3.5/5 ★ – Gibbs's review of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly.

Fatal Frame 2 is a masterclass in atmosphere. The entire time, this game has you in this suffocatingly creepy circumstance. It will rarely go overboard, and yet always reminds me you’re not safe. The times it goes for the scare it really nails the landing, and the spaces in between are so perfectly haunting. This setting with these fixed camera angles is an absolute treat, and all the while it’s beautiful as well as spooky. It’s refreshing to be in this Japanese Folklore inspired horror experience. The idea to have this combat be focused around a camera to make me feel vulnerable is brilliant. The idea to force the player into first person view and to allow the ghosts to get as close as possible in order to damage them is genius. I felt so wonderfully weak in this game, and this paired with the ghosts frightening designs makes every combat encounter a thrill. It’s definitely not perfect, and ran a little annoyingly thin towards the end of the game, especially due to the large health pools and limited mechanics, especially for fighting groups, but the concept is simply amazing. And it’s not the only mechanic to do this. A small part of the game, yet one I feel I have to mention is the spirit stone radio. These pieces of audio are so bone-chilling, and so ridiculously cool. They’re just a small detail, but add such a great layer to the immersion, story, and vibe that I couldn’t not bring it up. However, while the environments are beautiful, I felt a lot of good anxiety, and I really like the combat mechanics, Fatal Frame 2 didn’t blow me away. There’s a lot of backtracking and down time that killed a lot of this for me. This slows you down enough, but what really slows it is its ambiguity. Maybe I’m stupid and missed a few clues, but there were several times where the next goal seemed really poorly conveyed to me. Whether that’s what to inspect in a room, what room to go to, or even how to solve some of these puzzles. I also think there’s a great story on paper here, but a lot of the moment to moment stuff just feels a bit contrived. The mid-game being a lot of separation and reunion, and it can make it feel a bit artificially padded out. It certainly makes up for it by the end though. If you just took all of the phenomenal stuff in this and made it play better, this would be one of the best there is. Genius stuff stuck in a not-so genius game. Still a survival horror must play.