Fans of Tecmo’s Project Zero series (or Fatal Frame if you’re in the US) haven’t had the easiest road this generation. Arguably the scariest of the survival horror franchises, the Project Zero games still always stood in the shadow of their better known, more commercially popular genre cousins, Silent Hill and Resident Evil.
As the PS3 and Xbox 360 hit the market, survival horror awkwardly evolved to suit the perceived tastes of a new generation and other franchises began emphasizing action over scares more and more, with the Resident Evil series soon turning from claustrophobic horror games into full-blown third-person shooters and Silent Hill’s first next-gen title Homecoming embracing button-mashing quick-time event combat.
.
.
(Click image to enlarge)
.
.
Lovers of the genre were left with few avenues for console frights, but Tecmo still nobly soldiered on, teaming with Nintendo to release Project Zero IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse for the Wii console back in 2009, with the series’ tense terror and slow burn survival horror gameplay still very much intact. Sadly, Project Zero IV failed to secure a release outside of Japan (though a band of hard-working fans put together an unofficial English language patch) and word of any more sequels quickly dried up, seemingly leaving the series a neglected, beloved cult relic of a mostly dead genre.
Until now, at least, when Nintendo quietly decided to make it up to fans with not one, but two Project Zero titles – Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir (a Pokemon Snap style Augmented Reality horror game for 3DS) and even more interesting, a lavish remake of Project Zero 2 for Nintendo Wii. And while it might not be the proper sequel fans have been hoping for, Project Zero 2: Wii Edition serves as a wonderful, long overdue reminder of just how terrifying video games can be.
.
.
(Click image to enlarge)
.
.
The story centres around twin sisters Mio and Mayu who, while off on a nostalgic wander through the forest to revisit one of their favourite childhood spots, stumble across an eerie, abandoned village. Wandering in to explore further, they find that the ghostly spirits of tormented souls still wander, leaving the terrified twins forced to uncover the village’s sinister mysteries in hopes of escape.
Where Silent Hill and Resident Evil owed more to David Lynch and George Romero respectively, the Project Zero series is distinctly Japanese terror through and through, showcasing subtle, slow-burn terror and pants-wetting ghostly scares all built around a bizarre and rather fantastic central conceit: Fighting ghosts with a camera. Mio and Mayu stumble across an ancient device called the Camera Obscura, an old-fashioned camera with special film capable of capturing spirits, destroying them in the process.
.
.
(Click image to enlarge)
.
.
The Wii remake plays much like the unreleased-outside-Japan fourth game for Wii. You still explore the deserted village’s abandoned, creepy houses and shrines in hopes of finding a way to escape, but the old-school static wide-shot camera angles are tossed out in favour of a third-person, Resident Evil 4-style behind-the-back view. It’s not always perfect – if your character walks through a curtained doorway, the drapes will fall over the camera, annoyingly clouding your view for a few seconds – but it does suit the new visuals and control scheme rather well.
The Wii remote is put to use while you’re walking around with the nunchuck stick to shine your flashlight up or down, or to maneuver the Camera Obscura when you’re taking aim against ghosts. When sinister ghosts crawl out of darkened corners, holding the ‘B’ button brings up a first-person view through the camera’s lens, hitting the ‘A’ button takes a photo and shaking the remote allows Mio to do a quick 180 turn. The controls aren’t amazing and the often unresponsive remote makes it easy to miss the ‘collectable’ blue ghost appearances which usually disappear before you can adjust yourself to snap a photo for the collection. It’s a shame there’s no option to play with the Wii’s Classic Controller, but it doesn’t spoil the game outright and Project Zero II’s combat still proves as much a masterclass in panicked tension as ever.
.
.
(Click image to enlarge)
.
.
A red indicator at the top of the camera’s viewfinder lets you know when your aim’s getting closer to a spook, while a red meter on the camera lens fills as you let ghosts get near. The closer you let them get, the more damage you do, with a chance of scoring a devastating ‘fatal frame’ shot when they get within inches of the camera (and earning more points to upgrade the Camera Obscura). The ghoulish faces and guttural, croaking groans of spectres creeping ever closer and the increasingly loud winding, whining noise of the camera as it charges serves to set your nerves completely on edge, making combat a fun, but frightening proposition.
The frights and tense, nerve-jangling atmosphere don’t let up outside of your photographic ghost fighting though. Stashed in cupboards and scattered around rooms are notes and news clippings that shed light on the unsettling history of the village, laying on the ominous atmosphere and sucking you into the game’s engrossing story. It’ll make you want to root out every stray note to uncover each layer of plot, but the game doesn’t make it easy on you.
.
.
(Click image to enlarge)
.
.
Borrowing another trick from Project Zero IV, every time you come across a chest of drawers or a cupboard that you can interact with, you’ll have to hold ‘A’ to open it. The longer you hold the button, the further Mio’s arm slowly reaches out to open things, but there’s potentially a jump scare in store as a ghostly hand might wait to grab you. It’s more than a bit gimmicky, but it adds another exercise in bravery as you weigh up the need to find more film and upgrades for your camera or new scraps of optional story info with your desire to avoid extra frights.
The Wii remake also adds in a revamped, more clearly marked map which eliminates a lot of the cumbersome backtracking inherent to the survival horror games of old. As well as tracking down keys to unlock new rooms and paths, you’ll have to use the camera to help you progress, too; there’s a little puzzle action as you need to snap photos of spiritually blocked doors, giving you an image of the room you need to find and explore to break the spooky barrier. More benevolent ghosts wander in the direction of your next goal to make sure you’re never in much doubt of what to do or where to go, keeping you firmly on the path of the gripping story.
.
.
(Click image to enlarge)
.
.
A little bit of the original game’s inherent creepiness is lost in translation, though. While the PS2 (and Xbox) version of the game played its scares more subtle, with plenty of easy-to-miss “Holy crap, did I just see something walk past?!” freak-out moments as freaky spectres wander by in your periphery or simply stand and loom ominously in the corner of a room, the Wii remake tends to err on the side of the theatrical, with overly loud soundtrack stings to accompany every ghost appearance.
There’s also the rather cringeworthy voice acting, re-recorded for the Wiimake with new Brit actors. There’s no option to play with the superior PS2/Xbox American voice track or, even better, Japanese audio with subtitles, so you’re stuck with some noticeably shoddy acting. But thankfully, while the stilted delivery is a far cry from the original, it does little to undermine Project Zero 2′s pervasively creepy and absorbing story, which holds up wonderfully. The captivating and unsettling story will still have you staying up far too late to see it through to the end and wishing you hadn’t when you’re lying in bed pondering the terrors that might lurk in the dark.
.
.
(Click image to enlarge)
.
.
Voice acting and sometimes clunky controls aside, the Wii remake is handled with loving care, the visuals lavishly and impressively upgraded and redone to fit a widescreen aspect ratio. There’s also added rooms to explore, extra endings and an added Haunted House mode – an on-rails extra which does its best to spook you and judges how bravely you stood up to the frights by how much the remote shook in your hand. Naturally, the Wii remote isn’t fantastically accurate, so it doesn’t work perfectly, but it’s a fun bonus all the same.
Those who’re after a thrill-a-second, action-packed story might be a bit put off by Project Zero 2′s more measured pace and slow-burn tale of terror, but those gamers who love to be scared will find it an engrossing and chilling experience. Both the wonderfully creepy story and the tense, nerve-wracking combat hold up incredibly well and, a few issues aside, the care that’s been put into the remake is pretty damn impressive. Hopefully Nintendo’s left-field decision to revive and remake the game is a sign that the publisher plans to show the series even more love in future on the WiiU, but in the meantime, Project Zero 2: Wii Edition is a wonderfully frightening gift to survival horror fans and quite possibly the last great game for the console.
Rating:
Project Zero 2: Wii Edition is available to buy now in the UK for Nintendo Wii.
Click here to buy the game from Amazon.co.uk.