At first glance this looks like it owes a lot of its existence to Superflat Games' Lone Survivor, what with its 2D art style and pixelatedAt first glance this looks like it owes a lot of its existence to Superflat Games' Lone Survivor, what with its 2D art style and pixelated graphics. Give it some time though and you'll find a title that far surpasses that other indie gem, in no small part because it's actually scary. Unlike its most comparable peer, Claire doesn't rely on visual or psychological frights to get the job done. Rather, it takes on an almost entirely aural brand of horror where every sound you hear is meant to create the atmosphere and instill tension. It's an approach that works remarkably well as each little creak or scratch in the environment can fill you with so much anticipation you may struggle with moving forward. If there was ever a game to play with headphones on, it's this one.
Gameplay-wise it's like a throwback to the Silent Hill series and that unspoken girl-and-her-dog subgenre that gave us the likes of Haunting Grounds and Rule of Rose, as we play as a young woman who finds herself pulled into another world where the lost and broken go with only a German shepherd for company. It's a lot of checking a seemingly endless array of doors to find out where you need to go next while managing a limited amount of inventory space and occasionally stopping to complete the infrequent puzzle. Your interactions with the canine companion never evolve beyond simply acknowledging whenever he growls to alert you to the presence of an enemy and combat is non-existent so you are free to run away whenever you come across something unnatural and deadly. It's all fairly standard, so my only complaints are that navigation can be a pain due to unmapped side paths like crawlspaces that can have their own collection of branches, as well as coming across merely a single brainteaser that had any information scattered about as to how you were supposed to engage with it.
As far as to what's supposed to be "Extended" in this version, I honestly couldn't tell you as I haven't played the original. I will say though that whatever was added couldn't have been much as my first playthrough took under 3-and-a-half hours, and that included me going for the best ending which required helping every survivor I stumbled upon. Those hoping the narrative might make a bit more sense should walk away satisfied, as while things start off incredibly vague I eventually felt as if I gained a fairly good idea as to what was going on by the time the credits rolled. How much of that was because of the new introduced material I still can't tell you for sure, but no matter the case none of the additions (if there even were any) did anything to hinder or take away from my enjoyment of the story.
This actually helped me overcome a longtime stereotype I had involving horror and the handheld/portable gaming scene. For years I simply did not view the genre as living up to its fullest potential when taken on the go like this, as when you travel you're typically around other people which severely limits the amount of fear you can experience. Claire taught me how that's not always the case though and I can only imagine how many sleepless nights you would get from firing this up while locked in an unfamiliar hotel room with the lights off. Mix that in with the way it handles mature themes like trauma and grief, and you have a title that's hard for me to not recommend.… Expand
