As a fan of survival horror fan, the progenitor of the camera exorcism with tank controls and fixed camera angles is my jam. The setting and mystery really bring its own unique twist as well as the various ghosts and lore. The camera combat and lighting here is quite innovative during its time and still hold that tension and environment.

This game does have some major flaws. The most noticeable is the voice acting is really poor where it ruins immersion. I feel the backtracking is really abhorrent where it feels more like padding. Specifically, no clear guidance if the player needs to go to previous area without any strong reason to which just ruins any motivation to explore and combine that with slow movement speed. Puzzles are easy or repetitive and mostly not engaging considering this falls under the survival horror genre. Lastly the ending and its story feels a bit scummy, I feel so sorry for the main victim of the ritual that the resolution feels unsatisfying or perhaps questionable.

All of it understandable being the first in the series as well as of scope, but this is the weakest in the series (considering I have played /Maiden of the Black Water/) and thankfully the sequel does actually address some of the issues. I cannot recommend this unless for fans or history.