Haunting Ground is yet another game I loved that got a lukewarm reception by both the gaming press and the gaming public and that is a crying shame, it does have a healthy cult following though which more than I can say for Ghost Hunter



Haunting Ground is a survival horror game much in the vein of the Clock Tower series (it was in fact supposed to be Clock Tower 4 until Capcom changed it to a new IP) that has you running from enemies that you can't kill while solving puzzles and exploring a castle. It's interesting to note that the upcoming Silent Hill Shattered Memories has adopted unkillable enemies that you must run from



the game follows Fiona Belli, a beautiful young gal with impossibly bouncy boobs whom one day is out driving with her family when they're suddenly in a violent car crash, she wakes up to find herself in a mysterious isolated castle somewhere in Italy and finds herself being chased by a large evil deformed retarded guy who's like a malevolent version of Sloth from The Goonies, thankfully she's not alone and has the help of a trusty dog named Hewie who can attack the enemies and help her retrieve stuff

there's other bad guys who chase Fiona over the course of the game, but I wont say who they are since it's fun to discover it on your own



the best thing about the game is the wonderfully surreal and intensely creepy castle that's more akin to Silent Hill than Resident Evil that you get to explore, it really feels like your exploring the home of a madman with lots of cool rooms to see, there's one room filled with dolls, another room with creepy marionette's hanging from the walls and ceiling, at one point in the game you find a modern hospital room in the middle of an old castle (strange huh?), there's even a stairway that's a reference to M. C. Escher's Relativity, but be warned, some of the rooms have traps

the castle is divided into several parts and another cool thing about the game is after you have a "showdown" with some of the enemies you're free to explore the part of the castle they roamed for fun



running from enemies sounds like it could tiresome, but it's fun and scary as hell, plus the game thankfully gives you enough breathers that you can explore the castle without being chased constantly (provided you're clever enough to lose them)



a few other things worthy of note is the great music, great graphics for it's time and the unlockable costumes for Fiona (that I've included pictures of below) that include a dominatrix outfit called "illegal in some states" and a cowgirl outfit, there's even a "Fiona the frog" outfit, all of which makes the game all the more awesome to me

another strange bit of trivia is Moira Quirk, the referee in the 90's Nickelodeon sports show GUTS voices one of the characters, sadly the game does not include the voices of Kirk Fogg or Marc Summers, talk about missed opportunities man!








so there you have it, Haunting Ground, a game that is an excellent example of a genre that is sadly dying these days (survival horror)

it's obvious Capcom was hoping for a new franchise with this, there's some cross promotion with Resident Evil 4 strangely enough, "that dog" who makes a cameo in RE4 is apparently none other than Hewie! (how a dog could go from Spain to Italy I have no idea) meaning that Haunting Ground and Resident Evil may take place in the same world, doesn't that blow your mind?

but alas the game just didn't sell well enough I guess so no sequel, damn you people who didn't play this game! DAMN YOU!