The Retrospective 03.08.07: Clock Tower (Part 1 of 2)
Posted by Sean McCabe on 03.08.2007
You thought Resident Evil and Silent Hill were scary? You haven’t really seen anything…
Welcome back, it's been a while but I'm not dead yet. And so we have another column. First of all to anybody who read my God Hand review and thought it was well, full of asshattery, you'd be right and the matter has been fixed. Sometimes my Superego malfunctions, guess this was one of those times, but I've apologised to the right people and it's all in the past if anybody wondered. Second, this is going to be pretty short. I could probably do Clock Tower in one column but I'm doing it in two for reasons of time. At least I can go into a bit more detail than usual.
The Introspective
This week I bought Crackdown. And I have to say; it is one hell of a sweet game. It has come under criticism from certain quarters for being too short. Personally I think this is a bit unfair. Resident Evil was what, 4 hours when it first came out? People didn't bitch then when it was netting scores of around 95% (deservedly). This is because the game has intrinsic replay value thanks to player-orientated goals. Want to finish the game with a great time? How about using no healing items? Or just doing it with the knife? Games that are short but have nicely complex mechanics allow for this kind of play, and Crackdown fits rather nicely around this structure. How fast can you clean up the city? Can you do it with only a set amount of upgrades? Just using Melee attacks? And of course, there's just the fun of leaping around the city like a schizophrenic flea. Great game there, first fun sandbox game in a long while.
Sony. How much more can they fuck up? A lot apparently. Nerfing the backwards compatibility to cut costs was just plain bullshit of them. Sarcuni is right when he calls for a boycott of the system. I won't ever buy one at this rate.
Somebody had too much time on their hands and used it creating parody videos of a semi-crap anime. The result is Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series. It is hilarious, check it out. Littlekuriboh, I salute you, but seriously you need laid just like Kaiba.
VG Babe of the Week: Taki
A couple of weeks late maybe? Nah, but I found this picture and really liked it.
Horror in videogames is a very interesting subject. Still, a question is often asked, what was the first horror based game? Some people would say Resident Evil. Others may say Alone in the Dark. They would be wrong. The first horror-based videogame was a NES game of the title Sweet Home. Sweet Home is important because it would inspire a spiritual successor on the SNES at around the same time as Alone in the Dark debuted on the PC, the second generation of horror in videogames. That game of course would be Clock Tower.
The Breakdown
Clock Tower: The First Fear
Developer: Human Entertainment
Format: SNES/Playstation/PC/Wonderswan
Release: 1995/1997/1999/1999
Notes: Did not have the subtitle until the PSX port, which was required because the Western releases of the true Clock Tower 2 was just called Clock Tower due to this game never being released in the west.
Clock Tower tells the story of Jennifer Simpson, an orphan, and her friends who are adopted by an eccentric aristocrat in the Norwegian countryside, Mr. Burrows. This name would become something of a link throughout the series. The game opens with the four girls having entered a large castle mansion that is the Burrow's residence, overshadowed by a large… um, Clock Tower. Anyways, Jennifer would leave the group to find Mr. Burrows, only to have no luck and goes back to find the lights in the hall off and no sign of her friends. After a little further exploration… Jennifer finds one of her friends gruesomely murdered. Yep, it's that kind of game. It's also this kind of game:
Silent Hill: "You get various weapons!"
Resident Evil: "You get guns, healing items, and a rocket launcher"
Fatal Frame: "You get a camera!"
Clock Tower: "You get...nothing! Now run!!!!"
Indeed, the appeal of Clock Tower, and the secret behind its unique brand of horror based gameplay, is its tendency to leave you completely defenceless. You must solve scenario based puzzles to progress, with different actions leading to different endings, six in total. Seeking to stick something sharp in your body is Bobby Burrows, the infamous Scissorman. Jennifer must elude him, his mutant twin brother and their batty insane heretic of a Mother in order to try and save her friends and get out alive. In short, it's glorious 70s style B movie horror. Lovely. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Rosemary's Baby inside a Clock Tower.
Gameplay is based on point and click interface straight out of the classic PC adventure genre, but simplified somewhat with real time movement. This is fortunate as it allows the game to have fairly complex puzzles but still making the chase sequences in the game manageable with relative simplicity. The game's pacing makes it quite unpredictable on a first play and even still has some tricks left afterwards, with the different events that can occur. This game was a landmark in the horror genre and to this day still remains one of the elite horror based games available. Not bad for a game that never even got released outside of Japan. Not that it's very hard, to find ways of playing it in English of course, I just can't condone them.
In Retrospect: I have a few friends that are pretty much convinced horror game begins and ends with Silent Hill. But personally, I feel it began here with Clock Tower, and where it ends? Who knows, but it's going to be a great journey. Just watch nobody leaps out of a dark corner and stabs you with scissors the size of hedge clippers on the way, okay?
Clock Tower (Clock Tower 2)
Developer: Human Entertainment
Format: PSX
Release: 1997
Notes: A direct continuation to the First Fear, but was simply called Clock Tower on its Western release. Should really be considered Clock Tower 2 as it is in Japan.
Yeah… they fucked up the numbering as bad as Final Fantasy. Anyway, Onwards. Clock Tower's gameplay basically resembles that of its predecessor. The story is a direct continuation of Jennifer's harrowing experiences but it a bit more of a whodunit that a straight out slasher chase. The events occur one year after the infamous Clock Tower incident, and Jennifer has been adopted by an assistant Criminal Psychologist named Helen Maxwell. As expected, when another horrific murder takes place, murmurings that Scissorman has returned are heard, and indeed, Helen and Jennifer are thrust into confronting him again, his identity different depending on who the player plays as of the two.
I haven't played this myself yet but I've bid on a copy for Ebay. I'll probably let you guys know when I get it.
In Retrospect: I recall the game not getting spectacular reviews, but meh, I want it anyway. It does bring the original events to a close even if it wasn't as impressive a game as its predecessor. Both titles have appeared on a lot of "scariest games ever" lists though, and damn right.
I'm going to cut things short here. Next week I'll cover Clock Tower 2 (more like Clock Tower 3), 3 (more like 4) and 5 (Haunting Ground/Demento… But I don't care, I'm covering it anyway).
Keep things in perspective, and remember… if someone picks up a pair of scissors threateningly… Run!!!
