Technicaly, the game's not so astounding. But the immense fear more than makes up for that.
Clock Tower tells the tale of a young girl named Jennifer, an orphans whose parents died mysteriously when she was a few years old. Now, her caretaker Mary guides her and her friends to a new place to live, the so called Clock Tower. At first, everything seems peaceful and quiet, but when Mary stays away for quite a while, Jennifer goes looking for her. She's just a few footsteps away or she hears screams coming from the room. She heads back, only to find out her friends are gone. After that she goes exploring, and soon she finds one of her friends dead at the hands of Scizzorman, the game's trademark enemy. And here your first of many chases begins.
Clock Tower is a point and click game. Jennifer walks where you tell her too, and by using the point and click system, you can also investigate the area for several clues that can help you go further into the mansion as your progress. This won't be so easy however, as you'll often, sometimes completely out of the sudden, be ambushed by Scizzorman. The goal here is to run away and find a hiding place or escape route ASAP. While avoidong Scizzorman and looking for clues, other unpleasant suprises will await you in the tower. Sometimes, you'll find a dead friend, be shocked by a scary event (for example, you pull a curtain to the side, only to reveal Scizzorman is right behind it), or be disturbed because of several reasons. All of this together makes for a tense, but above all scary experience. It cannot be mentioned enough that Clock Tower is a scary, scary game. It doesn't have (save for some select moments) any blood and guts, but it doesn't need any. The atmosphere alone is more then enough to scare the hell out of you, making you desperatly wish you next move won't be your last. Nightmares are assured, and that comes from someone who wasn't scared by any of the Resident Evil games, so approach this game with caution.
The audiovisual presenation is pretty good. Graphically, the game isn't anything special. Static, repetitive enviroments will annoy and/or dissapoint you, but it's not anything that will get in the way of the experience. The sound makes up for that. You will almost never hear any music, except when you encounter scizzorman, at which point the BGM will cause your adrenaline to start flowing, moreso when accompannied by a Jennifer's scream. It's not much, but still a genuine way to add to all the scare the game would have, even without the music.
One playthrough through the game is pretty short, but the first time you play will probably result in a bad ending. That's right: Clock Tower has multiple endings. About a little more than 5, actually. the better you perform, and the more you discover, the better the ending will be. Since the experience is so great, you'll definetly come back for more.
Clock Tower is despite it's shortcommings, worth checking out. Make sure you're up for it though, since this game, although not to be M rated by any means, is very, very scary. Clock Tower is technicaly not astounding, but the immense fear more than makes up for that.