Clock Tower: Rewind Steam Charts & Stats

CLOCK TOWEL, that's not very scary

Doshit animations. Doshit ENG dub. Decent qol updates. Just play the SNES version.

it's phenomenal seeing this game on steam. only issue i have with the game are the "you unlocked a new cutscene" thingies that cover up the whole screen. otherwise this seems really really faithful with good toggleable quality-of-life changes. very fun. man, i love game preservation <3

Three years before changing the Horror gaming landscape forever with their archetypal zombie series Resident Evil, Capcom's original journey into the darker side of popular culture came in the form of this tense little 16-bit offering. Inspired by the Giallo films of Italian director Dario Argento, "Clock Tower" is a short point/click mystery game that mixes the same investigation and puzzle-solving common in Capcom's more famous franchise with the nail-biting tension of the director's most successful screen shockers. Players take control of Jennifer (a very thinly veiled representation of Jennifer Corvino - the protagonist of Argento's 1982 film "Creepers/Phenomenon" played by future Hollywood icon Jennifer Connelly), who along with four friends and her guardian Ms. Mary visit a secluded rural mansion in the hope of settling down in a new home. It isn't long however before the girls start getting picked off one by one until Jennifer along is left as the final girl whose task is to uncover the mansion's dark past and vanquish it's villain Scissorman. Right from the get-go, the Argento references come thick and fast. Those familiar with the director's canon will immediately identify set pieces taken right out of the likes of "Susperia", "Inferno", "Opera" and especially "Creepers/Phenomenon". The game's villain especially is giallo through and through: A bitter angry dwarf with an enormous pair of garden sheers who stalks Jennifer throughout the adventure and can literally appear out of nowhere. Every game from "Outlast" to "Camp Sunshine" has no doubt been inspired by this character and it shows. Consequently, the only real reaction Jennifer has to these encounters is to run. Unlike in Argento's movie where Connelly's Jennifer had the advantage of entomological telepathy to provide some kind weapon against the bad guys, here she totally unarmed and largely helpless. Other than the odd weapon-based story beat; most of Jennifer's encounters involve either fleeing to a few familiar safe spots where she can hide it out until Scissorman loses interest, or sometimes managing to briefly overpower him so she can make a hasty get away. The latter is a clear foreshadowing of the Mr. X and Nemesis encounters which translated the same dynamic into Resident Evil; and in all cases plays well to the suspense of each of the respective titles. Beyond this point, and the obvious nostalgia value that comes from playing such a notable piece of gaming history, this is where the game's pros conclude. The biggest problem with "Clock Tower" is that it was made for 16-bit consoles and as such has one of the clunkiest control systems this side of "Night Trap" (big shout out there to another iconic Horror title from that era). With both the thumb sticks and the D-pad assigned to operating the game's mouse cursor, the shoulder buffers are instead used to dictate movement at pace. This can prove frustrating at the best of times, given that they mostly come into play when Jennifer is being harassed by Scissorman. There are few things more annoying than to try to flee from the maniac trying to do you in only to instead find oneself running TOWARD danger instead of away! This new special edition version comes with a rewind feature which allows you to redeem mistakes made during these events (hence the game's title), but it does make one wonder how many people premature abandoned this game because of this infuriating feature? Since the 1995 release of "Clock Tower", Capcom has release a number of sequels and a similar though unrelated title in "Haunting Ground". It's influence would also later give rise not only to Stealth-Horror franchises like Sony's "Siren" game saga, but also Interactive Drama titles like "Until Dawn" and the "Dark Pictures Anthology". For these reasons, the game deserves to be played and enjoyed. However, much like other early entries to Horror gaming, it should be seen as a product of it's time and not judged with modern eyes. Great for nostalgia fans and genre historians but perhaps not so much for modern gamers. Final Verdict - 3/5 stars.