Review Haunting Ground (aka Demento) Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Genre: Action/Adventure Release Date: May 2005 Platform: Review by July 18, 2005		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

Having recently played Clock Tower 3 - my first experience with a non-fighting survival horror game - is was sheer coincidence that Haunting Ground arrived for review soon after. With memories of CT3 still fresh in my mind, it was only natural to make comparisons and I swear this game could easily have been titled “Clock Tower 3, Featuring Hewey”! What? Who on earth is Hewey? Well, I’ll get to that, but first let’s begin from the beginning.

After a horrible car accident - resulting in her parents’ deaths - 18-year-old Fiona Belli wakes up in a cage in the basement of a castle. The problem is, she has no recollection of how she got there. The door of the cage is open and the plot will thicken once she exits the basement and meets Daniela, the chamber maid. What is this place? How does hers parent’s accident tie into this castle? And, above all, what is that “Azoth”, that she will discover that she has? Is the Azoth so important, that someone would be willing to kill her in order to acquire it? On her search for a way out of the castle, Fiona will find the answers to those questions. Answers that will change her life forever!

Four people reside on the castle grounds: Debilitas, the gardener; Daniela, the chamber maid; Riccardo, an ominous hooded figure that will introduce himself as the castle keeper; and Lorenzo. Lorenzo will seem to want to help Fiona, but does he have another, not so friendly, agenda? The rest are less complex – they just want Fiona dead! Each for their own reasons. Debilitas is a deformed brute with the brains of a 5 year old and is obsessed with dolls. In the face of Fiona he will see a life-size doll (“My dolly”, as he eloquently puts it!) and would kill her to have her. Daniela is plain psycho, and wants Fiona dead because she envies the fact that Fiona is “complete”. Behind this psychosis though, lies a sad story of Daniela’s behavior. Riccardo is after Fiona’s Azoth, and will stop at nothing in order to get it from her! While Debilitas and Daniela are both mentally unbalanced, one can still feel sorry for them, unlike Riccardo who is just plain evil and definitely the least likable character (especially after his secret is revealed). Lorenzo is an enigma!

Just like CT3, Haunting Ground is a “defense” game. There will be no hordes of enemies that will need to be killed. Only those who want something will be after Fiona and they will never appear together at the same time. They will only appear one at a time, and they cannot be killed – at least, not in a regular way. They roam around the castle in real time, and can appear and start chasing Fiona at any time. There are a few triggers that will make them appear, but most of the time their appearances are random. When Fiona is being chased she can defend herself, either by kicking the enemy (kicking doors in their faces works too!) or by using certain defense items she will find scattered around. These are either Antimony Powder, which can be thrown at the enemy to slow them down, or Magnesia, which can be placed on the ground and works like a mine. The other thing Fiona can do is run and hide! There are a few hiding places that can be used to evade the enemy, and when Fiona is hiding, view becomes first person, through her eyes. She can stay hidden until the message “Coast Clear” appears, but if she uses a certain hiding spot too much, she will eventually be found.

Fiona’s primary weapon against her enemies though is Hewey. Hewey is a white german shepherd who will be found by Fiona in the castle gardens early in the game. It is amazing the detail that the programmers have gone to for his design. Hewey looks and acts like a real dog. He sniffs around, wags his tail, pulls his ears back, runs, jumps, sits, lies down etc. The only thing I didn’t see him do is… well, “that thing” that male dogs do! Overall he is the most adorable virtual dog ever created and I could not help falling instantly in love with him!

Besides being adorable, Hewey is an asset of the utmost value, and without his help the game cannot be finished. He will attack and bite Fiona’s enemies, slowing them down or injuring them enough to make them stop chasing her for a while. He will reach items that are beyond reach for Fiona. He will uncover hidden items by sniffing them out. And he will growl to warn Fiona when an enemy is close or when a trap lies ahead.

Hewey will not do all that for free though. Fiona needs to work on her friendship with him, and the friendlier Hewey feels towards her, the more helpful and obedient he will be. He needs to be praised every time he does something good, like fighting away an enemy or discovering an item, but he should also be scolded when he disobeys. For all that, the right analog stick is used, which is also used to order Hewey to attack or hold back, follow or stay put, sniff around or fetch an item, sit and shake hands! While he fights off an enemy, he can get too tired or hurt. He cannot die, but he can get hurt enough to fall on the ground immobilized. To avoid that from happening, or help him recover if it does, Fiona will need to feed him. Chicken and beef jerky are his favorite delicacies, while he absolutely hates onions, so remember to avoid them!

As opposed to Hewey, Fiona can die. And here comes one of the big novelties of Haunting Ground. There is no health bar. To be precise, there are no bars or meters or anything else of this sort. Fiona does not have “health”. She has stamina that goes down as she runs, making her tired and slowing her down, and she also has “her sanity”! When an enemy attacks her, Fiona starts to panic. As she panics more, the screen becomes grainier and gradually fades to black & white, while frames begin to skip and her heart beats faster and louder. Eventually she will reach a peak of total panic, at which point she will start to run uncontrollably, stumbling upon everything in her way and falling on the ground. The state of total panic does not last long, but if she is attacked by an enemy during that time she will fall on the ground and the next hit will be fatal. In order for things not to get that bad, Fiona needs to calm herself down, which is done by running away and either hiding or losing the enemy and staying put for a while to rest. If there is no time for that, there are items that can do that for her, either by raising her stamina (and higher stamina equals faster panic recovery) or lowering her panic. Beware though that items cannot be used during a total state of panic, so do your best not to get to that point! There are also some “recovery points”, in the form of sinks or fountains, where Fiona can fully restore her stamina and lower her panic, but they cannot be used when an enemy is hot on her tail.

Besides the regular enemies, Fiona will encounter a few other threats: the Luminescents, the Failures and traps. The Luminescents are blue firefly-like entities that will go after her as soon as she enters a room they are in. They explode upon contact, causing her panic to rise slightly, but their biggest drawback is the noise they make when they explode. Noise that will attract an enemy – and that’s definitely not what you want. Thankfully, they are very slow and easy to evade, and closing a door on them is enough to stop them. The Failures are small creatures that run up to Fiona, grab her legs and scream to the top of their lungs – yes, that’s all they do! And we know what loud screams do, don’t we? That’s right, they attract enemies! Failures are easy to kill though with just a few well-placed kicks. Finally, traps mean instant death. Good thing Hewey is around to warn you! The only way around them is finding the way to disarm them.

Running away from enemies is of course not the only thing to do around the castle. Its grounds need to be thoroughly explored in order for Fiona to escape. Helpful items will be found along the way like defense items, stamina/panic recovery items, jerkys and onions – and always keep in mind that you have Hewey’s nose at your service! Fiona can also kick vases or loosen parts of walls, to reveal hidden items – just be careful not to kick Hewey as he wouldn’t appreciate it. A special kind of item that can be found are the medallions. Those can be processed in a certain machine and can be turned into helpful or not so helpful items. Other useful items are key items, notes and clocks. Clocks are Haunting Ground’s version of the everlasting ridiculous console save method. Do you want to save your game cause it’s time to [insert important engagement here]? Tough! Console game developers have decided you will only be able to save when they want… On a side-note, I found it interesting that while this game is so similar to CT3, it uses clocks as save points!

When it comes to puzzles, Haunting Ground was a very pleasant surprise. The overall level of the puzzles is higher than the average survival horror game. Although they don’t match Silent Hill 2’s hard puzzle mode, I found them pretty challenging. The fact that Hewey played an active part in some of them was a very welcome feature too. But the biggest of the pleasant surprises is that each enemy eventually becomes a boss fight, which can only be beat using brains not brawl – although the enemies themselves will use plenty of the latter! I can easily say that Haunting Ground is an ideal game for adventurers that want to try their luck in survival horror but hate fighting and shooting. As long as they can take the stress of being chased of course!

All that sounds great so far, but unfortunately Haunting Ground suffers from the same problem CT3 did – it can become extremely frustrating. Picture this: you have just entered a new area. There is something that looks like a puzzle, a couple of desks to explore, one item in the back and a couple of doors leading to new areas. Suddenly, Daniela makes her appearance, holding a razor-sharp shard of glass. You order Hewey to attack her and you start running, trying to find a hiding spot. After a few screens, you eventually find one, where you hide and wait. Daniela comes in the room, can’t find you, leaves but comes back a few seconds after you came out of your hiding place (even though the “Coast Clear” message appeared). You start running again, and by the time you manage to lose her you are several screens away from the area where the chasing begun. Now you need to walk all the way back, but when you get there you barely have time to do anything cause Daniela is back! And you start running all over again, wishing you could find a rocket launcher… Sometimes this can happen so much that it takes forever just to explore a couple of rooms and it becomes extremely repetitive and frustrating. It also takes away a good chunk of the fun off the game to the point where I had to put the game aside for a couple of days (yes, it got that bad). LOTS of patience is required to play Haunting Ground – but adventurers are known for their patience, aren’t they?!

In the visual department Haunting Ground scores pretty high. For the capabilities of the PS2, I would say Haunting Ground pushes them to their limits. All areas are simply beautiful, and everything is designed in high detail; the rooms, the characters (with Fiona having too much detail!) and of course Hewey, who is the highlight of the game. An example of how much attention to detail has been paid is when Fiona runs by a candle, she will make its flame flicker! On the downside, the “usual suspect” makes its presence here as well: clipping. In some cases pretty severe, to the point where Fiona’s foot would disappear in a flight of stairs, while, if Hewey is in her way she would have no problem walking through him! The sound ties in perfectly with what’s going on, creating a beautiful atmosphere. A weird, soft background music is playing while Fiona is exploring the castle, creating a sense of solitude, but when an enemy is approaching, the music stops and, as soon as the enemy appears, a more foreboding music starts playing. This creates an intense feeling which, along with Fiona’s heart beating faster while she starts to panic, helps the adrenaline levels rise!

The cut-scenes are probably among the prettiest I have ever seen in a game. They are really a pleasure to watch (especially Hewey!). The characters voices are very well done too (I especially liked Fiona’s). One small but very important detail during cut-scenes is that they can be paused. Are you in the middle of a cut-scene where an important piece of the plot is being unraveled and the pizza guy knocks on your door? No problem, just press the start button to pause! A very welcome feature, that as far as I remember I have only seen in X-Files: Resist or Serve, and I really don’t understand why it hasn’t been used more often.

Overall, Haunting Ground is like a breath of fresh air in the survival horror world. Although its gameplay is a direct copy of CT3, it is still something that hasn’t been seen much – plus it features Hewey! Unfortunately, it suffers from the frustrating elements mentioned above, which can even lead someone to stop playing altogether. Those who have played CT3 and liked it will definitely like this game. Those who didn’t, will probably not like Haunting Ground either – but then again, Hewey might change their minds! In general, Haunting Ground will not appeal to gamers that are after the action parts of survival horror games. It will probably appeal to adventurers who want to try out survival horror, but not as a representative of this sub-genre, as well as survival horror fans who want something different – as long as they are equipped with a lot of patience! And then there is Hewey, who will simply appeal to everyone!

Final Grade: B-
(find out more about our grading system)