Somewhere in Japan, there is a store that cannot keep enough copies of this game in stock. In it, you play the part of Fiona Belli, a teenage girl who wakes up dressed in a bedsheet and locked up in a dog cage at the bottom of a castle dungeon. You end up roaming this castle in search of an exit while being stalked by all manner of weirdos with very unpure intentions of rape, murder, and things much much worse. Better yet, your methods of self-defense largely include hiding, futile kicking, falling down a lot, and throwing the occassional trinket. Sound like fun? It actually is in its own unique way for a while.

The big draw to Haunting Ground is the interaction with "Hewie", your german shepard dog. Early on, Fiona befriends Hewie and, as a result, obtains her main method of effective defense. Together, they solve puzzles, fight enemies, and navigate the castle in search of their way out. At the same time, the cast of unsavory characters stalking you will harrass you to no end. These people are the other big draw to Haunting Ground. In all honesty, some of them are the most memorable characters I've seen in recent horror games. A couple are pretty forgetable, but the 2 or 3 that stand out really shine in their roles. My favorites were a gigantic mentally-challenged man who seems to view Fiona as a toy to be played with; a psychotic maid who goes insane with jealousy over something Fiona has that she does not, and a decrepid old man in a wheelchair who is just creepy altogether.

It's these characters that make the game interesting and if they don't strike you immediately as such, the rest of the game surely won't. I've read that it is like a trip to 6 years ago and it certainly is. You are solving a lot of bullshit puzzles with no common sense to them whatsoever. They are almost completely cryptic. You get enough memos and clues as to what the answers are to the puzzles, but that means you'll be sorting through all that crap to figure out that the marionette hangs on the door to unlock it, mandragoras need to be sacrificed to the dead, and blue jewel goes in the slot on the nightstand in the foyer and so on. Impatient gamers will never make it through all these lame-ass puzzles without a guide.

There are some puzzles that make the game fun and unique though. For example, in one area, the lights are almost out and there are holes in the floor. Fiona needs Hewie to lead the way through the darkness. Another puzzle has Hewie finding clues based on scent. These are the kinds of puzzles that make Haunting Ground feel like its worth playing. The bad thing is that for every clever puzzle like this, there's two more where you're putting jewels into the mouths of dragon statues. It's just old and tired.

So, if you can get past the lame puzzles, the story is actually fairly interesting. In my opinion, the first half of the game is really pretty good. The main characters are frighteningly real and you dread each encounter with them. Trust me, you'll be running for your life and making Hewie work overtime so you can get away. At the same time, there is a mystery to these enemies that make them very interesting and memorable. Its also very adult-themed. Rape and masochism are not common themes in videogames, but in Haunting Ground they are suggested and it has a way of making your skin crawl when you imagine it. One of my favorite parts in the game involves the maid being "punished" for something and another scene where she touches Fiona as she sleeps. This kind of imagery is almost considered taboo in videogames, so it was really cool for me to see a game that finally addressed it, but did it in such a way that made me THINK I saw more than I really did. The reality of it was just that the game has a way of making your imagination run wild.

It was really disappointing to see the game's story take a nosedive in the second half though. It went from provacative and controversial to bad slasher movie. The only reason I pressed on to see the end was because I wanted to see what became of the few interesting characters the game. I think it would have been better off as a shorter game with more impact on what was happening. It would have greatly benefitted from having more plot development, more "did you see that" moments, and less emphasis on being what they thought was "the right amount" of length for a horror game. Screw what everyone else is doing. I don't care if Resident Evil 4 was 16 hours long, Haunting Ground is a different game with more potential for storytelling so don't ruin the momentum by making the game twice as long as it needed to be.

Speaking of other games, Haunting Ground does at least do a few things better than all of them. First off, there is only a brief loading period when you first begin a game. From there, it never loads again. You go seamlessly from room to room without a pause. That in itself does a lot to keep a player glued to the set. Another plus is that it all looks great. For a PS2 game, this is probably one of the better looking ones out there. I suppose it's unfair to say that when there's never more than a few characters on screen at one time, but what is there looks great and really comes to life. You will feel like the castle is a real place and the weirdos that populate it all look the part. I'd also like to mention that the animations for the maid character are the kind of thing that nightmares are made of.

Since I mentioned her again, that maid character really gave me the chills. When Fiona would be looking around in a room, you can hear the maid's footsteps outside the door, letting you know that she was nearby. More often than not, she would say, "Miss?" before opening the door and racing after Fiona. That is a very nice little trick and I was really impressed by how it always made me think, "Oh shit! Hide!" everytime it happened. That's not really exclusive to the maid though. All the characters can be heard when they're nearby. It's just that damn maid in particular that left her mark on me.

Come to think of it, the sound in the game is a pretty decent offering. I think the best examples are those moments of teeth-clenching tension when an enemy has just discovered Fiona or is hot on the trail. The music that ensues can really add atmosphere to most situations and is generally fitting of each occassion. The best music in there is perhaps what accompanies the "panic mode" of the game. Basically, when Fiona takes a lot of damage or is surprised by something, she starts to panic. When the panic is not addressed via medication, it builds up until Fiona cannot take it anymore and flips out. She starts running around frantically and beyond your control as the music pulses and quickens to a breakneck speed. Worse yet, the screen becomes blurry and out of focus as if Fiona's eyes are no longer focused on anything, but more toward darting around in a frenzy.

The panic mode sounds pretty cool, right? Well it is! It's annoying when you're in a jam because it pretty much means you are going to die on the floor while crawling away in a futile attempt to save your own life. Pretty harrowing at times, but then again, that's another thing that makes the game stand out. However, for every cool idea, there is another lame one in there to balance things out. Like the weapon system, for example. Rather than do something that makes sense, like have Fiona use things like knives, pieces of wood, etc., Fiona has to use alchemy to make her own weapons. So instead of grabbing a dinner plate off a table and using it as a projectile, you have to mix together a bunch of odd items and come up with a sort of firecracker that briefly stuns an enemy. Or maybe you combine a pieces of metal to make a lame landmine item that causes enemies to break stride for a second. For the most part, these things are not worth the time it takes to use them. Your enemy tends to gain ground on you while you waste time with these things. If you don't have Hewie with you, you almost have to run and hide everytime. It would have really gone a long way to be able to at least grab the big shiny knife off the kitchen counter rather than throw some powdery concoction at the enemy who may have be wielding a sword or even a gun in some cases.

Despite its faults, Haunting Ground is a worthwhile venture for fans of horror. You'll be treated to some memorable characters for sure, and those who find their way to the end can earn some very cool bonus features and costumes. The best costume is probably the one called "Illegal in some states". Fan-service of the highest caliber. Anyway, for people who are not absolutely nuts about scary games, this game may be worth picking up when it goes down in price someday. The worst part is that this game had huge potential to be something legendary, but boring puzzles, bad pacing, and a ridiculous story in the second half make this just slightly better than average. Disappointing to have to say that, but here's hoping some of the better features will be used in future efforts from Capcom.