"Nice horrorgame with creepy atmosphere and great story. Though slightly weaker than it’s two predecessors."

So finally, here we have it, the third installment in the best survival horror-game series ever made, Fatal Frame (or Project Zero as we know it here in Europe). Yes, I said it...these games are in my opinion better than Silent Hill, Resident Evil etc.-series. In overall this game (and the two earlier) have a much more scary atmosphere than it's opponents within the genre. Ghosts, eerie & horrifying sounds (when they do appear, it's quite limited), and the creeping excitement in general through the whole game, these are just some factors that can be counted up why this game is more “horror” than for example Resident Evil games. I can see the horns raising on all RE-fans out there now :-) I actually in some ghost-fights got shivers down my spine when I could only hear their voices but could not hear them, and suddenly out of nowhere arrived in a high speed. And of course, just that, the ghost-fights is what differs these games from most other games in this genre is how you “beat” your enemies.

For you people that have no clue about how to “beat” your enemies in this game, let me tell you. In these game you don't get any freaky looking weird monsters that you can blast with some damn shotgun, no, all you are armed with is a camera called “Camera Obscura”, it is as you can suspect not a usual camera. It has special and magical powers that never has been seen and it makes your opponents (the ghosts) vanish. To “kill” with this you really have to be on your guard since it is all about being fast with pressing the “frame” button, that takes the picture. The closer and better picture you take, naturally, the better damage you make to the ghost, and the more points you get so that you can upgrade your camera with more stuff and more powerful attacks. And of course, the better pictures you take, the more film you will save. You think this sounds boring and not as “cool” (?) as the usual gun-shooting ? WRONG thoughts, this is by far cooler and in my opinion a lot funnier. So forget all those thoughts about shooting your enemies to pieces in this game and expect to photograph, meet the dead, shrines, ceremonies and some creepy hours.

STORY:

The story is as in all other Project Zero-games, totally awesome. The game begins that we get to see a FMV where on of the main characters, freelance photographer Rei, has crashed with her car, and with her in the car was her fiance Yuu, who now lies dead inside the car, but Rei survives. She encloses herself in her home and let's her assistant, another main character, Miku (the one you played in the first game, and also one of the playable characters in this game), schedule assignments and take care of other daily business. One of those assignments leads them both to a mansion, in the middle of nowhere that is said to be haunted. While there they start taking photos and suddenly she see her dead fiance checking from around a corner. The player now gets the control and will go after Yuu in some rooms with weird black & white picture and after a little scene occurs. After this incident Rei wakes up and realises it was a dream. Every time she sleeps she comes back to this mansion, and the second time she realises she is not alone in this “Manor of Sleep”, and this is where the ghosts enters. And one of the first ghosts she meets is a strange and mysterious women all covered in blue tattoos, this ghosts hunts Rei and touches her on her back in this dream, when Rei wakes up from it she is feeling pains on her back where the tattooed lady touched her. As she explores and and experience this mansion in her dreams she realises it has to do with a part of some kind of old mountain ritual involving sacrificing a priestess by impaling all her limbs to the ground. In time she will also find out that she is not the only one having these nightmares, many other people (and two of them are – not so surprisingly - two of the other playable characters) are also dreaming about this “Manor of Sleep” and get touched by the tattooed woman. It is now up to Rei to learn as much as she can about the mysterious women with tattoos, the history of the ritual, the mansion and all the other mysteries that it keeps, or she & the other people drawn into this will be forever trapped.

CONTROLS:

Deluded into 3D and first person (when using camera, obviously) as always. The controls have made minor, but still noticeable steps forward. And mostly this can be noticed in the “running-mode” (3D mode if you want to), the controls there does not feel as clumsy as they did with, most foremost the first part in the series. In this game it's a bit more nice and easier to use, though not still problem free. The camera angles for sure have a finger in it, or maybe two. If, for example when battling a ghost, you cannot just stand still, one have to move around a little. And suddenly the camera angle just make a real twist, it can be anything that's in the way, in many cases some kimonos, and you cannot see the ghost anymore and then have to search it up again...if the ghost don't find you first and causes damage. And this of course makes it a lot harder. Another thing too, can maybe have to do in what mood you are. In some parts I got frustrated just for this with the camera, and after that I got a little bit angry because I thought Rei ran so slowly. Very ridiculous by me, ‘cause she runs in a normal speed, at least for a game like this. So it was just in my “angry mode” I thought she ran slow.

In the first person-view when shooting so called “vanishing ghosts” (these do not hunt and damage you) and so on there's nothing to complain about. Really comfortable, smooth and easy to use.

GAME-PLAY:

A rather big change has been made in this game that differs from the other two PZ-games, and that is the “two worlds” that is displayed, much like in the fourth Silent Hill-game. Here you have one “world” which is Rei's house, and the other “world” is when Rei is dreaming. In the other two PZ-games you came to the mansions and you stayed there and solved the mysteries, and that was it. In this game though, you play in Rei's home at day time and talk to Miku, develop photos you've taken in “dream world” and get clues from different things (diaries, phone calls etc.), and when it is time for her to sleep you come to play in her dreams, which is played in a mansion and is therefore very similar to the environments in earlier games in the serie. I don't know really about this step the creators have taken, it's a double-edged sword. With this new thing, when you come from the dream into Rei's house, this tears, and I really mean tears down the tension and creepy horror-feeling A LOT, it's like playing a game like The Sims or something there, and this of course is a really bad thing ‘cause horror is what the game is based upon. But on the other hand, to be a bit wimpy, after some several scenes in the game it's pretty cool to land on “safe mark” for a while and do something calmer. I do though have to say that in the end it's rather frustrating to have this changing all the time, back and forth. This thing tore apart the whole Silent Hill 4 game, it's absolutely not even near as badly done as in that game here, but it was still a bit better before in the first two PZ-games when it was ONLY in the mansion and no back and forth to a “normal” house. But it's just to dig the situation, the game isn't bad just for that anyway.

As I mentioned earlier the upgrading of the camera obscura is still there, you can shot with five different films, you get more of the lousiest films and of course much less shots of the great film, a film that is used very sparingly. As I told you, you see with the camera in first person-view and in the middle there is a circle. Firstly it is yellow, and when ghosts get near it turns red. You can for sure shoot when the circle is yellow, but that will not damage the ghost much at all, you should wait until the circle turns red and after that shoot. Combos can also be shot, when it turns red and shooting the ghost will be pushed away and then one can be able to shot him again, which will create a combo, the more combos the more affected damage on the ghost. The difficulty of the ghosts in this game can maybe be a little bit harder than before, for example, the ghosts moves in a much more clever pattern here, and many do get invisible and move at the same time making it really damn hard at times to follow and you stand there circling like a fool.

A thing that has increased and been expanded is the number of playable characters, apart from Rei and Miku one also get to play with a guy called Kei. As told under “story”, these playable characters are also having these nightmares and are drawn into this misery, all for the same thing, they're looking for somebody close that has died. All characters have a kind of “special ability”, no one has the same. If it's not about an ability with the camera, it's something else. Like for with example Kei that not only has the camera-upgrading (it is not available for him at beginning though), but also the ability to hide from ghosts, maybe the TECMO-team got inspiration from the horror-hide and seek-game “Haunting Ground”. In overall, this thing with many playable characters absolutely works OK, but I still think it is better with only one playable character, though I have to say that with so many people, it gets a nice adding to the story. Rei can for example experience the other characters dreams and get clues and such from those.

I want to point out though that all this running in corridors, opening doors, defeating your enemies and stuff that are classic stuff for a horror-game, is not at all as monotonous and repetitive as for example in Resident Evil or Silent Hill-games, at least that is how I feel. They're all not EXACT copies of each other anyway, and that's why. Project Zero-games has a better way of doing this usual running and opening, it is as simple as that.

GRAPHICS

The graphics do really look awesome and is detailed as hell in every little inch, and is for sure pushing the limits of the PS2 to the very bottom. Sharp and clear looking and the FMV's almost look real, at least as real you can get them on a PS2. The faces & movements of the humans, shades of ghosts, lights & shadows, everything is top notch and is natural. Also the black and white graphics are really cool, the menus have also made a step forward with cool ice-blueish themes.

SOUNDS

Totally awesome, when sounds do appear. Sadly it is in many places just the sound of Rei's boots that is sounding, but when a eerie and creepy sound do appear, it's great for the ears. In the FMV's the sound effects are really cool and helps lifting the videos up a bit. All the voices of ghosts and hammering or whatever they may do, sounds really cool in it's places and levels up the excitement. Or when the Shrine Maiden, among others, enters to sing the lullaby “The Sleeping Priestess” and is for hunt to impale, a beautiful song they sing, and it actually got stuck in my mind through the whole time I played this game. As for the voice actors, I think they are good, and has never been any problem with it in the earlier PZ-games either. But they must have used some really weird recording equipment for this game, very hollow and not clear at all-sounding. Annoying is the word for it, in the beginning, but after a while one gets used to it, but still, a professional game like this should have better and clearer sounding than what it sounds like this game. The ghost's spoken words like “you cannot escape” and so on, are used with same equipment but do perhaps sound even more weird, but it was perhaps done with intention.

BUY OR SKIP ?

No hesitation, BUY it of course. Nah, seriously, if you are a fan of the earlier games you should already own this game and enjoy it. Even if it does not reach up to the level of it's two former brothers. Mostly this has to do with this “two world”-system, despite that it's really similar with the other two PZ-games. I do hope that all people that plays a survival horror-game plays in a dark and blackened room, and it's no exception with this game. I tried one time to play in the middle of the day, when it was bright, the feeling of the game, the creepy horror tension, everything felt really lost and it became a different kind of game. So when playing, do not do it in brightness, you will then play and see the game in a wrong perspective.

Another thing is that the story is a big piece of why you should play this game to the very end, the more clues and the more bigger idea you get of this whole thing, the more exciting it gets and you just want to see what happens with all this.

Any human that likes horror games, ghosts, creepy sounds for example, should check this game up, and of course the two earlier, which both are, as I've said, slightly better than this game. And if it should be a fourth installment in this series, I would rather see that they get rid of this “two world”-system and get back to the system of the first two games.

+ With the game:

* the story
* graphics
* sounds
* creepy and scary atmosphere
* camera obscura

- With the game:

* controls can still be a little bit more improved
* camera angles in many parts of the game is really annoying
* the travels to Rei's house and the “two worlds”-system should've been left out

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/06