Clock Tower: Rewind
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: WayForward
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: October 29, 2024
Price: $19.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
For many, the Clock Tower series is one that they have either never heard of or have only the faintest knowledge of as the horror franchise hasn’t received a new release in over two decades outside of two spiritual successors, one of which some may recognize since it’s often thought that a certain “that dog” from Capcom happened to reference a main ally in one of these successors, Haunting Ground. Even then, the original Clock Tower was left untouched for nearly thirty years as it was only ever released in Japan for the SNES but that has all changed thanks to WayForward. Often thought as one of the influences on creating the survival horror genre, now that this point and click horror game has arrived in the West after nearly thirty years with some updates as Clock Tower: Rewind, is it worth checking out?
Story
Jennifer Simpson and three other orphans have found themselves luckily adopted by the wealthy Simon Barrows that lives on a distant mountain in a large mansion named Clock Tower thanks to the prominent clock tower in the middle of it. The woman accompanying them, Mary, leaves to find Mr. Barrows and when she is gone for a long time, Jennifer decides to investigate, leaving her celebrating friends behind. Once she leaves the room however, a loud scream is heard and she returns to find the room dark and all of her friends are gone. It doesn’t take long before one of these friends is murdered by a monstrous little man wielding a giant pair of scissors called the Scissorman.
With this murderous child appearing at random and even jumping out from boxes, curtains, or even straight through the ceiling, Jennifer must do everything she can to survive all while trying to figure out what exactly is happening in this mansion. Clock Tower: Rewind tells a tense and spooky story albeit… an anemic one that focuses more around spooking players with the ever present threat of the Scissorman and the creepy locations and other horrors that Jennifer comes across. There are various documents that players can find throughout the game that provide extra context behind the mysteries but some of the horrors always remain unexplained.
Perhaps the most interesting, as well as the most confusing element about Clock Tower: Rewind, as it was in the original version of the game, is the fact that it sports not just a few different endings, but nine different endings though many of these are just small variations depending on whether or not players were able to discover certain secrets or take certain actions throughout their current run. As such, the game focuses heavily on replaying the title to see what might change, especially since some item locations and required items for progression change from playthrough to playthrough.
Gameplay
Clock Tower: Rewind is very much a product of its time and it was created before the genre “survival horror” really existed. Rather the title is a point and click adventure horror game where players have only a few controls available to them as they explore the mansion and try to survive. This includes using the shoulder buttons to direct Jennifer to head left or right, using their joystick or D-pad controlled cursor to find objects in the environment to interact with, sitting down and catching a breather to recover stamina, and occasionally taking items out of her inventory to use to solve a problem.Now it is worth noting there are a couple options open to players when they start the game as the option to play the classic 1995 version, bug and all, is fully available while the Rewind option that offers a couple extra rooms, scenes, and hiding places that were cut from the original release.
Both versions of the game offer the helpful ability to make Jennifer run at any time, speeding up the actual exploration immensely despite her slow jog, and the ability to rewind to possibly fix a deadly mistake. The rewind feature is a nice little addition as it can help players avoid running into Scissorman or even triggering an appearance from him but it is often far too short to actually be worthwhile since the most players can rewind at a time is around six or seven seconds and given Jennifer’s slow pace when interacting with things, it rarely feels helpful. The option to save the entire state of the game at any time is a nice help, though it is worth noting that these saves work similar to a “save state” than a proper save, meaning that anything they reload won’t carry unlocked content over such as completed endings for that save, helping to ensure that players play through the game multiple times to see everything.
Along these same lines it is worth noting that there are tons of odd little puzzles and items to obtain throughout Clock Tower: Rewind and in true to form fashion for the point and click genre, many of these puzzles are quite obscure at first and might even lead to a “Dead End” if done too soon or after completing another task. Similarly completing some tasks or discovering some clue might remove another one from the game entirely, making sure to try and make every runthrough of the title feel different, especially since it enjoys moving some items around as mentioned before.
Another far more randomized aspect in this version of the game is the fact that Scissorman is far more active than before, appearing at random many times throughout the game. This is a far cry from the scripted appearances that would make him only appear if players interacted with certain useless items or objects, now he might leap out of a box randomly, shatter through the ceiling, or simply appear in the hall and start stalking Jennifer until she finds either a hiding place or a trap that can be used to send him off of her tail for the moment. It is interesting to note that it is possible to push the Scissorman down when he is attacking Jennifer by mashing the “panic” button that players will need to do whenever her portrait starts flashing red, which happens in other parts of the title as well, but it does appear rather random when this will work or not. Sometimes Jennifer will reach up to try and defend herself at the cost of stamina, other times she’ll simply take the scissors to the stomach and die even when she has full stamina.
One incredibly annoying aspect of Clock Tower: Rewind happens to be its cursor and the complete lack of control players have over its sensitivity. It comes as a rather shocking surprise that there is no way to turn down the sensitive nature of the cursor which moves far too quickly at times to find the “sweet spot” on certain items hidden in the environment or even when it comes to running away from Scissorman. Having to flee and locate a safe spot inside a room only for the cursor to fail to properly land on the interaction point is incredibly annoying, either that or using an item in time to avoid death from other obstacles as well, especially since some are far from clear. These moments tend to be where rewind is most useful as players can rewind and take aim again for the proper interaction point though that is likely far from what it was meant to be primarily used for.
Outside of the game players will find a pretty solid offering of bonus content provided with the game. This includes a brand new interview with the original director Hifumi Kono for this game specifically that ends up running nearly fifty minutes in length, though it is broken up into specific questions, a number of motion comics that players can unlock by reaching the specific scenes that they would usually show that have been translated and voiced in English, and plenty of original Japanese scans. This includes the original game’s box art and promo materials, snippets of a strategy guide, and even some short snippets of the game in the original Japanese that were provided to demo the title at the time. There is also a jukebox of sorts that allows players to listen to all of the game’s sound effects and music from the menu screen, including the newly recorded opening song.
Audio & Visuals
For the most part Clock Tower: Rewind still looks very similar to the original release though there have been some small touch-ups to make everything just a bit more presentable while exploring the mansion. The real highlights of new content come from the animated opening introduction that looks quite wonderful. Those who want a more authentic experience can play with a CRT filter on the screen and even shrink the screen size down to various sizes if they want. There are also a number of side-panels to choose from to help fill in the black space surrounding the screen should players want it.
The atmospheric noises and background music that plays whenever something scary is happening or Jennifer is being pursued is quite thrilling and it must be said that the composer really nailed the haunting aspect of the mansion even with the classic bit-tracks used throughout. Hearing Scissorman’s pursuing theme kick off whenever he appears at a distance or pops out of nowhere will haunt players throughout the game and send chills up their spine. Earlier it was mentioned that a brand new opening theme for the game was recorded and it must be said that the song sounds absolutely wonderful, accompanying the animated opening as well as the main menu, the vocals really feel like they fit the horror and plight of Jennifer in the title.
Overall
It is clear that Clock Tower: Rewind is still very much a product of its time and is still held back by many of the limitations at the time as well. This is more like a slightly enhanced release of the original rather than anything else, as its added bonus content is enjoyable but mostly found outside the game itself while the game’s mechanics remain the same and, while certainly spooky and confusing at times, doesn’t really offer too much in the way of storyline beyond a few reveals tied to the best endings. Clock Tower: Rewind’s emphasis on replayability and randomizing certain things makes sure that multiple playthroughs remain fresh feeling despite all taking place in the same location and while it would have been nice to see WayForward put some more effort into quality of life elements beyond a near-useless rewind and the ability to run at all times, this is is a solid horror game that delivers scares and the feeling of helplessness like few modern titles do.
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