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27 heinäkuuta 2003
Game: Clock Tower 3
Publisher: Capcom
Platform: PS2
Cost: -$39.95 to $49.95+
Sound- 7/10
Whether it's a pot falling from the counter, drawers opening and closing, the sound of crumbling brick as you ever so carefully slide the ledge, or kicking bottles and cans as you walk, each is realistically imitated in this game, and imitated well.
However, noises attract the weapon-wielding fiends, and sometimes you don't see what's fallen till it's too late, and then the last thing you should worry about are soda cans.
But then again, that's what makes it so great.
Music- 9/10
The music is beautiful [at least it starts out that way], changes when something's coming, and stops at the end of the level. The music changes from Alyssa reading a letter or journal entry and is completely different for fighting a boss.
However, it fills the silence that makes FATAL FRAME so friggin scary.
Yet the music can also be creepy, as in the house in the second level--or it can rock, as in the scene with Alyssa surfing the air on a clockface with the Mudvayne-eseque music loud in the background in between 2nd and 3rd levels. I have to give it a 9 for Mudvayneness.
And I'd highly recommend the soundtrack, if there is one available.
Graphics-10/10 [the warning at the beginning contridicts the ESPB rating: M. Yeah duh!]
As promised in the beginning, the graphics are DISTURBING, SCARY, and down right HORRIFYINGly BLOODY, I.e. the scene when Sledgehammer beats little May's head in with his oversized, you guessed it, hammer.
Capcom spared no expense, thank GOD, and the creepiness of Corroder's mask and bloody get up to the doll that "Dark Man" steps on [you'll see] add to the horror of this survival horror game.
Yet the cut scenes can also be beautiful and professionally done, from Alyssa running her hand through clovers [you'll get this allusion at the end of the game, promise] all the way back to the very beginning, they rival FFX's scenes, and are very much a work of art.
Control- 5/10
The control is with the analog stick to move Alyssa, and the smooth moving is what saved this. However, during boss battles, your aim is limited to the direction you face. This can really suck, as you can waste a full-powered super-charged shot because the spray gun guy stepped to the ri-i-i-i-ght. GIR!!
Camera- 4/10
Camera controls suck--you can't change it yourself---the camera controls depend soley on the direction Alyssa is facing, and that really sucks when you're running from homicidal maniacs. No offense, Johnny.
Since avoiding the freak on a leash at all costs is a MUST in this game, it would help if you could see the Corroder dude in the hallway BEFORE you turn. Yah.
Story- 7/10
The story is original and, not having played Clocktowers 1 and 2, keeps me very interested.
With what the game tells me, anyway.
The plot twists like the staircase in the Clock Tower, and is unique. It ends like I couldn't imagine, right down to the top of the tower.
Overall- 10/10
Though it may not play to the tastes of SILENT HILL and RESIDENT EVIL fans, Clock Tower 3 is as good as the best of them.
It doesn't seem like a survival horror game, because, let's face it, where's the horror?
But it IS there!
Sure, just the IDEA of running blindly looking for HIDING PLACES of all things and spray the villians with WATER?
But those are what makes it suspenseful, albeit frustrating at times.
BUT THAT'S WHAT MAKES YOU WANT TO PLAY IT MORE!!!
The story alone should be enough, but for the ones who are only in it for shooting things and showering, may want to leave this one alone. Clock Tower 3 requires intelligence, Ryan.
Playing through for the second time [to show mai friend Corey], I found that the evade points are more useful, how to conserve lavender water, and that I went through levels quicker.
The game definitely has replay value, as the weapons change for the villians, and for the guys, Alyssa immediately recieves a Wardrobe Key at the start of a new game with a cleared game memory card [it's the same file], and you can play dress-up with....interesting new costumes. You can also replay every single cutscene, with the new THEATER option. On the same screen, you have a GALLERY R1> option, and choosing said option turns the screen to Alyssa holding a sketchpad with the words "The Art of ClockTower3" on it.
<-------------------------------------------Concepts and [some] Walkthrough
I hadn't heard of this game before (but then again my memory is fuzzy like Rikku the Hamster) and wouldn't have picked it as my first choice until I rented it for myself.
Claims of it being scary and nightmarish didn't really faze me, having played Fatal Frame.
It was 10 at night, I popped the game into the PS2, and played.
[*the author's note: the story begins the same way and you have to follow the same procedure, whether it's the first or fifth time you play it, to get the game going*]
The story begins with Alyssa Hamilton, fourteen years old and at boarding skool, reading a letter from her mom. The mom's letter has the tone of the usual concerned parent; "How are your studies?", "Are you doing well?" and "Go into hiding until your fifteenth birthday passes"
Wha?
Following the letter is a mysterious phone call from her mom, but when no one answers, she hits the ground running for home.
As she arrives, the house is empty but for one tall dark and creepy man in your dining room.
He speaks with a sort of "I-know-something-you-don't-know" hint in his voice, and then vanishes like an A in Spanish 3.
Still a bit weirded out from being hit on by someone old enough to be her dad, she becomes the main, and single playable, character.
You are free to explore the rooms from then on or save.
I would HIGHLY suggest a player's guide for this one, as I had to start a whole game over cuz I was too stupid to use the hiding spot in Norton's the Tailor, and when I did, had no idea what I was doing.
The maps in the book are really helpful because although the game gives you one, it's hard to distinguish holes in the walls from furniture pieces, and that's the difference between life and continue? when yer being chased by an Asian circus slice-and-dice maniac.
The book also provides pics and sentimental item lists, along with background on every char, from main ones to villians and victims. But I will say that it's probably filler [BUNNY] for the book, because all of the On Files are pieces of notes and newspaper you find in the game.
I bought it because I had to find out the hard way that wherever Alyssa faces is important for whatever locks or puzzles you need to mess with, say like door panels.
Yesh, I spent alot of time on the Hospital level, probably more time than I spent messing with Chopper Man--and I will say this:
The Scissor Twins---Scissor Man/Scissor Woman---are very tricksy, and can teleport. This not only makes fighting Scissor Woman in the JUDGEMENT very hard [I ended up wasting 4 of my good arrows on her] but it makes it hard to know where they are exactly.
Here's what happened to me:
I was running from the brother [Scissor Man], and the single hiding spot is a bathroom stall (of all places...). So I watch the guy walk by the room ["Come on, Alyssa!"] so I sit and wait till I hear him vanish and the music stops, yay, I can leave.
Didn't work out that way.
Scissor Man, the sneaky little bugger, was hiding in the space between the stalls and the walls and the sink. So it's chop-chop-slice-and-dice-Alyssa's-dead.
That actually happened to me twice.
OKAY.
Three times.
My advice is to conserve plenty of Holy Waters for just in case, keep Invisibility Bands until needbe, and only use Holy Water if Alyssa is in a state of PANIC or the baddie is hanging around the hiding spot and she's almost PANICking.
All in all, this game keeps you on your toes, is original of its kind, and has a most excellent soundtrack; and the FFX-like graphics make up for the godawful screens I saw of Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within. Thanks, Google.
Chibi Yuki gives Clock Tower 3 for the PS2 a 10/10
[destroy everything, born with the start of freedom->L'arc~en~Ciel]
