Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

Quotation forthcoming.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water may start out slow-paced with about a dozen tutorials before the real action begins, but if you stick with the game for long enough to get settled in this is a fun adventure into the unknown. If you’re a fan of horror games but aren’t a fan of cheap jump scares then this is the perfect game for you. Just make sure to leave the lights on.

An interesting but ultimately flawed experience, one that is pushed forward by the brilliant use of the GamePad, but dragged back by its slightly ropey visuals, wooden characterisation and consistently terrible English dub.

Impressive visuals aside, Maiden Of Black Water is unashamedly last-gen in design. It’s creepy enough to give you sleepless nights and the story’s better than that of previous games, but you’ll have to put up with occasionally clunky controls if you want to enjoy this tale. It’s just about worth it.

It uses the gamepad in smart and useful ways, but its a bit too slow and japanese-culture-oriented in its themes to be really scary. Mind you, some sequences are truly unsettling... unfortunately the repetitive gameplay and technical limitations make it a game developed only for true fans of the series.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a good survival horror. Its story and creepy atmosphere are involving, but unfortunately the use of Wii U GamePad is really unhandy.

The game is a worthy successor of its elders. The atmosphere is oppressive, so that we constantly have the feeling that a hand will come grab our own hands... Using the GamePad is truly immersive too. Nethertheless, threre's one big default: you should be exasperated by the slow movement of the characters.

Maiden of Black Water is a good addition to the small lineup of horror games on the Wii U. The creepy, disturbing atmosphere and gamepad controls are great, but the outdated design and sometimes disappointing graphics don't make this a classic.

The best and funniest control in the series... but is also the least scariest of all.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water has been put through a wringer of doubt and speculation in the run up to its release, but manages to come out the other side still just as drenched with atmosphere and intrigue as ever.

If you're bored of relentless jump scares in horror games, you'll probably get a nice kick out of this paranormal adventure.

A compelling thriller that makes great use of the GamePad, but fails to truly scare or shock.

Chilling ghosts and a malevolent story make the new Fatal Frame an unsettling experience.

Those looking for a spooky adventure for Halloween can certainly find one in Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water. Taking photos of ghosts while trying to keep dry is enthralling, while Mount Hikami’s forests and shrines are among some of the spookiest locales in the franchise.

We're facing a game with a lot of contrasts. On one hand, it uses the GamePad excellently and it delivers great art direction. On the other, it fails terribly in the terms of storytelling and movement controls.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water's full price tag might shy away some would-be buyers since it's only available in North America as a digital release, but veterans of the series or survival horror fans in general will certainly have a good time having an otherworldly photo shoot at Mt. Hikami.

This new Fatal Frame gets the atmosphere right, makes the player uneasy. That's a pretty good point to start with for a horror game. But once you're in control, it becomes awful to play and offers no perspective of new challenge to force the player to go forward.

Survival horror hit a wall, and Maiden of Black Water isn't the one to overcome it.

Thankfully, the lynchpin for this game is a pretty decent lynchpin, so if you love ghosts and Instagram and don’t mind redundancy, then Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is the sixth scariest thing you can do with a camera.

The premise of the Project Zero series, quite literally having to face up to your fears to catch them on camera, is ingenious. Furthermore, at its high points, Maiden of Black Water showcases a generous amount of the very peculiar and likeable Japanese horror atmosphere. However, the experience suffers from imprecise and slow controls, making for frustrating maneuvering through the rather samey surroundings of the haunted Mount Hikami. Add to that the large amount of terribly dull and boringly angst-ridden notes that most of the narrative is related through, and you have a game that, unfortunately, doesn't quite live up to its potential.

What might've been an impressive title 10-15 years ago feels creaky and dull in a modern context. [Dec 2015, p.71]

While the series’ photo shooting mechanics work well with the gamepad and the story is interesting enough to keep you hooked, the clumsy fights as well as the slightly boring characters try to drive you away from the ghost hunt.

Some horror games skillfully wield repetition as a tool, letting players grow accustomed to the familiar to set up scares both subtle and cuss-worthy. Unfortunately, Maiden of the Black Water is waterlogged with repeated environments and monotonous phantasmagorical photo sessions.

A game that’s atmospheric as hell, but that does nothing with it.

It commits perhaps the worst sin a horror game – or indeed any game – could commit. It is boring. Once you’ve made the audience yawn, you’ve lost your ability to frighten them forever.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water is a game that horror fans will want to love, but will end up causing frustration due to broken controls and an annoying mission structure. The scares are still there though, if you can forgive the other mistakes.

Enjoyable combat and bold enemy design can't save Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. With a dull, repetitive story that abandons any sense of horror, it's a shadow of what it could have been.