Project Zero (or why Ninjas Bowling would make a kick-ass game)
Some people might know Project Zero better as Fatal Frame and for once I’m glad they changed the name for the local release. I always thought Fatal Frame was about some ninjas that killed people with their ten pin bowling skills. Instead this game is about killing ghosts with a camera. It doesn’t so implausible because people are always reeling in agony when they get hit with the flash from my camera. I mean I swear Kodak developed it with atomic bombs left over from the ’50s sometimes.
Anyway, the game is apparently based on a true story but for all we know it could have been based on a game designer’s trip through Movieworld while he was on LSD. It begins with some generic guy looking for a professor who was last seen exploring a haunted mansion. Of course he too gets lost in the spook house so his sister, Miku, has to go in and rescue him. Why she didn’t call just call the cops or something we are never told.
The game at its most simple is a mixture of Resident Evil-style mansion exploration, Blair Witch-style atmosphere and the most disturbing imagery and effects ever seen in a video game. I mean really kids, keep the lights on or your favourite teddy bear nearby. The Blair Witch example is apt because the whole mansion looks and sounds like the house they find at the end of the movie, right down to the muffled screaming in the background and how the first fifteen minutes of the game play out in black and white. It’s just damn creepy without falling into that self-parody, camp-style feel that the later Resident Evils were prone to.
The main hook of the game – using a camera to kill ghosts – is a pretty cool idea and it works well in-game. It’s even more useful when you learn that if you take photos of certain items they reveal hidden doorways or items. One thing that kind of disappointed me was that every time you get near such an item the controller vibrates and an on-screen icon lights up so the game might as well sound a big alarm screaming “For the love of God take a photo here you stupid moron”. At any rate it’s certainly easier than using the shotgun that never hits what you’re aiming at from Resident Evil. When a ghost walks eerily nearby you simply equip the camera and line up your shot in the same kind of way you lock on missiles in flight simulators. A few flashes later and their soul is eaten by the miracle of film. Miss the shot and you’re devoured like a hundred pizzas at an Everquest convention.
The control system takes a little while to get used to - you’re asked to hold down the run button (which should have been called the jog button since Miku never looks like she’s putting any effort in) but holding down the camera button makes you equip and unequip the camera repeatedly. Hold one, but press the other - yeah, it should be simple and maybe it’s just a side effect of the nerves that you get while playing, but it’s still jarring.
Exploring the mansion and its surrounding areas and unlocking all the secrets that lie within boils down to the basic “explore until you find a locked door, find the key on the other side of the map, go back and unlock the locked door and repeat” formula we’ve seen so many times before. However, every time you find something of interest you’re treated to video of how it got placed there. For example a notebook isn’t just left behind by a fleeing guest: you get to see them drop the notebook, run in terror into a closet and wet themselves with fear until they’re ripped to shreds by the ghosts. These video sequences make the slow work of jogging around the mansion worthwhile. Elitist snobs who just bought an Xbox to show off the hardware instead of enjoying video games should be warned that there is a strange amount of artifacting in the FMV sequences – probably left over from the earlier PlayStation 2 version. These people are better off buying ten versions of X-Men or something anyway.
All in all, I would definitely recommend Project Zero and this is coming from someone who would rather watch a Roseanne marathon than play Resident Evil for five minutes. Take along some spare pants.
posted by Gazunta · at 11:37 pm · filed under Reviews
Totally agree… Preoject Zero has got some real originality in gameplay that’s very much needed in the survival horror genre. The dynamic lighting used as the character peers around the dark rooms with a torch is also quite atmospheric.
It’s also obvious that the developers of fatal framce drew a lot of inspiration from the Japanese movie ‘Ring’.