Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

Project Zero 5 is not a bad game: with its Japanese horror movie atmosphere reminiscent of The Grudge or the mythical The Ring, Koei Tecmo's survival-horror succeeds in immersing the player in its scary universe full of macabre stories and tormented spirits. Also, Gamepad is for once very well exploited with a Camera Obscura to be controlled directly with the gyroscope (or the sticks if you wish). Unfortunately, the numerous back and forths to do during the game and the general stiffness of the gameplay make the pleasure of the game fall very quickly, leaving only a nice adventure, but far from being memorable.

The arrival of Maiden of Black Water makes for a major addition to the PC horror games catalogue. The use of the camera in dealing with tortured spirits and the blend of fiction and folklore from Japan is delightful. The slow pace of the plot and repetition of areas, however, make Maiden of Black Water less scary and memorable than we would have liked.

An effectively creepy atmosphere combined with an intriguing story and unique combat, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is well worth picking up. It can slog some when it forces you to revisit the same areas that you just saw and the movement is clunky and awkward, but those can't sink the rest of the enterprise into the mire.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water suffers from some dated design decisions and redundancies in level design, but the unique combat and evocative environments make this a worthwhile adventure for horror fans.

Unless you are a hardcore fan, existing players will not find much to gain from picking this up. This is a release for newcomers, which to be honest, there will be millions who would have missed this due to the platform it was originally released on. For those people, you can expect a creepy game that oozes atmosphere, but is hampered by cumbersome controls and poor pacing. A trade-off I personally feel is worth taking to experience Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water‘s bespoke approach to horror.

Those who love the genre and will be able to forgive its many pitfalls.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a strange release. It's not a remake, nor a remaster, feeling more like a re-release with a few added features. Visually, it's barely different to the Wii U Release, so if you've already played it, then there's not much I can say. However, considering the original was limited to the Wii U, with a limited audience, this version brings it over to modern consoles and the PC, keeping the excellent atmosphere and different combat system and making it control better than expected. Is it worth buying? That is very dependent on if you like horror games.