Fatal Frame Review

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Fatal Frame

Review by TogerNovember 2003

What quirk of my nature makes me enjoy being scared, either by a good story or movie? I can remember frittering away whole Saturdays ensconced on the couch watching one horror movie after another until my brain was so overloaded with images that it was next to impossible to go to sleep. To this day, if I watch a disturbing movie on TV, I have no hope of sleep unless I purge my brain of the images by watching cartoons before going to bed!

I’d heard that Fatal Frame was spooky in the extreme, so when it was originally released last year I ran right out and bought a copy with the intention of immersing myself in some good Japanese horror. Naturally, I got sidetracked by something else bright and shiny and never got around to playing the game until I heard about the sequel. As of this writing, the second game, Crimson Butterfly, is planned for next month, so I thought I’d dust off—literally—the original and give it a go.

Supposedly based on a true story, Fatal Frame tells the story of the Himuro mansion. A huge, sprawling affair located deep within a secluded forest, the mansion is at the center of a host of folk tales and legends about strange disappearances and forbidden Shinto rituals. The original owner is said to have killed off his entire family, while subsequent families have either quickly left the premises or simply disappeared. Now the mansion lies empty and has fallen into a state of disrepair. A famous novelist, Junei Takamine, and his assistants have gone to the mansion to do research for an upcoming book on the mansion’s dark and bloody history. While there, his entire team vanishes. When her brother, Mafuyu, also disappears while in the mansion, Miku Hinasaki sets off to search for her missing brother. Now the fun begins …

Fatal Frame is played in the third-person perspective.  You’ll guide Miku through the mansion using only a flashlight and her antique camera. Included in the survival horror genre, Fatal Frame is not chock full of weapons with which to shoot, blast or bludgeon your way from one end of the game to the other. Miku’s weapon of choice—and only weapon—is an antique camera that belonged to her mother. Said to possess the ability to see things not seen by the naked eye, the camera can also seal a spirit’s soul in a photograph.

During combat with ghosts, you’ll enter camera mode—which is a first-person view—target the ghost, and take the shot.  The viewfinder’s reticule will turn blue once the camera is armed with “spirit power.” How much “spirit power” the camera currently possesses will dictate how much damage is done to the ghost. You’ll also receive points based on what kind of picture you take of the spirit—close-up head shots are worth more than basic it’s-way-across-the-room pictures—which goes toward upgrading the camera with faster response time and a larger field of view. When the ghosts were slow-moving or stationary, I didn’t have any problems; however, later in the game quite a few of the ghosts either transported or were very fast on their ghostly feet so I’d end up snapping useless pictures of the background.  As there are a finite number of film packs to be found in the game, you’ll want to be careful when confronting those tortured souls.

As you wander through the mansion, you’ll be able to look at and pick up quite a few objects. Miku will make comments as to whether or not the item is essential to the problem at hand. Film packs, herbal medicines, journal pages and the like can be found scattered throughout the mansion and are denoted by twinkling lights. In some cases, you’ll need to solve a puzzle or capture a ghost’s soul in order to get the item you need.

There is one nit to pick … the constant backtracking in this game. Considering how slowly Miku walks, it’s a fairly big nit.  Progressing though the game, rooms will unlock or lock depending on what you’ve done so far. The problem is that rooms you think you’ve finished will lock, then you’ll find a clue where it’s necessary to not only go back to the room but you’ll need to find the trigger in another room in order to go back. I’m pretty sure that mansion isn’t that big—it was having to go into those rooms time and again that made is seem so.

As with most console games, saving is done at save points. There aren’t a lot of them, so my advice is to make note of the rooms they’re in and get thee to a save point! Luckily, the in-game mapping, which shows the save points, is very good and easy to read.

Visually, Fatal Frame is how I used to watch scary movies—through the spaces between my fingers so that I couldn’t see all the detail.  The majority of the game is presented slightly out of focus and in dark, drab colors … after all, you are searching the house in the dead of night with only a flashlight. Textures throughout the mansion and grounds have a realistic dilapidated and forlorn look. Cloth has decayed and hangs in shreds, and the floorboards have decayed enough that there are gaping holes throughout.

Looking through the camera’s viewfinder will bring objects into clearer focus if you really want to see more detail. When Miku triggers a flashback of some poor soul being tortured, you’ll see it in grainy black and white, much like watching an old home movie complete with stutters and pops … albeit a twisted home movie.

Fatal Frame’s prologue is also done in wonderfully grainy black and white. Complete with truly deep shadows, it serves as a tutorial for the game. Playing as Mafuyu, you’ll get an in-game lesson in how to use the antique camera to full advantage—hints as to where to go next and how best to capture a spirit soul.

Camera controls for Fatal Frame are nonexistent. The in-game camera is fixed and cannot be moved in any way by the player; however, the trade-offs are some exquisitely “filmed” views of the game. As Miku travels down a screened hallway, the camera will pull back and up to deliver a view of the scene that you’re absolutely sure has been snatched from a movie and dropped into this game. (Since the camera is fixed, you may wish to change the default controller setup; otherwise, you’ll find that Miku makes an immediate about-face as she walks through a door or gets boxed into corners turning ’round in circles when battling spirits.)

Ambient sound in Fatal Frame is the kind you’d hear on dark nights with all the lights out … creaking boards, doors in other rooms closing, strange rustling sounds. After some ghostly encounters, you’ll be treated to ghostly voices either giving hints about events that the house has witnessed or its denizens’ final agonized screams.

Voice work in Fatal Frame was … fatal. Actors for this game called in their roles from bed the morning after a funeral.  I would expect the ghost’s voices to have a dreamy quality to them (they did for the most part), but the woman who voiced Miku seemed to have fallen asleep, and no amount of stimulant of any kind was going to wake her up. The only voice I noticed with any pep was a dead woman who’d left behind some voice recordings.

I honestly found Fatal Frame creepy enough that I couldn’t bring myself to play it in the dark. Whether the combination of strange sounds (the floorboards in my house creak and pop as the temperature falls), disturbing images (the tree out front casts some really odd shadows), my own overactive imagination, or all of the above was the cause, it definitely got the adrenaline flowing.  If you can get past the horrible voice acting and the tedious backtracking, you’re in for a good scare. If you dare. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Tecmo Publisher: Tecmo Release Date: March 2002

Available for: PlayStation 2Xbox

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17 Responses to First Impressions: Heavy Rain

  • Toger

    I hate QTEs, but Heavy Rain is sitting in my Amazon cart waiting for me to push the button. I don’t even own a PS3, but I plan on buying the game anyway. I do have a good friend who’ll let me play at his house. Of course, I’ll have to drive 100 miles, one way, through the snow to get to his house. His chat-happy birds will cheerfully chirp thereby completely disrupting any atmosphere, but I can play.

  • David

    What!?  Heavy Rain is full of QTEs?  I totally did not see that coming.

    The whole dad experience thing sounds intriguing.  I’m already getting odd looks from my girlfriend for exclaiming over cute kids on the bus or at the mall, something like what you described might send my biological clock over the edge.

  • Lewis B

    My sentiments exactly David!

    Mat has been playing the Heavy Rain demo for a while now, and although he admits he is intrigued by the story, he does constantly complain about the control method.

    R2 + Analogue stick to run? *scoff*

  • Gregg B

    @Lew: DEMO?! PS3 DEMO?! *runs off to PS3*

    That sounds like the Batman: Arkham Asylum controls – Crazy Bonkers Design. The sort of design that puts pull handles on push doors.

    @Steerpike: “I despise children. They are disgusting and annoying. They knock things over. They interfere with everything. They’re not useful until they’re at least 13, when you can get them to mow the lawn and stuff. But you can pay a service to do that for just a few hundred bucks a year and the service won’t vomit on you, shit in its diapers, grow up to resent you, or otherwise suck. Don’t flame me and don’t post comments to the contrary: kids are repulsive. Why anyone would want them is beyond my feeble imaginings.”

    HAHAhahaha- I er, – hahahaha – you’re as outspoken as me about demon spawn children.

  • Lewis B

    Yeah its been on the internet for weeks and weeks Greggi.  I think you have to do a couple of online puzzles etc to get the appropriate code or something.

    Search on Kotaku, they first ran with it IIRC.

  • Mat

    The puzzle code was for early access before it hit the PSN Store. It’s been available to all since last week.

    Regarding the demo, it took me around 3 or 4 attempts at it to appreciate it. First time around I couldn’t have been more dissapointed by it, but after the 3rd or 4th I decided I wanted to stick with it. I don’t think the demo is a particularly great example of what the game supposedly does best either – choice. I also HATE the control scheme and some of the voice acting is so wooden. Creating an immersive, realistic game is fine but having characters stumbling into tables and fridges because of the ham fisted controls, and listening to French voice actors impersonate Americans does remove that realism a little!

    Still, I rushed out to buy it this morning and will rush home from work to play it in about an hour!

  • xtal

    @ Toger: I don’t own a PS3 either, and it’s not like Heavy Rain seems to be “that” game which makes you run out and buy one– like Bioshock made me run out and get a 360– and it’s also not like this game looks groundbreaking in any way, because it really doesn’t. It’s just got me curious…and people tend to do crazy things the week after they get their yearly bonus. Soooooo yeah, who knows; maybe I’ll own a PS3 soon, but like hell I would admit that it was for Heavy Rain. Psh. I’d tell people it was because I wanted to watch BSG on blu-ray; though anyone who knows me would see right through that lie since I am an avid non-format-upgrader: I’ll switch my BSG collection from DVD to blu-ray the day I upgrade my copy of Jurassic Park from VHS to DVD. (Hint: never)

  • Toger

    @xtal: I’m in no hurry to upgrade my meagre DVD collection to blu-ray either, but I have to say the movies I’ve watched on my friend’s PS3 are absolutely stunning. Blade Runner was simply breath-taking in blu-ray and it made me want a PS3. I don’t think Heavy Rain will be a system seller for me, but I’m betting the game from the Ico team will.

  • xtal

    A game from the Ico team, you say? Hmmm. I’ve been making rounds on Kijiji and Craigslist looking for a copy of Ico (eBay prices are so shudder-inducing) for a few days now. I really need to play that game after my experience with the indescribable Shadow of the Colossus.

    It’s good to know they haven’t died some Interplay-esque death in the meantime.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Nope, they’re a small team that works within Sony. Fumito Ueda is the lead and he’s got like ten or so people who’ve worked with him on all his games. Sony pretty much lets them do what they want.

    The Last Guardian is the game that’s coming up from them. It looks more like Ico and less like Shadow of the Colossus to me, which is to say it appears to be focused on platform elements. If I didn’t already have a PS3, it’d be the game that sells it.

  • Gregg B

    @Toger: Ooh, Blade Runner on Blu-ray, gorgeous in all its gorgeosity. In 5.1 it sounds incredible too.

    I bought my PS3 for Team Ico’s unnamed-at-the-time game, Heavy Rain (back when it was just a teaser), LittleBig Planet (yes, yes, I know), Dead Space and Motor Storm: Pacific Rift which sort of pushed me off the fence.

  • Toger

    Gregg, oh yes. The surround sound was spectacular. Did I mention my friend’s HDTV is 72″ (obscene, isn’t it)? It’s like being at a high-class theatre: better food, pauses for bathroom breaks and no one talking through the movie.

    Is Trine up on PSN, yet? If so, that might be my tipping point: Last Guardian, Heavy Rain and Trine.

  • Gregg B

    *spits tea out, despite not drinking any*

    O_O

    72″?! I’m speechless. I can only imagine how awesome that is. Size does matter.

    Not so sure about Trine… hang on. I think it is.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I think it is too, Toger. I’ll check.

    To be honest, though, I doubt you’d be disappointed with the purchase even if Trine’s not there yet. I’ve been way happier with my PS3 than with my 360. Demon’s Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted, Folklore, even little games like Flower – I’ve had more concentrated fun with the PS3 than with Microsoft’s console, which tends to gather dust for months between game releases.

    72″???? I thought size didn’t matter!

  • Toger

    Size doesn’t matter. 😀

    In my friend’s defense, it was a great deal: opened box, itty-bitty scratch on the case, not a dead pixel to be seen and it was less $$ than the 60″ he originally wanted.

    Thanks for checking guys. I’ve played a tiny bit of Uncharted, but I’m horrible at the combat. Flower intrigues me. As does Demon’s Souls, but I know that game will crush my soul.

  • Gregg B

    There were certain moments in Flower where it just totally succeeded in conveying a feeling that I can’t say I’ve had in many other games, usually when rushing across a field through the grass or through a canyon or just skimming a pond, but it was never anything to do with collecting bloody petals or fulfilling some rudimentary puzzle. I think my problem with it was that it felt like it was trying to be this deeply emotional piece but in the end there seemed to be too many concessions to being a game rather than just running with the emotive side of the experience. One thing I am sure about though, is the trophies. Don’t get me started on the fucking trophies…

    One of my favourite little games on the PS3 is Everyday Shooter. It’s got a brilliant soundtrack that suits its raw visual style and I love how each level requires a certain tactic or strategy to survive it. It’s a very satisfying game in small bursts.

  • Hanover

    Unfortunately Cage mucked up the ending yet again.  The problem is that the mechanic of the game forced them to have to cheat in order to prevent spoiling the mystery of the game.

    There is also a red herring that makes no sense and is obviously put there to misdirect the player.

    90% of the game is awesome, the last 10% while not as bad as the indigo prophecy, is still sloppy.

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