Why We Don't Consider "F.3.A.R." Canon

[SatyrToon]

F.3.A.R. can be a touchy topic in the F.E.A.R. fan community with an overwhelming number of people honestly hating the game. I'm one of those people who doesn't like the game, but thinks the gameplay is fun. Now, sometimes a game being fun can make up for a bad or lacking story, but in F.3.A.R.'s case, it can't because it calls itself a 'F.E.A.R. game.' This doesn't mean that F.3.A.R. would be good if it wasn't a F.E.A.R. game, because it still wouldn't be and then also wouldn't make any sense because it relies heavily on the first two games while also retconning important story elements. (I'll explain this in a minute.)

Now, one could say "You can't just say a game isn't canon because you don't like it" and they'd be right, but I'm not saying F.3.A.R. isn't canon because I don't like it. I'm saying it isn't canon because it has its own canon that directly interferes with the first two games.

Now, if you know F.E.A.R., you know that there are two official timelines. These are the "Monolith Timeline" and the "Vivindi Timeline." They are called these names because these are the companies that made two sets of F.E.A.R. games. The Monolith Timeline is officially the canon timeline because they created the original F.E.A.R. and created the direct sequel "F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin" as well as F.E.A.R. 2's DLC "Reborn" which is also canon. Vivindi created the non-canonical expansions "F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point" and "F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate."

Now, F.3.A.R. was neither made by Monolith nor by Vivindi. It was made by Day 1 Studios. Because of the previous structures of the different canons, F.3.A.R. can be considered a different canon. Now, as I stated earlier, this isn't the only reason that I don't think F.3.A.R. is canon.

F.3.A.R. also retcons previously established information in the canon timeline. The biggest retcon that it made was actually completely erasing the events of "F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn" which is, IN FACT, canon. In this DLC, the arguable main antagonist of the first F.E.A.R., Paxton Fettel, reaches out in his phantom state to a replica soldier named 'Foxtrot 813.' He eventually possesses 813 who, like all replicas, is a clone of Paxton himself. Fettel is able to gain a new body and completely denounces Alma, swearing to get revenge on her for using him.

In F.3.A.R., Paxton is still dead and shows an overwhelming desire to 'be a family' with the brother who shot him in the head. Besides the fact that Fettel should be alive, he seems completely willing to forgive his older brother which is totally out of his character. As a matter of fact, Paxton Fettel's character is changed to a fault in this game and it's jarring. Paxton isn't one to forgive. His entire goal in the first game was getting revenge on the people who tested on him and his mother, no matter how small of a role they played or if he even saw them at all.

Another big retcon were the Pointman's abilities. In the original game, it was said that Pointman was not born with his "bullet time" ability and only gained it through invasive surguries shortly before joining F.E.A.R. In fact, the Pointman had little to no psychic power at all and that is why he was removed from Project Origin and given to Aristide as a 'pet-project.' In F.3.A.R., the Pointman is shown to have had his abilities from a very young age and it is implied that he was born with them, but Harlon Wade didn't find them useful. Again, this gets in the way of the canon and removes F.3.A.R. from the canon timeline.

Finally, the biggest issue with F.3.A.R.'s canon is the lack of VERY IMPORTANT CHARACTERS. Here's a list of characters that were never adressed in F.3.A.R. that survived the events of F.E.A.R. 1 and 2 or characters that were MIA:

-Genavieve Aristide (Survived the events of F.E.A.R. 2 and was the CEO of Armacham, the MAIN ANTAGONIST ORGANIZATION )

-Douglas Holiday (Survived the events of F.E.A.R. and didn't show up in F.E.A.R. 2 because he was with F.E.A.R. and not Dark Signal. Also don't tell me he died because he was in the escape helicopter with Pointman and Jin and they both survived the crash in 3. Jin also doesn't mention him at all like he doesn't exist.)

-Spencer Jankowski (He's technically MIA, but you'd think Jin would mention if they confirmed his death.)

-Rodney Betters (He was F.E.A.R.'s coordinator and survived the events of F.E.A.R. 1 )

-THE ENTIRE REPLICA ARMY (Through both F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2, they were confirmed to have not killed them all and that they were everywhere in Fairport, but they are neither seen nor mentioned in F.3.A.R. )

-Manuel Morales (Survived the events of F.E.A.R. 2, but even though they brought Sargeant Becket back, Manny was never talked about in spite of the fact that he had the squad's APC and a TON of sensitive information about Armacham which also never saw the light of day. He was the ONLY OTHER CHARACTER from the protagonist's squad that survived F.E.A.R. 2. [Sargeant Keegan is arguable because technically he is MIA and they never found a body. You also kill him in a dream and he's made of ash, so there's that.])