Capcom’s recently announced horror game Demento has apparently been renamed to Haunting Ground, according to Total Video Games. The article also includes new details about the game play.
Players take the role of the games female protagonist, Fiona, who wakes to find herself in the dark and dank cellar of a mysterious castle. Confused and frightened, Fiona begins to investigate other rooms, along with menacingly dark corridors and grounds to seek answers. The more secrets the castle reveals, the more Fiona learns about her past and more importantly, her future.
One of the main features of Haunting Ground is the ability for the player to feel Fionas state of mind as she explores the castle. When Fiona encounters the inhabitants of the Castle, she naturally becomes frightened and the control pad mimics the pounding of her heart through vibrations on the pad. If she becomes even more scared then players will find controlling her more difficult, whilst she stumbles and falls.
To add to the effect, as Fionas fear increases then the colour of the screen fades away and is replaced by a stark monochrome effect. Naturally by running away or hiding, Fionas heart-rate and actions will return to normal and the colour of the screen will be replenished.
As TVG previously revealed, Fiona is assisted throughout her adventure by Hewie, an Alsatian dog, which she befriends once she has rescued him from a trap. Much like real life, Hewie wont obey all of Fionas commands at first, but as his loyalty and trust increases so does his willingness to do as she bids, including fetching items and attacking assailants. Were told that the partnership between Fiona and Hewie is crucial if Fiona wants to solve the mysteries of the castle and stay alive.
http://mundanesoul.diaryland.com
It’s been a good long time since we had a loveable dog character to “Ooo” and “Ahh” over. Props to Capcom on the puppy pal, dammit!
http://spooky.ms11.net/index.html
This part —
” If she becomes even more scared then players will find controlling her more difficult, whilst she stumbles and falls.”
Reminds me of the Nintendo Game Cube game “Eternal Darkness.” In that game, your character would go insane at times, and when this happened, your character was not as easy to control and wouldn’t respond as well.
Yeah, that’s exactly what happened in Clock Tower 3 as well. In fact, this game looks VERY similar to Clock Tower 3. In CT3, the protagonist would begin to flail her arms and trip overherself as she ran (when she got too frightened, that is), and the screen would flip out.
Haunting Grounds sounds pretty generic, but I guess from a marketing point of view a better name, as it hints potential buyers about what kind of game it is.
Anyway so far it looks much like Clock Tower 3. I just hope that there is more interactive elements, and not a constant being chased around pressure.
If Capcom is going start a new survival horror-type franchise I hope they do it right and make it truly scary. I have my doubts from the screenshots I saw. It looks like they are focusing on being cool more than scary. Look at the playable character … Is it Capcom’s priorty to deliver scares or butt cheeks?
If you’ve been reading the news on RE4, its explained that Leon can rescue a dog from an animal trap. The dog will then aid Leon somehow.
Now, the description for “Haunting Grounds” mentions your character can rescue a dog from an animal trap and will then aid you. How can that be? Did they remove that idea from RE4 so they could use it in this new game? Is the dog a crosssover character? Or is Capcom just so lazy that they don’t care.
Another annoying thing about “Haunting Grounds” is how they brag about the character gets nervous or scared as if it was a revolutionary concept. There have been variations of this already: “Illbleed”, “Eternal Darkness” and to some extent “Silent Hill”. I’d rather Capcom make US so scared that we can’t control the character instead of experiencing it second hand.