|
Product Description Capcom (26049) Haunting Ground PS2 ... Read more Reviews (4) 
Such a great Game
This is just another great Capcom survival horror game. It was total non stop action. It has a great soundtrack, and the controls are very easy to get used to, definitely pick this game up if you're looking for an awesome new game. The graphics are just incredible also.
Clock who?
First, to get the line straight, I HAVE NEVER PLAYED CLOCK TOWER 1, 2, OR 3! every review I have been reading always says this game is like clock tower. Well, I guess, based on the reviews, I'm playing clock tower for the first time.
The storyline of this game is simple, but a little complicating throughout the game. It's about Fiona, a girl who wakes up in a mysterious castle after a car wreck. She can't remember anything at first, but as she sees familiar people, she remembers moments of what happened gradually. So shes trapped in a castle, doesn't remember anything, and is alone. That changes when she meets Hewie, the dog, who is a white shepard. Hewie helps her get through the castle, and most importantly helps Fiona fend off enemies, such as Debilitas, the gardener, who in my opinion, is the scariest opponet in the game. But Hewie can't help all the time, when Hewie runs out of health,(stanima)or runs low, he goes a lot slower, and can't run. Which is where fiona is left defenceless. If you get hit to much, you'll notice every thing around you loses color, and gets grey. Eventually, the screen will flash white, and she'll go into panic mode, where she can't stop, and moves uncontrollably. If you get hit while in panic mode, it turns even darker, and you can hear the heart beat really loud. Then, well, Acta Es Fabula, which I think means game over.
My point is, this is a great game, and I was shocked how good it was. It is short,(took me 8 hours)but all the challenging mini games make up for lost time. I highly reccomend it, ESSPECIALLY to all resident evil fans, and I guess Clock Tower fans too.
Engrossing and Beautiful game!
I am a huge fan of horror games. I love all the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games and both Fatal Frame games are amazing as well. I was really looking forward to Haunting Ground and it has lived up to my expectations. Its a beautifully made game with great graphics and creepy atmospheric music. I have found myself totally drawn into its spooky world and have loved every second being lost in this sprawling, gothic mansion with Fiona. Highly recommended to fellow horror gamers!
Painstaking but atmospheric
"Haunting Ground" seems to be championing the sub-genre of survival horror established by the "Clock Tower" series...in fact this game has "Clock Tower 3" written all over it. That was a good game, but repetition's not always a good thing. Still there are lots of impressive features to this game that make it fun to play.
The main character of the game is a young girl called Fiona who finds herself waking up in a huge castle after a car accident. Why is she here and why are strange characters pursueing her around the massive building? These are the questions you must ultimately uncover answers for, but there is a whole lot of running and puzzle solving to be done before then.
I say running, because for the most part, that's what you are going to be doing. In this game, the main character does not attack her foes. Like "Clock Tower" before it, if an enemy appears you are faced with a few options which consist of running for your life, hiding, or finding hot spots in the castle where one-off retaliation actions can be sprung. This is on the most part well implemented, plus the chase situations seem more perilous than those in "Clock Tower", as the baddies seem far more persistent and less easily fooled in this game. The mechanics of panic are very similar, with Fiona getting more frightened the closer the pursuer gets and the more near-misses she withstands. Expect to see the screen shudder and the colours to drain as Fiona starts to lose her cool, culminating in a total washout of colour and blurring of the picture if she loses it totally. In this condition, Fiona will run at random and fall over most of the time...if you let things get this bad, you're pretty much looking at Game Over, as the baddie will more often than not close in and finish off our heroine for good (particularly nasty death scenes in this game - relying mostly on sounds and your imagination). Cleverly, the use of hiding places is only randomly successful, as Fiona might successfully hide in a closet on one occasion, only to find that the enemy doesn't just walk past the next time she's in it, but comes right up and opens the door!
Luckily there are curative items that you can use during chases to alleviate panic and injury, as well as a few offensive items to throw. Plus of course one major feature that I haven't even mentioned yet - Fiona has a pet dog! Well, it's not really a pet. Fiona befriends the animal early in the game, and he becomes her constant companion. Now this aspect of the game I really like. Fiona has several commands that she can give the dog (Hewie), and it's up to you to decide when, and which things to say and do to get Hewie to provide help. It's during chase sequences that Hewie shows his real worth, as Fiona can set him on the enemy to bite and attack while she gets away. He also helps with some puzzles, requiring some lateral thinking from the player as he can go into small spaces where Fiona can't fit, and she can also go places (climbing ladders, for example) where he can't follow. So expect a bit of fun in working out how to get both your characters around the castle when needed. The dog accompaniment is amajor part of the game, so it is well worth taking the trouble to build a good bond with Hewie, especially as it can affect the ending you get. It's very easy to do, though and much enjoyment comes from training him with constant commands, and watching him explore, sniff around or just lie on the floor if he gets bored - a great character and with perfect AI - responsive, but prone to whims of his own. I couldn't resist having Fiona stroke him and tweak his ears all the time - I'm sure I spoiled him! Just be sure to try and keeps tabs on where he is and interact with him a lot - he'll soon follow you everywhere.
On that note, the castle and all the other locations of the game are very large, and they are beautiful environments, although the castle is very oddly designed, and I don't mean intentionally. Sure the place is creepy and has traps and dead ends that make Fiona's life more of a misery than it already is, but it feels like the designers just built the required rooms and chambers and then linked them up with long passages to suit the gameplay, without a thought as to how this would make a realistic building as a whole. If you look at the in-game map, it resembles a maze for lab rats more than a real building! ( A bit like the mansion in the original Resident Evil, which had loads of rooms completely inside the building with bizarre shapes and no windows). However, as I said, the cosmetic look of the locations is wonderful, especially an elaborate palace in the final stages of the game that looks like something out of Final Fantasy X! The same goes for the characters. Fiona is absolutely beautiful, and her face moves realistically to portray happiness, sadness and fear when required. It's almost a given now that seeing the Capcom name on a game means the graphic quaility is going to be above average, and you can definitely see that company's almost "in house" style and standard present here. Hewie is also wonderfully rendered, and has a real life of his own.
This is not a game for action fans - you won't be using any weapons or firepower here. The constant chasing can be quite wearing, as it can take a good few minutes to escape, which often results in you running a long way away from where you want to be, and backtracking all the way back again to carry on looking at that puzzle. It's also a very lonely game, there castle is totally devoid of life apart from Fiona and Hewie, and there are a mere handful of NPC's, and that includes enemies (there is only one enemy after you at a time). Luckily the two main characters are appealing that you will enjoy the growing companionship of a girl and her dog, and hope they both make it though alive. My only niggle is that Fiona doesn't exhibit a bit more courage, but insists on whimpering and crying during every cut scene when it would have been nice to see here toughen up a bit after dispatching the first few villains. The enemies are all suitably bizarre, my favourite being the icily-beautiful but unhinged maid - watch out for some very twisted cut-scenes featuring her! It also has the same rather sick undertones as it's predecessor and most of the enemies designs on Fiona are pretty despicable!
In closing, it seems to me that this whole game is an expansion of the final castle level of "Clock Tower 3" (which was also set in a castle), and is something of an exercise in refinement for the game creators, who are hoping to make the ultimate version of their unique survival/run away-horror. An immense spiral staircase near the end of the game (still impressive, none the less) recalls the one in that level very clearly. But this game is far, far bigger than CT3, and possibly tougher. All things considered, I would say that it succeeds in being a fairly solid horror game, but it only really comes alive thanks to its addition of dog power. The satisfaction that comes from helping and receiving help from your canine pal echos the subtle joys of the superb "ICO", in which the player also had to interact with a companion to get through the game. In fact, the two games are not dis-similar in several ways which is much higher praise indeed than the comparison to "Clock Tower 3". Fans of both or either of those games should give this a try.
... Read more
|
THE INCREDIBLY IMPOSSIBLE!!
Truly Un-Incredible.