Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within

"Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within features all the elements that SHOULDN'T be in a survival-horror game."

Every game is different in its own way. Some games have simply amazing plots, some have extremely eye-popping graphics, while others are just simply fun to play over and over again. Unfortunately, Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within doesn't have any of these qualities in the game. Clock Tower II is a rushed game that isn't fun to play. To me, this game is another form of torture. Okay, okay, well maybe I am being a little tough on Clock Tower II, but this game does have flaws – a lot of flaws… let's start out with the basics.

GAMEPLAY 6/10
Clock Tower II's gameplay is exactly the same as the first game in the series. It's a point-and-click adventure, meaning you'll be using a cursor to move around your character, Alyssa, and with the cursor you will inspect objects of use or interest, talk to people, and open A LOT of doors. When the cursor is over any object that you can interact with it will divide into three dots. Also, your character has the same “panic meter” as in the first one. If Alyssa is cornered by an enemy she can evade the enemy's attack and flee – but at a cost. The confrontation reduces Alyssa's “courage” so the cursor will change to yellow. Another confrontation will result to a red cursor and after that you will not be able to evade the enemy's attack and will die. The only way to regain courage is to find First Aid Kits scattered around the environment you are in. Aside from that, you can deliberately let your character die. By continuing, you're cursor will be yellow. A confrontation occurs when the enemy gets too close to Alyssa. The cursor will flash purple and blue when in a confrontation and you'll have to button bash to evade the enemy's SLOW attack. Alyssa also has the power of an amulet – which controls her other personality. Without her amulet a new power takes control of her and she becomes Mr. Bates, an aggressive and fearless character. Your cursor will change into a thunderbolt when you are Mr. Bates. Alyssa and Mr. Bates both have different abilities – Alyssa won't use guns to kill enemies but Mr. Bates will. Alyssa will only use any useful object lying around as a weapon (chairs, brooms, fire extinguishers…) but Mr. Bates won't. Also, it is necessary to change to Mr. Bates and progress through the game as him to get better endings.

Clock Tower II is fun for a couple of minutes – but then it just gets REALLY repetitive. The game requires a lot of backtracking, searching rooms for keys so you can unlock another portion of the level, and hardly any REAL enemies to fight. In the first Clock Tower Scissorman constantly chased you throughout the three chapters. Here – there are enemies in the game but they RARELY show up. There are enemies that may seem common (I won't tell you what they are – they may spoil the plot) but they can be taken out fairly easily. So really, Clock Tower II isn't fun – constant backtracking, easy enemies to kill, and the whole “find-the-key-so-you-can-unlock-a-new-area-of-the-level-and-open-more-doors” idea.

The game is pretty easy – all you'll be doing is searching rooms and solving puzzles. The common enemies will appear but can be easily taken out by backtracking to a weapon (fire extinguisher, broom…) and using it. The only difficult thing about this game is discovering how to unlock the thirteen different endings by yourself. Some endings require you to leave a certain object in a certain room or pick up objects that you won't normally pick up.

STORY 4/10
Clock Tower II has one of the worst stories in a game that I have encountered in my fourteen years of playing video games. The story is about Alyssa Hale, a young schoolgirl who has double personalities. Her father, Allen Hale, who works for Memorial Hospital tells Alyssa to stay with her Uncle Phillip and Aunt Kathryn for the night. As she enters the Tate's residence, she discovers body parts, yellow blood, and the sinister laugh of a little child around the house. I'll admit, chapter 1's plot is pretty good and I thought I would like Clock Tower II's story line – but then the game introduced chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 1 had great potential to give the game a fairly decent story – but then chapters 2 and 3 just ruin the game. The game is filled with so many plot holes that it just gets annoying after a while.

GRAPHICS/SOUND 7/10
Okay, so Clock Tower has pretty good graphics for a PlayStation game. The graphics aren't eye-popping but they're good nonetheless. The environments are sharp and semi-realistic. They also suffer less of blocky-syndrome that the original Clock Tower suffered from. Some rooms are detailed nicely – but others seem too empty. The doors look extremely flat and sloppy – and trust me, you'll be seeing plenty of doors. The character design is pretty good – I like it. Surprisingly good graphics, but then we move on to the sound…

The game is just like the original Clock Tower, you'll be walking around in silence for most of the time – hearing your footsteps, the opening and closing of doors, and your character searching through papers, opening drawers and what-not. Music will play when you encounter an enemy but once you kill that enemy the music will stop and your back in your silent world once again. The game really isn't scary – so the silence doesn't really add much terror to the game, as did the original. I really didn't like the music in this game as I didn't find it catchy or enjoying. The voice acting has gotten a lot better (thank goodness!). In the original Clock Tower there would be a lot of pauses during speech, but in Clock Tower II they did a great job in voice actors. I was surprised how well the voice acting was – I was expecting something similar to the original Clock Tower. Overall, the music isn't to my liking, the sound is boring, but the voice acting is great.

PLAY TIME/REPLAYABILITY 4/10
Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within fails to make the gamer want to play the game a second time. You can beat the game and achieve an A ending all within two hours of play time. The game has thirteen endings – most of them are short, boring and pointless. You can't even replay the endings – you only get a black-and-white screenshot of the ending. In order to unlock these endings you'll need to beat the game thirteen times and do something different each time you play (although you can unlock all thirteen endings in just two play-throughs). Don't go bouncing off the walls just because this game has thirteen endings – the majority of the endings have the main character die the same exact way each time. Aside from the endings, there are alternate outfits you can get for Alyssa – but then again, why bother play the game through just to see Alyssa run around in a new wardrobe? There are also some cheats that can make the game easier – but the game is as easy as it gets, so those cheats are pointless. You can unlock a sound test but that gets boring after a while. By acquiring all thirteen endings you are rewarded with – surprise, surprise – a character biography page! Wow, countless hours wasted just to learn more about the characters you already know about. There are two mini-games – Time Attack and Score Attack. Both mini-games are boring and repetitive – I just played a few seconds of them and got bored.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION 5.3/10
Clock Tower II could have been a great game if it were more like the original game in the series. Clock Tower II features good graphics, easy gameplay, and pretty good voice acting but is outnumbered by all the flaws in the game. I bought this game (at a ridiculous price, too) and I don't regret it. Now I know there is a game in my collection that I can play and have a quick laugh before I get bored of it. Clock Tower II was just a waste of time and money (both the people who bought it and the amount of money it took to make this game). I wouldn't buy it, I only bought it because I wanted to see how bad the second game in the series was. But then again, it's up to you. If you find this game at a low price, then give it a shot. But otherwise, steer clear!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/04, Updated 07/28/04