Clocktower

2000, Age: 18

My first experience with Clocktower came after a tradition established itself with a group of friends from high school. Every time we'd meet up to play D&D, we'd end the evening with some survival horror game (Silent Hill was the first). I can handle most survival horror. I cannot handle Clocktower.

Jaime, the friend who introduced me to the game, was baffled. The graphics were horrible, Scissorman wasn't THAT scary...how could this game throw me off so much when I was fine with the likes of Silent Hill?

It was two things: the randomness in not knowing when or where Scissorman would appear, and the ABYSMAL controls. This was a first generation playstation game, using point-and-click movement with a d-pad. There was such a disconnect in the controls that it actually worked in favor of the game's scariness.

First, Scissorman shows up randomly, so I'm already on edge, and then when he DOES show up, it's nine levels of panic just trying to get your damned character out of the room and to a safe place. It doesn't matter that Scissorman lumbers more slowly than an old school zombie because half the time you end up accidentally moving TOWARDS him in the panic to try and get away!

Limitations serve the game no better than in survival horror, I think