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.

The premise of the game revolves around a girl with a split personality. A "normal" one and an alter ego named Mr. Bates. 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.

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.

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.

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.