You don't realise how much you've come to rely on guns and explosives as a means of defence against the paranormal, until you're cowering in fear of a creepy little ghost girl with the power to phase through walls at any given second. Or a spider-walking woman with a neck so shattered that the head attached to it swivels with the slightest twitch. Or a pair of twins who - never mind, you get the picture. Remaining calm when you're confronted by an enemy you can't just pump a few rounds into is no easy task, but when you're handed a camera and told that it's your only chance for survival, it starts feeling like somebody's having a laugh at your expense. But that's the brilliance of Fatal Frame; Tecmo managed to somehow build a genuinely frightening game around the central conceit of a spirit-banishing camera, an idea that sounds utterly ridiculous when spoken aloud. It all sounds so simple - enter the camera's viewfinder, point it in the spirit's general direction and try to get a decent shot. The closer the spirit, the greater the damage. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? Well, it's one thing to talk about it, and another to try it yourself without shaking.
