

Fortunately, although it did break the immersion when particularly odd events took place, it never caused me a game over even if it did occasionally throw an irritation or two my way. The characters themselves were enjoyable if a bit flat as they tend to be in horror, but the AI was absolutely monstrous. It’s so rough, that I would honestly at least consider having these companions only in cutscenes instead of accompanying you as an improvement. While you’re moving around, lining up shots, and avoiding the ghosts that haunt you, your companion will wander around aimlessly without a care in the world. It’s not rare that you’ll be exploring these tragic locations with another character along, though these characters clearly have the bare minimum amount of intelligence necessary to function. The most egregious of these is the companion AI. The Maiden of Black Water is not without flaws of its own. It was fun working on a “build” for my camera since I hadn’t even had a thought that it was going to be a possibility when I first picked up the controller. Your camera obscura itself can be upgraded in such a way as well allowing you to tailor its functionality to your chosen playstyle. These can be upgraded by spending your hard-earned points, conveniently earned by photographing spirits. They can drastically alter the effects your pictures have on the ghosts that threaten you. These range from stunning to slowing to healing yourself and so on. This damage is further amplified by skillfully lined up shots that capture all of the entity’s weak points, especially if you land a “Fatal Frame” and catch them in the middle of an attack animation.Įqually as impactful as your film, lenses can be swapped between and provide powerful additional abilities to your shots. Some reload more quickly while others drastically increase the damage dealt to all spirits that the picture encompasses. Don’t worry though, it packs a serious punch, especially if it’s making use of a higher quality film. Handguns and shotguns are useless against the foes you’ll face on your adventure, so you’re equipped with a camera obscura instead. I had assumed there would be healing and plot items, but lenses and different types of film were a pleasant surprise that I wasn’t prepared for as a newbie to the series.įilm, as you likely assumed, is your ammunition when bullets just won’t do. The most unexpected part of The Maiden of Black Water for me was the variety of upgrades for your camera. It’s capable of both revealing items hidden to the mundane world and utterly ruining an otherwise dangerous spirit’s day.

It’s important to note that it’s not just any camera though, it’s a camera obscura, and it has the power to not only observe but affect the supernatural. Even better, once you’ve defeated these ghosts, you can reach out and touch them to see a short cinematic that lets fills you in on the last moments of their lives.įatal Frame has always revolved around exploring places of tragedy armed with nothing but a camera and this one is no different in that regard. There’s nothing quite like quietly exploring when some angry lady hanging from a rope materializes and forcefully attempts to make you suffer the same fate or a victim of a car accident crawls out from underneath a car screaming about his legs. You’ll often read multiple entries regarding them before you encounter them and every one of them was exciting to finally see. These ghosts are frequent encounters, though the most thrilling ones are always the unique entities that have a particularly dark past. The Maiden of Black Water has us take on the role of three unlucky souls whose fates will tie them to a mountain haunted by hundreds of vengeful spirits. Even though its original release was seven years ago now, I feel as if this is just the gateway that many need to pull them into the venerable series. That said, The Maiden of Black Water performs admirably in capturing the feel of the classic survival horror titles while adapting to the requirements of more modern gaming. Of course, this is mostly due to access as my PlayStation 2 bit the dust years ago, but I’ll get there someday! My fellow horror enthusiast and girlfriend has been raving about them for years but the stars just haven’t aligned as of yet.
#How long is fatal frame 4 series
I’ll come clean and say that I’m a flawed survival horror fan as I’ve never played the legendary Fatal Frame series before The Maiden of Black Water. Your camera is the only thing that’s going to save you in this ghostly survival horror experience.
