The abyss of the darkness

Part 7

The introduction of a villain is every bit as important as their means and motivations – particularly in horror where very little of the villain’s background is revealed. How this first introduction is carried out and it’s effectiveness depends on the type of horror. Visceral slasher shock does well when the stalker appears in the act of murder. Slower psychological horror can take it’s time to twist the knife in.

This is the main difference between Clock Tower and Haunting Ground. The former is a slasher horror game while the latter is more dependant on psychological torments. Haunting Ground even keeps many classic horror clichés such as having a nubile young female protagonist subject to tripping and fainting spells.

Haunting Ground is not without the slasher elements hence the frequent fleeing from the four stalkers in the game. It is abundantly clear when Daniella first becomes aggressive that she means bloody business. Of the four villains Daniella is perhaps the most frightening.

For starters she appears human but after hearing her speak of her creator it’s clear she is a construct built as an “ideal woman” to always obey, cook, clean, and take care of the castle interior. Unable to feel pain Daniella has no concept of her own mortality and lacks any ability to empathize with others. Her relationship with Riccardo is purely as a tool that he uses as he sees fit and abuses on a whim. She is completely loyal and obsessed with her own perfection.

It is unclear just what she plans to do upon achieving completion. There’s no hint of anger towards Riccardo. Her obsessiveness may stem from an intense desire to please him – seeing as how he isn’t too thrilled with how she turned out as-is – along with being stuck in a perpetual state of the uncanny valley. Although she has the form of a woman she cannot do the one thing that Riccardo wants out of Fiona and that is give birth.

There is also a constant thread throughout the game of each villain (except Debilitas) trying to gain Fiona’s azoth, her life essence. It is no surprise then that in the best ending only Debilitas reaches a level of redemption and is spared death. What azoth really is, well that’s not very well defined in the game. Daniella describes at as “essence of life, essence of woman” but by that point she’s slipped into serious dementia. It becomes clear that Riccardo has this essence when Lorenzo drains it from his dead body. You’d think that dying would extinguish the essence of life.

Azoth can apparently be passed from parent to child as Fiona inherited hers from her father Ugo. This further muddles things. Why did Fiona not inherit azoth from her mother if it is truly the essence of woman/life? This is pseudo-handwaved by saying that only certain special people have azoth but as the essence of life that fails to account for how all the non-azoth containing naturally born people can be alive.

Furthermore Ugo and Riccardo were created by Lorenzo as clones of himself. If Lorenzo so desperately needs azoth to regain his strength why did he bother creating twin clones with the precious energy when he could have instead directly absorbed it from the original host? By the time the game starts Riccardo is wary of Lorenzo and the old man hides from him.

These inconsistencies with the nature and use of azoth work to undermine the horrific integrity of the story as a whole. Luminescents, a mobile horror trigger explained as being attracted to people with azoth, never seek out Riccardo. There is a mechanical reason for that but the story doesn’t even try to provide an alchemical handwave to explain why.

part 5

Clock Tower, the sequel to Clock Tower: The First Fear

Clock Tower builds directly on it’s previous installment as it continues the story of Jennifer’s struggle. As I did yesterday, however, let’s attempt this exercise without any prior knowledge.

Clock Tower branches into two paths: Helen and Jennifer’s separate stories. The game begins with a prologue chapter that is the same for both of them. Jennifer is in therapy after witnessing what Dr. Barton refers to as the Clock Tower murders. Helen interrupts a session complaining that the doctor is pushing Jennifer too far too fast and the women leave. Barton, alone and acting as the player’s first avatar, muses over his dedication to get information out of Jennifer.

He seems like such a swell guy right out the gate doesn’t he?

On Barton’s desk lies a pair of replica scissors. As Barton thinks about what they represent the screen is flooded in crimson hues, ominous music plays, and the camera cranes up to look straight down on the replica as if to suggest that this replica has inherited a sinister power.

When the screen returns to normal Barton is back under player control. Having seen everything in the room it’s time to head into the adjoining office. A few of Barton’s workers are here and so is a strange cold statue likely to draw a player’s attention with it’s strategic location right next to the first NPC shown. On the next desk is a rubber mask that Barton comments is a cheap knock-off of Scissorman’s.

(As an aside, Bobby never wore a mask in the first game. The only conclusion that I can draw is that in her terror Jennifer mistook Bobby’s twisted features for a mask.)

Barton continues talking to the NPCs he meets including his assistant Harris, a reporter named Nolan, and his cameraman Tim. Throughout these conversations it is repeated that Dr. Barton is highly skeptical of Scissorman. As a first time player the existence of Scissorman is never in doubt, but whether he is a supernatural killer and why he kills are still unknown. As the prologue ends the path of Helen or Jennifer is set and the player will begin their first journey towards the truth with one of them depending on their actions prior.

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Jennifer’s Path

Jennifer starts at home deciding to go out and about. There are a number of locations to choose from on a simple city map. She speaks with Helen back at the office and Mr. Sullivan at the library. Eventually Jennifer heads to the hotel for her first meeting with the other survivor Edward – a young boy said to have lost his memory. When she gets home Nolan is there waiting for her. He requests a date with her that night, to which she agrees.

Night falls and the game shifts to the first official Jennifer scenario. She walks alone down a quiet street. Almost immediately the young woman senses she is being followed. Fear overwhelms our heroine as she approaches an open gate so she bolts inside towards a building where a security guard intercepts her. Jennifer pleads with him for aide. As he remarks on her plight his life is instantly cut off by a pair of scissors plunged through his body and out of his chest. The guard falls slain as the camera moves to show the gleeful murderer garbed in green. In the scant few seconds that Scissorman takes to finish off the guard Jennifer bolts inside looking for a hiding place.

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Helen’s Path

Helen begins in her office dealing with a hard drive crash. While waiting for a co-worker to return Helen heads out on the town to talk with NPCs. She visits Detective Gotts at the police station, Edward at the hotel, and then notes how late it is and hurries back to the university. Hard drive replaced she decides to grab a nap on the premises before working on her dissertation.

Thus begins Helen’s official first scenario. When Helen enters the dormitory she finds Rose curled up in a bed. The two chitchat briefly then Helen pads down for some sleep. Her last action before this is to turn off the lights.

A quick fade to black later and Helen is woken by knocking at her door. It is obvious that Rose left her bed. Cautiously she peers out the peep hole to see who keeps knocking at sees it is a co-worker. She opens the door for him but he only gets a failing step in before crashing to the floor dead. Immediately music starts up with the distinctive snip of Scissorman’s blade’s drawing closed.

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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:

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

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 ...