Project Zero (fatal frame) review - by vM - nearly wet mahself :S
Your brother, Mafuyu has wandered into a large, dark, haunted mansion looking for his mentor, and has been missing for a week...
You do what any self respecting Japanese schoolgirl would do, follow him into the large, dark, haunted mansion armed only with a flashlight, without a second thought...
And that, my friends, is the almost laughable plot of Project Zero for xbox, a remake of the cult classic Project Zero on the PS2 (fatal Frame in the US). The story of the game is not nearly as laughable as the claim on the back of the cover that this game is "based on a true story" if this stuff was true every kid would know about it... if you misbehaved your mum would say "better shut up lil' jimmy or you'll be sent to Himuro mansion." In truth the game IS loosely based around a mansion in japan that was said to be the setting for all sorts of wierd cult rituals in the past. That's as much "truth" from the story as you're gonna get.
It's worth noting that I would never have heared about Project Zero if it wasn't for gamespot's "if you like this game then you may also like" feature that popped up when I was looking at reviews for resident evil zero. My curiosity caused me to click the link and read the review of this "survival horror with a twist" and tbh I was interested The title bears an uncanny resemblance to one of the resi games, but it's actually nothing to do with scientific experiments and genetics gone wrong.
The game starts with the teenage Mafuyu walking upto Himuro mansion (a conveniently scary setting) explaining how some famous author, Junsei Takamine (who happens to be Mafuyu's mentor) wandered in to get information about the wierd cult happenings of the past to complete his book on the subject. You play the intro, a tutorial(ish) section in black and white that involves you controlling the character you will soon be trying to save as you walk around the mansion with your flashlight and camera looking at all the wierd artifacts and gathering a few note book shreds. Mafuyu soon encounters some wierd happenings, a cut scene "white's out" and you switch to Miku walking upto the mansion a week later (all in full-colour now though) to try and find her missing brother.
The difference between Project Zero and other survival horror games is obviously not the fact that it's set in a mansion (arf) but that you don't fight zombies or huge genetic mutations, you fight ghosts. "GHOSTS?" I hear you cry, oh yes, GHOSTS!!! (cue ghostbusters theme) "How can you kill a ghost?!" you may wonder - well appropriately enough the Hinasaki's mother was telepathic, a skill that both Miku and Mafuyu have slightly aquired (seen in visions they experience throughout the game). The camera that Mafuyu initially brings with him into the mansion was owned by his mother and, as such contains mystical powers of being able to see things that the naked eye cannot.
The camera is, infact the only weapon in the game (although upgrades are available through the use of new types of film and runes from the ghosts themselves), also acting as something that can unlock puzzles or hidden items (such as something hidden behind a screen, the camera will pick it up) and there you have the game:
run around...
take snapshots of ghosts that try to kill you so you kill them...
solve puzzles...
work out what the hell was going on in the mansion (obvious after only a few cut scenes)...
advance the story...
And this is also where my review begins. I honstely love it to bits, don't expect an oscar-winning story. Do expect good graphics, fantastic sound, intuitive gameplay and, quite honestly, the scariest game you will ever play. Project Zero doesn't go out of its way to make an intense, enthralling story, developer Tecmo have simply created a chilling, atmospheric game that will have you soiling your calvin kleins the whole way through (no joke of a lie!)
Graphically there are better looking games out there. Tecmo have stated that the Xbox release has sharper, crisper graphics and textures that the ps2 original but for the most part it looks pretty much how you'd expect it to, with various dark greys, blues and browns playing the major role in the texture department. The lighting effects are lovely though. Your torch lights a very small area infront of you in real-time, casting eerie shadows and lens flairs off mirrors etc which really do help in creating a believable atmosphere. Little touches like ropes swinging, candles flickering, dust and rubble moving is nice and the good definitly outweighs the occasional bad.
The character models are nicely done... but are very anime-esque which could be good or bad depending on your oppinion. I personally would have preferred more realistic looking characters as this would have further enhanced the chill/realism factor. The ghosts however are anything but anime/cartoony, if ghosts were to exists then this is how you'd expect them to look, transparent horrors regularly cover your screen moving with a frightening shudder or swoop and chattering incomprehensible jibberish. The ghosts look as believable as I think they could... and don't try to run, these boys(/girls/babies) wont leave ya alone and walls are no match for em :O The variety of ghosts is imense, you will never see 2 of the same "attack ghosts" and there are a couple of hundred if I remember correctly" Some of the ghosts in the game just wander round aimlessly, their point being to give you information that could be useful. Of course all the ghosts are the remnants of people who have been ritually murdered at some point in the mansion... oOo
Controlls will be intuitive after a bit of configuring (the default controlls are pap) with you having to switch to a 1st person mode to take a photo of a ghost or secret area and back into a 3rd person mode to explore the mansion. Taking a photo of a ghost is a daunting task. Whereas the 1st few ghosts move with a slow, blatant pattern some of the latter ones will require quick reflexes. A power gauge builds up if you keep the ghost in the centre of your viewfinder, the longer you build up the attack the more powerful it is. If you manage to keep the ghost in the viewfinder right up untill it attacks you the viewfinder will go red for a split-second where you can perform a "max-damage" attack and take down the transparent beastie. Trying to keep the analog stick steady when you're scared aint easy btw. You know if a ghost is nearby because a lightbulb icon gets brighter and your rumble pack shakes the closer you are. Puzzles are simple enough, quite resident-evilish with having to find things that'll fit into slots or read diary entries to find combinations to locks, it's never tedious though, and you wont find yourself backtracking too much.
Cutscenes are done in game graphics and interweave seamlessly to provide an even scarier experience. You know you're gonna be scared poopless/jump as soon as those cinema borders appear. The atmosphere never lets up, at one point I jumped when I saw Miku's reflection in a mirror, simply because you're ALWAYS on edge in this game.
I'll quickly mention the sound - which is sublime, while the game is void of "music" as such, it has the occasional drum beat or screeching violins that always appear at the right moment to make you jump or anticipate an attack. Everything is in dolby 5.1 and when you hear a baby cry over your shoulder it's an unnerving experience.
All things considered the Survival-Horror is an overworked genre that has seen too many games throw you into a confined space with a shotgun to mow down some undead security guards. Project zero provides a welcome, yet frightning experience that'll see you turn off your xbox many a time and switch on some light hearted TV merely to calm down before another hour or two of unrepentant psychological horror. It's hard too, really hard and may take you a while to aclimatise to the fact that you can't just pull out an m16 and blow the legs off the ghosts, hard work pays off though and you always feel a sense of acomplishment when you capture one of them.