Clea has just made its way to Nintendo Switch after originally released last year in July 2019. Sekai Games along with InvertMouse have brought the side-scrolling survival horror game to Nintendo’s portable console. I got to review Clea thanks to the publisher sending me a review copy of the game for the Nintendo Switch.
Clea is a survival horror game that relies on your technique to be sneaky and stealthy while uncovering the horrors that roam around the house. One little detail that caught my eye before I tried out the game was its official description. Clea’s official details mention how the game contains no jumpscares. This brought up two thoughts in my mind. First, was it going to be a simple horror game with a mild horror experience, or was there more to it while keeping the player guessing.
But let’s talk about the game and how the story shapes up right from the start. You play as Clea, obviously, who is a young little girl with her younger brother Ed. The first scene of the game shows Clea, Ed, and a woman called Florine, celebrating Clea’s birthday. Before you can actually celebrate, things take the turn for the worse as weird and creepy sounds echo from the halls of the mansion.
You soon learn about Chaos Servants, the main type of enemies that wander about in the halls, ready to pounce you whenever they can get a chance. As Florine steps out to take a look, Clea decides that she and her brother, Ed, should head out and investigate where Florine is, while also searching for the whereabouts of their parents. This is also the first time you get to control Clea, while her younger brother Ed, follows around closely wherever you take Clea.
Sound matters most in the gameplay of Clea, as making sound will attract the Chaos Servants towards you. Although Clea can run, sneak, or sprint, each movement emits a certain sound that will vary in it making noise. Sprinting will make the loudest noise and almost guarantees that the Chaos Servant will look for you or the source of the noise. You can walk, which is slower but it also doesn’t attract the enemy from another floor of the house. Lastly, the sneaking movement allows you to move about very slowly but ensures that the Chaos Servant does not spot you, even if it is wandering on the same floor.
Your goal is to look for an escape by solving puzzles. This includes finding metal pieces to craft certain keys to unlock doors for your escape or press buttons on walls in the correct sequence. Each puzzle you find will have a unique way of solving, and while the game does everything not to explain what to do, figuring it out yourself adds to the fun. Items collected can be crafted, used, or consumed from your inventory. The inventory is a simple menu that contains all the items you have collected so far. A full inventory also means that you can’t pick up more items, but you can drop anything you don’t need or craft them together to free up some space.
Besides the Chaos Servants, you also have various different types of enemies that can hinder your progress. You have the Chaos Spiders that are pesky creatures, always looking to grab you with your claws when you aren’t looking. The tricky enemies and the fact that you can only save at select destinations risks the player losing all of their progress, including items in the inventory which are reset when the game loads the last save.
When I say that the game doesn’t tell you what to do, it isn’t entirely the case for the story. There are many notes and objects that you can interact with to find clues and get some idea of what really is happening in the house, and who are the Chaos Servants are eagerly looking for you. But instead of spoiling the game here for you, there is a lot to find out for yourself when you do play the game.
Visually the game feels quite alright on the Nintendo Switch, but considering that it isn’t a graphically demanding game, it runs pretty smoothly on the console without any hiccups or stutters. The animations and the artwork could have been better or more detailed as compared to the simple-looking halls with doors and cabinets to hide it.
You will also notice that there isn’t any spooky music to accompany your survival horror adventure in Clea. What you do have is the haunting silence, the ticking clock, and the water droplet sounds in the toilet that invokes fear. This works perfectly for the type of game Clea is, especially when you are always trying to hear if something is following or creeping up behind you or not.
Final Verdict:
Clea is a decent side scrolling survival horror game that just released for the Nintendo Switch. The game features a good story, without any jump scares which the developers made sure of, but plenty of horror aspects to call it a proper horror game. You can play the game in various difficulties which work. The save points will be frustrating for some, especially when they all progress is lost, but is nothing that takes out the fun of it. It is a survival horror game after all that requires skill and good decision making whether it is completing puzzles or outrunning the enemies. I would recommend you play the game on Switch and try out this 2D side scroller
6.5/10
