Haunting Grounds

Y’all, trigger warning for mature content. This game has some pretty unique and well done features for its time. Players play as Fiona, a woman who awakes in a castle after a car accident. Fiona must escape the castle, and learn more about why she arrived here. She and her newly rescued canine companion, Hewie, must carefully explore the castle. Like Clock Tower, the player cannot attack and must run and hide to survive. When scared, Fiona freaks out and the player loses control of Fiona, who can run in any direction. Hewie can also be trained by the player, and has different modes to help. Occasionally, it can be easy to get stuck by missing hidden items.

As a result, the tension in the game is stellar. Hewie, as a companion, is pivotal to the success of the player. However, the plot of this game is probably the worst part; Fiona is desired for her womb by a crazy hooded figure who captured her. I’ll let you interpret that as you will, lol. He chases her throughout the castle. But in essence, you are playing as an object of sexual desire. Fiona has no agency, and most of the plot depends on Hewie. Unfortunately, the story gets even more sexually wackadoodle towards the end. If you can get past the problematic media portion of this game, and view it as a product of its time, Haunting Ground is a unique, scary title (twice as much for women).