Clock Tower 3 (PlayStation 2) review "Overview: "

Overview:

Scare factor: 8 
Fun factor: 9
Replay value: 6.75
Graphics: 8.5
Sound: 9
Overall: 8.75

This game is a bit different from the other Clock Tower games. But, I suppose they were both different from each other also. This game has you controlling another girl named Alyssa, (CT2's main character was named Alyssa). This time, though, she's British instead of Japanese. Also, the story has taken a bit of a different turn: Alyssa is from a bloodline of women that help the dead and get rid of evil spirits, so that is the reason why she goes into different realms to get rid of the bad guys; the bosses are actually people who were possessed by evil spirits. Alyssa can use holy water to scare off the baddies for a couple of seconds, but she can only use the filled bottle a set amount of times and you have to go back and refill it.

This game, like the other Clock Tower games, has you being chased by something trying to kill you and you have to hide or find something to defend yourself with. I think, though, that they could have made some more hiding places or something though. I mean, if you are confused and you don't know what to do in the game and you're trying to explore, it kind of sucks having to go all the way back to your safe spot to hide and then trying to venture back out to where you were and keep exploring. I just had them chase me while I was doing things some of the time, because I just got tired of using the same hiding spot if I was on the other side of the building.

In this game, there are different ''bad guys'' that chase you around. There's a guy with a hammer, a guy with an acid spray, a guy with axes, twins with scissor parts (very cool), and even Alyssa's own grandfather. You run away from them throughout the levels and then at the end of the level you will have a boss fight with them. In each of the boss fights there are certain techniques that work best with each of the bosses. They all have a weak moment in the fight when you can hit them better. Also, during the boss fights, Alyssa's weapon of choice is a magical arrow that she can use to kill them with (kind of like the 'magical serene arrow' from Akazukin Cha Cha, if anyone recalls that show).

The sound in this game was done pretty darned good. The voice acting in this game was done fairly well, I think. And I also think that the different voices for the baddies were well-fitted to their specific identities. I think, though, that some of the lines could have been revised or left out (it wasn't scary when Hammer said ''I killed her'', I mean, c'mon). The music in the game was really good though, I liked all of the different background music, especially the music that played when the baddies were chasing you (sometimes my head kinda bobbed a bit while playing, it's catchy stuff...).

Also, I thought that the graphics were pretty decent, but I wish they would port it over to GC and make some adjustments to them. I think with a little tweaking, they could have made them a little bit better. The cinematics had pretty good graphics. Also, the story has a lot of cut-scenes put in it. The only bad thing about that is when you beat the game and start it over again, cut-scenes don't change. So you have to watch them all over again. And the story unfolds in exactly the same way. What I mean is: the first time around the game has little movies and files and things to try to help you understand the gameplay, but the second time around they are just annoying. Also, if you push the 'start' button to skip a movie it will skip it, but it seems like it takes just as much time for it to load what happens _after_ the video as it does to simply watch it over. Another complaint about playing the game over is that the bosses get faster and have better weapons, but Alyssa continues to run at her snail's pace. If they were going to do that, I think you should start the game out with as much holy water as you ended it with the first time around.

All in all, this game is great the first time through playing it. I mean, I loved it! The only thing is that if you ''continue'' it, as apposed to starting over, the bosses are unreasonably tougher. The only good thing, well good if you like 14/15 year olds in skimpy clothes, is that Alyssa gets extra outfits when you start the game over in extra mode. I'm sure after you beat that you get even more things, but that extra mode is just way to hard for me to beat, that's for sure! C'mon Alyssa move your hiney faster, girly!

Definitely worth a rental if you aren't sure about buying it, but I rented it and then ended up buying it so, nyah!!

Community review by jill (July 31, 2003) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.