Preview Scream Cheese! – A Preview of Fatal Frame Developer / Distributor – Tecmo Platform: Playstation 2 Preview by Francis Sluganski March 7, 2002

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.