CNN.com - 'Haunting Ground' covers terrifying territory

By Marc Saltzman
Gannett News Service

	Fiona awakens from a car crash to find she's being kept prisoner in a castle by an ogre.
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From the makers of the frightening "Resident Evil" video game series comes a thrilling "survival horror" title, "Haunting Ground," a new franchise from Capcom.

The game stars Fiona Belli, an 18-year-old who awakens from a car crash to find she's being kept prisoner in a huge castle. She soon discovers there are other inhabitants in the castle, including an ogre who chases her around the premises.

Weaponless, Fiona must escape his advances by hiding or using the environment against him.

This is just a taste of what's to come as Fiona explores the castle for a way out and must solve dozens of puzzles to remain alive long enough to do so. She also unravels who is behind this nightmare and why.

Unlike the somewhat action-heavy "Resident Evil" series, "Haunting Ground" has few combat sequences. Instead, the heroine pairs up with a white shepherd dog, Hewie, who can attack when necessary, which serves as a distraction so Fiona can escape to carry on with her quest.

Hewie becomes an important part of this game as the two must work together to bypass obstacles. This bond between Fiona and her canine companion also adds a welcome emotional and realistic touch to an otherwise supernatural and sometimes silly story.

When pursued, Fiona's stamina will eventually run out if she doesn't find a hiding place. As she slows down, it increases the likelihood that one of the eerie characters will grab her.

When this happens, she panics, which results in the controller vibrating like a rapid heartbeat, the screen contrast will switch to a warped black-and-white view, and if things get really bad, Fiona may get hysterical with fear and fall down.

While in a major panic, Fiona cannot access the sub-screen, which grants her access to healing herbs and other items in the inventory.

This mature-rated thriller is played from a static third-person perspective, therefore some players may feel the fixed "camera" view somewhat limiting. But it's refreshing to play an adventure that lets you simply be the main character instead of having to also take control of the camera as with many games these days.

More than a dozen noninteractive mini-movies are peppered throughout the single-player game to provide additional story elements or to foreshadow sequences.

Because of its slower pace and emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving, "Haunting Ground," which retails for $49.99, may not appeal to everyone -- even to fans of other scary Capcom games such as the "Resident Evil" series -- but the masters of survival horror titles seem have another nail-biting franchise on their hands.