Product description
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For sale here is a brand new, factory sealed Clock Tower II
game made for the Playstation in 1999. The case has the official
Y-fold seals on the top and bottom edges. The game is in good
shape with a few light marks and scratches on the plastic from
handling. There are also two small cracks on the front side of
the case. Please see the photos for more details.
Review
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Sometimes it takes games that first come out in Japan a year or
more to be translated and then published in the US. And sometimes
games that arrive around the launch of a new system later get
sequels with only incremental improvements to the engine and
gameplay, making them feel very dated. Both of these factors are
at work in Human's Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within, a game
that, like the original, features a time-lost mix of 7th Guest
and Resident Evil styles of gameplay.
To understand this blend better, realize that Clock Tower II is a
point-and-click-style 3D adventure game. The graphics are
polygonal, and you take your character through a series of static
Resident Evil-like environments, complete with loading sequences
as you travel from room to room. You point and click on objects
that you want your character to investigate. You click on items
from your inventory and drag them to areas you want them to
interact with. You click on places you want your characters to
walk to and on doors you want them to go through. Yes, the
PlayStation mouse peripheral is supported.
The game's storyline begins with you, as a young Japanese
schoolgirl, arriving at your aunt and uncle's house. Something
strange has recently happened there, and you must investigate the
disappearance of your aunt, uncle, and their children. Things
don't look good, though - yellow blood and strange body parts
adorn the household, and a -wielding ghost child has taken
up stalking you. Oh, and your recurring problem with the
malevolent male personality that shares space in your head is
acting up again.
It goes without saying that Clock Tower II's storyline is
bizarre, but it's also disjointed and weird to a point that makes
Konami's Silent Hill seem like a clear and concise little
narrative. There are more than a dozen possible endings to the
game, and while you may beat Silent Hill without a strong sense
of the events you've lived through, you can finish Clock Tower II
several times and still have absolutely no idea what had happened
at all. And the interface and gameplay will keep you from wanting
to continually go back and find out.
The game screams for Resident Evil-like control of your
character, but you're left with the archaic point-and-click setup
that's slow to acknowledge your commands, occasionally
misconstrues them, and sometimes won't accept them for
unexplained reasons. According to your character's response, your
directional commands are often misinterpreted for another
location in the room, something that can cause you to get killed
if an assailant is chasing you. Events are often triggered only
after you've significantly looked around, and then eventually the
game lets you enter new rooms or open drawers in unrelated areas.
It seems like an arbitrary way to solve puzzles, and one that
doesn't force you to think, but to spend quantifiable time
wandering around areas you've been before, pointing and clicking
until you can go on. It's like being stuck on a Rubik's Cube,
going into the next room, turning on the TV, and coming back
later to find the cube solved. It makes sense that your other
personality looks at the world differently and can access
different areas, but many of the puzzles are simply
counterintuitive.
The graphics in Clock Tower II are pure first-generation
PlayStation. The character models are so aged-looking that they
creak, and their movements are likewise clunky and wooden. The
rooms are also sparsely decorated, and loading times rule the
day. The music and sound effects are similarly poor, occurring
only during tense moments. The translation is much like that
found in the original Resident Evil, except without the
charmingly camp moments. Instead of, "You were almost a Jill
sandwich" or "You, the master of unlocking," you get reactions to
appliances like washers and refrigerators in the tone of, "Wow,
it's full." A strange noise? "What!" A disembodied limb? "Only a
leg!" And so on.
Clock Tower II isn't a good choice for those looking for a solid
puzzle adventure or a compelling and y game - it's neither
smart, nor frightening, nor fun. Readers are better advised to
look at either the most recent Oddworld or Resident Evil titles,
and leave this one for the antique collectors. --Joe Fielder
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot
logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc. -- GameSpot Review
