Clock Tower 3

Overall Rating:
Genre: Survival horror
Christian Rating: 3 of 5
   (average)
Gameplay: 2 of 5
   (heavy)
Violence: 2 of 5
   (heavy)
Adult Content: 5 of 5
   (none)

Clock Tower 3 is a survival horror game developed by Capcom. It is the third in the series, but with a different storyline. It is a real survival horror. You spend most of your time hiding and evading from subordinates (ghosts of killers that stalk you). You have very few weapons; you can use holy water to stun enemies, and a bow and arrow in boss battles.

You play as Alyssa Hamilton, a teenage girl that has been sent to boarding school. At the beginning of the game, she is reading a letter from her mother, Nancy, telling her not to return home until her 15th birthday has passed. Immediately after finishing the letter, she gets a phone call from her mom, but when she gets to the phone, her mother doesn't respond. She then returns home despite her mother's warning. When she gets home, her mother is nowhere to be found. Instead, there is a man in the dining room that claims to be a lodger. He knows Alyssa, but she doesn't know him. After the man disappears up the stairs, she continues to look for her mother. Just as she gives up on her search, she finds a book hidden under the covers of her mother's bed. She opens to the page with the bookmark and on that page is a picture of the man she saw downstairs. A piano starts playing out of nowhere and in her panic she runs out the door and back in time. For the rest of the game, you help ghosts who have been killed by subordinates. Alyssa continues to try to figure out what happened to her mother, and who the dark man is.

The gameplay can be fun, but it sometimes feels underdeveloped. For instance, you can't reposition your bow during a boss battle, so if the boss moves out of the way, you have to recharge another arrow. The controls can be a little tricky when it comes to changing camera angles. The music is good, though.

There are a few things that could be offensive for some. The violence is pretty heavy. There's worse out there, but there is violence towards children and the elderly. There's a lot of blood in this game. I'm no expert on the occult, but there could be elements of the occult in this game. For example, in one scene you see Alyssa's Grandfather summoning his ancestor to 'merge' with him. He is also heard chanting something in other scenes.

There are quite a few supernatural elements in this game. The dark man talks about 'eternal life', but not as Christians know it but through a ritual to become an entity. You help ghosts by giving them their sentimental item. The ghosts are then seen rising. (Perhaps to heaven?) The language isn't too bad but there are words like 'hell' and the d-word. Hell is used correctly though, like when the dark man says to Alyssa, "If you don't believe me you can go to hell and see for yourself". Also, Alyssa's alternate costumes can be seen as revealing to some along with scissor-woman's outfit. There is no sex or nudity in this game.

There are good things about this game, plot wise. Alyssa risks her life throughout the game for others, and later has to risk her life to save her friend, Dennis. Dennis then saves her just before the final boss by saving her from a ritual. The game expresses values, some of which are Christian values. Love, hope, courage, and friendship are displayed in this game and are very obvious in a flashback scene of Nancy with Alyssa as a baby. This scene shows the significance of the clover necklace.

After most boss battles you get a piece for this necklace. Alyssa shows kindness to ghosts and is unselfish. Among all the violence, there is still a significant amount of love shown in different relationships.

Christian Spotlight Guide2Games is part of Christian Answers. Copyright © Films for Christ. • “Christian Spotlight’s Guide to Games” and “Guide2Games” are service marks of Films for Christ.