Fatal Frame 2 Remake Makes a Camera the Scariest Weapon in Gaming | IGN Preview

Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake would not open with a bounce scare; it opens in a trance. As Mio, you watch helplessly as a crimson butterfly lures your twin sister, Mayu, right into a fog-covered forest. There, the Lost Village swallows her entire. For over twenty-two years, this scene has haunted followers, myself included. Seeing the village emerge from the mist, fashionable lighting draping each rooftop and tree department in dense volumetric fog, I knew instantly: this is not a low-budget remaster. The dread in Fatal Frame 2 stems not solely from the individually named wraiths stalking you thru its haunted Japanese village – a spot trapped in a competition of demise – but additionally from the best way Mayu grips your hand, dragging you towards risks you are unprepared for. After roughly 4 hours with the primary 4 chapters on PC, this remake already has its hooks in me — not solely is it a devoted but modernized tackle what many take into account the scariest recreation ever, its added visible constancy makes the core mechanic of trying immediately at what’s attempting to kill you that a lot tougher to endure.

Fatal Frame 2’s central mechanic stays one of many cleverest in survival horror. Your main weapon is the Camera Obscura — a modified digital camera that damages wraiths by photographing them. That’s it. No shotguns, no grenades stashed in a locker. You level a digital camera at one thing terrifying, and you’re taking its image. The sequence has been doing this since 2001, and it is nonetheless in contrast to anything within the style.

The Camera Obscura makes use of focal factors: crosshairs that determine a wraith’s weak spots. Aligning extra of those factors if you take a photograph will increase the harm dealt. You can improve these focal factors with prayer beads discovered all through the atmosphere, making every shot extra deadly and rewarding exploration in traditional survival horror model. But your digital camera also can ship particular pictures that require willpower, and the impact varies relying on the geared up filter. While auto-focus helps you lock onto targets, guide focus rewards precision with extra severe harm. And, regardless of Fatal Frame 2’s penalties for proximity, conserving the viewfinder pulled again and standing dangerously near a spirit was usually the higher technique for dealing extra harm and taking management of a combat.

However, willpower is a restricted and useful useful resource. If you get too shut, a wraith will drain your willpower, leaving you susceptible to a leering assault that flashes your display screen and momentarily steals management, or permits the wraith to strike you extra simply than it will at vary.

Film sorts function your ammunition and create their very own layer of useful resource stress. The primary Type-07 movie is infinite however reloads slowly and hits weakly, whereas stronger movie just like the Type-61 offers considerably extra harm however caps at eight pictures and have to be scavenged, as you’ll be able to’t purchase extra if you run out. Interchangeable filters add additional complexity: the Standard Filter stuns enemies, the Paraceptual Filter blinds them at vary and might finally be upgraded to see by way of partitions, and the Exposure Filter can unlock secret objects and areas by reconstructing sure scenes with the Phantom Exposé mode. Each filter has its personal improve path protecting vary, reload velocity, and particular shot period, and since particular pictures value willpower, you are additionally incentivized to speculate your restricted prayer beads into upgrading willpower restoration on the expense of uncooked harm. There’s a variety of technique right here for gamers who wish to dig into Fatal Frame 2’s intricate system.

This glorious fight loop revolves round timing. You enter digital camera mode by holding the left set off, body the wraith with the suitable thumbstick, and slam the suitable set off to activate the shutter. But your pictures will usually be weaker except you look ahead to it to telegraph an assault — you will hear the wraith moaning whereas the display screen flashes crimson — and then you definately hit the shutter for a Fatal Frame shot, which staggers the spirit and offers huge harm. Nail one whereas a wraith is already susceptible and also you set off Fatal Time, a window for rapid-fire pictures that robotically burns by way of your primary Type-07 movie. The entire system punishes impatience and rewards the nerve to face nonetheless whereas one thing horrible lunges at you, however it’s gradual. Deliberately so. Film reload occasions are lengthy, enemies take some time to go down, and the rhythm of taking pictures, exiting digital camera mode, backpedaling, and re-entering is methodical by design — kinda like jousting, however with a digital camera as an alternative of a lance. When the ambiance is doing its job, which it normally is, the deliberateness feels meditative. Whether it stays that means throughout a full marketing campaign is among the larger questions this preview cannot but reply.

Through the Viewfinder

Three issue modes can be found: Story, Normal, and Hard (Battle). Each is meaningfully tuned, with tougher settings growing wraith harm whereas rewarding extra Photo Points for expert pictures. Those factors feed into an merchandise store the place you should purchase therapeutic objects and equippable stat-boosting charms, making a risk-reward scale that shifts somewhat than merely punishing the participant. I performed many of the preview on Normal earlier than switching to Story after Chapter Three. Even in Story, enemies hit onerous sufficient to keep up stress — which means these issue modes protect the horror somewhat than trivialize it.

Speaking of customizing the expertise, I previewed Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake on a machine geared up with a Ryzen 3900X, RTX 4070 Ti, and 32GB of RAM at 3440x1440p ultrawide with max settings. In typical PC gamer vogue, my first journey was the choices menu itself, which deserves point out for its satisfying granularity. You can modify vibration depth individually for harm suggestions, merchandise looking out, and even how onerous Mio’s coronary heart races throughout cutscenes. You can fine-tune digital camera conduct all the way down to impediment avoidance and rotation inertia; customise your graphical settings with precision; and even change the Camera Obscura’s viewfinder model between a traditional and fashionable look. If you’ll be able to think about a setting, this remake most likely has it. It additionally ships with each English and Japanese audio, which is a welcome contact for a sequence with such deep roots in Japanese horror.