A young girl finds herself trapped inside a castle with no memory of how she got there. The twisted and monstrous inhabitants of the castle chase and attack Fiona as she tries to find the way out, solving puzzles and hiding all along the way. Joined only by a white German Shepard called Hewie the two must team up and escape Belli Castle in what turns out to be a very well written, surprisingly artistic survival horror game where puzzle solving and hiding is prioritized over violence.
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Survival Horror
Release date: May 10th 2005 (Japan & PAL: April 2005)
Platforms: PlayStation 2
ESRB: M - Mature
So, the story of ‘Haunting Ground’ follows a young woman called Fiona who is taking a trip with her parents when all of a sudden they have a mysterious car crash. Fiona wakes up in a castle with no memory of how she got there or what happened to her parents and, as the story goes on, Fiona must uncover why she is at this castle and how it is connected to her. Whilst the castle is home to several inhabitants it’s safe to say that they most definitely have ulterior motives than what they may be saying as to why she is there. As Fiona searches for answers she eventually comes across a white German Shepard called Hewie who is being abused by another tenant of the castle and, after rescuing him, Hewie teams up with Fiona in order to repay her for her kindness and to escape the castle with her. Hewie is really the key to surviving the ‘Haunting Ground’ as not only is he an offensive character where he may bite and defend Fiona against the enemies but he’s essential to solving many of the puzzles in the game.
Fiona herself is completely helpless and is able to do very little other than some fairly weak kicking that does very little to deter enemies, she’s unable to knock them down and generally she cannot damage them in the slightest. Since Fiona is helpless you must rely on other tactics in order to survive your stay in Belli castle and what this results in is a great deal of hide and seek as the creatures of the castle, known as pursuers, will doggedly hunt Fiona down and attempt to kill her. Due to this you must guide Fiona to hide constantly whether that’s under a table or inside of a closet the castle is littered with hiding spots that you need to take advantage of. Sometimes it’s better to simply run away whilst Hewie distracts your opponents but either way the pursuers cannot be killed so tackling them head on is extremely ineffective. Truly, the most that can happen is that they get knocked down and, even then, they’ll just get straight back up again so you’re better off running and hiding.
The game contains chase scenes and these happen quite frequently, every few minutes or so but within this narrow time slot where you and Hewie are left alone you’ll be required to solve puzzles in order to advance deeper into the castle before they show up again. The puzzles are extremely varied and sometimes rather deadly, an example of this is that at one point Hewie was required to stand on a switch whilst Fiona navigated through an open gate, having to avoid a section of floor that would kill her should she stand on it, before deactivating a lever on the other side of the gate to let Hewie through. A completely different puzzle required you to clear a huge swarm of butterflies out of the way of a door by luring them with flowers whilst another involved pushing blocks around into a certain configuration. The constantly original puzzles means that you’re constantly being challenged to think through things in new ways so there’s very little room to become bored, tired or disillusioned with the castle as everything is interesting and new whether that’s the puzzles or the rooms that you venture through. The locations themselves, I should mention, are brilliantly designed with so many interesting places that you’ll be led through whether that’s a room of mirrors, vast libraries, overgrown gardens or the ever creepy merry-go-round room. This is a game that makes you want to explore more yet punishes you for venturing out of your hiding spot with constant harassment from some very disturbing enemies. Luckily, the game does feature boss battles and you’ll be given the opportunity to kill a pursuer, there are four of them, once and for all.
Graphically the game is fairly interesting and very well detailed for its time. Something I particularly like is what happens to the screen when Fiona descends into a full scale anxiety attack. Fiona is actually unable to stay close to the pursuers, even if they are not attacking her, as if she does she will start to panic. The more Fiona panics the more obscured your vision will become as the screen turns black and white with a grainy effect that reduces how much you can see. Once Fiona hits the peak of panic she will start running of her own accord leaving you to guide her safely until she calms down as, if she happens to fall, she will be left totally vulnerable to a pursuer, and that’s never a good thing. Fiona doesn’t actually have any sort of life bar or hitpoints and you’re left to rely on how Fiona appears to be fairing than any concrete bar or numbers and whilst this feature is now more readily available in many games this was, at the time, quite an unusual element. As Fiona takes more damage you have to look out for things like her movement slowing and whether she’s clutching her side or slumping over. The game is pretty realistic in terms of how many damage Fiona will take from different offensive weapons or attacks so, for instance, if Fiona is attacked with a sharp shard of glass she will immediately be in a state of critical damage. It’s things like this which really add to the overall immersion of the game and which support that feeling of helplessness and weakness because, after all, you’re just a scared, trapped girl with no weapons, super powers or training. Fiona is no Lara Croft and so, whilst it may be annoying to some that she’s so fragile, that’s exactly how she should be.
Fiona’s fragility means that Hewie is so much more valuable to you and what is done incredibly well is the bond that is formed between girl and dog and you do see their relationship strengthen as the game goes on. In times when Hewie may sometimes be roaming another part of the castle and not by your side there’s a tendency to feel significantly more afraid as your one and only defence is no longer there and, in this sense, Hewie does not feel like a gimmick or a burden on the player. Even though Hewie can die due to his limited hitpoints he’s a fairly hardy character and is so useful in terms of gameplay that you will fight tooth and nail to keep him alive as you would yourself. During periods of down-time the interactions you can have with him help establish a stronger relationship as you can give different commands to him. Fiona is able to praise, scold and instruct Hewie to search for hidden items in the ground and whilst scolding may sound a little harsh what it actually serves to do is to strengthen the relationship between Fiona and Hewie as, when Hewie’s being disobedient, scolding him sets him on the right path again and means he is less likely to disobey again. If Hewie is handled correctly then towards the end of the game there will be no instances in which he will disobey Fiona, so strong the bond that has formed between them.
It should be mentioned that this game does have altenative endings, four in fact, and these range from the extremely ‘bad’ ending which is an entirely separate conclusion to three others which are slightly tweaked versions of one another. There’s a fair bit of re-playability factor in these alternative endings but what is also very nice to have is the amount of unlockable content in the game whether that’s costumes, additional cutscenes, art gallerys and awards for achievements such as beating the game within a certain amount of time. With all this in mind, and the fairly solid length of between 10 to 15 hours, it’s safe to say you get a fair bit of bang for your buck with this early 2000s game. The game is very well written with high quality voice acting, creepy and well detailed environments and a non-offensive musical score that didn’t really wow me but which provided a perfectly suitable backdrop to a very good game. Whilst some may criticize its similarity to the ‘Clock Tower’ series that doesn’t mar the fact that the ‘Haunting Ground’ delivers an enjoyable, albeit rather stressful, experience.
The Good:
- Plenty of disturbing imagery keeps the horror alive
- Controlling both Hewie and Fiona is a nice, additional dimension
- The way in which you treat Hewie having an effect on the endings of the game is very interesting
- Lots of unlockable features and alternative endings adds in essential additional content
- Character design is superb
- Intelligently build locations that are varied and interesting
- Challenging puzzles that are never too alike
- Perfect atmosphere
- Well written, rather adult, storyline that keeps you guessing
- The AI could be better in places
- The audio isn't particularly stunning
- Fiona's helplessness can border on annoying at times
Final thoughts: "This is horror done right with plenty of helplessness and survival elements. Whilst the game has some pretty intense and disturbing sexual imagery in the game that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it only adds to the repulsive situation that Fiona is trying to escape from.
