An added fear factor is that not all hostile ghosts are scripted encounters. There is a randomised chance of encountering a hostile ghost in almost every room of the house, which creates a permanent feeling of dread and urgency. Really,\u00a0Miku’s\u00a0not 100% safe anywhere, not even in a room with a save point (its light will turn red instead of blue if something’s in the room). Ghost\u00a0appearances are signalled by a chiming noise and heartbeat, and you\u2019ll\u00a0probably\u00a0be pricking your ears in\u00a0suspense more than once. It\u2019s also entirely possible to have Miku pull out the camera (say, to take a picture of a puzzle clue), only to be greeted by a ghost DIRECTLY IN\u00a0HER FACE. As far as specific ghosts are concerned, the first encounter with\u00a0Broken Neck will more than likely have you jumping in your seat (“It hurts! It hurts!”), while the numerous run-ins you’ll have with Blinded (“My eyes…”) may very well turn into nightmare fuel. They’re not the only\u00a0scary ghosts in the game, but they were certainly the main highlights as far as I was concerned. I’ll spare you the pictures to preserve shock value.<\/p>\n Replay value has also been taken into account. After you finish the game once, various goodies are unlocked, such as a music player or the list of all ghosts in the game, which![\"Enter](\"https:\/\/grafskaya.club\/mysst\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/enter-if-you-dare.jpg\" "\\"Enter")
<\/a>Despite scaring extremely easily, I am a confirmed fan of psychological horror. You know, the kind that doesn\u2019t involve limbs flying in all directions and litres of haemoglobin gushing all over the place. One of the scariest films I\u2019ve ever seen was the original Japanese version of Ring<\/em>, and despite having its own set of clich\u00e9s, J-Horror, as the genre is called, usually proves very effective on me. So, in my hunt for something that would unsettle me more than the Silent Hill series\u2013which isn\u2019t completely up my street\u2013, Fatal Frame<\/em> naturally caught my attention. European releases of this game (and the rest of the series as well) are inexplicably titled Project Zero<\/em>\u2013the name of the team that created it\u2013but that\u2019s beside the point. The point being that if you like psychological horror in general and J-Horror in particular, you should definitely give this a try.<\/p>\n<\/a>The premise of the game is the tried-and-true haunted house setup: a famous novelist goes missing on a research trip to an abandoned mansion, his assistant goes to look for him and suffers the same fate, and finally, it falls to the assistant\u2019s sister, 17-year-old Miku, to make sense of it all and attempt to find her brother. Exploration and plot advancement are also rather traditional: Miku will find copious notes, journals and cassettes that will fill her in on the mansion\u2019s past (and the genuinely gruesome ritual that\u2019s at the source of it all), and will periodically need to solve puzzles to progress. Still, even if the structure is nothing new, the execution is genuinely effective.<\/p>\n<\/a>One peculiarity of the Fatal Frame series is its decidedly feminine angle: most of the main characters are female, including the villains, who aren\u2019t so much villains as vengeful victims, as Asian ghosts tend to be. There\u2019s probably a message about the victimisation of women and the sublimation of female fear somewhere in there, but what can I say? Horrific situations definitely have more of an impact when you\u2019re put in control of a terrified girl with no real means of defence rather than a guy with a big gun. Miku\u2019s unease is both contagious and literally palpable, since the controller vibration is put to use to mimic her heartbeat when she becomes frightened. She also walks and runs veeeeery slooooowly (it\u2019s more of a hesitant jog than a run, really), which, besides being infuriating at times, does actually contribute to the feeling that, all in all, she\u2019d much rather be anywhere else than in that godforsaken house.<\/p>\n<\/a>Atmosphere is the big winner in this game, as it\u2019s the main vector of fear. The music is minimal, consisting mostly of eerie ambient backdrops which end up getting under your skin. The game is set exclusively inside the mansion and on its grounds (which include a pond and\u00a0a forest temple) over four nights. This equates to ubiquitous darkness, only alleviated by candles, torches\u00a0and the solitary beam of Miku’s flashlight, and all the creaking, groaning, wind-whistling and what-the-hell-was-that-noise you could expect from an old abandoned house. Whispers,\u00a0\u00a0footsteps, mysterious figures shadowed on blinds, doors closing and objects falling on their own. Broken windows with moonlight barely filtering through, <\/a>crumbling floors and collapsing ceilings,\u00a0bloody handprints on the walls, dusty kimonos stretched on stands, an unsettilingly\u00a0lifelike doll kneeling in a corner,\u00a0a pool with blood dripping onto the surface from an unknown source, a long corridor with ropes hanging from the ceiling and a mirror standing at the end,\u00a0and so on and so forth.\u00a0And copious amounts of\u00a0ghost encounters, of course. Oh, and, for an added kick, try pausing the game and leaving it for a while. I had a nice little jolt when I did that to take care of something else, then looked up at my screen.<\/p>\n<\/a>Ghosts are the only enemies and the only allies in this game, most being designated by a straightforward description of their appearance (eg. Long Arms, Bound Man; very few\u00a0of them\u00a0have a name), and Miku\u2019s only means of dealing with them is an antique camera she inherited from her mother. In a literal take on the old superstition of cameras capturing people\u2019s souls, this camera has the ability to take pictures of spirits, damaging hostile ones. It uses film like ammo, and there are different, increasingly powerful grades of film available. The lowest grade can be found in infinite supply at any save point, which looks like an old camera on a stand. Every picture is worth a certain number of points, which can then be used to upgrade the camera. Basic upgrades enhance its range and the power of its shots, while special upgrades require Spirit Stones and may slow a hostile ghost down, paralyse it or simply inflict more <\/a>damage. Timing is also important in combat; close-up\u00a0shots are worth more points, and each ghost has their own ‘fatal frame’: a moment when they are more vulnerable, signalled by the camera’s capture circle turning orange instead of blue. This usually occurs either right before or right after an attack, so while these shots deal a lot of damage, they can also be perilous.<\/p>\n<\/a>Non-hostile ghosts come in two flavours: hidden ghosts, which will only appear when\u00a0Miku takes\u00a0their picture (her only means of finding them is the camera\u2019s capture circle turning blue) and vanishing ghosts, which will appear at certain precise spots for a short while. Some of these are hair-tearingly difficult to snap, but of course, they\u2019re usually also worth the most points.<\/p>\n<\/a> allows you to\u00a0check which ones you\u2019ve captured (and some are only available on second-or-more playthroughs). You also gain access to additional difficulties, as well as a mission mode which pits\u00a0Miku against various combinations of\u00a0the ghosts she’s encountered. Your playthrough is given a rating based on how much damage\u00a0Miku has\u00a0dealt, which grants you a certain number of points to spend on camera upgrades that carry over to your next playthrough. Finishing the game or the mission mode on\u00a0different difficulties also unlocks additional costumes for Miku, which, besides changing her appearance, will make her move a tad faster. And last but not least, an alternate\u00a0ending becomes available for subsequent playthroughs.<\/p>\n