TITLE: Clock Tower, or why I'm a using funny font AUTHOR: Jim9137 DATE: 11/19/2005 05:50:00 ip. ----- BODY:

I'm covering for Trey today, who's going to be a pa soon! Congrats, congraaats! Arr. Fittingly, this article was intended to be more experimental one, first with me and Trey doing it and then Fuzzy... But yarr, I wrote all of it in the end. No hard feelings or anything, just a knife. But hey, I get to use funky fonts and formatting! READ MORE! Clock Tower, hailed as one of the most creepiest, clumsiest and funniest games of all time, is a game that was released on SNES and spawned two sequels and a remake on PSX. Clock Tower 2 continued the story of the Barrows' legacy, but Clock Tower 3 as I understood is only a 'parody' without any real connection to the previous games. It puts the player in the role of a small orphan girl, stuck with her friends in a mansion that instead of providing home and shelter is actively trying to kill her. But for Jim9137 try to dig in the very essence of what makes this game so scary, creepy or what is it. PART I: BEGINNINGS (Jim9137, John9137) [John9137 and Jim9137 are arguing] Jim9137: "Wait, wait, this didn't belong in our contract! I spec-" [John9137 shows the contract.] Jim9137: "oh. crap. Uh, hello kids out there! We'll be your guide today, taking you for a tour of the famous Barrows' family mans-" [A scream can be heard outside.] Jim9137: "DON'T LOOK OUT THE WINDOWS." [More screams, lights go out.] PART II: Don't forget to pick up the ham (Jim9137) Jim9137: "Uh uh, what happened to the lights? Oh, damn it John, now you've done it! Curses where is the switch..." [Lights flicker on, revealing a kitchen with a fridge and a shelf of bottles on the opposite wall, the wall to the right has oven and a door leading to cold room. Kitchen knives hang right of the door. Lights keep on flickering.] Jim9137: "Uhm, okay I suppose. Where did Trey go? Ah, anyway. This is quite usual on the Barrows' mansion, pots and pans flying all around and things like that... Wait, not exactly. It's far subtler than that." [Jim9137 walks out of the room, peeks and goes in to a dark corridor.] Jim9137: "As I was saying, the terror of the Barrow's Mansion is quite subtle. Many things, many many things are quite wrong in here... It's quite imminent on various little details, such as portraits that bleed real blood. No, I'm not kidding. Real blood, just like the Virgin Mary statues do. The lack of music is just reinforcing this fact, because the sound of your footsteps is all you hear most of the time." [Sounds of footsteps as Jim9137 walks towards the end of the hallway.] Jim9137: "Most of the time, that is." [Jim9137 opens the door and slams it right shut again.] Jim9137: "Little surprises will dot your life around in the Barrows' mansion, such as this one. Hiding will be a prominent part of the game, and it's great fun to try to find out different places to hide." [Jim9137 runs towards the other end of the hallway, swings the door open. You're in a wooden garage with a lorry and ladder leading there. A shovel, box and hey lies on the floor. Jim9137 climbs up the ladder to the larry and lies down flat.] Jim9137: (whispering) "When you're being chased, the only way to get away is to either hide, or just wait until you're left alone, but that might take a while. The main villain is very, very scary person and unstable as well, and the fact that his whole family is out to get you isn't helping at all. Besides for his dad, but that's completely different story. Wait, what was that?" [A crash, scream, Jim9137 drops from the lorry and runs right through the hallway and the door he tried earlier. A large hall with a circling balcony (word?) and stairs leading up there. Right next to Jim9137 is a door, and way ahead is another door.] Jim9137: (panting) "But sometimes, it's just better to run. When you're being chased, your body produce thing called Adrealine. It allows you to do feats that you couldn't normally do, such as jump over holes, climb over cabinets... Stamina is vital part of the game, it's your health. Running depletes it for example, making you trip over. Right next to your chaser sometimes, which is not that nice. Only way to recover it is just to rest and give it some time, although it might turn out you're going to need it faster than it recovers. Which just contributes to the feel you're plaing a small girl." [Jim9137 opens the door across the hall, and keeps it open.] Jim9137: "But the greatest thing in Barrow's mansion is all the feel of mystery, which is going to keep you addicted. That mystery also cover the feel of insecurity, the feel that you are just a simple girl instead of a marine with nearinfite amounts of ammo and few tonnes of artillery in your pants and the fact that the whole mansion is probably one of the most twisted, sickest and crooked things on the existence filled with morbid details and secrets. You can tackle through it many different ways, many of which give you different end result in the end. Or you can steal the car and drive away, leaving your companions here... alone... uh..." [Fadeout] INTERLUDE: Twinkie Bobby!

----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:  Anonyymi EMAIL: URL: DATE: 18:48 I heard that CT3 is very much along the lines of some generic stalker-slasher flick. I can't imagine the atmosphere would be anything like the original. CT was freaky as fuck because of all the unexplained surreal shit (the wind-up doll that played tinkly music and slammed you, the parrot that fluttered around squawking "I'll kill you", your mirror reflection reaching out to strangle you) in the midst of this somewhat spooky but otherwise comfortable and normal-looking house. It was easy to imagine yourself there, as it wouldn't have been if the place had been old and decrepit or full of ghosts or something. The constant silence added to the effect. Bobby was the only 'real' monster, and while he was pretty freaky with his random sudden attacks, it was the house itself and all its little weirdnesses that fucked with you on a slightly more subliminal level... more than I imagine it would have in some run-of-the-mill haunted house or survival monster game... ----- --------