Fatal Frame – Welcome to Just Adventure + – Previews — Part 2
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Preview Scream Cheese! – A Preview of Fatal Frame Developer / Distributor – Tecmo |
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PS2 owners craving a new adventure game have found the pickings slim. Other than Konami’s excellent Shadow of Destiny (soon to be on PC) and, well, that’s about it! To be fair, there are numerous exceptional adventure/action games on the PS2 console – Metal Gear Solid 2, Silent Hill 2, Grand Theft Auto 3 – but even these titles are not enough to attract the veteran PC adventure gamer to the console.
Tecmo – a Japanese-based console company with a reputation for quality – has decided to venture forth into the adventure genre and their first effort – Fatal Frame – looks to be a doozy. Fatal Frame takes the psychology of survival horror one step further as, instead of weapons, an antique camera is used to capture the souls of haunted spirits. Yes the game is set in the old clichéd haunted mansion, but that is where the similarities end.
According to the developers, the story is based on a couple of incidents that actually occurred in a small village in the mountainous regions of Japan. The main character is Miku, an amateur photographer who is able to sense spirits. Her brother, a journalist, has disappeared inside the Himura Mansion while conducting research on three grisly murders in which the bodies were found inside the mansion, but the heads, arms and legs of the victims had been severed.
From photographs of the deceased, Miku uses her psychic perception to ascertain the horrific means of their demise and soon realizes that only she has the ability to save her brother and put an end to the murders that have haunted the surrounding countryside. Armed only with her antique camera and a flashlight, Miku now ventures forth to explore a thirty-room haunted mansion.
In an attempt to increase the tension, Fatal Frame features black-and-white sequences and ghostly flashbacks. The mansion has been designed to make the player feel claustrophobic and as ghosts can and will attack from anywhere your quick reflexes with the camera will be imperative. But just as important will be your puzzle-solving skills as you must uncover the meaning behind the Room of Dolls – a room in which blood streams from the eyes of dolls – and The Zodiac Ring as the twelve signs of the Japanese Zodiac offer clues to puzzles.
Fatal Frame is definitely a step in the right direction to attract adventure gamers to the PS2. Let’s hope Tecmo has developed the right combination of puzzles and horror and that Fatal Frame transcends the boundaries that exist between PC and console gaming. For this is one game that is more than welcome on the adventure-starved PS2.
To enjoy a movie from Fatal Frame or to enter a contest to win your own spirit-capturing camera, visit the Fatal Frame website.
