Haunting Ground is a game I have been meaning to play for years as a survival horror fan. It did not disappoint! Every aspect that contributed to atmosphere was top notch, namely the music and environments. Every room was unique and memorable. This was not only visually interesting but helped in navigating the castle as well, especially since the map was basically useless.
I am normally averse to stalker horror games due to how tedious they can be. Haunting Ground did not have that problem for me! The different stalkers you encounter all have different behaviors that keep things interesting. The puzzles you had to solve while evading these fucks were fine, many of them appeared complex but were actually simple.
The story of Haunting Ground was serviceable, standard survival horror fare with an alchemy twist. It did its job but there's not much to discuss. The themes of the game, however, definitely are. The thematic exploration of the exploitation of women wasn't handled as poorly as I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't anything great either. What is there was not subtle at all, which is not necessarily a bad thing but in this case some tact would have been appreciated. The aspect I did take some issue with was Daniella, the second stalker enemy. She, like the first stalker, Debilitas, is mentally unwell. Debilitas is treated with sympathy and can be spared in his boss fight. Daniella is given some sympathy from our protagonist, Fiona, but she has to be killed in her final encounter. This rubbed me the wrong way, it feels like she got shafted when Debilitas was handled well.
Gripes aside, I greatly enjoyed my time with this game and recommend it to any fan of PS2 era horror games.