Fatal Frame is a Horror Adventure game for the Wii and if you've enjoyed games like RE4 or SHSM you might just like this
First of all I have never played any of the previous games of the fatal frame series, neither have I played any previous games of Resident Evil or Silent Hill, so please excuse me if some of what I say is misleading or just plain wrong.
Having played RE4 and SHSM I wanted to look for something else on the Wii which I hoped would add to my new found love of this genre. Fatal Frame 4 immediately took my interest, but unfortunately as you may well know it is unlikely to be released in the US/Europe, but that didn't stop me, I soon got my hands on a copy and applied the (unnofficial) English translation patch -which worked a dream- having got that out of the way lets get on to the game.
Fatal Frame 4 uses an over the shoulder view, if you've played RE4, SHSM or gears of war, you know what to expect. You have a few characters to play throughout the game, but the game mechanics stay pretty much the same throughout. You see a ghost, you panic a bit, you "capture" the ghost (if you can call making them scream in pain "capturing") and then you move on. The first thing you'll notice is that you have a flashlight, it may seem subtle but having a flashlight really adds to the experience, having played SHSM which used the wiimotes pointer to control the torch really added to the immersion, and exploration in the game was smooth and easy. Unfortunately however, this flashlight is controlled by motion control, which I think was a big mistake, exploration whilst encouraged, was quite clunky and I often just gave up on picking up items if it was on the ground, as to look down and up in the game was a bit of a hassle for nothing. Another thing which made me laugh rather than anything is the way your character "runs" if you can call it that.
Another thing which disappointed me was the ways it tried to scare you, just watch any Japanese horror movies and you know what to expect, now I wasn't expecting to be frightened, I've never been frightened whilst playing any games in this genre. But the frequent cut scenes pulled me away from the character and that meant it lost a little of its immersiveness (is that a word?). In SHSM when something "scary" happened you either saw it or you missed it. but in Fatal Frame it cuts to a cut scene which often just spoils the surprise. One other thing was the way you move from room to room, to open a door your character will pause, reach out with his/her hand, turn the knob, and then open the door, I know its meant to add suspense but when you've been through the same door many times it gets old. In SHSM (sorry to have to keep referring to it) you can choose how fast or how slowly you open a door, it was your choice, and I preferred that to having it on every door.
In terms of visuals I would say its even better than SHSM (so it looks nice), Dark scary corridors look, dark and scary and the characters are pretty well animated, sorry i can't be more specific, I can't understand Japanese but the voice acting sounds decent and the 'Dolby Pro Logic II' surround sound mode sounded great on my setup. Speaking of setup, I only play this game at night, in the dark, by myself, when everyone else was sleeping. I do this for all games of this genre and it really adds to the experience, make sure you do the same, if you can, if you dare!.