Clock Tower 3 breaks away from the campy feel of previous installments and matures into a solid horror experience. The strong story and voice acting make the game a must play, but the skimpy replay value leaves something to be desired. The only resemblance Clock Tower 3 bears to the games that preceded it is the basic play mechanic of a girl with no weapons being pursued by a crazed psycho. With Capcom taking over the series, the adventure has steered away from cheap, tongue-in-cheek capers and matured into a fully realized, big-budget thriller—a little ironic since the company’s main survival/horror franchise is still hindered by its B-movie trappings. Controlling main character Alyssa is easy since she’s limited to walking around, using holy water, and searching for items. The puzzles scattered throughout the game are pretty simple, and the progression is very linear, but the difficulty goes up several notches for boss battles. It’s here that you’re given more combative options and a good deal more strategic planning comes into play. The animation of every character looks great, but there are times when it’s way over the top. Otherwise, the visuals are clean and give off the right atmosphere. Another highlight is the game’s audio with its appropriately creepy background music and fine execution of dialogue. The British accent–tinted voice acting isn’t perfect but well done all the same, and it strengthens the story’s impact. Aside from unlocking various bonuses, there aren’t many incentives to replay the game. This aspect wouldn’t hurt so much if Clock Tower 3 took longer to complete, but it’s relatively short and easy compared to similar games in this genre. Granted, of course, this is probably a good degree of length and difficulty for a mainstream audience; the story’s heroine-empowering focus also makes it especially attractive to women. Despite this lack of length, horror game fans owe it to themselves to at least rent Clock Tower 3 for some relatively original, spine-tingling fun.
