Boo!

My recent acquisition of Fatal Frame III: The Tormented has relighted my gusto for the dark genre of survival horror once again. Although, I have played both Silent Hill: Homecoming and Dead Space to completion this year, and both has terrified me indisputably, yet there’s something unsettling in the Fatal Frame series. This is probably due to the hopeless female protagonist that persistently clutches the Camera Obscura close to her vivacious breasts, anticipating for any ghostly spirit to pop put. Certainly, the oppressive dark atmosphere has something to add to the whole experience too.

In spite of all of this, the thing that I commonly enjoy playing Fatal Frame series is the evoking flare of the familiar Japanese horror flicks. Even if you belong to the group that detests such kind of foreign films, you have to admit that the formula works. The eerie-looking girl with the long black hair that is cascading on her red kimono is probably as terrifying as any of the antagonist stars of the other survival horror games. The game also doesn’t disappoint in allocating the obscure plots of such movies. The inspiration of using a camera to bring the end to these restless ghosts certainly enhances the experience, especially since you would have to switch to first person perspective to utilize the shoot mode, thus, bringing these confrontations to a closer, unnerving range. Even the classic “leap out and scare you" style of horror feels tasteful and somehow not a forced mechanic to elicit fear to the players deliberately. If anything, the game almost has all the ingredients of a successful horror game; it is unfortunate though that the gameplay isn’t as engaging as the other franchises of the genre, and that the story feels a little bit mishmashe.

Regardless, I still pass my hat to the producers for creating such an intuitive franchise, but I’m still waiting for the same overhaul that freshened the Resident Evil series with its fourth installment. However, that doesn’t make me less eager for Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse on the Wii. The game was released in Japan for quite some time now, and it has been confirmed for a 1st quarter release date for Europe. A North American release feels inevitable but I guess we should arm ourselves for any displeasing announcement anytime soon.