You know why horror games like F Na F are often received so poorly? Other than the giant amounts of Fandumb, F Na F and many modern horror games rely heavily on jump scares. While effective temporarily, they also makes the games' replay value drop DRAMATICALLY(they don't work twice and get annoying after a while). So why the hell do they STILL work in Clock Tower? Because that isn't the only horror the series offers, and it just complements the bigger picture.
Clock Tower(concretely the first two games, as Struggle Within is executed questionably and the less we speak about CT 3 the better) is like playing a good old slasher film. It focuses on creating a sense of tension and the fear of being discovered by establishing your character as powerless against the odds of an unstoppable murderer and the need of using your wits to survive and get through. The main fear in the series is the one of being discovered when you're the most vulnerable. It's not a character driven series as it plays with primal fear through it's gameplay, and still manages to be elegant about it.
Said gameplay is simple yet a tad tricky to get used to. It controls like a point and click adventure, meaning you move your character(good ol' Jennifer Conne...I mean, Simpson) by moving the cursor on the screen and making click in the desired direction. This can make the chasing you face in the game frustrating, but more than all it makes it thrilling. It gives the player the sense of not being in control yet STILL manages to be perfectly playable via alternate command controls(left and right are mapped to the trigger buttons of the respective console, which allows for smooth running). Hiding also plays a HUGE part on the game, as finding places to get out of sight or setting traps is vital to(temporarily) get rid of the stalkers the series puts on your toes.
That praise given, the games aren't without their flaws. Between short playing times, the occasional annoyance to figure out the most obscure puzzles and the fact some of the spawning spots for the stalkers and traps to be set border on Looney Toons logic, there are issues that makes this quite an acquired taste.
Still, while I can't say the series is for everyone, Clock Tower offers so much with so little, it's hard to ignore what can be learned from it when creating a horror game.
Clock Tower: A bit of what horror games need right now.
You know why horror games like F Na F are often received so poorly? Other than the giant amounts of Fandumb, F Na F and many modern horror games rely heavily on jump scares. While effective temporarily, they also makes the games' replay value drop DRAMATICALLY(they don't work twice and get annoying after a while). So why the hell do they STILL work in Clock Tower? Because that isn't the only horror the series offers, and it just complements the bigger picture.
Clock Tower(concretely the first two games, as Struggle Within is executed questionably and the less we speak about CT 3 the better) is like playing a good old slasher film. It focuses on creating a sense of tension and the fear of being discovered by establishing your character as powerless against the odds of an unstoppable murderer and the need of using your wits to survive and get through. The main fear in the series is the one of being discovered when you're the most vulnerable. It's not a character driven series as it plays with primal fear through it's gameplay, and still manages to be elegant about it.
Said gameplay is simple yet a tad tricky to get used to. It controls like a point and click adventure, meaning you move your character(good ol' Jennifer Conne...I mean, Simpson) by moving the cursor on the screen and making click in the desired direction. This can make the chasing you face in the game frustrating, but more than all it makes it thrilling. It gives the player the sense of not being in control yet STILL manages to be perfectly playable via alternate command controls(left and right are mapped to the trigger buttons of the respective console, which allows for smooth running). Hiding also plays a HUGE part on the game, as finding places to get out of sight or setting traps is vital to(temporarily) get rid of the stalkers the series puts on your toes.
That praise given, the games aren't without their flaws. Between short playing times, the occasional annoyance to figure out the most obscure puzzles and the fact some of the spawning spots for the stalkers and traps to be set border on Looney Toons logic, there are issues that makes this quite an acquired taste.
Still, while I can't say the series is for everyone, Clock Tower offers so much with so little, it's hard to ignore what can be learned from it when creating a horror game.