I’ve never had the chance to play any of the ‘Fatal Frame / Project Zero’ games, as I never owned any of the consoles needed for the previous episodes, so, being a huge survival horror fan, I was really happy when they announced ‘Maiden of Black Water’ coming to PC. I went in completely blind, knowing almost nothing about the plot and gameplay, and all in all, I was mostly satisfied. There were a few annoying issues, though.

First of all, the numerous back and forths you need to do, and the cumbersome controls can drive anyone insane after a while. I suggest you play one chapter at a time, so you don’t get bored with the same locations too quickly, and use a keyboard and mouse instead of a controller – for me, that made taking photos at least a bit easier. I wasn’t a huge fan of the character designs, either, especially the facial expressions: the protagonists look like porcelain dolls devoid of all and any emotions, and, unfortunately, the poor voice acting doesn’t help, either.

At least the rest of the graphics looks fine, I guess, and the atmosphere is spot on. The story might not be that strong, but I found the various Japanese legends and folklore behind it very interesting. It reminded me of movies like ‘The Grudge’ or ‘Ringu’, or the creepy visual novel series, ‘Spirit Hunter’.

In summary, this is definitely not a great game, but I wouldn’t call it bad, either. Not as scary as ‘Silent Hill’, not as action-packed as ‘Resident Evil’, but still OK.