PlayStation

Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within

One aspect I didn't care for was the whole split personality thing. You sometimes have to be a certain personality to perform different tasks, and it's a pain to switch between them. Clock Tower 2 boasts 13 (!) different endings, but are these really necessary? Do they really expect anyone to finish the game 13 times? Still, Clock Tower 2 succeeds despite its flaws. If you enjoyed the first game, you'll probably like this one too.

I wouldn't even mind the pace if the interaction was good and the game drew you in, but the interface is just about as off-putting as possible, and when you are supposed to identify with a character, this is a problem. As a rental, it gets quite a bit more interesting, but you will likely just look up a walk-through just to get through the story rather than plod through the trial-and-error game system. The only reason to buy it is it encourage ASCII to take more chances in creating oddball games that differ from the norm, but in this case, it wasn't worth it.

If some modifications to the gameplay were made, I wouldn't mind seeing a third installment of this series. But gimmicks such as the Escape and Panic mode add little to the gameplay. There is a great game here waiting to be freed, but it is caught in the underpinnings of the developers being enslaved to a mentality that insists puzzles be no more difficult than finding a key for a lock or blasting away at zombies. If the plot had been fleshed out more fully and the reliance on weapons in the second chapter toned down, CT2 would have been a genuinely scary game. Instead, it winds down into a morass of dead ends, red herrings, and zombie innards.

Clock Tower II isn't a good choice for those looking for a solid puzzle adventure or a compelling and scary game - it's neither smart, nor frightening, nor fun. Readers are better advised to look at either the most recent Oddworld or Resident Evil titles, and leave this one for the antique collectors.