Fatal Frame III: The Tormented

"New, but not quite improved."

First, a little background. I used to be an RPG fan, but they stopped making good ones, and I got into survival horror through Silent Hill. I played the Fatal Frame games out of order, starting with FF2, which I thought was scarier and a bit more fun than the first game. I hate Resident Evil. Now you know where I'm coming from, so you can ignore my opinion if you want.
SYNOPSIS

Fatal Frame III is the continuation of the story of the camera obscura and the unfortunate souls who wield it. Rei Kurosawa is a freelance photographer who feels responsible for the death of her fiance. Yuu, and is having a hard time moving on with life, despite the best efforts of her roommate/assistant, Miku Hinasaki, to cheer her up. After seeing a ghost on a photo shoot, Rei starts having dreams about the "Manor of Sleep", in which she sees Yuu's ghost wandering. As the story progresses, Miku and a third character, Kei Amakura, are also drawn into the manor.

STORY - 8/10

The story loses points for the lamest of the hauntings so far, but wins for tying up the stories of the first two Fatal Frame games. Maybe I've grown a bit blase, but this particular shrine-maiden-gets-sacrificed-and-hates-the-world just doesn't creep me out as much as the other games. The plot isn't held together as solidly by notes, journals, etc. as it was in Fatal Frame 2. But it's still entertaining, if a bit predictable.

Rei is a less than lovable heroine, in my opinion, due in part to her tendency to mope and sigh until I wish I could reach through the scream and smack her. Also, her inability to overcome inertia prompted my husband to make sure I know that if he ever comes back as a ghost and tries to lure me to my doom, it isn't really him.

SETTING - 6/10

Well...it's just that...we already did a big spooky mansion, didn't we? And this one's bigger and more rambling and it's harder to figure out how to get to where you're going using the map.

GAMEPLAY - 7/10

The camera system is still good and still fun, but some of the details have changed, and not for the better. Instead of one camera, you know have three--one for each character. And they're all different. They have different starting values in each of the three major categories, but different max values as well. This means that you have to be careful not to spend all of your points on one person. At least it has the effect it's intended to--Miku is a ghost-busting mofo, and Kei is like the fourth random Ghostbuster (you know, the black one they added to be PC) who never really added much to the team.

Turning and running from the ghosts is a big part of this game. Unfortunately, turning and running isn't always easy. Sometimes the camera angle screws you over. Sometimes the game inexplicably decides to send you in the opposite direction. Sometimes you're walking on a roof, or a narrow beam, and you can't do more than inch along at a snail's pace.

Kei has the ability to hide from a ghost (I guess the other characters never thought of trying?), and, unfortunately, they felt the need to incorporate its use into the game. Not only is this mostly just a pain in the butt, but the obligatory use of Kei's camera filament to tell you whether or not he's successfully hiding makes it a lot less useful for telling which direction the ghosts are in.

Your items are more limited, too. Every time you wake up, your basic items (cheap film and herbal medicines) are reset to a predetermined number, meaning you have to traipse around picking extras up over and over from the same places. Stocking up isn't possible (though there's also less reason to).

Finally, a certain semi-plot-twist that happens late in the game is severely irritating. If you thought running back and forth through a mansion was fun, wait 'till you get to do it while praying that your candle doesn't burn down.

SOUND EFFECTS/MUSIC - 9/10

For the first time, the ghostly voices are both intelligible and highly disturbing. The voice actors managed to convey spookiness without resorting to random intonation changes and warbling that makes the words difficult to discern. Furthermore, the music--what little there is--is eerily reminiscent of the first game.

GRAPHICS - 9/10

For the most part, the images in this game are beautiful. Assuming gore and ghosts can be beautiful to you. The house is detailed (right down to a woman's face that appears among the stains of the wall) and the ghosts are distinctive. The characters are all eye candy, and they move like real people (though perhaps not quite as fast as a real person might run whilst being pursued by a ghost). The big-bad is quite creepifying, but pretty at the same time. The only thing that keeps this from getting a perfect score is the fact that random red and blue blotches sometimes appear on the walls when some shading tool doesn't kick in quite right. Oh well.

DIFFICULTY (not scored)

The fighting in this game is both easier and more difficult. The ghosts seem to teleport more frequently and become invisible more often, but, on the flip side, fatal frames are a dime a dozen. Not being able to locate ghosts that teleport around and then charge you is the hardest part of fighting.

Catching random ghosts is another story. Most of them appear out of view or in places that you can't actually aim at yet, and they flicker away in far less time than you (well, me, anyway) need to catch them. Some of them might be conquered with incessant reloading, but a few of them left me scratching my head and wondering photographing them is even possible.

The puzzles in this game seem harder than in the other two, largely because they're more opaque. Once you figure out what you're supposed to do, it's still a little easier to try randomly until you get it than it is to solve it legitimately.

SUMMARY

I'd recommend this game to anyone who liked the first two in the series. For fans of more action-oriented games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil, this might seem a little slow at first. It's definitely worth buying--I don't think you could quite finish it in a rental.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/06