Haunting Ground - Reception

Reception

The game received mixed to positive reviews, with scores of 73% and 67 out of 100 on GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively.

IGN wrote "Haunting Ground's combination of high-end presentation, disturbing sexuality, and psychological mindjobbing makes it one of the most interesting games of the last couple of months," and selected it as the "Game of the Month" for May 2005. GameSetWatch also felt the sexuality of the game was a positive; "Disparaging Haunting Ground for its copious objectification of women is a facile task, and so is discrediting its storytelling for the gratuitous exposure. Easy, easy, to fetishize a horny maid, a half-naked young blonde in dire straits and at the mercy of grasping, perverted men. But it's precisely that off-putting sexuality that makes Daniella terrifying, that makes Fiona's circumstances so explicitly repugnant, that sharpens Haunting Ground's fear factor to a knife in the gut."

1UP.com praised the graphics, character models and environments, arguing that the game featured "some of the most detailed, lavish 3D environments Capcom has ever produced." GamePro described the visuals as "stark but appealing."

Critics also praised the use of Hewie. Just Adventure called him "adorable" and "an asset of the utmost value," whilst 1UP named him "one of the best-implemented efforts" of a dog in video gaming. GameSpot noted that Hewie, despite being well-trained, occasionally did not obey orders, adding realism to the game.

There were criticisms however. GamePro stated that "despite a few fresh ideas, Haunting Ground is no classic. The thin story relies too often on cliché and titillation, the villains aren't terribly frightening, and the gameplay becomes too predictable too quickly. Ultimately, this is Resident Evil Lite with a dog." The New York Times felt the game came close to greatness, but fell somewhat short; "The greatest annoyance of Haunting is that with a little more thought and greater attention to detail it could have been a lot more fun. Great game design does not reside so much in clever gimmicks like friendly dogs and defenseless blondes as it does in the dozens of smart touches in a game."