“Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water†may be the best game in the series since the original, but it’s far from a perfect fit on the Wii U.
With plenty of ambiance, beautiful visuals and some of interesting usage of the Nintendo Wii U GamePad, “Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water,†is the most intriguing survival horror offering on the system in quite some time. The lack of real polish hurts the overall package enough however to make it more of a middling entry to the Wii U catalog.
The biggest problem with this game is its presentation. While it offers legitimate scares, the lack of real voice acting during the cutscenes just doesn’t get it done. It’s almost like watching a film the likes of “Paranormal Activity,†with captions. There’s simply not enough ways to want to get invested in the story, despite the fact that there’s plenty of intrigue there. built around the disappearances of several people. the cut-scenes are eery. The shot selection is awesome as well as the scenes are brimming with frightening potential. But with no way to truly connect with the characters, the narrative isn’t nearly as scary as it could have been. Ten years ago when the series was in its heyday, sure, captions would have been fine, but in 2015, horror survival gamers expect better- even on the Wii U.
With the release of the indie hit “Year Walk†earlier this year, the Wii U has proven to be a place where scares are more than possible, they are a reality. While comparing “Year Walk†and “Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water†makes sense because they share the same genre, Fatal Frame is on an entirely different level from the start due to its wonderful visuals and better use of the console. But where “Year Walk†forces you to think and uses its indie label to its own benefit, “Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water†never takes full advantage of its graphical and audio superiority- or at least not enough to put it in a league by itself.
Continue Reading This Article From Review Fix Editor-In-Chief Patrick Hickey Jr. at Examiner.com
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
Leave a Reply