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Haunting Ground - Gamespot review

W

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/demento/review.html

7.2

The game at its longest will last between 10 to 15 hours, and you can extend the life of the game by playing through on harder difficulties and collecting new outfits for Fiona (and Hewie as well). The relationship between the girl and her dog, and her total dependence on her animal friend, really gives Haunting Ground its own special place in the horror genre. The hide-and-seek gameplay is not without flaws, but if you're a big horror fan and don't mind something different, Haunting Ground is worth a look.
 
I picked up Haunting Ground a the beginning of the month.

Haunting Ground thread at rllmuk

I played for a good few hours and thought the game was excellent.

I liked the paired down game mechanic. The run'n'hide, panic attacks and hysteria effects all seemed pretty novel and entertaining to me. (I've not played Eternal Darkeness.)

Hewie is great and like Ico I have a real empathy for the two characters and their plight.

I have to mention the technical aspects of the game. I have been replaying Silent Hill 3 and going straight from that to this was a bit if a techno shock.

The way you move from room to room without any loading is pretty impressive. Perhaps Sony have lent out their streaming code or perhaps Capcom have reversed engined how it is done. But it is really impressive to play a Japanese game that has the same kind of continuous environments as stuff like Jak2, Primal and Ghosthunter. I get a bit sick of games like Onimusha 3, MGS3, Silent Hill3 - where we have to put up with continuous loading screens.

The graphics far surpass Silent Hill 3 and it is amazing to see how far the PS2 has come since that game was developed.

Haunting Ground has Prog Scan, and it makes a real difference to the image quality and picture stability. Not as impressive as God of War, but pretty good for a PS2 game.
 
thanks for the impressions. sounds like something id really like.

unfortunately, im going to have to wait for a price drop.

too many games... not enough money.
 
I might as well copy my impressions from that thread a while back (referring to Nick's post back then too):

I agree. I've played through the game and it was overall an enjoyable experience.

The character design is great and the writing isn't as hammy as in RE4. It may not be jump-in-your-seat scary or action-packed, but the motivation to get Fiona and Hewie out of the castle is enough. And the underlying sexual tension (culminating in the nasty Game Over sequences) will make you want to protect her from the freaks that inhabit the castle grounds.

I disagree about it looking better than SH3 though, although it does a few technical things a lot better, like the aforementioned lack of loading times. Character models and the way they animate also look GREAT.

Don't know if I'll be replaying this any time soon though. A slow, moody game like this just doesn't have the same impact the second time through. Also, it loses a bit of focus later in the game, where some visuals and plot threads just get too crazy. The story is a tad underdeveloped too in a certain of instances, and the voice acting ranges from good to not-so-good (Daniella's laughter...).

Still, despite these nigglings, the game is a lot more enjoyable than most of the other unpolished drek in the horror genre (Fatal Frame, Siren).
 
Gamespot also failed to mention that further replay value comes from the multiple endings and getting all the in-game cinemas (you won't see them all your first time around) unlocked. Furthermore, the alternate outfits aren't just there to make Fiona a typical scantily-clad big breasted heroine; you get new items with them such as a whip and a gun.

FortNinety said:
The run and hide gameplay... is it at all similar to Clock Tower 3?
Click to expand...

I never played Clock Tower 3, but read that Haunting Ground is much better. Haunting Ground's enemies are a bit smarter in that if you keep hiding in the same spots, they WILL check them and find you. I've found that hiding behind an open door and then running and hiding in another area when they enter that room can often do the trick.

You can also get traps and use alchemy to create new traps/items for yourself to stop enemies from coming towards you. The worst I've seen is that you can "kill" an enemy for several minutes (they appear to be dead) before they get up and look for you again. But other than one or two incidents so far, the chases have been exciting and the AI didn't seem that stupid.

I'm finding Haunting Ground to be a fun game, and the total package has great visuals, sound, and good survival horror style game play. I wouldn't have expected it to be a big hit in the first place, but being released right before/during E3 seems to have killed any potential interest in the game as most people probably don't even realize the game came out. First sleeper hit of 2005 IMO.
 
This is definitely more polished than Clock Tower 3 was (although that had certain strengths to it). Probably the worst thing you can do with Haunting Ground is to go into it expecting a game that's non-stop scary and/or difficult. The game is more about eerie "what-the-fuck" moments, like when Fiona gets felt up by one of the villains. You often get a feeling that someone's watching Fiona, and the whole motivation to protect her is always there. Hewie (the dog) makes it pretty easy to knock out the various stalkers, so I was never really afraid of them. But for me, HG wasn't about the chase sequences - it felt more like a classic graphical adventure, with the focus lying on the exploration of the castle. Best way to describe it: ICO meets Shadow of Memories and Silent Hill.

Something about the plot that bothered me:

Seems like Fiona never really was that upset by the death of her parents. I think she never even mentioned them, which irked me a bit, I guess.
 
Ceb said:
Best way to describe it: ICO meets Shadow of Memories and Silent Hill.

Anything with similarities to Shadow Of Destiny is pure gold in my books. God, SoD was in the first year of the PS2's release, and in many ways, still my favorite PS2 game.

"Life Is A Wheel Of Changes."

Odd potential fact that I discovered recently: Homunculus from SoD, according to the IMDB was voiced by Charles Martinet...

AKA...

Mario.

That just freaks me out.

Then again, the cats in the game were voiced by the character designer from Suikoden I and IV, so... odd things abound.

I'll pick up HG maybe when the price drops. Could be a good game to tide me on summer holidays late at night. I'm looking for a more... traditional horror game, and this reminds me a lot of Alone In The Dark or even Koudelka.

Good stuff.
Click to expand...
 
My buddy brought his copy over a few nights ago and I had a blast playing it, I was genuinely freaked out when trying to run and hide from some of those fucked up things :lol
 
I've been playing this as well...

I'm really enjoying it thus far. It's actually a very calm adventure most of the time. At this point, there has only been one real enemy and he doesn't show up too often (and when he does, it does not always feel scripted). The mansion/castle is VERY large and the lack of any loading during the game really makes for a very seamless experience.

The visuals are pretty impressive as well. Some rooms sport quite a lot of detail and the character models are great. Realtime cutscenes are very well animated as well.
 
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