I understand that it’s not for everyone, but going back in time and playing some older games that meaningfully shaped a genre you like can make for a very interesting experience. It’s why when the new release of the survival horror classic Clock Tower: Rewind was announced from developer and publisher WayForward, in conjunction with Sunsoft, Capcom, and Limited Run Games, I knew this was my chance to play this very important game in the history of one of my favorite video game genres.
I think it’s important to clarify that Clock Tower: Rewind is not a remake or even a remaster of the original game, but an enhanced port of it, as it was never available officially outside of Japan before. So, while there were fan translations that people played through emulators, this is somehow the first time Clock Tower (1995) is properly available in the west, almost 30 years after release. That’s wild to think about for a game that was this important in establishing a genre as big as survival horror.
And that’s really the main reason to play Clock Tower: Rewind. If you’re as big of a fan of survival horror games as me, then it’s fascinating to see so many staples of the genre in their early forms here. There’s the huge mansion that every good survival horror classic comes with, more locked doors with their own dedicated key than any home should reasonably have, puzzles that consist of finding the right items to interact with the right objects in the environment, and maybe most importantly, a scary maniac that chases you through the hallways.
For all the similarities Clock Tower has to the survival horror classics we all know and love that followed it, there’s one pretty huge difference between it and them. While basically all of the games in the genre nowadays are either first- or third-person shooters, or in the case of some of the older classic shooters with a fixed camera, Clock Tower is a point-and-click game. You can only walk left and right in this side-scroller and use the cursor to go over points of interest in the environment to interact with. That obviously immediately puts some distance between Clock Tower and what we think of games in the genre now, but it’s all the more fascinating to see how much around that has been kept to this day.
But all of that gets to the heart of something really important to keep in mind if you decide to buy Clock Tower: Rewind. This is a game that’s almost 30-years old, and you can feel that all over it. Most notably in how obtuse the game is designed. There’s so much trial and error that you’ll need to get through to understand the map layout, where you get items and where you can use them, where you can hide from the Scissorman, and so much more. The game really doesn’t communicate much to you if you can’t figure things out for yourself. I mean even the control scheme, despite the fact that there’s a pop-up at the very start of the game, took me a second to understand and get used to.
The game still looks surprisingly good though, with its 16-bit graphics that manage to create more atmosphere than you would ever expect. It manages to create some really creepy images within that and has no problem establishing the gothic atmosphere you’d expect from a newer title in the genre. In this area, Clock Tower really isn’t lacking behind any more contemporary titles. Music is a bit different though, since there just isn’t any for large chunks of the game. For much of it, you’re just left with the sound of footsteps and creaking doors. That doesn’t mean that when there is music, it’s bad, though, quite the opposite, but Clock Tower seems to have opted for a more eerie and empty soundscape that only utilizes music for specific moments.
Clock Tower: Rewind is an interesting game to play from a historical perspective to understand where many of your favorite survival horror tropes come from, but it is also an old game and you can feel that, so just be aware of that.
Nairon played Clock Tower: Rewind on PC with a review code.
