Costume Game Review: Haunting Ground

I briefly touched on HG earlier, but can now expand since I've finished the game (almost twice as I'm typing this). Since this is mainly a costume review, I'll keep my opinions on the game itself brief. Haunting Ground is one of the growing alternates to the standard survival horror adventure. You don't shoot up zombies or hack up monsters with swords. All there is to do is run, hide, and occasionally throw out an offensive move that buys you a little time
to run and hide some more. It definitely makes for some nail biting moments. The map isn't very useful, which makes it hard to easily find the many places you need to keep backtracking to. All the fleeing in terror can get a bit old toward the end too, but it didn't stop me from having a good time with it.

Fiona's starts out the game in a long white blanket. It’s sort of sexy, but it’s hard to call it a real outfit. She then squeezes into her main gothic gear, which she says fits perfectly although “it’s a bit tight in the chest area”. We’ll start the ratings from here:

(I really wish I had the time to take screen caps of these. Maybe in the future)

Main outfit - Fairly unique. I really like the boots.
Rating: 7 out of 10

Alternate main outfit – The same as above except Fiona’s hair is down (fantastic), and she is barefoot (it doesn’t do anything for me).
Rating: 7 out of 10

Surgical Gown – A disturbing short white smock with blood splatters. Hair is once again down and sans shoes.
Rating: 5 out of 10

Texas Cowgirl – This is the outfit that has me playing a second time. At first glance, it may look as your run-of-the-mill sexy cowgirl outfit. Look closely at the detailed designs on her leather gloves, chaps, and boots as well as the textures on her hat. Someone worked really hard on everything she has on. On top of all that, her hair is down.
Rating: 10 out of 10

Illegal in some states – Although this skimpy leather number also looks like it’s not some slapped together outfit, the overly titillating nature of it makes it hard to take seriously. Sure the Cowgirl outfit is sexy, but it strikes a better balance. Illegal is still fun, just not very inspired.
Rating: 6 out of 10

Fiona the frog – Um, giant frog mascot suit. It’s neat for a laugh, but the killer panda suit from the Onimusha series is far cooler.
Rating: 5 out of 10

Hewie/ Normal – What is there to say about Hewie’s normal coat. It’s nice.
Rating: 5 out of 10

Hewie/ German Shepard – Nice variation, but again there’s not much to comment on.
Rating: 5 out of 10

Hewie/ Stuffed Dog – Now we’re talking. I swear the game is so much funnier with a stuffed Hewie alongside you. Very cool and ultra cute at the same time.
Rating: 8 out of 10


Overall – You can change between all your unlocked outfits almost any time you like, as long as you go back to your bedroom closet. You can’t change during the last few hours though. Plus you can ogle the costumes as long as you like in the Secret Room accessible from the main title menu. Very accommodating features for the costume fan. The enemies also have alternate outfits on Hard mode (I’ll have to do that next). I’d love to see what Danielle’s (the character pictured above) alternate costume is.
Rating: 9 out of 10

In case you were wondering, Demento is what the Japanese version was called. Go here and click on the Japanese site for some cool wallpapers. Oddly, they are not available on the English site.