Review from the Crypt 2014 part 1 – Fatal Frame Review

It’s that time of year again, turn the lights down, the surround sound up and get ready for the return of our Halloween Horror game Reviews we’ve affectionally called.

REVIEWS FROM THE CRYPT

While we anxiously wait for Nintendo to finally get some sense and release Fatal Frame 5 (by the way, you can help out by following Operation Zero on Facebook and Twitter and using #WeWantFatalFrame on any social media network that allows you to use hashtags.) I think it’s time we take a look at the series beginnings. We previously covered Fatal Frame 2 and Fatal Frame 3 for our previous Halloween segments.

Fatal Frame was released on the Playstation 2 and Xbox back in 2002. The game follows Miku Hinasaki, a 17-year-old student who is investigating the abandoned, and supposedly haunted, Himuro Mansion after her brother Mafuyu goes missing. Shortly after entering the mansion she finds that this was the location of a grisly ritual which involved a shrine maiden would be torn apart to keep the gates of Hell closed and keep a dark presence called “The Malice” at bay.

Due to the last ritual’s failure, the mansion is filled with ghosts that are out to get Miku, causing them to block doors, cause annoyances and out right attack Miku. Luckily, the series mainstay weapon “The Camera Obscura” makes its first appearance in this game, allowing her to capture offending ghosts inside the camera.

Fatal Frame plays similar to the older Resident Evil games, with set camera points controlling your 3rd person view. Unlike Fatal Frame 2 and 3 where the controls are more refined to help players with these awkward cameras, Fatal Frame 1 has problems where moving around becomes a task causing players to get caught running against walls or backtracking when attempting to move forward. The game makes up for this with its first person combat that takes place in the view-finder of the Camera Obscura.

Bringing up the camera allows you to see in a first person view, and gives you access to solve camera/ghost based puzzles as well as fight off the attacking ghosts. Where taking a simple picture of the Ghost will cause some damage to the entity, the game delivers extra damage and rewards to players who try to get up close and personal. Unlike the future additions to the series, the game’s flow is much slower pace as we actually get some animations of spirits getting sucked into the camera when defeated after a lengthy defeat animation.

As an early PS2 title, Fatal Frame Graphics are still quite good thanks to several cinematic tricks such as film grain and corner of the eye movement. The environmental audio is a big selling point however the voice volume tends to be so low compared to everything else that it makes it hard to keep focus characters are saying during those crucial moments.

I see Fatal Frame 1 in the same light of Silent Hill 1. At the time, the game had a great story with a fresh concept that was held back by some minor technical difficulties that normally would bring the game down. Yet both series survived to bring us an amazing sequel that revolutionized the genre and gain a passionate following. Fatal Frame 5 has the potential to be console mover for the Nintendo Wii U, and redefine the Horror Genre in a world where we’re focused on an over amount of Gore, action movie pacing and lacklustre story.

Honestly Nintendo it’s not just that #WeWantFatalFrame, it’s that #WeNeedFatalFrame.

Fatal Frame is currently available with Fatal Frame 2 and Fatal Frame 3 on the Classics section on the PS3 Playstation Network, priced at $9.99.