Games:
Clock Tower
- Platform: PlayStation
- Release Date: 1997
Game Description
A murderous lunatic known only as "Scissorman" is out on a killing rampage, with 10 victims currently under his belt. The Scissorman is a deformed man (or is it a woman?) whose face is completely wrapped up in gauze, has a nasty limp, and wields a pair of three foot long scissors. Needless to say, no one really wants a piece of the scissors action and are all rightfully scared out of their minds. On the other hand, these murders cannot continue forever and he must be brought to justice. Assuming the role of either a psychiatrist, or the only person to ever escape Scissorman's menacing wrath, you must set out and solve the evil mystery surrounding the Clock Tower murders. Unmasking Scissorman is also a top priority next to staying alive. ~ Michael L. House, All Game GuideReview: Enjoyment
Though the story is actually quite interesting, the game itself is just too slow. There are only a few "exciting" scenes in the whole game. ~ Michael L. House, All Game GuideReview: Overall
Human's Clock Tower promised us lots of scare and gore. The end product falls a bit short of both, and winds up somewhat disappointing. In Clock Tower, you assume the role of either Helen Maxwell, a psychiatrist, or Jennifer Simpson, the only person to escape from Scissorman. Picking your protagonist is very important in that it will effect the outcome of the game. Each person has a possibility of five endings (10 in all) depending on how you play through the game. The two characters' paths are very different from each other, and also feature different side characters to use. That aside, the main objective still remains for both: Stop Scissorman and find out who he or she really is. Doing this isn't exactly an easy task. In the grand tradition of point-and-click graphical adventures, you get a variety of items and must solve many puzzles. The puzzles range from fairly easy to insanely obscure and difficult.The game itself is broken down like this: story, scenario, story, scenario, etc. Scenarios are the "adventure" sequences where the player solves these puzzles and picks up items. It's also where you encounter Scissorman. Once you hear this weird "techno" music come on, it means Scissorman is close by. Once he spots you, you can either hide from him, try to overpower him, or run away from him depending on your current location. If there happens to be an item you can hit him with laying around, you can bonk him over the head with it and run away. The bad thing is, Scissorman isn't scary at all. Gamers were promised a scary horror game, and while it IS a horror game, it is far from scary. This is more than likely due to the point-and-click interface which in itself is good. Items are relatively easy to see thanks to the "hot spots." When you're in the grips of Scissorman and are in danger of dying, the cursor flashes. When this happens, you must frantically hit buttons until you either A: overpower Scissorman, or B: die.
The graphics in Clock Tower aren't too bad. They're basically 3D polygons with a usually 2D perspective, and are fairly lifelike. There are also some neat camera rotations that make it look "cool." The music is only okay.
Scissorman's music is a bit anti-scary, but gives you an adrenaline rush (because he's looming around close by). While in a story point in the game, characters are given voices. The voice acting is slightly above par. Some are good, some aren't. The text, as in every other part of the game, is poorly written. In the end, Clock Tower just isn't that much fun. There's no scare factor and relatively no gore (well, except for a few scenes). If you're a fan of point-and-click adventure game, then you would probably enjoy this game. If not, don't waste your time. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide
