It was the little things that made Frame so scary; the creak of the floorboards, a flashlight throwing spooky shadows against the wall, the mysterious ropes hanging from the ceiling, the pages torn from diaries that describe disturbing rituals and strange disappearances. To be sure, there were also blind ghosts screaming "My eyes! My eyes!" as they chased me around the house, but the scary part was just being there.
In Frame, a girl is searching for her brother, who disappeared while looking for a writer who had been doing research on a mysterious mansion. The action consists of the girl's wandering around the mansion in search of clues and battling ghosts.
Fans of blood and gore are unlikely to be impressed; your only weapon is a supernatural camera. To defeat ghosts, you must keep them in frame while the camera charges, then snap their picture. You'll have to take several pictures per ghost, so the game involves clicking the camera, running, and clicking the camera again. Taking snapshots of ghosts isn't the most exciting form of battle, but you have to give the game points for originality.
Frame is more interesting for its unrelenting spookiness than it is for its battles or puzzles.. Even more atmospheric than Aliens Versus Predator 2, Frame's eerie sounds and moody visuals will have you almost paralyzed with fear. Even the sad ghosts who appear to guide you are terrifying when they suddenly appear, glowing brightly as they beg you for help.
Frame can also be frustrating. The battle system is awkward; you have to look through the viewfinder to take pictures, and when ghosts sail through a wall and appear behind you, you must drop the camera and run. And if you run out of film, there is no way to finish the game. Other action games give the player a backup weapon like a knife, but in Frame, an empty camera means it's time to quit. Two-thirds of the way through the game, I ran out of film and had to start over. There is no printable word to express my reaction adequately.
Film is needed both to kill ghosts and to reveal secrets. Early in the game I was acting as a tourist, photographing pretty much everything I saw in hopes it would reveal an important clue. Be warned: take a picture of an object only if you see a glowing blue circle in the viewfinder. Doing so results in a spectral photo that is supposed to indicate where to look for the next clue, although one of Frame's biggest flaws is that it is often impossible to make out what the picture is supposed to be.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Fatal Frame is that it wants to be as exciting as the Aliens games. It gives us ghost attacks when all we really need is a sudden sound, a flash of light or an unexpected movement. I guess it wouldn't really be a game without any fighting, but Frame is far better when it makes you wait for action than when it gives it to you.
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