Recently, I have been dabbling in a myriad of games. Some titles are fun like Onechanbara, while others like Steelrising are more frustrating to get through. So, after getting through Steelrising, I decided to pick up Claire: Extended Cut. A 2D pixel horror title from Hailstorm Games that dropped in 2016. My interest in Claire was due to the game's cover art. I thought it looked neat. And so I finally grabbed it when the price fell to $3. In short, I loved playing it.
Claire is a perfectly serviceable survival horror title for what it is. The puzzles are not too difficult, but sometimes they throw some real curveballs at you. And the story does a fine job of showcasing the titular character as someone who is just trying to deal with all of the trauma and guilt swirling around her. While the game does feature a numerous amount of bugs, I think that many of them are more negligible than they are detrimental. Yet, I do think the game stumbles a bit when it comes to navigation. Which is a key part to any survival horror title. Ultimately, Claire: Extended Cut tows that middle line between a good or bad game. It sits in the middle, perfectly content.
Now, you might be wondering why I would praise a middling game? The answer is simple. I thought it was just fun enough. There aren't many moments of frustration in this game, other than a few sections. Out of the three areas in the game, I only managed to waste time in one of them for the most part. That area would be the school.
The three areas in Claire are the Hospital, School, and Apartments. And if you couldn't tell already, the game takes after Silent Hill a lot. So, one of my major criticisms of this game happens to be navigation. Most of that sentiment delves from the School section. It simply looks too ambiguous. Many of the long hallways are too similar. And many of the rooms are given the same names. So, you are left wondering which Boy's Bathroom is the right one when they all look the same. Not to mention the map was so unhelpful in many cases.
This is due to the legend being useless in many circumstances, along with most of the rooms being available to the player. Which doesn't sound too bad at first, but then you remember that all of the buildings that you enter have at least fifty rooms or something. So that means you have to check all of them. There could be items in there. And you will need items. All in all, the game's biggest boon is that freedom of access is a detriment to the overall experience. There were actually too many things to interact with.
But I don't want to deter people from this game. Despite having issues with a core gameplay element, I think that the game does shine in aesthetic and storytelling. That is where a lot of the meat of the game comes from. The story asks, "What if Claire went to Silent Hill?" And I think that it achieves a good understanding of what that means. Moreso than I can say for other games that attempt the same messaging.
The more I think about it, the more invested I become. I want to play the game again and look for elements that I may have missed. I say this because there are some ideas thrown around that remind me of Silent Hill 1 with SH2, SH3, and SH4 mixed in. The DNA is all there. It just needed to be ironed out a bit more.
At the end of the day, Claire: Extended Cut is a mediocre game at best, but clearly has a lot of heart put in it. It exemplifies an important aspect in the horror genre. And that is conciseness. A small little bite-sized treat that can be completed in a single sitting. We don't need every game to be Dead Space or Resident Evil 4. Give me some more stuff like Paratopic or Silent Hill: The Short Message. These snacks can keep me satiated for the time being.
Go play Claire: Extended Cut. It's short and cheap. But go in expecting the game to bug out. That's just how it be sometimes. It's worth it to play through it at least once. Engage with the nightmares haunting Claire, yet another Blonde-haired white woman horror protagonist. A very original idea that has not been overdone in any capacity.
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