Give credit to Tecmo for an innovative game that will definitely give you the creeps!
GAMEPLAY - A very innovative style. Most of the game is in the third person Silent Hill-Resident Evil style, which looks great though it can occasionally put you in awkward camera angles. The innovation come in combat, where you switch to a first person mode using your camera. The effect is very good and I found it to be a lot of fun. There is also a RPG element in that you can choose how to upgrade your camera, using the points gained from your photos as experience points.
GRAPHICS - Tecmo accomplished what they were going for - to give a gritty, creepy look to the surroundings. Occasionally there would be a switch to an old-movie look, such as was used in the "Ring" movies. The cut scenes were done well, though not on a "Final Fantasy" level. Naturally everything was dark, and this was used to heighten the scare factor well.
SOUND - Excellent use of sound. This was absolutely necessary for this style of game, and they delivered. Background side effects, whispers, listening to messages from long ago and the moaning and cries from attacking ghosts were high quality and used very effectively.
VALUE - As in the norm in this style of game, one play through is not going to take a real long time. On my first try it took about 12 hours, which I should point out is still longer than many other games of this genre, and I'm sure experienced players could go through it much faster. It does have multiple difficulty settings and endings, different costumes after completion, etc. to give the game replay value.
SUMMARY - Obviously this will not appeal to gamers who only enjoy fast paced action games. This is for gamers who enjoy a good ghost story and a scary adventure. Overall I would highly recommend this game to horror-survival fans and to anyone else that is interested in giving this type of game a try.