I don’t think we will ever let the past go. We still treasure the various bit eras which were the precursors to gaming we know and love today. If you’ve lived through them all like me, you’ll appreciate developers that choose retro style aesthetics to sell their games. I’m a fan of pixel art too. No one can deny the greatness of 8 and 16 bit sprite art. Hell, we still look in awe at neanderthal paintings in a cave, why not do the same with computer graphics?
One of my favourite games for the PlayStation Vita wasn’t best known for its next generation graphics or open world gameplay, no, instead it used the very thing I was just describing. Retro style aesthetics and visuals. I’m talking about Home. It’s easily overlooked if you’re not a fan of old school graphics, but the story and feel of Home should not be ignored. It showed that even simple retro style games can be eerie and unnerving.
Claire: Extended Cut takes on this same ball and runs with it. This time though, a Silent Hill element runs through its 16-bit veins as eerie and unnerving turn to downright shit scary. Developers Hailstorm Games have created a setting that has a mean streak, and it’s not long into Claire that we see it in all its gory glory.
As Claire, you find yourself waking from a nightmare at your mother’s bedside within a hospital. A simple trip to get some coffee, however, makes it clear to Claire that things aren’t what they seem as the stresses of looking after her bed bound mother come to a head as her nightmares come to life before her very eyes. The most interesting element of the plot is Claire herself. We see her as a child and adult as the game progresses beginning with an opening sequence that sets the tone beautifully as child Claire is dragged away from her parents by monsters. It’s a dark tone that maintains itself throughout this hellish adventure. It’s disturbing yet relatable. The stress bound by an ill loved one is something we all can’t bare to even think about let alone experience it first-hand. What Claire: Extended Cut accomplishes in its plot is nothing short of admirable.
Taking place on a 2 dimensional plane, Claire walks the halls of the hospital in search of escape. With the assistance of a map, exploration is a must but getting lost, even with the help if this map, is far too easy. Samey corridors and doors in the background and transparent foreground doors make exploration tough. The limited light doesn’t help but it’s not meant to. Claire’s flashlight, once found, runs on batteries, but thankfully they are plentiful as long as you don’t hang around the same areas. Playing as Claire made me compassionate about her. I cared for her survival. I wanted her to succeed. She isn’t a superhero, she has no extraordinary powers. She is normal, an average Jane so-to-speak.
Claire can’t fight. She has no firearm or lead pipe to smash some skulls. This is a game of escape to survive, and escape is what you must do when encountering the horrors that roam the corridors. Running and hiding until the monsters leave your vicinity are your only choices. Only then can you carry on. This gives Claire even more to relate to. What would you do against a towering monster? No, you wouldn’t grab the nearest thing to you and windmill it until it dies. What if it can’t die? No. You’d run. You’d run like Flash Gordon if he was busting for a piss. Hiding in boxes or lockers is your only hope and it is tense.
Claire: Extended Cut looks brutal in all its 16-bit gory goodness. Monsters look and act genuinely horrifying, and the darkness of Claire’s surroundings just adds to the tension. Even outdoors things feel uneasy. Hailstorm have used every horror cliché to make Claire: Extended Cut a truly unnerving experience. How can you turn Care Bears into a nightmare? Genius. Hospital corridors and rooms all look too similar. Even the more disturbing alternate versions of them look repeated too. It kind of takes away the sense of discovery as you find yet another one of those boxed rooms or another windowed corridor filled with chairs, the odd fire exit sign, hospital equipment, and furniture.
Developer: Hailstorm Games
Publisher: Hailstorm Games
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: 30th August 2016