Claire wakes up in the middle of the night, with no sign of her parents or her brother. Shortly after trying to make heads or tails about what is going on, she wakes up (for real) in her mother's hospital room at St. Barbara Hospital. After that, everything goes downhill from there.
Developed by Hailstorm Games, the game takes inspiration from Silent Hill and looks a little like Lone Survivor, but with combat completely absent from the game.
The game can be bought on its Steam page
, and Helloween 4545 has made an ongoing Let's Play of it.
An Updated Re-release called Claire: Extended Cut was released for PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Play Station Vita in September 2016.
Tropes presented in Claire:
- Abandoned Hospital: After getting out of her mother's room to find some coffee, the hospital quickly evolves into the trope name.
- Apocalyptic Log: Most of the notes you can find appear to have all been written by the same person, who was trapped much like Claire.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Claire can find glowing white butterflies hidden among the wreckage.
- Cellphones Are Useless: Claire has a cell phone but, shortly after getting a weird call, it goes completely dead.
- Disabled Means Helpless: Claire's mother after the "accident" where her father left them. She's reduced to making moans.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Anubis growls to warn you about the monsters.
- Heroic Dog: Anubis, who first appears when Claire's in danger and sticks close to her side afterwards, although Anubis' role is mostly passive, warning when strange creatures are in the same room.
- Humanoid Abomination: The... things that roam around and chase Claire on sight.
- Idle Animation: Claire and Anubis will sit down and rest if you stop giving them inputs.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: When the bears blow off Claire's attempts to smooth over their argument, the triumphant music distorts and fades away.
- Little Dead Riding Hood: In the present day, Claire wears a red hoodie, while her younger but still post-accident self is depicted wearing a red shirt. By contrast, Young Claire wears an all-white nightgown.
- Macabre Moth Motif: Swarms of these appear in a few areas.
- Mind Screw: Every once in a while the game screen will flicker or glitch, changing the scenery to something much more horrible.
- Multiple Endings: Determined by how many spirits you save, how you treat Anubis, and whether or not you forgive Claire's father.
- Nothing Is Scarier: You're not in a large amount of danger unless the "things" are in the same room as you.
- One-Word Title: First name of Protagonist Title.
- Parental Abandonment: After the accident, Claire's father left, leaving Claire as her mother's caretaker.
- Pet the Dog: Claire adopted Anubis after seeing the caretakers leading him away to put him down. She can also save those who are trapped by fulfilling their wishes, like giving a sick girl candy.
- Pounds Are Animal Prisons: The shelter that Claire adopted Anubis at is rendered very creepily in her Flashback, with glowing eyes staring out of dark cages and shadowy figures everywhere. The accompanying dialogue paints a softer picture.
- The Power of Friendship: Subverted during the starting dream sequence. Purple Friendship Bear and Blue Harmony Bear are completely willing to combine their powers with Claire's so they can reach the Gummy Palace, but when Green Bitter Bear shows up, they all start arguing about how they were about to leave him behind.
- Protagonist Title: First name One-Word Title.
- Sanity Meter: If Claire gets too frightened, she'll start taking damage. Hiding out can help her calm down, as can various consumables. On harder difficulties, it can kill her.
- Save Point: Glowing white lanterns which appear to have a calming aura.
- Scenery Gorn: The backgrounds are lavishly detailed, with plenty of creepy details to absorb.
- Subverted Kids' Show: The text-only Gummie Bears dream starts out innocently enough, but things turn mean when Green Bitter Bear arrives.
- Ten-Second Flashlight: Played straight with the flashlight itself and averted with the lighter completely.
