Poor Fiona Belli. First a car crash that claimed the lives of her beloved parents, then waking up, only to find herself naked except for a flimsy sheet, locked in a dog cage. Not a great way to start a day, now is it? The gorgeous CGI intro weaves her sad tale beautifully, but this will be the first and only time you see CG in Haunting Ground. The rest of the game is comprised entirely of in-game graphics and they are breathtaking. From Fiona’s desperate gaze to crazed Daniella the maid’s flawless skin, everything looks picture perfect. Even Debilitis, the hulking giant looks believable in a nightmarish way. And Hewie the dog looks and behaves so realistically that my dog got jealous while I played and pitied the creature at certain times, but more on that later.

The voicework is quite good, with all of the characters (save Debilitis, who barely speaks) having a pseudo-European accent. It's a bit over-the-top at times, but it works really well with the game. When you hear Debilitis say in his stinted way, "My dolly" the first time he sees you, ice will run through your veins.

The sound effects work well to create a general feeling of unease as you play through the game. Gecko had to laugh when he noticed that the intense, horror-instilling music that began as I outran one of my attackers was the "all clear" music. The game and all of its components are designed to do exactly that - keep you scared and on edge. Each enemy also has their own theme song, if you will, that reflects their character. Debilitis' music is a pounding tune, just like him. The Jolly Green Giant on meth. Daniella's tune is a little bit electronic and crazy. Hmmm. Riccardo's is still a little electronic, but with more of an intensity. And so on. It was interesting to see how the developers revealed bits about the characters through the music.

Okay, so my typical idea of a survival horror is this – you are trapped in a mansion/wooded area/secret military site and are being relentlessly pursued by zombies/aliens/deformed creatures and you have guns/knives/rocket launchers at your disposal to survive. Right? So try this on for size. You are a nervous 18 year old girl in an outfit that is too tight with no weaponry whatsoever. You are also prone to panic attacks and you are being chased down at different times by 1) a huge, deformed guy with bad teeth who thinks you are his dolly but doesn’t play right; 2) an insane, weapon-wielding maid who is jealous of you; 3) a psycho butler dressed like a monk who is angry because you don’t like your inherited castle. There’s more, but I won’t ruin the plot. That’s not survival horror, its suicide! Well, it would be, were it not for the fact that you’ll find a friend along the way, one with big teeth. Fiona befriends Hewie, a German Shepherd and another victim of the dreary castle. They form a bond and try to escape the castle together.

This creates a really interesting game element. When you encounter an enemy, you can order Hewie to attack and that gives you the opportunity to run and hide, hopefully. There are certain areas that are specific Evasion Points such as under beds and couches or in wardrobes, and when you are in Hiding mode, you go into 1st person view and can see your attacker walking back and forth. Sometimes, if you reuse a spot too often, they will figure you out and the message “FLEE!” flashes on the screen. Talk about heart-pounding! So you run. The idea is to get far enough away so that the music dies down, hence your enemy has either lost interest or has lost you.

As Fiona’s level of fear increases, the look of the game takes on a more hand-drawn, outlined appearance. Things get blurred and she will run into walls in fear and hurt herself. It’s a vicious cycle. If Fiona gets sufficiently frightened, such as when her health depletes enough or she gets grabbed, stabbed or shot, she will go into a full tilt panic attack. When this happens, your view of the game gets more blurred, goes black and white and very stylized, and she can barely be controlled. She breaks out into a full run, banging into walls and whatever else gets in the way. If you can’t find a way to get her out of the area of the enemy, she will hurt herself on the walls to the point that she will fall to the ground and be vulnerable for attack and be killed. Now, you don’t have a health meter, so your only visual queue that her health is depleting is that she walks slower and appears hurt. She will find lavender and chamomile along the way that function as health items to restore health and calmness. When you are in full panic mode, however, you can’t access any of the submenus to take these herbs, so it’s a struggle to survive.

Other items Fiona will come across are medallions, which can then be transformed via the “alchemy machine” into either health items, food items (for Hewie) or defense items, such as antimony powder to electrify your enemies and magnesia stone, which will explode like a little mine when an enemy walks over it. Basically, the idea is to avoid the enemies and outrun and outsmart them when they do catch your scent (literally, with Debilitis).

A frustrating, yet clever element in Haunting Ground is that as you are being pursued, the enemy is effectively taking you totally away from the area that you wanted to explore, making you have to retrace your steps once you lose them. This makes things take a lot longer as you are constantly running to and fro, and while it was annoying at first, I like it now. It’s more challenging having to remember where you have been and where you need to go.

Fiona will come across small puzzles along the way and she’ll have to use Hewie at certain times. Hewie can learn based on your training, so if you are kind and praise him often (which, as I mentioned earlier, made my dog Beanie horribly jealous), he will learn and respond to you. However, if you kick him (never do this) or scold him too often, he will ignore your commands. You need him to sit and stay for certain puzzles, so be nice to him. He’s also really handy is boss fights.

Once you have beaten the game, music and videos from the game become unlocked in a Secret Room, along with your play type and some new costume changes. There's a racy, black leather dominatrix number for Fiona, along with the other outfits you will have seen throughout the game. There's also a peculair mini-game where you play as Hewie and Fiona chases you around.

Well, survival horror generally isn’t a walk in the park and Haunting Ground is no different. Fiona has basically no weapons, tires easily and will be continuously hunted. However, the puzzles aren’t the least bit frustrating. Sure, the fetch quests can be somewhat tiresome when you are taken off your path by a chase, but to be honest, I liked it. Haunting Ground has just the right amount of difficulty, it’s just presented to you in a slightly different fashion.

Also, once you have beaten the game, a Hard Mode is unlocked, so you have another reason to play through the game again.

I must admit, when I popped Haunting Ground into my PS2, I was highly anticipating it as I am a huge fan of the Resident Evil series and I figured another survival horror from Capcom would be similar and just as great. Well, initially, I was really disappointed, because although the game was beautiful and scary, the control setup was not the typical RE style. Yes, there are different functions in this game, so the control scheme could not be identical, but it just would have made more sense to make certain things such as Run and the Map shortcut to be the same setup. However, there are several control schemes to choose from, and eventually, I got used to it.

Along the way, Fiona will come across clues to help her along, and she will also say things to herself. When these things are written across the screen, certain words will appear in different colors, such as red for very important things. This is your tip that you’ll be using that item soon or you’ll be solving a puzzle. It’s a really nice visual cue. Also, Fiona makes comments to herself in a file that is accessible in the submenu and sometimes the answer to what you are looking for can be found there. Saving of your game is accomplished by “a clock that etches time” which is a different twist. Of course, the old mansion has its share of time pieces, so you are never left for really long periods of time without the ability to save.

If you are a fan of survival horror, you’d be wise to pick Haunting Ground up for your collection. It’s a different take on the typical survival horror fare, and the more I play it, the more I like it. When a game sends you to bed at 2:00 a.m. in a very uneasy state, only to lie in bed and strongly consider getting back up to get chased some more, you have a winner on your hands. Highly recommended.