Clock Tower 3
Creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky.
By Susie Vee

PLATFORM: PS2

PUBLISHER: Capcom

DEVELOPER: Capcom

GENRE: Survival Horror

ESRB: Mature

While games like Resident Evil appeal to our action/horror sides, other scary games have traditionally taken a more measured approach to terror. These days the Silent Hill series is the best-known example, but before that, there was a series named Clock Tower.

We remember playing the original PSone game years and years ago. It was more akin to an old PC point-and-click adventure game. Not all that impressive. Until, that is, a serial killer named ScissorMan came after us. We had to run and find somewhere to hide. It was a creepy slasher movie come to life. Our hearts were pounding by the time we ducked into a closet and lost him.

But the next time, we weren’t as lucky. ScissorMan cornered us in a stairwell, and that was all she wrote. This incident had a profound effect on us, and the fright ScissorMan caused became a running joke for years. We were literally too scared to go back and try to finish the game.

The latest version of Clock Tower is a little more supernatural in nature, and a little more formulaic. It borrows heavily from the successful GameCube title Eternal Darkness, sending you to different times and places throughout history. It also includes a similar sanity meter, in this case causing you to freak out when it hits full and making the next blow that strikes you lethal.

Alyssa Hamilton is a normal 14-year-old schoolgirl, who somehow gets mixed up with a family curse, her missing mother, and bunch of serial killers. Each era has a different killer who pursues you through the level. Along the way, you help his victims by collecting artifacts from their lives to free their spirits.

It’s got a great creepy vibe, and is often fun and tense – just what we’re looking for in a horror game. But the game falls apart in its strict formula. Each area has a set number of spots where you can hide, and the killer appears like clockwork every so often, usually while you’re in the middle of a typical survival horror key hunt. Then you’ve got to outrun him, hide or spray him with holy water, which you only have a few shots of.

But once you figure out the formula, which never really changes, it might as well be Squarebob Spongepants after you, it takes the uncertainty factor out of the game.

We liked a lot about this game, and thought Alyssa was a great heroine, but Clock Tower 3 is probably best for survival horror enthusiasts only.