Readers of this site are undoubtedly aware of my fondness for the horror adventure genre of video games. Their combination of macabre storylines, arcane game mechanics and brief running time has earned them a coveted slot in my gaming lineup. Horror games usually get top priority from me, and replaying them ad naseum is a ritual I have come to love over the years. A handful of the more well-known titles have earned my repeated affection, but I was pleasantly surprised by Tecmo's 2002 entry into the field, Fatal Frame. The game didn't do anything radically different from other genre titles, but its unique eastern setting and chilling ghost story made a strong impression for the first-time franchise. "Pokemon Snap meets Silent Hill" was an apt description of its compelling ghost-exorcising gameplay.

The sequel, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, offers up another creepy tale rife with ghostly scares. Instead of being confined to a single shinto mansion, this time around the game allows you to explore the grounds of a deserted Japanese town called the All God's village. The game begins with twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura walking through a forest near their childhood home. Mayu wanders off into the woods to chase a butterfly, and when Mio pursues her she enters a grainy flashback that shows a little girl running along the same path, then tumbling off into a ravine. When Mio snaps out of it she is alone in the forest, and finds her sister in a clearing surrounded by crimson butterflies. From here the pair can see the village below, and finding their return path blocked they decide to investigate.

During the game you will control Mio, the younger and stronger of the two girls. Her sister Mayu was injured when they were younger; she walks with a limp and cannot run very fast. The interplay between them is vital to the storyline, and their relation to the strange rituals they uncover throughout the game becomes a major plotline. Like the first game, Fatal Frame II presents a horror tale that is rife with spirits, spectors and apparitions, and though they have no corporeal form, some of these ghosts nonetheless have the ability to kill Mio and Mayu. Both girls are physically weak, but Mayu cannot defend herself and will quickly succumb to repeated attacks from ghosts. Thus protecting Mayu, both through the game mechanics and the storyline, becomes a major endeavor. Mayu is particularly sensitive to ghostly phenomena, and will comment on objects and places to provide some insight into your surroundings.

Fatal Frame II, much like any other horror adventure, is comprised of story segments, puzzle solving and combat. You will guide Mio, sometimes with Mayu in tow, through a variety of indoor and outdoor environments. Clues and bits of backstory are revealed through documents, photographs and "spirit stones". These stones hold an imprint of a person's memory, and you can listen to what it contains through a device called the Spirit Radio. Puzzle design strongly resembles the model established in Resident Evil, requiring you to gather physical items and use them in the appropriate spot. It's not going to win any awards for innovation, but I think most players will be able to cope with tasks like finding spare parts to rebuild a doll. Some puzzles aren't as obvious and will require you to walk around until you find something new to investigate, and I wish Tecmo had made it more obvious what you're supposed to do next.

The controls are just about what you'd expect for this genre, and thankfully Tecmo provides a nice array of options to customize them to your liking. You can choose from 2D or 3D character control, invert the looking axis for first-person view and choose between a number of different button layouts. Once you've chosen your control methods the game plays like most other horror games, though I find it a bit awkward to aim my weapon with the circle button instead of a shoulder button. Once the camera is aimed though, it's relatively easy to move around (using the analog sticks) and use the various functions on the device. One sore point is that Mio walks at a maddeningly slow pace and runs like her feet are stuck in mud. Some might defend this feature as adding to the tension, but I contend that even a physically weak little girl would be able to quickly flee if her life was in danger.

The most notable game feature is the Camera Obscura, the same ghost-exorcising device that was wielded by characters in the first game. This old-time camera is used for a variety of purposes, including puzzle solving, story scenes and of course, combat. Aiming the camera brings up a first-person viewfinder mode that allows you to look around in any direction. From here you can snap a picture of your surroundings, provided you've loaded film into the device. There are a variety of film types, including a low-power variant that never runs out. This is a welcome addition that addresses the complaints about the scarcity of ammunition in the first game. I must admit though that it is somewhat anathema to the spirit of the genre that you will never be in danger of running out of film.

The camera can be used to take photos of non-threatening ghosts, who usually provide some sort of clue or snippet of backstory. You'll also find ghostly distortions every once in a while that can be captured with the camera, and these will usually point you towards your next objective. Not all ghosts are so benign however, and you'll have to use the camera as a weapon against violent spirits. By taking pictures, you can damage these ghosts and eventually exorcise them. Fatal Frame II makes use of a unique combat system that emphasizes timing and patience. The capture circle in the camera's viewfinder will change color to indicate how much damage a photograph will do to a ghost. A yellow capture circle indicates a low to medium power shot, but you can take a maximum power photo for the equipped film type when the capture circle turns red.

Several photos are usually required to finish off a violent ghost, so taking the best snapshots each time becomes a priority. Maximum power shots are the best way to do this, but taking them requires you to wait for certain spots in a ghost's attack routine. (For example, a ghost might only be vulnerable when it ducks its head.) Additionally, a "Fatal Frame" opportunity will often become available, resulting in substantial damage and enabling you to take another photo without waiting for the camera to reload. The camera can be upgraded with different types of equipment that produce various effects, such as allowing you to see enemy hit points. Additionally, a variety of lenses can be used that enable special attacks, such as slowing down time for fast-moving ghosts. There's a fair amount of technique involved in the ghost-busting combat, so fans of the first game will probably find some things to like in the sequel.

Taking photos earns you points that can be spent on upgrading your camera. Each of the three basic performance areas (Range, Accumulation and Sensitivity) can be increased up to three times, and you will need to do so in order to keep pace with increasingly difficult apparitions. Doing so requires a Spirit Orb for each upgrade you wish to perform, but finding enough of these items poses no serious problem. You can also upgrade your special lenses, some of which will gain enhanced effects as their level is raised. Carefully selecting which functions to upgrade becomes part of the enjoyment of the game, though you'll wind up maxing out the camera if you are a moderate to good player. Like the first game, you can store your favorite photos in a separate photo album that is saved on your memory card. While this serves no real purpose, you can gain bonuses by completing a pre-determined checklist of photo opportunities.

Fatal Frame II is a nice enough looking game overall, but it's probably not going to blow you away with its graphics. The environments are richly detailed with solid texture work, though the bland browns of the indoor and outdoor locales tends to make everything look too much alike. Some nice real-time shadowing is used when Mio is walking around with her flashlight, and some of the ghost characters are still very unsettling. The flashlight ends up being rather useless much of the time, since there is an abundance of light in almost every area. This takes a bit of the edge away from the experience, as you'll never be anywhere close to being enveloped in darkness. The character models are generally well-detailed and nicely animated, but they absolutely fall apart in terms of facial animation. There is no hint of lip-synching whatsoever, and the range of expressible emotions for the lead characters is disappointingly narrow.

The games' audio is a similarly mixed bag of pluses and minuses. On the positive side, the sound effects are generally crisp and clean and compliment the visual style quite well. The various camera noises, along with the heartbeat sound effects that accompany a violent spirit's appearance, add a suitable touch of tension to the experience. The background noise and ambient tracks are competently composed pieces that help set a nervous tone for the adventure. There is no real music to speak of, save for the title screen piece that feels out of sorts with the rest of the game. On the down side the acting is half-hearted at best, and really undermines the effectiveness of the story. The English dub stands in direct contrast to the Japanese flavor of the game, and hearing spirits sleep-walking through their performances just drains away any sense of fear or dread. The relationship between Mio and Mayu, which is the focal point of the story, is also hampered by sub-par acting.

Despite decent audio and visual performance, the games' overall presentation ends up being its biggest weakness. Tecmo relies on pre-rendered cutscenes to move the majority of the story forward, but the visual quality of these movies is curiously no greater than the real-time visuals. In fact, the heavy compression and the disconnection between segments gives the game a cheap, unpolished feel that undermines the efficacy of the atmosphere. Couple this with weak acting and abysmal facial animation and you've got a game that doesn't come close to genre leaders like Silent Hill 3 in a host of key areas. To its credit though, Fatal Frame II makes use of the high-contrast black-and-white visual style from the first game (with a few splashes of red this time) to highlight certain sequences. This is still a unique approach to art direction that makes the game stand out from the crowd.

Crimson Butterfly winds up being a very difficult game to rate, and I think personal preference will ultimately determine how much enjoyment your derive from playing it. The game offers up a number of scares throughout the adventure, mostly in the form of spirits who suddenly appear with no warning. These are genuinely heart-stopping moments, but the level of tension between spirit sightings is virtually non-existent for me. Fear is subjective of course, and I find it hard to be scared by little Japanese girls with long hair covering their eyes. Couple that with the fact that you can see where you're going most of the time without the need for a flashlight, and you end up with a game that misses a lot of opportunities to establish a scary mood. I'm also not a huge fan of the setting, even though it is quite different from what you see in most other horror games.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly is a solid enough adventure, but it ultimately doesn't go very far beyond what was established in the first game. Considering the advancements made between the premier and followup games in other horror franchises, particularly Resident Evil and Silent Hill, it is troubling that Fatal Frame has shown so little progression. It is especially disappointing when compared with Silent Hill 3, a game that was released over half a year earlier but ends up trumping this game in nearly every respect. Fatal Frame II is still worth a look for fans of the genre, as it does offer some unique material that fans of the first game might enjoy. It simply fails to exceed its predecessor in many respects, and while that is disappointing for a game with such potential, I suppose it is ultimately no great sin. I can't recommend an outright purchase, but a rental is definitely in order.