Clock Tower is almost universally cited as one of the precursors of the Survival Horror genre, and sometimes even one of the actual firsts. To me it’s pretty curious that, being essentially a point and click adventure, most of it’s features were already present in a well known 80’s game: Maniac Mansion, one of Lucasarts many classics. This is kind of a weird case where the mockery precedes the serious statement, and if it wasn’t for the dates, Maniac Mansion could be easily seen as a Clock Tower parody. Both share many elements: Point and click interface, inventory-based puzzles, the haunted mansion theme, many common horror tropes, a very minimalistic plot development, the possibility of different approaches leading to multiple endings, situations where you’re being chased by an enemy, and probably some other coincidences. Yet, we know which is the one considered to be influential in the development of the genre.
Now, talking about the game itself: Artistically, is spectacular. The concept, the visual style, the atmosphere, the sound design, and all that within the limitations of the SNES. Everything here seems to have the same minimalistic approach: The number of actions the protagonist can do, the number of objects which can be interacted with within a single room, the heavy use of silence. Even the sound of the steps, which is basically just two sound, is incredibly effective to create a sustained tension. The game is said to be heavily inspired by Dario Argento’s Phenomena. I think there is a fair use of other Argento’s filmography references, such as Suspiria and Deep Red. Probably even Inferno.
The main problem of this game comes both from the mechanics and the technical department: Is extremely annoying for a modern PC player to get the game to function properly. Just setting it in fullscreen is already a problem. Once you solved that, you have to deal with the impossibility of saving the game, an extremely slow –therefore, tedious- movement, some really weird clickboxes, and a very awful panic button function. This Windows 95 port is a real shame: it has everything at hand to overcome the NES limitations, yet it’s probably even more uncomfortable to play than the NES itself. I guess that a proper fan made or official port is quite utopic at this point.
This game is definitely worth checking. The procedural design (which makes certain objects and certain events to randomly differ in each playthrough) and the various endings gives this game a lot of replayable value. That, if you’re pacient enough to deal with it’s extremely awful mechanics.
Now, talking about the game itself: Artistically, is spectacular. The concept, the visual style, the atmosphere, the sound design, and all that within the limitations of the SNES. Everything here seems to have the same minimalistic approach: The number of actions the protagonist can do, the number of objects which can be interacted with within a single room, the heavy use of silence. Even the sound of the steps, which is basically just two sound, is incredibly effective to create a sustained tension. The game is said to be heavily inspired by Dario Argento’s Phenomena. I think there is a fair use of other Argento’s filmography references, such as Suspiria and Deep Red. Probably even Inferno.
The main problem of this game comes both from the mechanics and the technical department: Is extremely annoying for a modern PC player to get the game to function properly. Just setting it in fullscreen is already a problem. Once you solved that, you have to deal with the impossibility of saving the game, an extremely slow –therefore, tedious- movement, some really weird clickboxes, and a very awful panic button function. This Windows 95 port is a real shame: it has everything at hand to overcome the NES limitations, yet it’s probably even more uncomfortable to play than the NES itself. I guess that a proper fan made or official port is quite utopic at this point.
This game is definitely worth checking. The procedural design (which makes certain objects and certain events to randomly differ in each playthrough) and the various endings gives this game a lot of replayable value. That, if you’re pacient enough to deal with it’s extremely awful mechanics.