Walking a darker, more sinister path than the Biohazard series (which has always relied on sudden shocks far more than on any sustained atmosphere), and a less overtly bizarre one than the Silent Hill games, Fatal Frame gets the mix right from the very start - centering around a missing brother, a mysterious heirloom camera with the power to capture ghosts, and a cursed mansion; it's a classic ghost story (based on a true story, Tecmo would have us believe), the kind of thing that would have frightened you as a child, but which you would have laughed at mercilessly as a teen - and which, in its interactive form, comes back into its own in spectacular fashion, leaving gamers around the world shaking, unable to play for more than a half-hour at a time. Just ghosts...?

From the playable intro sequence featuring the protagonist's soon-to-go-missing brother (played out in a grainy black-and-white style, only key game objects being picked out with very subtle use of colour), the game ensures that the player is uncomfortable, with numerous short, jumpy cutscenes adding to the claustrophobic disarray of the mansion, and the occasional wandering ghost visible in the distance. The atmosphere is expertly constructed, despite some truly disastrous voice acting - the only thing which takes the sheen off an all-but-immaculate audio-visual style which lasts from beginning to end in Fatal Frame. The use of sound in the game deserves a particular mention - delivered in flawless 5.1, the disturbing whispers of the spirits and creaks of the floorboards put the player still further on edge. The bleak and intense soundscapes are further accentuated by the developers' choice of music, which is minimalist in the extreme, and matches the mood perfectly.

A sad, damned atmosphere pervades throughout the entire game - there are no moments of light relief, even in flashback sequences to happier times; there is nowhere in Himuro mansion where the player is safe to idle for a while. None of the ghosts here died of old age, and those who've been graced with cutscenes to indicate the manner of their passing make you thankful that you don't get to find out what happened to the majority of them.

There are three main types of ghost in Fatal Frame. Vanishing ghosts will appear as you pass certain points in the mansion - quick reflexes will allow you to capture these spirits and add to your 'Spirit Point' total (used for upgrading your camera's basic functions, and adding extra functionality). Hidden ghosts work much the same way, but can be found only by watching and listening for clues to their proximity. Some hidden ghosts also act as gatekeepers, blocking access to the depths of the mansion until they have been photographed.

The attacking ghosts are the main draw of the game, and the majority of them are handled with such élan that they're a pleasure to battle against (although there are one or two you'll be sick of the sight of by the end of the game), all with distinctive attack patterns, music and sounds. They phase in and out of your field of vision, one moment right on top of you, the next across in the opposite corner, in a most disorientating fashion. Some of these encounters are very difficult indeed, and the sense of disarming panic as you enter first-person-perspective mode, attempt to stumble backwards, line up a shot and wait for the exact moment to hit the ghost as hard as possible is far more real and primitive than that supplied by Biohazard's grappling zombies.

Random attacker-ghost encounters are generally the most oppressive of all, particularly as the game moves through the second and third nights and the opponents get tougher and tougher. The filament at the bottom of the screen which indicates nearby paranormal activity will glow, accompanied by horrific crescendos of dense white noise, for minutes at a time, with no sign of an attack - eventually taking out your camera shows that the ghost has been floating unseen in front of you the whole time. These transitions from an empty room to a suddenly, shockingly visible ghost in the viewfinder are among the game's strongest moments - the Biohazard-style jumps coming together perfectly with the oppressive atmosphere which this game oozes.

This isn't survival horror - it's just pure, unadulterated horror, and it's all the better for it. There is no sign of Biohazard's ridiculously outdated inventory system and, although a traditional rotate-then-walk-forward control system has been included, the default analogue controls (which have been a long time coming in the genre) are more than sufficient, and make running from confrontations a much easier proposition. Control in first person mode is also well implemented, with no needless complications - although some gamers may take a while to adjust to the sudden reversal of thumbstick functions which results from looking through the viewfinder.

You'll never run out of film - the ammunition of the game - as long as you can find a save point, and you can conceivably finish the whole game (at least, on its default difficulty setting - the two extra difficulty levels, one of which is an Xbox exclusive, are a different matter altogether) using only this Type-14 film. Other, more powerful, film is strewn around the mansion and can be invaluable against some of the boss ghosts, but you'll never be put in the position where you don't want to save your game because you're not sure you have enough ammo to make it worthwhile carrying on. Games can be saved at the player's discretion, without the need for finding rolls of tape or suchlike. Tecmo have also included a battle mode as an unlockable extra, which allows fights against ghosts with set conditions in specified rooms, aiming for high scores and fast times. While this dilutes the nature of the game, the player is required to have completed the main game before this trivialising subgame becomes available.

Some of the conventions of the genre remain; stone-sliding puzzle locks are an irritation which diminish the mood considerably. However, for the most part, the puzzles in this game are none too taxing and don't irritate. Fatal Frame feels like a breath of fresh air in a genre which has spent most of the last decade moving forward only in terms of narrative, and while it's a gruesome and disturbing way to spend an evening, the awe-inspiring power of the narrative style, hammered home by a brutally efficient game engine and nerve-wracking game mechanics, makes this the most compelling game of this nature yet to appear on a console.