Black Sabbath is a Hard Rock British rock band, trained in Birmingham in 1968. It is often considered today by the specialized press and the contemporary public, as one of the founding and precursor groups of the Heavy Metal, even as the first group of this kind of music.
The original Black Sabbath training is composed of Anthony Tony iommi at the guitar, John Michael Ozzy Osbourne with singing (which will bring back trips between the group and his career solo), Terence Geezer Butler to The bass and William Bill Ward at the battery. However, the group knows several reshuffles, with nearly twenty old members, among whom we can quote Ronnie James Dio, Tony Martin, Ian Gillan, Cozy Powell and Glenn Hughes. Tony iommi is the only member to be present from the origin without interruption. Inventor of the heavy and lugubrus riff, perfectly in phase with his dark style, the group owes a lot to the guitar game developed by Tony Iommi, whose two fingers had been severed during an accident in his previous job of Metallurgist worker.
Black Sabbath remains a dominant influence in the Heavy Metal scene, and its top ten albums are considered classics of its kind; In particular, Paranoid and Heaven and Hell, several times platinum discs. In addition, MTV located Black Sabbath in the first place in its ranking of the largest groups of metal. In 2014, the group identifies more than a hundred million albums sold around the world. The group separates in 2017, after an ultimate tour.

Despite having an atmosphere worked and an interesting premise, Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water does not end up focusing on all the proposed.

Terror, like opinion, beauty or who should be the members of the Spanish soccer team, is a question that falls on the field of subjectivity. My first approach to this text included an introduction that dealt with the popularity of Survival horror in past times, unwritten rules of gender and many, many other deep and large-sized reflections on this and other major themes (lie). But I thought why not talk about Resident Evil 4. Again. With sixteen years behind, innumerable ports – some of them delirious – and a remake on the way, the shadow of the work directed by Shinji Mikami is very elongated. His approach and his mechanics influenced both the survival horror after his launch that when Project Zero II was related: Crimson Butterfly in Wii, the distressing fixed planes that characterized the original version – and a large part of the beginnings of the genre, since we are – They were replaced by a very debtor s third-person perspective of Leon s adventures in Spain. And although there is no doubt that horror depends, to a large extent, from the baggage of the one who contemplates it, it is worth noting that, to greater control over the perspective and the situation, less anguish, fear and grinding of teeth. Obviously, producers and directors of Project Zero do not share this vision, since these adjustments remained during Mask of the Lunar Eclipse – led by Goichi Suda and unpublished in the West – and in Maiden of Black Water.

Basic information

Developer: Koei TECMO
Editor: Koei TECMMO
Platforms: PS5
Tested version: PS5, X / S Series, PS4, One, Switch, PC
Availability: 10/28/2021

Originally published exclusively in Wii U by Nintendo and developed by Koei TECMO, Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water revolves around Mount Hikami, a sinister Japanese spot where the paranormal phenomena and suicides with alarming frequency are happening. Three will be the unfortunate protagonists of this fifth delivery of the saga: Miu, Yuri and Ren, a trio with various motivations at the beginning of the story that will see how his roads are crossing after putting on this cliff of horrors to unravel their secret macabre. Dark rituals, sacrifices and fantasmagoric forces of the other world will dye, little by little, their lives as they try to save the lives of their relatives taking advantage of their own preternatural skills and, of course, the dark camera, a banner of this playable dynasty.

Without the dark camera, no Zero Project is not understood, but the same could be said about the uneven environments. Fortunately, the artistic section of Maiden of Blackwater follows Rajatabla this rule, and the surrounding and enlisted places within Mount Hikami are a perfect example of this. Dark, oppressive and decay prisoners, all scenarios that we illuminate with the scarce light of our flashlight will transmit us the feeling that are locations without intention to receive warmly visit. However, some textures somewhat debatable by their original launch even more note the passage of time to this day, and although the artistic direction makes the general resistance finish, those limitations cause the exam in the short plane to put uphill. Something similar happens to the modeling and animations of the characters, which, in general terms, support well the transfer to subsequent generations but dragged with them decisions as little debatable. Incorporate unnecessary physics in the breast of the protagonists or scarce – when not null – expressiveness of the cast of protagonists are elements that squeak when facing them with a carefully constructed atmosphere. Luckily, the sound section if you strike at high altitude and the deployment of effects – some of them inherited from previous episodes – focus your work on raising the visual plane with cacophonies, shrieks of the underworld that will frost the blood and other sound lovely as distortions And a beautiful – this is subject to debate – background noise that will speak soundtrack.

Giving fulfilled review of the artisticness is justice, but gives the impression that when you stop at each audiovisual section we are postponing the inevitable. This is, to make treasures heart and plant face to the horrors that await us on Mount Hikami. As a good Survival horror that is, Maiden of Black Water welcomes us with a well-open arm and with the other on his back, preparing a wave of assaults against our sanity. Now, it is convenient not to forget that it is a Zero project, so veterans can – and should – wait for the appearance of mechanical brand from the house. And is that this saga has always joined, in a really peculiar way, the absolute terror and a perverse arcade point. This impious union materializes in, of course, the dark chamber, the only means by which we can fight the ghosts that will come to make us life impossible and that will value our performance with each snapshot that damages the spirits. Thus, factors such as adjusting the timing of our photo at the time when we attack or wait for them to be surrounded by spheres will expand the damage we do, it will open the opportunity to release photo bursts or influence the amount of essence that we absorb from them. All this will result in higher scores, access to improvements for our lenses and the possibility of increasing the capabilities of the impious Cachivache itself. Side mention deserves the fact that the original control and gameplay of Maiden of Black Water were designed with the Wii U command in mind, with which the handling of the Dark House has had to accommodate controls that nothing have to do with that tablet. That is why, if we take as an example the PlayStation 5 knob, when the Dark Chamber is removing we can rotate the rectangular frame by means of a more classic control – L1 and R1 – or we can use the motion sensors to adjust it in a somewhat reminiscent way from Original handling.

However, all the effort invested in achieving satisfactory mechanics when driving the Dark House does not find answers in the rest of the proposals. Although Maiden of Black Water is able to generate a few well-deserved chills, much of his approach seems to want to row at the opposite direction. Leaving aside the absolute tightness of his episodes – element that only resent, in part, the rhythm of his narrative – there are few factors pointing in that direction. If to the obvious linearity of a large part of the scenarios and objectives we join overrabundance of objects and a mechanics that, constantly, indicates the way forward, the result is a fearful title to let go of the hand. And it is a shame, because when Maiden of Black Water dares and returns, timidly, to more free designs and Survival Debtor Classic manages to work. And it would have worked even better if it had explored in depth certain mechanics that came to establish even more solid foundations for their proposal: that the characters were more vulnerable the more soaked they were – the water is an abundant resource in many of its scenarios – or that that parsimony when picking up each object, when opening each door, would have come much further; That we had had to get closer to a bitter mix of uncertainty and caution, knowing that every time we had to turn a knob could assault us a spectrum on the back and not a simple hand.

Unfortunately, these ideas never come to develop and are partly because of what Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a title that does not end up deploying all its potential. However, it has values ​​that make it an interesting title for the fans of the genre of the survival horror : the powerful imagery of Japanese folklore, the terrifying design of some of its ghosts or the immense potential of certain ideas are some of them. Despite everything, it should be noted that much of its design does not intend to get away from a much more conservative approach, closer to postulates that push in an opposite direction. The result is, then, a highly irregular title that sees as its final result decays by witnessing the confrontation of two ways to understand Survival horror. And you do not need to remember how many ports are from the first project Zero and how many there are resident evil 4 to know which one ends up imposing…