3rd part continuing from yesterday

Ending a stalker’s pursuit in Haunting Ground also requires an OFF trigger which is usually delayed as the stalker paths around the area searching for Fiona. At times this can get ridiculous and even tedious.It is particularly annoying when the stalker keeps repeating a line over and over.That’s a surefire way to break the mood by annoying the player.

Moderation is the key word here.If the player is spending all of their time just running and hiding how are they to wander about and appreciate the ambient environment for what it is?It takes time and, dare I say it, stillness to absorb and understand the warped nature of a place.Flight and combat require a player’s complete attention.

The mansion in the first Resident Evil is not horrific because it is filled with zombies and other nasty creatures. These things provide immediate threats and scare moments. Horror comes from the total package. It is a deep-seated sense of revulsion at recognizing the Other and realizing it is not so far removed from what is normal so as to be completely unknowable. If a zombie jumps out and the player is startled that fear will fade in time. Combine that startle with an environment that keeps them nervous and the realization that anyone can become a monstrosity and you walk into horror by making connections to fears beyond basic survival.

What am I getting at with that long tirade? My point can be summed up by a great quote from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame:

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Frollo: Ease up. Wait between lashes. Otherwise, the old pain will dull him to the new.

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That is precisely what Clock Tower: The First Fear succeeds at but Haunting Ground fails to understand. In Clock Tower Bobby might only appear at the beginning and end of the game if the player is swift and fortunate. The second installment, named simply Clock Tower (don’t ask), sees the antagonist Dan appear more frequently but there are more impromptu weapons and hiding places to ditch him quickly. It threatens to cross the annoyance threshold but doesn’t overdue it.

This threshold I speak of comes from having a needed objective to accomplish. If a stalker keeps popping up and interrupting this mission the threshold is breached at that point when the player yells at the screen to knock that annoying crap off. The stalker has tranformed from a threat to a nuisance instilling resentment and anger.

I presume that the tendency to have a Stalker at the Heels originated in Resident Evil 3 with Nemesis. Resident Evil 2 included a persistant tyrant named Mr. X who would pursue the player during route B missions. Resident Evil 3 built on this by introducing a warped rocket launcher toting X Tyrant named Nemesis after the Nemesis parasite that gives the tyrant it’s tentacles.

Nemesis appears many times throughout the game but most appearances can be ended immediately by opting to flee when a Fight or Flight option appears on screen. Fighting is usually brief – either you have the firepower and skill to defeat Nemesis or it makes short work of Jill. Thus are Nemesis’ many appearances tempered by their brevity.

The makers of Haunting Ground did not include such restraint with their villains. They simply keep coming back. Clock Tower 3 introduced the notion of stalker triggers. These were things in the environment that would alert the resident evil of the heroine’s location but were generally avoidable as long as you were alert and knew where they were. These were such things as accidently kicking a bottle over so it shatters loudly. Haunting Ground has mobile stalker triggers that move towards Fiona in a concerted effort to reveal her location.

to be continued ...