facility, but Holiday points out that a city can't be evacuated so completely that quickly. Jin then suggests that it may be something to do with Alma. Cut off from Holiday and Jin, Point Man arranges to meet them nearby. As he enters a church, he is confronted by Paxton Fettel, who notes that the circumstances do not make sense, as Point Man already killed him, something about which he isn't happy. Fettel reactivates the dormant Replicas, forcing Point Man to fight his way through them. En route to the rendezvous point with the others, he once again begins to have hallucinations of Fettel and Alma, in one of which she says, "please don't let them hurt me." Meanwhile, Holiday and Jin are also separated. Holiday learns that an extraction point has been established on the roof of Auburn Memorial Hospital, and so arranges for the three to meet there. After Holiday and Point Man rendezvous, they head through the warehouse district. However, they are stalked by semi transparent supernatural creatures, and Holiday is brutally killed. Point Man heads into the subway alone, continuing to engage Replicas. As he moves through the tunnels, it becomes apparent that Alma (in her red dress form) is aiding him by pointing him in the right direction and eliminating Replicas. Meanwhile, Jin reaches the hospital only to find everyone there is dead. Point Man's hallucinations continue, including a recurring vision where he sees the transparent creatures entering and exiting a ball of blue light. Passing through an office building on the way to the hospital, Fettel taunts him for still not understanding his purpose in what is going on. Continuing through the building, Alma urges him to hurry, and Fettel tells him, "Soon, you will have a choice to make. You are near the time when you will have to stop running." Shortly thereafter, he has a hallucination of Jin being chased by the transparent creatures, and moments later he finds her mutilated body. Proceeding alone to the hospital, he finds it full of dead Replicas and Delta Force soldiers. As he moves through the building, he sees the transparent creatures attacking and killing Replicas. When a power outage knocks out the service elevator that he needs to get to the roof, Point Man descends into the basement to restore power. There, he experiences a hallucination which concludes with both of Alma's forms (red dress and physical) walking towards the bright blue light and it flaring when they reach it. When the hallucination ends, Point Man discovers the power is no longer out, and so he heads to the roof. Once there, Fettel appears, telling him, "You should know better by now." Point Man fights off a group of Replicas, before heading to the evac helicopter. However, as he approaches it, it explodes, knocking him out. When he awakens, Fettel tells him, "they tried to bury their sins, but instead planted the seeds of their doom. She would not be forgotten. We will make them remember." Fettel then disappears, as Point Man sees that much of Fairport is in flames. As the credits role, we once again hear Fettel's promise of an imminent war; "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."

Extraction Point is not considered canon in the F. E. A. R. universe insofar as F. E. A. R. 2: Project Origin disregards the events of both Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate, acting instead as a direct sequel to the original game. Initial reports stated that Monolith Productions, creators of the original game, had given the expansions' storylines their blessing, and that they were in line with their own in development sequel. However, in December 2008, a year after the release of Perseus Mandate and a few months before the release of Project Origin, Dave Matthews, Project Origins lead artist, explained that the expansions

were made outside of Monolith and they took the story in a very different direction than we had intended, so when we started working on F. E. A. R. 2, there was a very difficult decision. Did we try to figure out and change the story with what we were trying to tell with Alma, and incorporate the story arc with what goes on between Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate? That's when we decided to treat it as if it were a 'what if?' or an alternate spin because we thought it would be of merit to the story if it remained pure.

Extraction Point was announced for Microsoft Windows in early May 2006, with TimeGate Studios working on development. Due to uncertainty regarding rights (Monolith Productions, who made the base game, had been purchased by Warner Bros. Games and owned the rights to the intellectual property and characters, but Vivendi Games, who had published the base game, still owned the name F. E. A. R.), it was stated in a press release that the plot for Extraction Point had been approved by Monolith and was in line with their own plans for a full sequel, which they had announced in February. In September, a demo was released. During the promotion of the game, producer Tim Hall explained that in making Extraction Point, the designers were keen to address some of the common criticisms of the base game. With this in mind, there is greater enemy variety and more varied environments. Hall explained that because one of the main criticisms of the first game was that the levels were too repetitive and enclosed, the team had ensured to include more aesthetically varied environments, especially large outdoor sections. The game's Xbox 360 announcement came in July 2007, accompanying the announcement of Perseus Mandate, with both expansions bundled together and released under the name F. E. A. R. Files. Originally, the plan was to release it on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but the PlayStation version was cancelled. As well as the two standalone expansions, F. E. A. R. Files also includes seven new instant action maps and five new multiplayer maps. The Platinum Collection was released on GOG. com in February 2015. In November 2021, the F. E. A. R. franchise, including F. E. A. R. Files, was added to Microsoft's backward compatibility program, making the games playable on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.