Sit right down Happy Horrorites and let me tell you a story.  Those of you who read my review of Dark Ride last year may remember my love-hate relationship with amusement park haunted houses.  The one exception to this is Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride, which I originally had to be dragged onto.  Over the years after riding it at Disney World (ten times!), I started going into research of the ride, finding out stories about the different ghosts in the mansion, behind the scenes facts, even stories of people being stuck on the rides.

So, imagine my joy at finding out Disney was going to make a movie based on the ride (which will be reviewed sometime in the future).  Shortly after the movie came out, this video game was released on multiple platforms.  I wanted to try it, and yet I was nervous about it as well.  Video games based on pre-existing properties, such as movies or television shows, have been notorious for being pretty bad.  Flash forward to a couple months ago.  A local cybercafe and video game store wasg oing out of business, so I planned on buying the Zelda collection released for Gamecube.  Looking at the other games they had, I happened to spy the Gamecube version of The Haunted Mansion for five bucks, so I decided to give it a try.

Players take on the role of Zeke, a young man who came to the old mansion to answer an ad for the job of assistant caretaker.  When he gets there, he finds a half-dozen ghosts watching him: a gentleman Duelist, an Organist, a beheaded Knight, an Opera Singer, an Old Woman and a Pirate, and promptly faints away.  Ladies and gentlemen, our hero!  When he comes to, he finds himself being briefed by the fortune teller, Madame Leota (a floating head in a crystal ball for those not familiar with the ride or movie) on what to do.  He’s also given the Beacon of Souls, a magic lantern, plus a Soul Gem to power it.  His mission?  Travel to each room in the mansion, liberate it (by turning its lights on) and power up the Beacon to its maximum to defeat Leota’s arch-nemesis, Atticus Thorn.

Along the way, you’ll pick up pieces of the Death Certificates of the six spirits Zeke first encountered upon entering the mansion.  Once you collect all of the pieces of the Death Certificates, the ghosts will give you a new Soul Gem that will power up your Beacon of Souls.  Other items in the house include Bravery Tonic (your health refill), Madame Leota’s Tarot Cards (ten cards give you an extra life), and Mumbo Dolls (to extend your Bravery Meter, ie your life bar).

Throughout your travels in the mansion, you’ll find a large array of enemies, ranging from simple Lost Souls to three varieties of spider (small, large and gargantuan), banshee women, skeletons with coffin lid shields, gargoyles that unleash miniature skeletons that charge you, armored knights that run at you, swinging their axes, and even a few Grim Reapers.  Periodically, as well, you’ll encounter Atticus Thorn, who tries to stop you from achieving your goal.

Here’s a list of rooms in the game:

Great Hall: Your starting room and more or less a basic tutorial on how the game’s mechanics work.  The light switch is in an obvious place, so you don’t have to work too hard at it.

Foyer: The first semi-tricky room.  The light switch is upstairs from you, yet both staircases collapse when you first try to go up them.

Conservatory: This room has your first encounter with the Book of Shadows (ie, the backstory on Atticus Thorn’s motives), and the first really time-consuming puzzle.  The light switch is above you and you have to activate the various musical instruments to open a path to it.  This is also the room with the Duelist, and your first Beacon upgrade.

Game Room: This one is kind of fun.  Your first encounter with giant spiders, plus a HUGE game of pool where the ball always comes at you… once you finish the pool game, the light switch becomes accessible.

Downstairs Hallway: Not a room, as such, more of a hub between new rooms.  In your first encounter with the hall, you’ll see a girl in white beckon you… follow her to the…

Kitchen: Your first real mini-boss fight, against a shrieking female ghost (not too difficult, though).  After dispatching her, you’ll have to find a way to make a trail of wine lead from a flame source to a fireplace, using the plates flying at you as tools (but be careful, cuz they DO hurt when they hit you).

Dining Room: The light switch is easy to get to here, but when you activate it, the candles in the chandelier start dancing around the room and you have to gather them up.  Not too difficult, for the most part, but the last couple are usually hell to catch.

Maid’s Room: This room is pretty tricky.  It acts like a maze that exposes its passages as you walk along… you have to find the right doors that lead, eventually, to the light switch.

Ballroom: Your second Beacon upgrade awaits you in here, but also your first actual boss fight with Atticus Thorn.  First trouble you’ll have is the organ in the room… its playing causes a huge wind that you can’t fight against without help… giant spidery help, that is.  Once you make it to the area with the organ, the winds stop.  You turn on the light switch and the second trouble shows up… Atticus Thorn.  Just fight him with charged shots, and you shouldn’t have many problems.  Talk to the Organist afterwards and get your next power up.

Winter Garden: This area can be a bit annoying.  You have four statues in the room that pour water, and you have to turn them so that the water’s not pouring over fireplace grates.  Once the light switch is turned on, the fires come up and everything’s alright.  Oh, did I mention the falling floors?

Graveyard: This one, you have to find three busts that want to sing… with six more that don’t.  Not too hard with a little trial and error, though.  Once you find the three busts, the lights come on and the next area opens.  I thought this was a nice touch to bring in the popular singing busts from the ride and movie.

Mausoleum: You have three minutes to survive waves of oncoming enemies in here.  Once you get through the three minutes, you shouldn’t have any problems in finishing up the room.

Pantry: Back inside the house, we get an alternate dimension room.  You can use a vortex to go back and forth from one universe to another.  After you finally get to the light switch, Atticus makes another appearance.  Beat him like you did before and get another upgrade, this time from the Knight.

Upstairs Hallway: Another hub area for the regular levels, no big surprises await you in here.

Trophy Room: This is a LONG room, with a bunch of fireballs coming at you from the other end.  Luckily, you have a batch of shields that fly around in front of you to protect you.  Unfortunately, the fireballs are also essential to bringing light to the room.

Toy Room: The fun doesn’t start here till you go into a toy box.  You’re now running on a rubber ball, and have to go along a course of moving blocks before you can activate your light switch and get out of there.  The most difficult part is learning how to walk on the ball, speeding up and slowing down take time to master.

Study Room: This room takes some trial and error.  There are various round carpets throughout the room, stepping on them will cause the furniture to fly into different platform configurations.  The light switch is above a bookcase near the door you came in through, so just try to locate the right carpet configurations to reach it.

Sun Room: This room is time-consuming.  First, you have to align a beam with mirrors to hit a spot in the corner on the other end of the room from where the beam is.  Second, you get your next encounter with Mr. Thorn.  By now, you should know how to deal with this jerk, so just take him down and talk to the Opera Singer to get your next power up.

Museum: Another time-consuming puzzle.  You have to travel across a chess board five different times, each with more knights on it.  Your job is to get across without being in front of any of the knights.  Some of them spin, some of them glide sideways, but there’s always a way across eventually, with a little trial and error.  Get across and get your light switch!

Children’s Room: There’s something in the closet!  And you get to run away from it when you go in.  Fortunately, you have Madame Leota to help, just don’t get tripped up by the occasional ditches in the ground.  Also, fortunately, if you get caught, you just get thrown out of the closet to try again, with a little life taken off.

Sitting Room: The light switch isn’t stationary in this level, it tries its best to get away from you.  Your job is to chase it to where it goes down a certain hallway where it can’t escape.  Not quite as easy as it sounds, but it IS do-able.

Parlor: There are several carpets around the room again, but this time, they rearrange the walls.  Your job is to make the light switch wall accessible to a staircase wall.  After you get it, Thorn makes another appearance, he just doesn’t learn, does he?  Beat him and meet the Old Lady, just don’t drink her tea!  Final lantern power up is yours!

Gallery: Another time-consuming one, this one has you changing different paintings from good to evil… walk in front of an evil painting, it turns good, walk behind a good painting, it turns evil.  These are based off of the shifting portraits from the Disneyland attraction.  Once you get all of the paintings turned to good, the lights are on!

Observatory: Get ready for… ZEKE… IN… SPACE!  Sorry, been watching too much Muppet Show.  Anyway, once you make it to the top of the tower in this room, and activate the switch, the whole room seems to explode outward, and you can jump extremely high and long.  Crossing over the debris left over from the room (watch out, some of it spins) should lead you to the light switch and a return to normality (as soon as we’re sure what’s normal, anyway, considering we’re in a haunted house).

Attic: Almost to the end, this time, you have to fight off several enemies and turn some cranks to light the lights.  After this room, the Pirate shows up and gives you the final item you need to reach the final boss… and that’s all I’ll give you on the room rundown.

I can’t finish this review without giving credit to the voice cast of the game.  Dee Bradley Baker performed Zeke’s voice in cut scenes.  He has had a long career of voice acting, including playing the voice of Olmec on Legends of the Hidden Temple on Nickelodeon, various zombie voices in the Dawn of the Dead remake, and Dark Helmet on the Spaceballs animated series.  Corey Burton voices Atticus Thorn.  His voice reminded me a LOT of the late Tony Jay.  Mr. Burton is now the official voice of several Disney characters, such as Captain Hook, the White Rabbit, and Yen Sid, among others, in the Kingdom Hearts series, and as the Ghost Host in the holiday makeover of the Haunted Mansion (as well as the voice that welcomes viewers to the Haunted Mansion movie), as well as Braniac on the Superman animated series, and Count Dooku in the Clone Wars animated series (not to be confused with the new series branching off from the Clone Wars film).

This has definitely been a worthwhile purchase and I’m glad I can share it with you.  GameFAQs has a reviewer who called this game "impossible" to overcome, and I’m pleased to say that I found his review far from the truth.  While there were a few puzzles that were slightly difficult (the Sun Room’s mirror alignment and the Gallery’s picture tuning), they only took me a few tries to finish.  In the end, I’m happy to give this game a full 5 out of 5.  Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!

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Hi, everyone! I was looking over some of the different search engine terms that have brought people to our site and one that stuck in my mind was "a list of the best horror playstation 2 games". Well, while I can’t say I’ve played every single horror-based game on the system, I’ve played my fair share of them, and I thought I’d focus on that for an article. So, without further ado (because we know how long ado’s take), here’s a list of horror games for PS2 and what I, personally, thought of them. As I play more, I’ll have more updates, and hopefully even head into PS3 territory soon.

Fatal Frame

I know I covered this one in a two-part article, but I just love this game. For those of you who haven’t read about it, you play as a young girl who heads into an old, abandoned Japanese mansion in search of her missing brother who’d gone in before her. Along the way you encounter ghosts of various viciousness which you must fight with an old-fashioned camera (later games dubbed this the Camera Obscura). This game… no, this series… is one of the best I’ve played of any genre, and I stand by my earlier rating of 5 out of 5.

Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

One game I’ve been wanting to review for a while but haven’t gotten around to it, yet. It takes the basic gameplay of the first game, throws in a little back story (while the main characters you play as in FF2 aren’t related to the first game, the ghostly events are), advances the camera controls a little more and throws in some more replay value. This game was my friend Vicki’s entry into the series and I’m sure she’d agree that 5 out of 5 works for it, also.

Fatal Frame III: The Tormented

I haven’t gotten to play this one as much, thanks to a prolonged loaning to my previously-mentioned friend, but I definitely enjoyed it. The game closes the gaps between the two previous games with the player taking control of three characters: Rei Kurosawa, the main character whose guilt over the loss of her fiancé causes her to enter a strange mansion in her dreams, the House of Sleep; Kei Amakura, uncle of Mei and Mayu, the main characters of Fatal Frame II; and Miku Hinasaki, the main character from the original game, who works as Rei’s assistant. As the story progresses, the House of Sleep expands and so does the influence of the spectral forces on the waking world, as Rei starts seeing strange things appear in her house. I give this another 5 out of 5.

Siren

Another game that takes place in Japan, rather than the US, this game consistently spooks the hell out of me. During the course of the game, you take up the controls of one of ten characters, hoping to get out of a nightmare world where the living dead roam the streets, searching for you. This game features the unique mechanic called "Sightjacking" where you can view the surroundings through the eyes of any character, enemy or ally, in the area. The game focuses more on stealth than attacking, with most levels requiring you to conserve ammunition and stay out of sight of the enemy (indeed, several missions give you no ammunition whatsoever to start with, or weapons). I’ll give this a 4 out of 5 due to some of the frustration involved in certain missions.

Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill was one of my favorite games on the original PlayStation and when this game came out, I played it as soon as I had a chance. While very enjoyable, it wasn’t my biggest favorite of the series. Players take on the role of James Sunderland, a man whose wife died three years prior. He’s approached Silent Hill as he received a letter recently from his wife asking him to meet her there, "in our special place". Players also encounter Angela Orosco, who’s there searching for her mother; Eddie Dombrowski, whose reasons for being in Silent Hill are, initially, unclear; and Laura, a small girl with a connection to Mary, James’ wife. This game introduces the concept of the town of Silent Hill playing with people’s perceptions, making them see things from their own subconcious. While successfully creepy and foggy, I have to give this one a 3 out of 5.

Silent Hill 3

I felt this game was a big improvement over Silent Hill 2. The plot has a direct connection to the original Silent Hill and while it sometimes mentions the psychological effects of the town, I didn’t really feel it overpower the story as much as with SH2. This time, you take the role of Heather, a teenage girl living in an unnamed town near Silent Hill as she first encounters monsters in the mall, then on her way home. The story takes some good twists and serves as a good finisher to the original game’s storyline. I give it 5 out of 5.

Silent Hill 4: The Room

This is my least favorite of the Silent Hill series, mostly because it just doesn’t feel like Silent Hill. You play as Henry Townshend, a man with a problem. He’s stuck in his apartment. Not that he’s afraid of going out or anything like that, of course; somehow a strange locking mechanism appeared on his door that will not let him exit no matter what. He finds a way out through holes in his walls. That lead to other areas, kind of like Alice in Wonderland, though there’s no "friendly" White Rabbits or Mad Hatters on the other end, just monsters and an immortal killer who’s trying to complete a ritual. All in all, I score this a 3 out of 5.

Clock Tower 3

While sharing the Clock Tower name with three previous games, this one has nearly nothing to do with those (outside of a villain named Scissorman that appears in a late chapter, along with his sister Scissorwoman). Players take on the role of Alyssa, a young girl who returns home after receiving a letter from her mother (specifically telling her NOT to come back home) and finds a stranger there who she assumes is a boarder at the house. Soon, she finds herself in World War II London, escaping a giant with a sledgehammer that murders a young girl. This game is freaky, using some extremely disturbing images to deliver the scares. I’ll give this one a 4 out of 5.

Haunting Ground

Known in Japan as Demento (no relation to the comedy music DJ Dr. Demento), and initially intended to be part of the Clock Tower series, this game stands on its own now. You play as Fiona, a girl trapped in an old medieval castle, trying to find a way out. Along the way you encounter some other characters, most notable of which is Debilitas, a simple man who acts as the gardener of the castle who instantly starts chasing Fiona whenever he sees her. Helping Fiona along the way is Hewie, a white German Shepherd dog who you train upon first meeting him. I haven’t been able to finish this game, yet, but so far, it’s worth a 4 out of 5.

Resident Evil: The Essentials

A box set of three Resident Evil games, this was a steal for me at $30 at Wal-Mart, you get three games in the set. First is Resident Evil Code: Veronica X, which was originally released to the Dreamcast as RE Code: Veronica. This was the first PS2 Survival Horror game I ever played, having rented it the day I bought my PS2. It follows the same gameplay pattern as the PSX Resident Evil games, making it pretty easily accessible to those familiar with them. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Next is Resident Evil: Outbreak, the first online RE game to be released. You pick one of eight characters and guide them through any of five scenarios (only one is unlocked to start with, but more become available through various playthroughs). It attempts to show an everyman’s POV of the Raccoon City infection, giving you a choice between a cop, security guard, doctor, reporter, waitress, plumber, subway worker or student. With numerous special items available, multiple outfits to unlock and different events to see, this game has more playthrough value than you might first think. 4 out of 5.

Finally, there’s the game that was sworn to never see the light of a PS2 laser, Resident Evil 4. In this game, you take on the role of Leon Kennedy, male character from RE2, as he’s on special assignment into a European country to save the U.S. President’s kidnapped daughter. Along the way, he encounters not a horde of zombies but a bunch of peasants infected with a parasite called Las Plagas. This game is very fun, and dares to break away from the classic "bioweapon" stories of the rest of the series. I give it 5 out of 5.

Resident Evil: Outbreak: File #2

A sequel to RE: Outbreak (obviously), this game reunites you with Mark, Kevin, Yoko and the rest of the Outbreak crew as they continue their attempts at surviving five new areas. Online capable again, this game actually seems a bit tougher than the first, though they at least give you the chance to pick your (offline) partners, rather than assigning them randomly as in the first game. I had fun with this game and score it 4 out of 5.

Kuon

Rounding out our tour of horror games for now, I bring you Kuon. This has to be one of the rarest games I’ve seen come out here and the only way I’ve been able to play it is by signing up for the online rental service GameFly. You play as one of two women (though a third character becomes unlocked once you beat the game with both of them) each striving to help exorcise a Japanese mansion in Heian Period Japan. It’s been pretty fun and I expect to have a full review of the game up as soon as I finish it completely. So far, it gets a 4 out of 5, subject to future events.

Well, there you go. That’s just a small sampling of the many survival horror games out on the PS2 now and I haven’t even hardly mentioned PS1 or PS3 (or any other systems, for that matter). If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail me, and let me know of any other games I can cover in future installments. Until next time, keep gaming, and this is Red Hawk signing out!

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Originally published: October 12, 2007 @ 4:20 AM MST (Arizona)

The mind is a complex thing. When confronted with a stimulus that proves too shocking for it to handle, it deals with it in several ways, many of which have been shown in various mediums. Sometimes it will shut down completely, leaving the person in a catatonic state (see Death Wish); sometimes it will cause a psychopathy to from (see the seminal Joker story The Killing Joke); sometimes a seperate personality will form (any number of movies). Sometimes, however, these will form from no prompting at all.

In the first Suffering for PS2) game (Suffering for the Xbox, Suffering for the PC, Suffering for the GameCube) we were introduced to Torque, a man on Death Row for the alleged murder of his wife and two sons. He’s incarcerated because he doesn’t remember what happened - a blackout occurred in his mind right before it happened. As the game progresses, Torque’s actions as you play determine his innocence or guilt… whether innocent (help everyone you can), crime of passion (help some people, harm others), or premeditated (kill everyone you come across). Suffering: Ties That Bind (for PS2) (or Suffering: TTB for Xbox, Suffering: TTB for PC picks up where the first game leaves off. One way or another, Torque finds himself on a gurney, being carried through a dock area and into a warehouse to meet with Jordan, a woman who’s made it her life’s work to study the Malefactors, her name for the many strange monsters that Torque encountered on Carnate Island in the first game. Soon, however, a quake hits and Torque’s freed of his bonds. He’s back in his hometown of Baltimore and he has some unfinished business to take care of as well as some demons to lay to rest, both literally and figuratively…

This game was an excellent follow-up to the original Suffering (for PS2). We get a return of most of Stan Winston’s monster designs (the only absences being the Festers, based off of slavers; the Noosemen, based off of hanging; the Infernas, spirits of fire who once were little girls who accused people of witchcraft; and the boss characters, outside of one). Instead of monsters based off of execution techniques, the monsters in this game are based off of different crime and suffering on the streets. The Slayers, the previous game’s representation of death by blades, represent knives; the Gorger, a new addition, represents death by going hungry; the Arsonist is this game’s fire replacement, taking on the look of a pair of people fused together by an intense flame; Triggermen, another new addition, represent normal gunfire deaths… a human spider with several forms of firearms at the end of each leg; Mainliners return, though instead of representing lethal injection, as in the first game, they represent drug abuse; Marksmen return, representing the military deaths of rioters; Burrowers represent miners that were trapped underground following an earthquake; Mauler’s are the supernatural manifestation of Copperfield, the slave hunter’s, dogs; Suppressor’s are a gross representation of police brutality in the prisons, if caught in their searchlight, you’ll be fired upon (and that’s most definitely NOT a good thing); and the Isolationist appears in the prison, also… the closest thing to a Fester, at this creature’s death it unleashes a plauge of roaches at you that explode on contact.

Seeming to lead this motley crew of death and destruction is Blackmore, an old "friend" of Torque’s who seems to be behind a lot of the pain in Torque’s past. The goal of the game is tracking Blackmore down, making him pay for his past crimes against you. Also hunting you is Jordan, herself, or more appropriately, her many soldiers. In one level, you have to fight your way through wave after wave of soldiers and your best bet is to practice your strafing and hide behind pillars as they open fire on you with machine guns. Another boss character you’ll come across is the Creeper, the ghost of a misogynistic pimp who’ll "entertain" you with his tales of how he kept his women in line. Lastly, there’s the aforementioned Copperfield who will usually let his Maulers handle you, though you have the possibility of taking him on late in the game.

On Torque’s side (usually, that is, depending on how you played the game) is the spirit of Torque’s wife Carmen. Your actions in the previous game (or on other variables in the start, more on that later) will determine her attitude towards you, whether it be helpful, angry, or downright hostile. You’ll also meet your older son Cory who’s usually hostile towards you for his own personal reasons. Also, returning from The Suffering as your own personal undead brain care specialist is your friend and mine, Dr. Killjoy! This guy is one of my favorites from the first game and I was extremely happy to see and hear him again in this one.

Add to the mix a bunch of moral questions… do you help the elderly men or let the hoods rob them? Do you help an old friend from your neighborhood make it to the church? Do you escort the junky to his residence to get his stash? These and many other situations help guide Torque down his road to self-discovery, just as similar situations in the first game did the same. Unlike the first game, however, your choices will actually benefit you a little sooner than just in the ending.

You see, making a return from the original game is also Torque’s other self. When he makes it to a certain rage level he’s able to shift into a monster form that can tear into enemies faster than anything else in your arsenal. With the decisions you make in the game, good or evil, your monster form gains new abilities and attacks not seen in the first game. Of course, the same restriction applies that was in the first game… stay in monster form too long and you take a hit of damage when you change back.

Of course, with the good there’s a little bit of bad. My copy of the game glitches sometimes, not loading up certain enemies or not loading any enemies at all in certain vital areas. This was easily remedied though, as I loaded up a previous save and the enemies proved to be where they were supposed to be all along. The load times between levels sometimes take a little while, but in my opinion it doesn’t detract from the game at all. One disappointment I had with the game that’s different from the first one is the reduction in weapon capacity. In the first game, you could carry several different forms of firearms and melee weapons. In this game, you can only carry two weapons at a time, regardless of what they are (with the exception of thrown weapons, which you can carry multiples of each on your belt). That being said, the option to hold two weapons of the same kind at one time was definitely welcomed back with open arms.

Voicewise, we have some big talent behind some of the characters. First and foremost, the voice of Blackmore is provided by Michael Clark Duncan and he definitely did an excellent job in the role, lending an air of menace to his character’s voice. You hear him more than you see him, actually, as he’s one of the two voices in Torque’s ear, urging him on to do evil deeds in this case. Rachel Griffiths played Jordan. She did a reasonable job and I was very convinced in her being this rich girl who put as many resources as possible into her organization. Her voice is also heard reading the entries in her journal about the different monsters you encounter. She was also on Angel and Six Feet Under.

I really loved this game a lot. I picked it up sight unseen because I loved the first game so much and am glad that I did. One thing I noticed when playing this one is that I used the first person perspective quite a bit, definitely more than I used it in the first game. I’m not sure if it was just a matter of convenience or what, but I remember, in the first game, watching Torque’s back a lot more than in this one. Once again, it doesn’t detract from the game… in fact, it helps you look at different things close up. All in all, I’m going to give the game a 4 out of 5. It’s a fun little game that doesn’t really get old after several plays and with some excellent monster designs. I hope that this review was helpful for you. If you get a chance to rent it or something, I definitely say go ahead! If you click the link below you can leave a comment and let us know what YOU thought of the game, too. As always, until next time, this is Red Hawk signing off!

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