Awaking in a strange European castle our heroine Fiona finds herself surrounded by evil. Not knowing what's going on or why the residents of the castle are out to get her, Fiona stumbles around finding strange alchemic devices, traps and a hulking, deformed admirer. But in a strange twist of fate, Fiona befriends another prisoner of the castle, a white shepherd dog that Fiona rescues from certain death. Teaming up, the two must now attempt to uncover the castle's secrets and escape a sinister demise.

Haunting Ground is Capcom's latest attempt at trying to scare us. Having pretty much written the book on survival-horror games (Resident Evil series), Capcom decided to take this one in a slightly different direction. First, the game is more exploration and puzzle solving rather then fighting and action. Since the castle is relatively large (over 130 rooms) and disturbingly strange, you can expect to see some rather odd rooms and locations. Secondly, there are weapons, but not in a traditional sense. Instead, you can find or create small devices with alchemic bases that will do varying amounts of damage upon throwing them at the bad guys. There's even a cool little device that you throw on the ground and when someone steps on it, it will cause damage to them. But probably your most effective weapon is the dog Hewie. Once you have befriended him he will respond to your commands to attack. Again, adding another layer of depth, you must be smart in your attacks, don't have him attack from the front, rather have him sit and wait and then attack from rear. I must admit, there was some forward thinking done in this portion of the game. 

Since we all know that we'll be playing PS3's by this time next year, it still is nice to know that the graphics that the PS2 can push are still nice to look at. Don't get me wrong, this is not the best-looking PS2 title, but the gigantic mansion that this game takes place in, looks really good. A gothic, monstrosity with winding corridors, enormous rooms and strange occupants. The game does not have true full explorability, but you can more often then not, go up to something and use the action button. Most of the time it will give you a description of the object of interest. Sometimes, you can even use the object to hide as this is the best way to escape the unwanted affections of the enormous Debilitas, the castle handyman and resident freak. Debilitas is your primary problem while playing this game; he is actively searching for you as you explore the castle, often finding you when you are on the cusp of discovering something important. Since you can't destroy Debilitas you must outrun him and hide using Hewie and your weapons to slow him down enough for you to hide. Since the game is viewed from a fixed third-person perspective, often it changes to the viewpoint of your hiding place in order to heighten the sense of fear that the programmers want you to experience. It's another nifty trick in the game but the whole hiding thing has been done in the "Clock Tower Series"

The voice acting in the game is on par for your normal horror game - not that that means anything. Most horror games have voice acting on par with a microphone in a blender set on puree. What salvages the middle-of-the-road voice talent, is the truly creepy music that plays throughout the game, it's designed to lull you into a false sense of safety but really ratchets up the scares in an environmental way. Really well done music and my hats off to the composer. 

Continuing to play, you'll find that if strategy is not employed, you won't last long. Think about this, as you run for your life in the castle, you must eat items in order to regain your stamina. The same thing is said about Hewie the dog, you must also feed Hewie to keep his strength up and reward/discipline him throughout the game. If you leave a room and Hewie isn't with you, you can call for him, if Hewie doesn't respond, you should go up to him and issue the command again. If he still doesn't respond, you discipline him. If you don't position yourself as the alpha dog early on, you could really regret it later. Plus, Hewie is an essential component in the game, he can go places you can't, he can recover items you can't and he can fight off the evil forces for you.

Since I am a die-hard horror movie fan I thought I'd throw out a couple movies that this game appears to "borrow" from.

Humongous:  A freaky little film that involves a deformed man stalking teenagers... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082537/

Castle Freak: Again, some heavy borrowing, is that a castle in Italy? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112643/

Gameplay: 7.0
The hiding has been done, the third-person perspective has been done, the dog as a sidekick has been done. Nicely though, it comes together in a tangible gaming experience that's not too bad to control. More a mental survival horror game, then a physical one, the game does have some nice things to offer.

Graphics: 7.2
Yeah, it's got that air brushed skin thing going for it, and the castle sure is neat to look at, but there's nothing really awesome here in terms of eye candy.

Sound: 7.4
Really strong background and theme music. Debilitas has a good sounding voice as he moans and runs after you. But the rest of the voice acting just doesn't fit the game really as well as it should.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Shaking the villains that chase you can be a bit tougher then you think. The screen begins to show the effects of your fatigue and fear if you get smacked around a bit. You stumble and become difficult to control much like the movies.

Concept: 6.5
Survival horror games are going to really need a shot in the arm before they get a good concept score. My compliments to Capcom for pulling a couple of different ideas into one end product, but I'm still waiting for the next big head turner.

Overall: 7.0
I need to play games like these, for me, I can't get enough of horror games and I gobble them up as soon as I get them. This one is a worthy entry for the genre, but still felt like it needed some of the elements drilled down a bit tighter. Still, it's the only game that's been in my PS2 since I got it. I try to play it alone in the dark, by myself, late at night, and I'll be darned if I haven't gotten scared more then once. For me, that speaks volumes.