Haunting Ground

Written by Chris Reiter  on June 30, 2005

Review: The bigger the bark, the bigger the tree will be. Since Fiona's in the company of Hewie a lot, and since he barks, and since I have a "tree"... I think you know where this is going.

Tweet

Comments

While Haunting Ground does present its share of irksome challenges, controlling Fiona thankfully otherwise is not one of these difficulties. Often in the past, horror games would repeatedly yield the traditional set of robotic Resident Evil-style directions. Nowadays, it seems that developers are ditching that archaic computation and are getting in gear to smooth out character interactions the way they should be done. Acting like a character in any normal third-person action/adventure game, Haunting Ground's Fiona is free of stiffness. She'll walk, run, and kick without any complications (although, the booting motion done by Fiona's foot isn't processed lightning fast). Since the controls are few, that also means they're easy to learn and to remember (left analog for movement, square button for kick, triangle for setting down or throwing detonatable magnesium droplets, and circle for examining/utilizing objects or doors). The only major problem tied into Fiona's own set of commands, is that Hewie doesn't act alone. Using the right analog stick, there's four basic actions for Hewie to abide by. The problem is that sometimes Hewie doesn't want to listen (which is natural for animals), so you might end up repeating yourself. Pressing up orders Hewie to either chew on enemies or to move toward a spot Fiona necessarily can't access (for example, over a fence or through a hole in the wall to grab a relevant item on the other side). Pressing down calls out to Hewie so he'll continue following Fiona. Pressing right praises Hewie for his redeeming efforts, and left opposite of that scolds him when he's been a naughty bowwow. R3 also makes Hewie sit still, but this is a rarely used option. Training Hewie with these different inputs establishes a bond between himself and Fiona, which creates an impressively original experience that has not yet been seen in video games before.

Bad graphics make a game look bad. Good graphics make a game look good. In that case, it's damn right decent of Capcom to have gone with the latter of those choices here. Haunting Ground situates itself within the confines of a castle's walls. Room for room and marked through its outside locations too, there's a distinct difference composing each touchable means throughout the chateau. Of these are rich staircases layered in red carpeting, chandelier-hung hallways, obscure paintings and sculpted statues, fancy furniture, botanic surroundings, dimmed chambers, and plenty of warped rooms such as a carousel passageway and a nursery with a lone doll seated on a rocking chair going back and forth. Variable vicinities, well-balanced environments...there's only one thing missing. Haunting Ground may be good looking, but it's not perfect. Its bizarrely foreboding, yet inviting parts of the housing tour hold a certain diminished shade of tint. Degrading from the 100% authentic realism, this belittlement from absolutism isn't necessarily a negative on the scales of right and wrong being used to weigh the visual achievements. But, there are times when stuff doesn't stick out. Doors and possible hiding spaces blend into the washed out background, which can in effect lead to bafflement at least some of the time.

Experiencing a similar fate, Haunting Ground's character models (and really, everything else that can be seen) do justice in their own right -- and yet in their own right have some quality drainage going on from being completely enhanced. Relentless enemies for one thing look and react decently, and effectively, but aren't refined at the utmost position. Debilitas is portrayed like an oversized Quasimodo in his plainly outdated outfit, where the villainess after him is elegantly dressed and moves like a robot as she carries a giant shard of glass for quick stabbing action. As for our heroine...at first wrapped in just a bed cloth at the start of the game (which gives us guys...eh hem...the ability to attempt to take a peek at...eh hem...the goods), Fiona soon enough strips and then does the opposite of what everyone wants: she gets dressed. In her laced up old-fashioned garments, Fiona's fair blondish hair and milky white skin captures her as a person who not only looks the part of a classic beauty, but is also pure in character. As an extra Fiona-specific enticement, Capcom's added the nicety of bouncing breasts that naturally wobble as Fiona stomps her feet and does her thing. What's even cooler though, is Hewie. Yeah, you're able to tell Hewie what to do, but this dog knows how to do stuff all by itself. For all you canine owners in real life, has your dog ever stopped to scratch or sniff at the floor? Has your dog ever wagged its tail or panted as it waited for something to happen? If not, Hewie's instinctive nature is way more intelligent than your dog. Hewie looks like a dog, acts like a dog, and well basically is a dog. Hewie is the greatest pup to ever grace the digital world of gaming. There's no question about that. His shiny, beady eyes, white fur coat and teeth with a pinkish lapping tongue, and the inheritable tendencies of a real life canine make him cooler than frozen yogurt -- and frozen yogurt is very cool.

Typically, women are known for their roles of being chatty people. Blah, blah, blah. Nag, nag, nag. Bitch, bitch, bitch. Not Fiona. Fiona is a soft-spoken English lass whose sweet vocals ring true to her native heritage. Unfortunately, Haunting Ground isn't big on the whole speaking production thing. Since the game mainly revolves around the chase, you're either hearing her speak in the small amount of cut scenes or mainly by way of the different samples of iterations made when bossing Hewie around. Outside of Fiona, during running sequences and throughout the movie moments, the guys and gal who are after her use their respective vocals to utter questing lines like Debilitas's own abnormally freakish claims to wondering where his little meatball is. Interestingly, a unique pursuit theme is installed for each of Fiona's enemies. When being followed by Debilitas at first, you'll recognize the eerie score as the regular tenebrous background track softens to silence and the odd Debilitas track begins. The sounds then shift gears to a technetronically engineered techno rhythm for the second act, for example. Rounding out the bases through all this is a fragmented mixture of aural noises, which mainly consists of just a few elements like clocks ticking, chandleries creakingly swinging, and fires roaring. There's also Hewie barking, growling, and whining. And then there's Fiona's, Hewie's, or the person behind them distinguishing their footsteps nicely between faded distant paces and soft carpets or hardened tiles. A king-sized composition of sound isn't perpetuating Haunting Ground forward, but what's there is definitely good enough for the taking.