Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly

Yes, we know its late, but we do love it...

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This game isn't scary. No, council tax bills and Monday mornings are scary. No, this is unsettling, disturbing and more than a little bit creepy. Rather than rely on gore and surprises to influence the player's fear, Project Zero 2 uses haunting music and sounds to enhance the decidedly spectral gameworld and accentuate the superbly crafted story, thereby putting the player in a location that is exquisitely designed to make flesh crawl and hairs stand on end. Rather than a horde of shuffling zombies which need to be laid to rest with a shotgun, Project Zero 2 is filled with ephemeral, ghostly denizens who float gently towards the player, moaning incessantly. The richness of the world and the range of subtle effects used to manipulate the player's emotions create a distinct sense of unease that settles like a yellow stained sheet over the back of an antique chair. The sound and graphics work in conjunction with the evolving story to create a world, which although frequently terrifying, lures you deeper into its morass like sirens on a Greek island shore.

Project Zero 2 starts off with a hauntingly serene FMV of two little girls out playing in the forest. One of them, Mayu, has a limp which works against the pair's favour by helping to direct the one sister to take a wrong turn somewhere amongst the trees. Mio follows. The two girls find themselves at the edge of a fabled lost village. This village was said to have been the location of an event so terrible and traumatic that the entire place, buildings, people and all, vanished from the face of the earth. It is said to reappear to swallow up the occasional careless wanderer, never to be seen nor heard from again. The distinctly fragile Mio and Mayu now find themselves in the unenviable position of being trapped in this village of the damned, with their only possible means of escape lying in working out what happened in the past to make this spectral village such a place of horror and foreboding. If they are fortunate, they may escape the same fate as those unlucky souls who now haunt the ancient wood and paper buildings of this forsaken hamlet. Unfortunately, as the story progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that the village's troubles started out because of the actions of two little girls, one of whom carried a limp...

The girls must work their way through the village, tackling the horrible history of the various buildings and houses all while trying to find a way out to freedom. Play is usually restricted to one character that must pick up objects and work out solutions from the clues dotted around the house. You quickly come across the notes of an explorer who visited the village sometime in the past. From him you begin to learn the true nature of the village and how to defend yourself against the horrors that reside within. The proton accelerator in Project Zero 2 is the camera obscura, a curious device which can capture the souls of the dead, thereby rendering them harmless to any of the living that they are seeking to consume. The camera can be steadily upgraded with the points you win from exorcising the ghosts. However, even as it becomes more powerful the camera can never dispel the constant sense of unease and dread that hangs around the player whenever they are immersed in the world of Project Zero 2.

Project Zero 2 owes more to H.P Lovecraft and Edgar Alan Poe than Clive Barker or Wes Craven. Obviously much of its aesthetic comes from modern Japanese horror entertainment, so small floating girls with faces obscured by a shield of black hair and other young girls trying to outwit the deepening sense of doom are all present. Project Zero 2 expertly crafts a game out of material that could easily have been a film or turned into anime. It gains a lot of extra power over its passive cousins in that it is down to the player to face their own fears and defeat the game's many well designed and immersive puzzles. The challenge of Project Zero comes from the way that the sense of unease that the game engenders in players can become so strong that you have to force yourself to continue playing. The story unwinds and reveals itself through the puzzle process and manages to ensure the player has a strong indication of what their current goal is, even if the path is obscured and devilishly guarded. As the girls venture deeper into the village the extent of the horrors that the hamlet has witnessed is steadily revealed, with the wickedness of the place reaching levels that can seriously put you ill at ease.