[dGalloway]

Okay, first review I've ever posted here. Better make it a good one...

The Clock Tower series is one of those bad series that, for some unknown reason, has a cult following. Granted, the stealth aspects of the series were welcome additions back in the days of "kill everything that moves" console gaming, but every progressive game has gotten worse. Sad really, since the original game (which was never released outside of Japan, and was later re-released as Clock Tower Zero) is one of the best console adventures I've ever played.

The game centers around Jennifer Simpson, a fourteen-year-old orphan who, along with her friends Ann, Laura and Lotte, has been adopted by the Barrows family. When they arrive at the family's estate (which is named after a massive clock tower on the grounds), the family maid, Ms. Mary, leaves the girls alone in the parlor.

Needless to say, things to go hell. Jennifer leaves to investigate a noise, and when she comes back, her friends have all vanished. Not long after, one of them is murdered, and a butt-ugly, hunchbacked kid with a big pair of scissors is chasing her. Jennifer has to outwit her pursuer, solve the mystery of the Barrows household, and escape with her life.

The best thing about Clock Tower's plot is how it gives the illusion of branching. There are about nine endings in all, each with slightly different puzzles (and about two different endgames). The "illusion" comes from the fact that most endings are glorified Game Overs; only four endings have her escape, while the rest just show her getting killed. Besides that, the plot just exudes B-movie crappiness, almost at the same level as Resident Evil; only this time, you have no rocket launcher...

Jennifer is controlled using a cursor; just move it to the intended spot, and push A to complete an action. There's also an inventory (which is accessed by moving the cursor to the top of the screen), which will soon fill up with often meaningless junk. Pretty standard for a console adventure. The gameplay changes slightly, however, when Scissorman finds you. You then have to find a hiding spot, which are scattered throughout the game, and often only work once. You can also fight Scissorman off by pounding the B button, but this only works temporarily, and can only be used a few times through the game.

The B button, unfortunately, is yet another problem; the game requires you to pound that thing not only for fights, but also for just about anything that requires strength on Jennifer's part. Several hiding places, puzzles, and other stuff require you to break your poor controller/keyboard, and if you fail...well, you die.

Graphically, the game is all right. Some of the sprites look a bit awkward; Jennifer is forever hanging her head, Lotte lookes like a guy (it's supposed to be a girl), and Ms. Mary's face portrait looks completely different from her actual sprite. The backgrounds are pretty good; nothing too dark, a good amount of detail, and generally easy to navigate through. There are also a handful of digitized cutscenes; unfortunately, they all look pretty bad.

The sound is minimal at best. There are only a handful of sound effects in the game, and the ones that are there are just average (except for the sound of Jennifer's shoes, which will make you want to turn the sound off after five seconds). The music only comes on during cutscenes and when you're being chased, but it works quite well; it at least adds to the tension a bit.

The biggest problem with the game, however, is the length. To get the best ending, you'll need to spend only about two hours with the game. The other endings can take anywhere from ninety minutes to about five. Within a single day, you will have seen everything the game has to offer, seen every hiding place, every death, every surprise the game can throw at you.

Despite all its flaws, however, this game does have some good things going for it. Like I said the graphics are pretty good. The gameplay works suprisingly well for a non-mouse point-and-click, and if need be, you can just use a turbo controller for the button pounding. The plot is engrossing enough, if quite a bit laughable, thanks to some good plot twists about halfway through.

As the best game in the Clock Tower series, this is a nice, short game that will kill an afternoon or two for you. Flawed as it is, it's one of the better games in the incredibly small library of console adventure games. Too bad the rest of the series didn't fare so well...

Final Score: 7.5/10

Where the buy: Since it wasn't released outside of Japan, and it's quite a few years old already, you'll probably have trouble finding it. Your best bet is to get the ROM and an emulator, get the translation patch, and enjoy. The PSX version is pretty much impossible to find, and has no translation, but they're pretty much the same game (the PSX just added a few movies).

[Orange Brat]

The Clock Tower series is one of those bad series that, for some unknown reason, has a cult following

I can't comment on the early titles, but Clock Tower 3 on PS2/X-Box was a quality survival horror game. It also featured what many consider the greatest cutscenes ever created for a game. They were directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku(Battle Royale), and they are definitely well above average in regards to the direction. The controls were changed to direct control, and it takes place in several different time periods. It sounds like everything else is the same as the old games when it comes to getting chased by serial killers and finding hiding spots or ways to temporarily stun them. I highly recommend it to anyone who's into survival horror titles that don't necessarily follow standard conventions.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventur...r3/review.html

[samIamsad]

I've played it on an emulator a couple of months back. And what can I say? Pretty spooky... I haven't seen a Famicon game like it before.

[SamandMax]

The first Clock Tower game for the PS1 was probably the only survival horror game that actually felt like you were stuck in a gory 80's slasher movie. I loved it, especially the last chapter in the castle.