Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

With all this said, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is easily one of my favorite Wii U games to date. It feels like an old-school horror game but has the modern twists such as GamePad use and HD graphics to make it stand out in the gaming world today.

Instead of the in-your-face outright scare without substance, Maiden of Black Water goes for a sense of dread paired with an insatiable curiosity to know what happened next. It's a welcome re-introduction to the franchise in the West, a hit for the Wii U, which is still trying to prove it can appeal to "Mature" gamers.

Its atmospheric horror, improved camera combat, fancy HD graphics and intense story make this the best entry in the classic horror series yet. [dec. 2015 / page 059]

Despite these nitpicks, this game is a triumphant revival of a series that has remained dormant in North America for several console generations, and for those who did get to play the Wii iterations there is much new spooky fun to be had.

Yes, it still does retread a lot of what the series has always been known for, and can comes across feeling as more of the same. This doesn’t matter though, Fatal Frame has been the top tier of ghostly survival horror adventures, and Maiden of Black Water proves you can’t keep a good franchise dead, even when that’s what its entire premise is about.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water finds a wildly effective new way to utilize the GamePad as the Camera Obscura, and builds some great story and atmosphere. Barring an odd control scheme and some tedious missions, this is a stellar horror title for any Wii U owner.

The Wii U GamePad fits very well, especially in Off-TV mode. Apart from that, it doesn't add many new features to the series, but it's still a worthy entry.

This is one horror game that’s worth the play in any month: just remember to shut those lights off and keep the flash on.

This is a potent and upsetting work that leaves a deep impression, spreading and darkening like a bruise. [Dec 2015, p.120]

Fatal Frame continues to treat the split between shooting and running as a productive tension, with results that are equally exciting and scary.

Perhaps one day Fatal Frame will be in better hands, but for now Maiden of Black Water ranks as one of the better horror games to come out in a long time.

Maiden of Black Water is decidedly an example of a game where genre experience and fandom has everything to do with its appeal. Games like this are fan service at this point, and Maiden of Black Water strikes all the correct notes.

Τhere is a vestigial effort of modernization in Maiden of Black Water and there are some minor mishaps in the control scheme and the level design. However, Maiden remains a very satisfying horror experience with the iconic Camera Obscura and the charming mixture o Japanese Folklore and modern age Madness.

Project Zero: Maidens of the Black Water is a nice old school survival horror. If you love games such as the old Fatal Frame, Resident Evil or Silent Hill, this is something you should instantly buy.

On the graphics side it might be terribly dated, but the story is indeed interesting, and the nightmarish story it tells will stick with you. For true horror fans.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a solid attempt at the classic survival horror genre, with cumbersome controls on the one hand and a beautiful story and characters on the other hand.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a beautifully-crafted horror game that makes use of a perfect formula of fear and stress to immerse the player into its atmosphere. One of the best horror games in recent times and a compulsory element in the collection of anyone willing to be plunged into a world of fear where they have nothing to rely on other than their wits and a camera.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is going to be a tough sell for those who aren't familiar with the franchise. It's got a lot of questionable design decisions and feels like a more bare bones experience than past games of the series. But it's Fatal Frame, these games only come along in a blue moon these days, so savor them while they still exist.

Overall, Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a superb return for the series, and while it will undoubtedly frustrate most players with its archaic and downright atrocious control scheme, it makes up for its shortcomings with a fun and intuitive combat system, a scary and obscure story and stunning sound and art direction

There are certain aspects to Maiden of Black Water that I can't help but question, but overall, it's a solid addition to the series, and finally provides gamers with the feeling of holding a Camera Obscura with the help of a GamePad. And that pushes the gameplay a long way. If it's a scarefest that you're after this Halloween, Fatal Frame is worth the download. Just make sure you have an external hard drive set up first – it's a massive 13GB.

Those small issues aside, Maiden of Black Water is a premium title on Wii U that left me very impressed. The use of the GamePad here is a rare example of what Wii U’s controller can bring to a game that other consoles can’t.

​The dismal atmosphere, the interesting story and the original use of the Wii U Gamepad make Project Zero: Maiden of Blackwater a unique horror experience. Some parts of the game are a bit old-school, some things are a tad too repetitive, but the horror and the dreary atmosphere make up for that. It is not nice, but it is definitely haunting.

This episode of Project Zero is like traveling back in time to the golden age of survival horrors. Some may love playing a PS2-like horror game, while some other may feel like it's outdated. We've enjoyed it, even though it still has some aspects that could have been improved.