Fatal Frame, or Project Zero for you filthy diehards, is one of those rare series in horror that maintains a great consistency in terms of atmosphere, scares, and overwhelming dread. I’d dabbled over the years with games like The Crimson Butterfly, but usually my rental time would be up and I would be forced to go get something else. I dunno why, seeing as how my library has always had at least one Silent Hill and one Resident Evil amongst the other titles, but I just sort of avoided Fatal Frame for whatever reasons.
Well, all that changed last week when I procured a copy of Fatal Frame 4 for the Wii. An import only sort of affair, Fatal Frame 4 is a stellar game that I’m honestly a little appalled will never be making it to our fabled American shores. Now, this isn’t to say it’s unplayable because the filthy pirates amongst us have devised a translation patch and get to play this gem in a manner similar to watching a subtitled film. I however don’t get such luxuries and as such I’ve had to use a combination of Wikipedia and various guides to play.
Gah, someone needs some moisturizer.
Initial Impressions
Upon my booting up of Fatal Frame 4, I was amused by the fact that the game doesn’t fuck around by throwing you right in the middle of a spooky ass place. Your opening scenes are spent in an abandoned facility, and the echoes of your footsteps only underscore the simple fact of the absolute silence surrounding you. One of my biggest complaints about modern horror games is how they underscore every little bit of the score with a musical motif. Fatal Frame 4 doesn’t afford it self such nasty little amusements. This may be in part of Grasshopper Manufacture’s involvement. As any gamer that loves some of the more esoteric titles know, Suda 51 doesn’t trifle with cheap scares. Fatal Frame 4 follows three young girls who return to the place they were kidnapped, and it’s a game rife with various nods to Shintoism and a decidedly different take on the occult.
If you’ve lived under a rock for the last ten years, you’ll know that Fatal Frame’s combat isn’t quite the shotguns and explosives of Resident Evil. You have to use a supernatural camera to damage your enemies and your efforts are greatly rewarded by them getting in really close. The ghosts in this game are rather nasty, looking far more disheveled than I was expecting. You really feel bad for these girls as they traipse about this place, well except for the bitch in the opening. Nothing good ever comes of walking off with no one following.
Someone needs to tell Ke$ha to get a new publicist.
I love the fact that Fatal Frame doesn’t necessarily need the standard elements of making you jump in your seat. By using a smart combo of isolation and dread, you can really feel like you’re completely alone in the world. This is my first entry proper into the series, as I lack the hindsight to account for my lack of playing Crimson Butterfly through to completion. You aren’t some boulder punching madman fighting a dude in sunglasses though, you’re a small and frail girl navigating a hellish maze littered with the souls of the dead. You’re urged to keep pressing on to find your companions, you’re urged to keep going deeper and deeper into the black abyss. Fatal Frame succeeds where a game like Dead Space fails, and that’s by making sure you’re not some hardass engineer with a master’s in asskicking.
Is she wearing a French Maid costume under there?
Go Buy It Plebes!
There’s the very real possibility that Fatal Frame 4 will never make it to our shores, which is a crying shame. However, you can make sure you need brown pants on a permanent basis by ordering it now. It seems to be sadly out of print so it looks like your best bet is eBay.
Hmm, so much for sleeping.
0 comments:
Post a Comment