HIGH The atmosphere and sense of suspense is top-notch.

LOW  Clunky and slow controls. 

WTF Those Shrine Maidens scare the crap out of me. 

Sometimes movies or games are so terrifying to me, I have a difficult time enjoying them — or even sitting throug them — by myself late at night. This was my experience with Maiden of Black Water. With powerful storytelling and a cathartic sense of dread, the latest in the Fatal Frame franchise is sure to delight fans of the horror genre.

Maiden of Black Water weaves a complex and disturbing tale centering around three playable protagonists attempting to solve the mystery of multiple suicides and the titular black water that curses anyone upon contact. It’s a haunting tale, and a masterclass in creating an atmospheric sense of terror and anticipation. With a scarce but haunting soundtrack, solid scenic design, and a cacophony of ghosts around every turn, I always felt like something horrible would be waiting for me behind the next door.

The goal of each chapter is for the protagonists to gather evidence pertaining to the suicide cases, defeat an onslaught of ghosts, and escape with their lives. While controlling the protagonists’ movement is in third-person, combat is through the first-person lens of the Camera Obscura – a special camera with the ability to deal damage to deceased spirits. Ghosts take more damage depending on the angle of the shot, or if the player can fit all of their parts in the frame.

There are various upgrades available for the camera that enable abilities such as stunning ghosts or slowing them down, but I found myself only enabling the highest attack power — and regardless of how strong my attack was, turning around to see ghosts lunging towards me and wanting to run, but instead knowing I had to zoom in on their hideous faces to take a picture is a tangibly terrifying experience. 

Though using the camera is solid and fluid when on the attack, controlling the characters is not. They move far slower than desired, and their mobility options are limited to simply running and jumping over obstacles. These shortcomings make it near-impossible to get any distance away from a horde of fast-moving ghosts, which then forces the player to take pictures as quickly as possible. I suppose this adds to the overall sense of horror in Maiden of Black Water, but it was still frustrating. 

Sadly, this combat doesn’t develop much as the campaign goes on, aside from having to fend off an increasing number of enemies. Ghost variety is rather limited, and I would have loved to have seen a few more breeds. That said, despite the control frustrations and limited enemy types, Black Water’s ambience and sense of fear remained strong. The combination of graphic imagery, the story’s diabolical magnitude, and knowing a ghost could attack me at any moment made it difficult for someone like me (who does not frequent horror games!) to play through every corner of the title. 

Maiden of Black Water is a twisted and engaging experience. Though it has shortcomings, they never diminish the powerful storytelling and atmosphere. I might be too squeamish to comfortably endure the title’s cathartic terror, those brave enough to venture forth will surely be rewarded with a suitably haunting adventure. 

Disclosures: This game is developed by Koei Tecmo, and published by Koei Tecmo and Nintendo. It is available on PS4, PS5, XBX/S/O, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 8 hours were spent in the single-player and the game was not completed. There is no multiplayer mode. 

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated M for Mature. From the ESRB: “This is a survival horror game in which players investigate paranormal activities in a mountain setting. Players explore abandoned buildings and dark forests for clues while encountering ghostly apparitions. Players use an old camera (Camera Obscura) to capture ghostly images and to defeat attacking ghosts by taking pictures of them. Some sequences reveal the circumstances leading to the creation of the ghosts: a man hanging himself; a woman impaled with a sword; a man run over by a car; a woman slashing her own throat; a character jumping to her death). A handful of ghosts are depicted with large blood stains on their clothing and bodies; cutscenes also depict large blood-splatter effects, with characters stabbed and impaled. Some female characters are depicted in revealing costumes with deep cleavage (e.g., swimsuits, skin-tight outfits, wet clothing that appears slightly transparent). In one scene, a woman’s picture is taken from a first-person perspective; the camera angles become more suggestive (e.g., panning/lingering on breasts), as the scene progress with the character on a bed.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles cannot be adjusted. Although there is a red arrow pointing towards offscreen ghosts when they approach, having sound cues is incredibly helpful to determine when ghosts are near, making this game not fully accessible. 

Remappable Controls: No, the controls are not remappable, though the player can choose between two default controller layouts. 

Being a 3DS and Kinect owner as well as a fan of Japanese robots/mechs, two neighboring games on the main exhibition hall of PAX East immediately caught my attention: Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor for the Xbox 360 and Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for the 3DS. Both games are updates to game franchises that were once considered innovative back when they were first released.

The original Steel Battalion was a severely flawed mech simulator most noted for its outrageously priced over-sized controller that featured two control sticks, foot pedals and dozens of buttons and knobs.

Spirit Camera is a spin-off to the Fatal Frame survival horror series that incorporated a unique gameplay convention of being able to only see and combat ghosts through the lens of mystical in-game camera.

In attempting to modernize the gameplay for both game series, the developers choose to incorporate some of the latest and most popular hardware gimmicks that video games today have to offer.

In the case of Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, rather than ask gamers to open their wallets for another ridiculous controller, the game controls are comprised of a standard 360 gamepad for movement/firing supplemented with Kinect motion gesturing used to simulate the complexities of commanding a VT (Vertical Tank), which is essentially a tank with legs.

In principle, this is a smart idea. The original Steel Battalion game took a cinéma-vérité approach to its gameplay and the Heavy Armor update follows that reality-based style.

During the 25 minute demo that I played (half training, half actual combat mission), I was motioning my arms to physically shake the hands of one of my co-pilots upon meeting him, standing up to peek outside of canopy of the VT, raising imaginary binoculars to my eyes to get a closer view of my targets and giving another squad-mate a fist bump upon completing training.

In piloting the actual VT, there were panels that need to be opened and closed, buttons that need to be pressed and levers that need to be push or pulled in order to perform functions like activating different weapons payloads, ventilate smoke in the claustrophobic cabin or bring up guard panels to protect the limited targeting window.

My sense of in-game immersion and depth perception was helped by the visual representation of my arms on screen as I moved my hands to complete various actions.

Throughout the casually paced training portion of the demo, the hybrid control scheme felt fairly intuitive and performed accurately. However, once the actual mission began and I mistakenly removed the visual hint aids, things became more of a struggle.

To peer into the tiny crosshair window to view the exterior and target enemies, required that I push both my hands forward in a downward motion.

Every time my VT was hit with heavy artillery, my view would get knocked back and require that I repeat the same two-handed downward motion to regain the crosshair view. This got old quick as I was hammered several times during the hectic combat mission.

It didn't help that the longer the demo went, the harder it seemed for the Kinect to keep sync with my body and pretty soon, it felt rather unresponsive and frustrating at times to perform the simplest of actions. I couldn't help, but wonder how easy it would have been to change views with a mere button press or thumbstick motion.

That's not to say there isn't value to the supplemental motion controls. As I said earlier, it does add a level of immersion with basic character interactions, but it can also harm the experience if it doesn't perform consistently and its over utilized for functions that could be handled more reliably through the gamepad.

So keeping in mind that I only played the demo once, I walked away with a mixed reaction to the overall experience to Heavy Armor.

While I appreciate the level of detail to the gameplay and commitment to the simulator experience, I was also worried that Heavy Armor would suffer a similar downfall of its predecessor: soul crushing difficulty.

There's unquestionable potential for new avenues of gameplay and player interaction by incorporating the Kinect sensor with a mech sim. Hopefully the final release will prove to be more consistent with its controls and perhaps there were more alternative control options I wasn't aware of that would make the game more accessible and entertaining.

The gameplay in Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, thankfully proved to be less problematic with the use of its gimmicks: the 3DS camera and gyro sensor.

Since the gameplay from the original Fatal Frame revolved around using an in-game camera for hunting ghosts, the concept of using the 3DS camera within an augmented reality framework is actually a fourth-wall breaking stroke of genius.

In the rather long demo I played at PAX East, Spirit Camera shifted between exploring an in-game world, conversing with a attractive female spirit and combating another ghastly figure in the augmented reality of the Boston Convention Center.

The first-person perspective of the game was handled by pointing the 3DS camera in the direction of where the player wants to view.

The demo also emphasized a unique gameplay method of scanning pages from a booklet that produced some haunting on-screen imagery and progressed the game forward.

In the short time that I spent with Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor and Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir I was pleasantly surprised to find two games that have strong roots in traditional gameplay that were also able to incorporate some of the newer gimmicks of modern gaming in intelligent and forward thinking ways appropriate to the subject matter of the game.

Whether these games can surpass the gimmick level of gameplay of games that utilized similar technologies before it, will be determined once these games are released. Spirit Camera is due out on April 13 and Heavy Armor is scheduled for release in early June.

I agree with Mike in finding that Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly is one of the scariest, most unsettling game experiences around but only when I wasn't being bored out of my mind by the game's busywork and glacial pace. I do share our horror maven's sadness at seeing such a promising title go astray, but I'm not quite as forgiving as he is. For the first hour or so I was actively interested, but Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly quickly tranquilized me into a stupor no ghost could scare me out of.

With regard to the backtracking, I think Mike was really glossing over the state of affairs by merely calling it an abundance—it's the absolute core of "gameplay." In fact, you don't really do anything else throughout the experience aside from snapping pictures of the spirits that pester you intermittently. There are far too many keys and knickknacks to collect, all trivially meaningless. Quite often by the time I would get to an area where I needed to be, I couldn't even recall what it was I was sent there to fetch. That's how vital these little tasks are.

As for the rest, I'm going to have to strongly disagree with Mike about the story and how it's told. In games where the things you do aren't interesting or engaging, the experience can often be salvaged (at least partially) by a gripping narrative or memorable characters. This game has neither. The central idea of sacrifice to appease the underworld is a good one, but it's not all that different from what we saw in the original Fatal Frame. Even if you haven't played the original, the characters in Butterfly are quite dull, never expressing enough emotion to warrant investing in them. The plot's events also unfold too slowly, exacerbated by the near-constant search for keys and items. It never felt as though much of anything was happening.

Additionally, I have major, major issues with the techniques used to spin this yarn. The tried and true concept of "show it, don't tell it" has been tossed out a window, and the result is that the narrative is a joke. Not only is the worn-out "I found a diary, let's read what it says" gimmick in full effect, you also collect filmstrips to watch on a projector that you conveniently find, and even magic rocks that you play in a radio? Presenting so much to absorb in these past-tense, passive ways was a big mistake. I would have felt far more involved in these creepy ideas if I was actually playing through them instead of watching and listening, trying to remember who did what back when in the equivalent of a supernatural PowerPoint presentation.

To give credit where credit is due, the graphics are excellent (and even flat-out amazing in some places) and Mike's estimation of the audio is spot-on. Still, the sights and sounds can't carry a game where the interaction is so stale and insipid. In my opinion, it's high time the "scary genre" gets a swift kick in the ass—all of the bad habits and lame tricks have been done to death, and they don't cut the mustard anymore. Rating: 5.0 out of 10.

As someone who's spent the majority of his life as a fan and student of horror cinema, I like to think I have a pretty good idea of not only what's scary (at least as much as one can have an idea on this—fear is still subjective after all) but also what makes scary films (and books, and games) work.

What might be the most criminally under-appreciated element of the horror experience is the use of sound. Since cinema (and gaming) is essentially a visual medium, it's only natural that audiences tend to focus on visuals. I can think of literally hundreds of creepy shots in horror films (the sheet covered ghoul with the nasty looking hedge clippers in The Exorcist III, Billy's wide open eyeball peering through the crack of the door in Black Christmas, etc.), but most people would be hard pressed to come up with a creepy sound from their favorite horror movie.

In fact, the importance of music and sound in horror cinema was only really driven home for me after watching the Criterion laserdisc version of John Carpenter's seminal slasher film Halloween. In the extras on that disc, there's a segment near the climax where Laurie explores the upstairs of the house where Michael Myers has left all of his handiwork. When Carpenter and company showed the rough cut of this scene (and the entire film) to studio execs without the musical score and stinger sound effects, no one thought it was scary. Indeed, the scene on the disc, without music, isn't even remotely frightening. However, when the same scene is cued up with Carpenter's minimalist score playing over it, the effect is dramatic—the scene's tension ratchets up almost exponentially.

This use of music and sound is perhaps the greatest strength of Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly, the sequel to Tecmo's underrated survival horror offering Fatal Frame. While Crimson Butterfly never wants for a gruesome or terrifying visual, it's the audio component of the game that makes it so creepy. As it stands, the game is a veritable primer on how to use sound to create atmosphere in a horror game. Forget the endless jump scare moments of Resident Evil—Crimson Butterfly isn't interested in giving players a quick jolt—it wants to unnerve them.

This only makes it all the more disappointing that a game with such lofty artistic ambitions—actually scaring players instead of just making them jump and cringe at gore—falls back on the clichs so prevalent in the survival horror game sub-genre. Take everything you ever hated about the Resident Evil games, subtract the clunky control scheme, and Crimson Butterfly is the end result.

The game's most glaring shortcoming from a technical standpoint is the camera system. Like just about every other game in this genre, the camera is set in a fixed position. It moves whenever the player moves about the room, jumping to a new static angle as different parts of the room are accessed. The idea here seems to be to create a cinematic gaming experience—in reality though, all it does is confuse the hell out of anyone playing the game. Move in one direction, the camera angle switches, and continuing to move in that same direction now takes the onscreen character right back where they came from. I have to believe developers can do better—this camera system is outdated, and it wasn't even good to begin with.

Crimson Butterfly's other problem is that the game features an abundance of backtracking. Much like Resident Evil, players will explore one area, find a locked door or puzzle, and then have to traipse back across the entire village for the key or solution. This isn't gameplay—it's busywork. And like the camera system, it's long since worn out its welcome.

It's almost tragic that these two design elements mar the overall experience, because aside from them, the game is really good. The aforementioned soundwork is fantastic (particularly when experienced through a good surround sound system) with lots of moans, screams, and other ambient noise complementing a minimalist soundtrack that induces gooseflesh with a surprising amount of regularity.

The game's plot is no less impressive, melding modern-day Japanese horror cinema aesthetics with traditional folklore and ghost stories to create a genuinely multimedia scarefest. While playing the game, astute horror fans will spot tons of references—everything from Hideo Nakato's Ringu, The Blair Witch Project, Brigadoon, and Lucio Fulci's The Beyond—and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

In fact, the game is so cinematic in its inspirations and executions it's hard to not imagine this particular game being adapted as a film. It's a movie I'd certainly pay to see

The game finds modern day twin sisters Mio and Mayu trapped inside All God's Village. Said village disappeared long ago and is the stuff of local legend—people wandering the surrounding forest will occasionally find themselves inside the haunted village. The land is perpetually bathed in darkness and haunted by restless spirits because it's built on one of the gates of Hell. To keep the peace, the village sacrifices twins to the gate—but sisters Yae and Sae messed up the ritual when one of them fled their fate. Because of this, the village is cursed.

Mio and Mayu must navigate the haunted landscape armed only with a special camera, the Camera Obscura, that can capture the images of the vengeful ghosts and hurt them—all while trying to find a way to escape back to the real world.

The story is rich and well drawn, recounted through a number of different media formats. Film reels, various journals, and spirit stones that can be listened to through a psychic radio are all used, and used effectively, to divulge the backstory of the game. The empty village, bathed in darkness, is one of the more impressive game settings in recent memory. The feeling of isolation in this game is almost palpable. Those who are spooked easily will want to play in the daytime, with all the lights on and doors locked.

However, more adventurous souls will find that the game is best experienced in a darkened room in a quiet house. With the excellent sound work filtering out of a nice surround sound system and enveloping the player in the game world, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly becomes one of the most terrifying videogame experiences of all time. Rating: 7.0 out of 10

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood and Gore, Violence

Parents may or may not what their children playing Fatal Frame. In some ways it really isnt as bloody or violent as other horror games, and there are no references to sex or alcohol whatsoever. However, many of the cutscenes and images of ghosts encountered throughout the game depict torture, disfigurement, and other nightmare-inducing concepts that may disturb children.

Fans of survival-horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill may have mixed reactions to Fatal Frame. To some it may seem a gimmicky imitation of better games, while others may find it to be a fresh approach to the genre.

Fans of Tecmo's earlier games may understand where its coming from more easily since its gameplay partially echoes the eccentricities of their Deception series.

Those who are intrigued by the plot involving traditional Japanese religion and mythology should be warned that the localization hampers its appeal, although it is still possible to enjoy to some degree.

Players who simply want to be scared will like this game a lot, but only if they find the photography aspect as subtly effective as I did.

Parents will certainly want to take the Mature rating into consideration before allowing younger gamers to experience this title. Crimson Butterfly has a few gory moments, but what's more troubling is the game's terrifying atmosphere, which could easily inspire lots of nightmares for younger gamers. If a child can't watch a mainstream horror film, then they probably should skip this game.

Survival horror fans will love this game despite the clunky camera system and the endless array of backtracking fetch quests. The story and the atmosphere are so impressive throughout that many will find themselves dealing with the technical flaws just to see the next big scare scene or unravel the mystery of the village.

Casual gamers who like scary stories will also want to check this title out. The puzzles can occasionally be a little frustrating, but the rewards are well worth utilizing a few brain cells.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing gamers will want to skip this one. While the game features an option for subtitled text, missing out on the ambient noise and sound effects will lessen the title's impact. Sound plays a vital role in this game, and not being able to experience it fully will detract considerably from the overall experience.

I definitely agree with Matt when he said the magical camera system is fresh and unorthodox. No argument there. In fact, its the games strongest asset. However, outside of Fatal Frames unique spin on combat, it clings to the other long-established contrivances of the Survival Horror genre like a man to the Titanics last life preserver.

Using the mystic Polaroid is fun, but flawed. Trying to find a floating apparition through a viewfinder puts a more up-close-and-personal element into your survival, which isnt usually present in other games of this type. On the downside, its too easy to be picked off while trying to switch between the camera view and the third-person view. Your character also moves like molasses, so you are effortlessly caught and munched by the ghosts while trying to run and flee. The fixed camera angles switching views as you move dont help the situation.

One other thing that really annoyed me during fights was that you use the left stick to move in third-person mode, but movement is re-mapped to the right stick while looking through the camera. It makes no sense at all, and took me a very long time to get accustomed to. Finally, the life-ups are in fairly short supply, especially since some of the ghosts can easily chop off half your lifebar with one good attack. With the combat being as clunky as it is, the stingy amount of health items wasnt a good idea in my opinion.

Looking at the structure of the game besides combat, you enter the house and proceed to travel from locked door to locked door, finding short pieces of text along the way. Thats literally all there is to it. The graphics do a good job of setting up the atmosphere and the ghosts and camera system are interesting enough to keep you on edge for an hour or two. However, once you catch on to the fact that the game is just a huge string of keyfetches the fun factor drops significantly. Things are far too predictable with no variation throughout the entire disc. The story never builds up any serious tension, either. Find a key, open a door. Find a notebook page, read some story. Sometimes its a puzzle instead of a key, but its basically the same tasks becoming stale, boring, and repetitive all too soon.

Fatal Frame is definitely scary for a while, it has a good premise and I like what they tried to do with the combat system. Sadly, it just falls so incredibly short in every other area that I cant wholeheartedly recommend it. For fans who cant get enough of the genre, its a decent entry. For gamers who want the boundaries of Survival Boredom to be pushed, theres arent enough new ideas here to make the game more than a quirky addition to the pile of "me-too" games out there. Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclaimer: This review is based on the PlayStation 2 version of the game.

Unlike horror games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, Fatal Frame takes place exclusively in Japan and spins a tale drenched in Japanese mythology. The story concerns the disappearance of a writer and his staff while researching a book in rural Japan. The game begins when Mafuyu Hinasaki, a friend of the writer, arrives at the remote mansion where the writer was last seen. After playing a short prologue as this character, the player takes control of Miku, Mafuyus sister, as she enters the mansion in search of her brother who is now also missing.

Like most other games of the genre, the basic gameplay involves exploration and collecting clues and items that will help the player eventually solve the mystery of the disappearances as well as the dark history of the mansion. Like Silent Hill, navigation involves walking around in the dark with a flashlight, and the interaction is mostly limited to either reading journals or collecting items that unlock new areas of the mansion and further the plot.

If this all sounds rather typical, thats because it is. Fatal Frame would be an uninspired (but well-produced) genre exercise if it werent for a single element upon which the entire game sinks or swims. That element is photography, odd as it sounds. Miku is equipped with a camera, and that camera is what the game is all about. For reasons better left in the game, the camera is attuned to the supernatural and can "see" ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. Players can defend themselves from ghosts by taking pictures (apparently sucking their power away) and relive their scariest moments via photo albums that can be saved, edited, and viewed at any time. The camera also serves as a tool to solve puzzles. Taking pictures of certain things (doors, for example) will reveal clues that are relevant to moving the story along.

The camera may sound like a gimmicky idea, and it is. However, the way its implemented in the game represents a small stroke of genius. Since the player spends much of the game peering through the lens of the camera, the designers have smartly taken the opportunity to build a world that exploits the players limited perspective at every opportunity. The game is normally in 3rd person, which often means the only way to see things up close is through the lens of the camera. Youll find yourself using it often to peer into the dark or examine your surroundings—a behavior that, because it seems so natural, sets the stage for the horrifying encounters that make Fatal Frame unique. The player typically feels (though the controllers vibration) or hears a ghost before it can be seen. This forces the player to rely on the camera to find it, and the results are often frightening in a way that few games are. Theres nothing quite like hearing a wail in the dark and "feel" the beat of Mikus heart quicken as you spin around and come face-to-face the eyeless sockets of a deformed woman whose pale arms are extending towards your neck. Its moments like these that make Fatal Frame stand out, and there are plenty of them. Since ghosts can come at any place and at any time, surviving the mansion becomes a wicked little game of peek-a-boo. More damage is awarded for taking the closer snapshot, which means that often survival and taking the most terrifying pictures come hand in hand. The result is a weird element of masochism that makes the game enjoyable. Players will no doubt want to see just how scary and dangerous their pictures can get, and it doesnt take long for an aesthetic sensibility to emerge. In the end, it isnt about survival, but about how scary your album is. This is fascinating because it creates a relationship between the player and the game that is much more dynamic than usual in a horror game. Shooting zombies in Resident Evil will never change, but you can always try to get a scarier picture of a ghost.

Regardless of how effective the central mode of gameplay is at creating horror, Fatal Frame manages to drop the ball in several other areas. First and foremost is the localization. I was sorely disappointed to discover that this game is English voice only. While I suppose I cant expect Tecmo to leave the game in Japanese for an audience as subtitle-phobic as America, they could have at least had the decency to leave the original language in as an option for those of us who would appreciate having the cultural ambiance of the story remain intact. I bought this game because I was interested in a horror story that is uniquely Japanese, and the English voices simply work against this. Of course, it would also have helped if the acting werent stilted and awkward much of the time. With the exception of Miku and (thank god) most of the ghosts, the performances are so wooden Id call them terrible acting except for the fact that I cant call them acting at all. Also, the writing in the game could have been translated better. Although the events discussed in the journals and letters found throughout the game are disturbing in and of themselves, they are often recounted in bland and straight forward prose that does little to stimulate the readers imagination let alone induce fear. The game remains successfully scary in many ways, but a simple rewrite of the text and the inclusion of Japanese voices as an option would have done wonders for making Fatal Frame a more whole experience.

Beyond translation, Fatal Frame has a few other nagging issues. The control is occasionally problematic. For most of the game its fine, but it becomes frustrating in some of the more difficult ghost battles. Youd think Miku could manage more than an anemic shuffle when fleeing from unholy death, but the movement in Fatal Frame is typically sluggish and doesnt respond well to camera changes. When seconds count, this can be very annoying. Also, although this might be a personal preference, I think Fatal Frame drops the ball on a lot of its scariness by explaining too much. The makers of this game could learn a thing or two from games like Silent Hill about what and what not to say in a horror story. Instead of allowing the player to piece together the story in a way that fuels her or his imagination, Fatal Frame provide many convenient cutscenes and other expository material that leave no element of interpretation to the plot. Horror is based largely on fear of the unknown, and after the last "explain it all" journal there wasnt much left to stimulate my sense of fearful wonder except taking pictures.

And thats really why this game succeeds and why I recommend it. The photography element works and works beautifully, and I think anyone who enjoys having their sense of fear manipulated in a unique and satisfying why will find this game worth their time. Its just a shame that some of the other elements arent as inspired. If the game had a better localization and more faith in the players imagination it might have been a great horror game. As it is, it will have to settle for being a good horror game with a few great ideas. Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Disclaimer: This review is based on the PlayStation 2 version of the game.