Fatal Frame

2001, Age 19

A group of high school friends and I had a trend of meeting up for an evening of D&D and then a night of survival horror games. Of all of them, Fatal Frame is by far my favorite. It's a shooting game that doesn't involve guns, and has a great high-risk-high-reward structure (the closer you let the ghost get before snapping the photo, the higher the points!).

It's also a game I am drawn to over and over, and have a tradition of playing each Halloween to attempt to level up enough and conserve enough film to survive the dreaded Last Night (haven't succeeded yet). I think the whole camera leveling structure and having to take good photos is what makes it feel more replayable to me than some other games in the genre, even if it's just the illusion of having some sense of creative control.