Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

If you've been too timid to play horror games but have been looking for a chance to experience it once, Fatal Frame:Maiden of BlackWater might be a good choice. Sexy characters, wonderful plots, unique combat system, and an excellent Japanese-style psychological horror atmosphere make this work unique in the field of horror games.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a welcome return of an obscure, yet memorable PS2-era series. This revamp of the Wii U version still feels firmly rooted in the past, but it makes such superb use of atmospheric visual and audio effects that the overall experience is a unique take on horror games. It’s well worth giving this remake a second chance.

While there are several better titles in the Fatal Frame series, Maiden of Black Water has aged surprisingly well and can still deliver great fun.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water (Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water) just pulls you in and then never lets go. And it really works through great atmosphere, powerful sound design, stylish artwork, interesting plot and an interesting combat.

FATAL FRAME: Maiden of Black Water blends its haunting world with rewarding gameplay to craft one outstanding horror experience.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a refreshingly traditional survival horror game that's genuinely scary.

Despite a few annoyances, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a fantastic horror adventure that is releasing at the perfect time on consoles and PC. If you've been looking for a new game to play over Halloween, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is absolutely worth getting on PS5.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is still an intriguing survival horror experience with creepy atmosphere and engaging story, but younger audiences may not like its old-style controls and slow pace.

I can’t say I enjoyed my time with Fatal Frame: Maiden of Blackwater, because I spent most of my time with the game paused, my hands over my eyes and the television on mute to drown out the creepy ambiance and the anguished cries of spirits trying to kill me.

A second chance if you missed the original. Not the best entry in the series, but still an enjoyable game for survival horror fans.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a genuinely unique horror game with all the fixings for a campy and spooky gameplay experience. Like any horror movie, you'll be asking, "Why are you going in there!?" but it's all part of the show. The remastered efforts shine, even if the narrative isn't winning any awards. If anything, this game teaches you that only good-looking people can be ghost hunters.

It keeps the charm of the franchise while offering some interesting moments, but it can't hide the fact that graphics and some gameplay elements are outdated. If you are looking for a plain and simple survival horror experience, you will probable be satisfied with this one.

Aside from the visual upgrade, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is far from a suitable remaster as it fails to change many of the original issues. However, while it's also far from the best Fatal Frame game, it does still offer players the signature enjoyable camera combat and some surprisingly spooky aesthetic.

I’m a little sad about how Maiden of Black Water resulted in Project Zero’s pause as a series. Great photography gameplay is on offer and had me frantically thinking on the fly to snap some solid (and horrific) photos. Poor pacing, voice acting and less than admirable treatment of female characters is present though, which can at times be tough obstacles to overcome. Still, the eerie atmosphere the game sets up for itself remains throughout. It is a thrilling, quite pleasurable experience that, while the answers may not always be satisfying, will leave you guessing until its conclusion. I can only hope this remaster is the start of a new turn for the series. Flaws and all, the Project Zero franchise is more than worthy of another shot in the spooky spotlight.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is back. That's good news, and while it's not the best in the series, I've enjoyed it like crazy. It still retains the authenticity of the franchise, which makes it a more than valid option for anyone who wants to approach a slightly different survival horror that has a unique approach, but at the same time tastes like a classic.

The last Fatal Frame is still a quite enjoyable and creepy horror experience with great atmosphere, good length and engaging (yet convoluted) story, but its rusty control scheme and slow pace could keep the younger audience far away.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water does some things well and misses the mark on others. It generates tension well, but it depends too much on the simplistic, yet rewarding camera-based combat. Either way, Maiden of Black Water offers something compelling for horror fans to dig into, as long as you can accept its shortcomings.

Koei Tecmo with Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water, fixes the bare minimum to please the fans, giving us a game far too backward and slow to take root on a new audience.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water celebrates twenty years of Fatal Frame by remastering a game that felt already dated back in 2015 but still delivers an intense atmosphere.

Ultimately, the revival of Maiden of Black Water on modern hardware is a welcome operation but which is partly a wasted opportunity. The remaster will allow fans of the genre to rediscover an interesting experiment among survival horror, but greater care in realization would have made the last episode of Project Zero usable by a much wider audience. Despite the years that have passed since the first release and the absence of the technical limits imposed by exclusivity on Wii U, no additional effort has been made to improve a title with not properly refined mechanics. If over the years the Project Zero series has struggled to renew itself and has gradually crystallized into an aging playful formula, this new edition does nothing to remove Maiden of Black Water from the ancient spectrum of its roots.

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

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water stumbles a bit in fully capitalising on the enhanced edition concept, yet it’s saved by a unique central hook that keeps the fright rate high and by the set of chilling environments to explore. Both of these elements were present in the 2014 original, but now can at least be enjoyed by a wider crowd.

The haunting atmosphere of Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water means that it’s definitely worth a play for horror fans on the whole. It’s just a shame that more hasn’t been done to improve its gameplay over the original Wii U version. Combat is fun for the most part, and also rather spooky. But during the many bouts of exploration in between, you’ll become frustrated due to the clunky controls that make moving the trio of characters involved quite simply a pain.

The storytelling and unravelling mysteries at the heart of this game is the elixir that keeps the camera rolling in its neat runtime, but the clumsy basic controls and mundane filler scenes hold the survival horror back from truly being a horrific work of art.

Only true fans of the series who never owned the WiiU will truly appreciate this port - or perhaps the nostalgic souls among you who cannot live without old Japanese horror games.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a different beast to the original games from a few generations ago which isn't necessarily a bad thing but the repetitive locations and enemies combined with the dragged out levels turn what could have been a spooky adventure into a tedious one.

If you liked the original, then this mesmeric remake is gorgeous and suspenseful, and I imagine it’s ideal after the Fatal Frame series has lain dormant for so long. On the other hand, if your palette for horror has been spoiled with more modern hits in the genre, Maiden of Black Water’s atmosphere rises to the surface while its other dated aspects pull it back down

You could do a lot better than Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water this Halloween season; the PS5 has built up its horror library up just enough for there to be something else worthy of your time. Those cutscenes, though. Very creepy.

While this remaster has its share of Kodak moments, unfortunately, the negatives are simply too much to ignore. With Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water’s disposable cast of characters and underdeveloped episodes that start to blur together like like an old Polaroid, survival horror fans are better off turning their focus elsewhere to get their fix this Halloween.

It’s unfortunate that Koei Temco has no intention of remaking or remastering the Fatal Frame series from the beginning. This slightly upscaled and modified port from Nintendo Wii U to current gen platforms puts forth a subpar experience that doesn’t sell me on the series. It seemed to just be the most convenient installment to make available for the 20th anniversary and it shows. If you’re like me and Maiden of Black Water is your first Fatal Frame game, I recommend you keep those expectations low.

Six years later, in that timeframe, Capcom did the opposite with Resident Evil 7 — which has now sold over 10 million copies, making it one of the most popular games in the franchise. I think if Koei Tecmo still has an interest in reviving the Fatal Frame franchise, they need to go back to the drawing board or give newcomers a good collection of games that made this survival horror series great in the first place.