Alma’s Back? Armacham Corporate Website Goes Viral

Something wicked is stirring at Armacham Technology Corporation, a well-known organization from Monolith Productions’ survival horror title, F.E.A.R. With just a few months until the release of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin in February, it appears that a viral campaign is being launched to promote the new title. For the past two weeks, Armacham Corporate has been experiencing website malfunctions that allow visitors to take a peek into the inner workings and upcoming activities of the company.

The Armacham site appears to be a perfectly normal website showcasing its new line of sub machine guns, and also a new item regarding “Level II Recruitment”. Clicking on any part of the page causes the screen to dissolve in a flood of critical errors. (During the distortions, sharp eyes may notice the distortion of the error link from http://www.armacham.com to http://www.almasback.com, a currently unregistered domain. Watch the link on the 404 page very closely, just before the distortion begins.) Next, what appears to be an auto-login sends site visitors into the account of Dr. Richard Findes, a biomechanical specialist at Armacham who has expressed concerns over ethics breaches occurring within the company.

A camera feed embedded in the site interface shows disturbing footage from inside Armacham. Dr. Findes apparently has good cause to worry over something going badly wrong within the corporation.

Although it seems that the hapless Dr. Findes has been locked out of many of his account permissions (many of the links result in “Access Denied” errors), his email is still accessible, revealing communications from W. Reid, K. VonScriptor, J. Karsberg, and W. Wallace, some with attachments that may contain vital clues. Findes has apparently missed a lunch meeting with Reid. Is he missing or on the run?

The corporate calendar indicates that Armacham has initiated a recruiting program centered around “virtual evaluation and testing of potential candidates via gaming community”. Armacham recruiters were spotted testing attendees at Wizard World Dallas on November 7-9 and at Atlanta Supercon on November 21 and 22 in Atlanta, Georgia. The next marked calendar date is December 3, for meetings and tours located in Orlando and Tampa, Florida to sites including Walt Disney World, Sea World, Andrews Air Force Base, and CentCom.

Someone is keeping an eye on Armacham’s recruiting movements and warning others not to participate in their tests and so-called FEAR Labs. A letter accompanying a briefcase sent to Geeks of Doom instructed the receiver NOT to participate in FEAR Labs under any circumstances and to watch projectorigincommunity.com for the combination to open the briefcase. The handwritten letter was signed “R” – for “Richard”, perhaps? Kotaku also received a letter that contained a key and directions to a storage unit where another briefcase was found. Kotaku’s letter included a DVD, the contents of which are posted in the above-linked entry. Phillip DeFranco of PhillyD TV was also mystified at receiving the spooky briefcase and videoed its retrieval from the storage unit. Everyone who received a briefcase is on a “list” at Armacham, according to the mysterious Mr. R, who wants to make sure word gets out about these suspicious Armacham tests. Mr. R will log in to the Project Origin community site as “Case Man” on December 5th.

Join in the Unfiction discussion here. If you’re approached by anyone wearing the Armacham logo, proceed with caution.