Tets plays: Fatal Frame II - Part 1 of ??

 So after plaowing through Soul Reaver, kinda plodding through Defiance and Blood Omen Two, and smashing through Jedi Fallen Order, I decided I would give a game a try that I have been thinking about for a long time:

Fatal Frame (series).  I did some googling and general impressions are that 2 is the better of the lot, so I decided to go with this one.  I'm generally not into survival games, I dislike weapon management games intensely so Resident Evil never really grabbed me and  I feel that jump scares are just cheap.

I did thoroughly enjoy Silent Hill 1, 2 and 3 however.  The disturbing surreal nature of those game did tickle my fancy a lot.    I had read that many publications seemed to rank Fatal Frame 2 as the scariest game ever.  Whether this was at the time, or what, I dunno, but I have started it.

Here are my thoughts:

The concept is this: You play as two Japanese high school girls, identical twins by the looks of things and for whatever reason you end up trapped in a spooky looking abandoned village, that is haunted by ghosts.  There appears to be some mystery to solve and all you have to protect yourselves from ghostly attacks is a camera.

The game has a very Resident Evil style to it.  Each screen is set with a specific camera angle, and you navigate the characters around.  You generally control one of the sisters and the other follows.  Sometimes, it seems the other will run off (possibly under possession?) and you have to tromp on after her.  One thing I dislike about survival horror games is the slow walking characters and these guys are SLOW.  Even their run is, er, more like a fast walk level of speed.

When you come across a ghost, you can bust out the camera and the game becomes an awkwardly controlled FPS of sorts as you look through the camera's viewfinder.

I've not played very far at all at the moment, having made it to the first save point.  Not because it's too scary, but mainly because I find the controls a bit annoying.  When in camera mode, you move very slowly and although you can walk around the room, the sticks feel inverted or something.  I need to check the options and see if I can fix it.

Generally so far the atmosphere is fantastic.  It's super spooky and the ghosts and effects look great.  The characters you play as, I don't really care for.  It was released at the time when all anime girlies have the same kind of voice and so far the voice acting really irks me.  It appears I can't change it to Japanese either.

So for the (possibly) hour of gameplay I have done, the game has a lot of potential, if I can work the controls a bit better I think I will enjoy it a lot more and hopefully the two main characters will grow on me a bit more.

___

As for modern gaming, after finishing Jedi Fallen Order, I stumbled across a cheap version of Ghost Of Tsushima: Director's Cut, on Amazon and have bought that.  That game has been on my radar for a while now.  

Thoughts on that will arrive soon.