Claire: Extended Cut from Hailstorm Games on PlayStation 4 and Vita is a survival horror release that might remind some of you of Lone Survivor, also available on PS4 and Vita. While she was visiting her sick mother, Claire ends up in a dark area full of doors and abandoned rooms. As she tries to find her way home, Claire realizes something is certainly wrong. Want to learn more? Then read our Claire: Extended Cut review!

 

After waking up from a nightmare, Claire tells her mom she’ll get some coffee so that she can stay up and finish her homework before she has to go back to school. As she makes her way down the creepy, old and bizarre hospital, Claire is suddenly transporter to a dark room full of red candles where something gruesome is about to happen to her. If it wasn’t for a dog who managed to find her, who knows what would have happened! A bit after this you’ll start to run into bizarre shadows, ghost children laughing and one big monster that will chase you around each room.

You can move around with the left analog stick and use your flashlight with the right analog stick. You can trigger your inventory with the L1 button and use your Map with the R1 button. The other face buttons are used for jumping (Triangle), sprinting (Square), accepting selections (X) or canceling (Circle). This is for the “Investigator” in-game setting, and you can change things around a bit if you select the “Runner” or “Platformer” control options.

There are three difficulty settings to select: Story, Hard, and Nightmare. For Story, you can revive if killed, and panic won’t damage Clare. For hard, revival is limited, and panic does damage Claire. As for Nightmare, which is tied to a trophy, there is no revival, enemies are more aggressive, and panic does great damage.

You’ll need to look everywhere to find valuable items that can help you to stay alive. Things such as coffee and cola are a must, not to mention the batteries you’ll find for the flashlight you’ll gain access to early in the game. Items are scarce, so make sure that if you are about to use one you really have no other option. If you want to save some items, be sure to mark areas on your map you can use to hide from monsters. That way you’ll be able to recover a bit without having to use an emergency item.

As you search each area, be on the lookout for doors with a lantern icon on them. These doors lead to rooms where you can save your progress, so save early and save often if you don’t want to have to redo large sections of the game! Saving is a must, and it will bring your total time with the game closer to the 2-hour mark. Also, if you stay in a save room you’ll also be able to slowly recover some of your health, so do keep that in mind.

Claire: Extended Cut includes a full trophy count with a Platinum trophy. You’ll probably have to do more than one run to get them all, which isn’t an issue since the game is around 2-3 hours long at most. As I mentioned before, one of the trophies asks that you complete the game on Nightmare difficulty, and I suggest you take on that challenge once you’ve managed to finish the game once and know what you’ll be dealing with. Some of the trophies will ask that you collect several of the butterflies and notes you can find in the game, so if you search every space in a room as you go, it will greatly lower your overall time to unlock them.

I enjoyed Claire: Extended Cut on PlayStation 4. It’s definitely a stressful survival horror game, but that’s what fans of the genre want. Sure, it might be short, but the game’s length isn’t a deal-breaker since it crams a lot of content into a short gaming session. Exploring the hospital as I tried to keep Claire alive and sane, finding new shortcuts, opening previously locked doors to connect each location… it all felt great in this indie release. If you’re looking for a short 2D survival horror game, then look no further!

[review
pros=”Good story.
Solid gameplay.
Pixeltastic graphics.” cons=”Some minor slowdown in a couple of areas.
Theme could be too dark for some.” score=83]

Disclaimer
This Claire: Extended Cut review is based on a PS4 copy provided by Hailstorm Games.