Sometimes I wonder why games are published so differently between regions. Take the new Fatal Frame (or Project Zero): Europe got a fancy collector's edition, North America went digital only. Different publishers for different regions maybe, but NoA in general is trying really hard to get the Wii U forgotten there.
Anyway, I've never played a Fatal Frame/Project Zero before but I felt like having a spooky game on the WiiU, so...I should keep searching. I'm not a big fan Japanese horror movies because they tend to lack tension, often dragging on silent moments where the camera focuses on absolutely nothing, as the director was asking the audience "please, be scared"; that, and a lot of Japanese actors are as emphatic and able to convey emotions as wooden logs. I know there are exceptions, but unfortunately Fatal Frame isn't one.
In the few hours I've played I was more afraid of missing the chance of taking pictures of ghost appearing for a brief moment rather than being afraid of the apparition itself. Your attention is also divided between the TV screen and the WiiU pad (acting as the Camera Obscura), so sometimes you're looking down to the pad, you hear a scream, you glance up to the TV and go "aaawww, I missed the ghost". This doesn't mean that the game is completely devoid of creepy imagery, but how much and for how long can dolls and long-haired ghosts scare you? Characters don't speak often, and when they do is in very short sentences; all have one facial expression, and that goes a long way in decreasing tension: characters aren't scared, they see ghosts and are like "oh, ghost." as they just saw the most common thing in the world. I mean, the first character is an occult investigator, but some kind of reaction would have been nice.
Combat is clunky and slow, even when facing multiple ghosts. You can lock onto a ghost's weak spot for easy targeting, or go full manual to try to get up to five spots in the frame for a stronger shot; killing/excorcising a ghost takes an incredibly long amount of time, even with powerful films. Films come in various strenghts, with only the weakest being infinite. Even when a ghost grabs you, there isn't much tension of it killing you straight away (in normal mode, at least), and it can be repelled by few shots. Movement controls don't help much either, characters are stiff and walk very slowly. I get this is how the game is, but when you are tasked with fetch quests, slowly trudgng along the same hallways/forests is just tedious; there's a run button (why? I want full analog control), but turning while running is next to impossible, and it's not really running, it's more a slow jog.
There are some mechanics that so far haven't played a big role, like how wet your character is. As the title implies, water plays an important role in every environment, and more wet a character is, the more susceptible she'll be to ghosts.
So far Fatal Frame failed in keeping my interest up, maybe it will get better in later stages, but the opening moments haven't been that impressive.
Anyway, I've never played a Fatal Frame/Project Zero before but I felt like having a spooky game on the WiiU, so...I should keep searching. I'm not a big fan Japanese horror movies because they tend to lack tension, often dragging on silent moments where the camera focuses on absolutely nothing, as the director was asking the audience "please, be scared"; that, and a lot of Japanese actors are as emphatic and able to convey emotions as wooden logs. I know there are exceptions, but unfortunately Fatal Frame isn't one.
In the few hours I've played I was more afraid of missing the chance of taking pictures of ghost appearing for a brief moment rather than being afraid of the apparition itself. Your attention is also divided between the TV screen and the WiiU pad (acting as the Camera Obscura), so sometimes you're looking down to the pad, you hear a scream, you glance up to the TV and go "aaawww, I missed the ghost". This doesn't mean that the game is completely devoid of creepy imagery, but how much and for how long can dolls and long-haired ghosts scare you? Characters don't speak often, and when they do is in very short sentences; all have one facial expression, and that goes a long way in decreasing tension: characters aren't scared, they see ghosts and are like "oh, ghost." as they just saw the most common thing in the world. I mean, the first character is an occult investigator, but some kind of reaction would have been nice.
Combat is clunky and slow, even when facing multiple ghosts. You can lock onto a ghost's weak spot for easy targeting, or go full manual to try to get up to five spots in the frame for a stronger shot; killing/excorcising a ghost takes an incredibly long amount of time, even with powerful films. Films come in various strenghts, with only the weakest being infinite. Even when a ghost grabs you, there isn't much tension of it killing you straight away (in normal mode, at least), and it can be repelled by few shots. Movement controls don't help much either, characters are stiff and walk very slowly. I get this is how the game is, but when you are tasked with fetch quests, slowly trudgng along the same hallways/forests is just tedious; there's a run button (why? I want full analog control), but turning while running is next to impossible, and it's not really running, it's more a slow jog.
There are some mechanics that so far haven't played a big role, like how wet your character is. As the title implies, water plays an important role in every environment, and more wet a character is, the more susceptible she'll be to ghosts.
So far Fatal Frame failed in keeping my interest up, maybe it will get better in later stages, but the opening moments haven't been that impressive.
Coincidentally that's the third Wii U game I've had on pre-order to not arrive on release day and I've only pre-ordered 4 Wii U games up till now.
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