The Official Horror game Thread!! Lets put those headphones to good use! - Page 11

Clearly one of Nintendo's biggest challenges for the Wii U is creating enough mature-rated titles to attract core gamers. But apart from Ubisoft's ZombiU they did very little at E3 to show they realised this, and many remain understandably unconvinced. Metroid Prime makers Retro Studios are rumoured to be working on something to please older fans, but Nintendo has also made some rather unexpected moves into the survival horror genre.

For reasons we cannot begin to fathom they're now co-owners of the Project Zero (aka Fatal Frame) series from Tecmo Koei. This seems a bizarre choice as the games have never been big hits and the franchise seemed to fizzle out several years ago. In fact the last game was a Wii exclusive by Grasshopper Manufacture that Nintendo never even bothered to release outside of Japan. But rather than translate and release that for the West they've gone back to the second game in the series.

As peculiar as that may seem, especially since they're releasing it in the middle of the summer, there is at least some logic in this, since Project Zero 2 is rightly regarded as one of the scariest video games ever made.

Originally released in 2003 on the PlayStation 2, and ported to the Xbox a year later, Project Zero 2 is heavily influenced by the late '90s Japanese horror scene, in particular Ringu and Ju-on. The story focuses on two young twins as they stumble upon a cursed village in rural Japan. What exactly is going on is only slowly hinted at as the game unfolds, but the village is obviously haunted and the ghosts seem to have a special interest in the fact that the two girls are twins.

This isn't an action game though, and you have no weapons but a 'Camera Obscura' to help you - which you discover early in the game. This is essentially a magic camera which can be used to search for and exorcise ghosts. Using it switches the game to a first person view and as silly as the concept sounds the practise of slowly sweeping the room for ghosts is utterly terrifying.

As is their want the ghosts love to appear just when you least expect them and the game borrows every horror movie trick it can think of as candles flicker in a non-existent wind and ghostly hands suddenly grab at you from nowhere. The atmosphere is almost overwhelming and the closest any video game has come to mimicking the more slow-burning scares of a classic haunted house movie.

We don't make that comparison idly though as that's clearly exactly the style the game is going for. It's not the psychological horror of Silent Hill and it's certainly not the schlock scares of Resident Evil. It is instead a good old fashioned ghost story and co-opts all the best tricks of Hollywood and Japanese cinema with impressive skill. (The Descent on PC is scarier still but significantly different in approach.)

However, these scares come at a price, in that Project Zero's gameplay is fairly basic and uninvolving. The puzzles and exploration are quite limited and even the process of fighting ghosts becomes repetitive before the end. If the game's atmosphere wasn't as effective as it is the whole game would've been a complete disaster - but it isn't and the end result is a minor classic.

We can well imagine the basic concept being improved even more by the use of the Wii U GamePad (which was used as a camera in at least three separate demos at E3) but for now you have to contend with new motion controls using the Wii remote and nunchuck. You can use the nunchuck's analogue controls for movement but the first person view relies on the Wii remote's accelerometer (not even its infrared pointer) which proves as frustratingly inaccurate as always.

We're not sure that's not at least partially intentional though, in order to make you feel as vulnerable as possible. Certainly the rest of this Wii Edition has been put together with a surprising degree of love and care, with a new widescreen mode, a rejigged camera, and redone graphics.
The CGI cut scenes have been re-rendered from scratch and the new lighting system adds to the game's scares. The visuals are still inconsistent but this is certainly one of the better remakes we've seen on a home console.

There's even a new on-the-rails mode called Haunted House where the game judges how scared you're getting by how still you keep the Wii remote and nuchuck as you play.

In terms of presentation the major problem is aural not visual. The voiceovers have all been redone and because the game is not being released in North America everyone's got very obvious UK accents. This is the same problem that almost ruined Sony's Project Siren, with the carefully crafted atmosphere spoiled by Japanese country bumpkins talking with a Cockney accent.

Overall though the game is still a success and if not for the high price point we'd still make it a relatively unreserved recommendation. That it aims to scare you first and entertain second shouldn't be taken as a negative. It was clearly the goal from the outset and in this it succeeds admirably, sacrificing all else to its infernal goal.

In Short: Despite its obvious gameplay failings this is still one of the scariest video games ever made, and this Wii edition a surprisingly effective update.

Pros: Incredibly potent atmosphere with an interesting combat system and an extremely bleak storyline. Carefully updated visuals and Haunted House mode is a clever idea.

Cons: Exploring and puzzle solving is overly simplistic, as is the combat eventually. Motion controls are only a detriment and the voiceovers are poor.