Fatal Frame

This teen-rated horror game from Tecmo may not be the scariest ride in town, but it'll do.

Boasting muscular visuals and an ominously droning musical score, this one's got atmosphere coming out of every orifice. But despite a few well-placed jolts, it lacks the unmentionable-damaging impact of more fright-fraught fare like Silent Hill 2. Fatal Frame features all the requisite Japanese horror film elements like ghosts, creepy little girls, hissing old ladies, tortured psychics, and freaky flashback sequences; the subliminally spine-chilling sound design is comprised of static-drowned moans, chanting kids, and crooning phantoms. The Xbox port even includes new unlockable costumes, a dozen or so new ghosts, and an alternate ending?add it all up, and it?s enough to make up for the hokey magic ghost-snuffing camera concept.

But as boffo as Frame's production values are, it still doesn't get past typical survival/horror trappings like object arrangement puzzles, brain-dead dubbing, interminable backtracking, fussy controls, and camera angles that, while cinematically slick, get in the way of the gameplay. Depending on your taste, you'll either become a fan of the game's unique camera combat system or find it a royal pain, especially later in the game as enemy ghosts get fast as hell and tougher than Lee Marvin. Fatal Frame may be derivative and plodding at times, but it?s still a solid choice for horror fanatics, especially considering that genre offerings on the Xbox are few and far between.

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