Clock Tower: First Fear (PlayStation)

Clock Tower: First Fear isn't really a sequel to Clock Tower but an updated port. The original was released for the Super NES in 1995 while First Fear was updated and released on the PlayStation, PC, and other platforms in 1997. These games could best be described as point and click survival horror games. Also, I believe the "First Fear" subtitle was only on the Japanese version. To make matters confusing, this game was never released in the U.S. There was a Clock Tower released for the PlayStation in the U.S. but this was actually Clock Tower 2 in Japan.

The premise of the game revolves around a girl with a split personality. A "normal" one and an alter ego named Mr. Bates. It's sort of a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde sort of thing. Your role of course is that of the girl in question. To makes things worse, you have a family with homicidal members. Your goal is to figure out the source of your dual personality.

While mostly the same as the original, First Fear does have some differences. First, the graphics have been improved. The remake took advantage of the improved hardware of the PlayStation over the Super NES. Improvements include better animation, 3D character models, and more detailed models among other things.

Likewise, the sound and music were improved. The PlayStation allowed for things that were not really possible on the Super NES such as voice acting and animated cutscenes. The music was also improved not that the Super NES had bad music.

There were also some game play and control differences. While First Fear retained the same basic point and click interface, you could move the character around with the analog stick instead of having to point and click where you wanted to move. This made the game a little bit easier to play. Another change made was to the ending. An alternate ending sequence with more closure was provided.

While whether or not some of the changes above are really improvements or not can be a matter of personal preference. However, I would say that if you were going to pick one of these games to play, I would go with the the remake, Clock Tower: First Fear, over the original Clock Tower. However, the original feels a bit more like the classic point and click adventures you would find on the PC. So at the end of the day, like I said, it comes down to a matter of personal preference.

For the most part, I'm not a huge fan of point and click adventures but there are definitely exceptions. LucasArts made some great ones and I think the suspense that the survival horror theme makes works well with the genre. So if you are a point and click fan or a survival horror fan, this one is at least worth giving a try. There are fan made translations so it is possible to play in English language form even though there was never an official release.

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