Human Leisure’s 1995 horror journey traditional Clock Tower wants almost no introduction to most followers of the style, though the sport by no means launched outdoors of Japan. Its repute preceded it as one of many earliest examples of cinematic survival horror, constructed on an growing old and restricted {hardware} platform on which most wouldn’t assume it attainable to supply a convincing and immersive cinematic horror recreation. It defied the percentages of its ambitions and technological limitations to turn out to be one thing of legend amongst followers of the style, so this yr’s Clock Tower: Rewind launch is a little bit of an enormous deal because it’s making the sport formally obtainable to English-speaking audiences for the primary time.
In approaching this remaster, the studio and writer labored collectively and contributed to what would hopefully turn out to be an entire, cohesive bundle that will have one thing to supply for long-time followers and first-time gamers alike. With 2D gaming masters, WayForward, dealing with the gameplay half, and the writer dealing with the additional options and new bonus parts, Clock Tower: Rewind was promised to be an important look again on the recreation in addition to its historical past, and a brand new manner for the world to expertise the a seminal recreation within the horror style.
I used to be first launched to the sport again in 2002, shortly after the English fan translation patch was launched, and it modified my notion of how horror could possibly be conveyed within the medium of video video games. Regardless that I had already performed many different horror video games on PS1 a couple of years earlier, together with its sequel, Clock Tower 2 (confusingly titled Clock Tower in Western markets,) taking part in the unique 1995 Clock Tower gave me far more perspective about horror video games and what makes them tick.
Director Hifumi Kono’s clear inspiration from European horror motion pictures of the Nineteen Seventies and 80s struck a chord with my pre-existing love of those self same movies, and the sport managed to merge the bizarre-yet-grounded worlds of these sorts of movies with the immersion and interactivity of video video games and the chilling soundscape to make what may solely be described as transcendent of the medium on the time.
Evidently, I approached this new remastered model with a bit of apprehension but in addition pleasure that it could current a brand new solution to play the sport and add a number of new options to expertise, so I’ve gone by means of with a fine-tooth comb so far as what this bundle affords to look at what it presents us in as we speak’s gaming panorama.
Presentation:
Beginning with the final presentation, we are able to begin with how the sport greets you, which is with an all-new anime-style intro cutscene with a enjoyable and becoming artwork type, and a brand new theme tune made for the sport, written primarily based on the principle musical theme of Clock Tower, and with new lyrics and vocals by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. The tune is usually a bit of underwhelming, but it surely’s good to have some new content material for the discharge that acts as an homage to the unique recreation’s artwork type and temper.
Afterward, you’ll get to the principle menu, which brings us to the topic of the menus on the whole, and as an entire, the menus are fairly well-done, with a couple of little caveats. The menus look nice, however the controls on them could be a bit complicated when utilizing a mouse and keyboard, though they’re fairly intuitive with a controller. KB&M forces you to make use of some awkward keyboard controls to navigate, consistently switching between requiring the WASD keys and the arrow keys, after which navigating the in-game controls is an entire different ordeal that can be mentioned additional within the controls part.
One other missing function of the menus is how a number of the textual content descriptions of what completely different menu choices imply or what the variations are between the “Unique” and “Rewind” variations of the sport are fairly missing in readability or element. Moreover, the “How To Play” part is missing clear clarification on a number of the recreation’s extra nuanced options, which is perhaps a bit of complicated for brand spanking new gamers, and may hopefully be up to date sooner or later.
Sport expertise:
As beforehand talked about, it’s value delving into what the variations are between the 2 recreation modes this bundle affords, the place Unique mode is just the unique Tremendous Famicom model of Clock Tower, precisely as it’s on its authentic {hardware}. The one exceptions are the save state function and the not-too-useful rewind function, which lets you rewind about 15-20 seconds of gameplay in case you made a foul selection, but it surely tends to solely be of a lot use in a couple of particular conditions, with the gameplay of Clock Tower being so gradual on the whole.
However, the Rewind mode is far nearer to the PS1 remaster of the sport, titled The First Worry, the place many updates have been made to the sport, however that is completely not a port of the PS1 model by any means. Whereas Rewind mode does put again in a room and few of the minor deleted scenes that have been restored for the PS1 model, most of its different high quality of life options or updates weren’t introduced alongside.
The power for Jennifer to run up and down stairs and transfer quicker in sure animations is retained and she or he heals a bit quicker, which makes an enormous distinction within the gameplay, although it’s mentioned that Scissorman’s habits and look has been modified to be extra frequent and random, but it surely’s exhausting to inform within the moment-to-moment gameplay. Nevertheless, the opposite options from First Worry should not current, together with the improved visuals and sound, distinctive FMV cut-scenes, and improved mouse controls. This makes the Rewind mode a lot nearer to the “Deluxe” fan patch that was launched by followers in 2023 somewhat than being extra just like the PS1 model.
It is a little bit of a disappointment, since The First Worry model improves the expertise in each manner, however for one purpose or one other, that model was not included on this bundle, though the Rewind mode remains to be significantly better to play than the unique.
Regardless, the core recreation expertise remains to be right here, plus the save state and rewind options which may turn out to be useful or is perhaps important for some new gamers, and it’s nonetheless top-of-the-line horror journey experiences of all time, so there’s not a lot else to complain about right here apart from the “what may have been.”
Controls:
The controls are one other supply of competition right here, particularly relating to the PC model, which may and ideally needs to be one of the best platform to play the sport on, since many of the video games within the sequence have been designed to be performed with mouse controls, however there’s a couple of botched alternatives right here that muddle what could possibly be the easiest way to play.
Not like within the PS1 model, which made the sport totally playable with solely the mouse, Rewind requires you to make use of the mouse and keyboard concurrently, and the keyboard controls are awkward, with no potential to remap keys or instructions in any way. There’s additionally no choice to make use of a mix of a controller and mouse, so your solely choices are both the poorly-laid out keyboard controls with the mouse or simply utilizing a controller as a substitute.
Hopefully these management shortcomings could be mounted later, however proper now, it seems like a blemish on what may’ve made this a the best solution to expertise the sport, in order it stands, the keyboard and mouse controls want some work. On a controller, all the things works simply high quality, because the recreation isn’t very demanding or complicated so far as controls go, so long as you don’t thoughts transferring an on-screen mouse pointer with an analog stick or d-pad.
Both manner, the sport remains to be playable, however hopefully they will repair the keyboard controls or present extra choices of find out how to customise your play within the close to future.
Further options:
The additional options listed below are nice additions, beginning with a enjoyable set of clips from a current interview with director Hifumi Kono (executed particularly for this launch) in regards to the historical past of the sport and his ideas on how this remaster was being dealt with. This leads to someplace round half-hour of footage to observe, and it’s a worthy additional to have.
There’s additionally new movement comedian diversifications of the unique manga that have been included within the First Worry model of the sport and the Japanese technique information e-book for the sport, with full voice appearing and neat animation to go along with it. These are properly executed, even when they’re pretty quick, however equally are a pleasant addition for the bundle.
Lastly, there’s the included “Industrial Pattern Demo” which was a demo model of the sport that was proven at gaming occasions and in some retailer kiosks that options a couple of small playable snippets of early gameplay, which solely quantities to a 5-10 minutes of additional play, but it surely’s good to have it included within the bundle, even when it’s nonetheless in Japanese.
Regardless of a couple of perplexing selections on find out how to method this remaster of a traditional, it opens the sport as much as a completely new viewers and nonetheless incorporates the core of the Clock Tower expertise, which is simply as incredible of an expertise in spite of everything these years and deserves a glance from anybody who who has or hasn’t performed it but. Particularly for the low worth, this can be a no-brainer for followers of horror journey video games or for these eager to expertise a well-preserved model of an essential early horror traditional.
With a couple of updates to the PC model, it could possibly be the easiest way to play the sport outdoors of the PS1 port, so hopefully these updates can be made quickly. However, no matter the way you select to play, Clock Tower remains to be an expertise any fan of the horror recreation style ought to expertise sooner or later of their life.
(9 / 10)
(9 / 10)Wonderful
Depend on Horror Overview Rating Information
A PC assessment code was supplied by the writer.
