Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

Alyssa is the kind of girl that one would most likely star in a low-budget horror film, and then be the first to fall into the trap and die. She gets a letter from her mom, telling her to stay away from her house, and being the low-budget-horror-film-stereotype she is- goes to the house to check if her mother is ok. Once she arrives, she realizes her mother is gone and that she's being chased by a mad serial killer and that she can see the vengeful ghosts of the departed.

In this installment of the Clok Tower series, players are able to do what no other Clock Tower game offered before- have control over the main character. In the last games, everything was played out by pointing and clicking on stuff. In Clock Tower 3, more freedom is given to players when it comes to playability. The key of the gameplay is to run away as humanly possible from those chasing you. When people think of horror-survival games when it comes to fighting off a threat, they usually think about at least having a gun with limited ammo like in the Resident Evil series, or having a steel pipe like in the Silent Hill games. But in Clock Tower 3, all you can do is run and hide. When an enemy is chasing you, a single hit can mean instant death. This feature adds suspense to the Clock Tower games, but can also be a nuisance since hiding spots are annoyingly limited at times.

Everyone around Alyssa is dying, and being a "Rooder", the females in her family who can communicate with the dead, it's up to her to help them accept their fates and send these vengeful spirits back to the other world. When a spirit is nearby and begins to haunt Alyssa, her Panic bad begins to increase and sends her in a panic that will eventually kill her. To avoid this from happening, the players can either run away or help the ghost by finding clues to help them find peace. Helping them often means a reward at the end. Rather or not this is a great feature for this kind of game is up to the players.

When a person playing Clock Tower 3 for the first time gets into a boss battle, most of the time they think what the heck is this! When Alyssa begins a boss battle, the enemie pops up and it counts up how many hit points they have according to their crimes. Soon, Alyssa pulls out a... magical bow out of nowhere that shoots out arrows of light. I know it's a part of the storyline because of what the main character is, but the game goes from being a semi-horror-survival game to being a magical action game when a boss battle occurs. It just doesn't match the atmosphere in the game and keeps the game from getting a better score. Boss battles are frustrating at times- players must go into a first-person mode while charging up an arrow. This process takes a bit of valuable time up, and Alyssa cannot change her aim nor see the landscape around her. Another feature that keeps boss battles from being any fun is the fact that there is no auto-aim, making the fight even more hindering.

That which the boss battles and gameplay hurt the beautiful cutscenes make up foe. Each cutscene is amazingly animated and unfold the at times confusing storyline. Every scene is hard to skip in this game.

The game has a great soundtrack filled with everything from sorrowful piano music to the ominous sounds of the empty blood-painted streets of World War 2 London. The gameplay may be fun to those who like the suspence of running and hiding from an enemy or a pain to those who would rather kill their enemies. When it comes to boss battles, most first-time players would rather stick needles in their eyes than deal with the pain of the fight. But if you're a person looking for their first horror-survival game- make this one the one. It's filled with suspense and an amazing storyline that will not dissapoint!