Nothing is worse than feeling that something is over just before it gets a chance to start. Games already have a problem with balancing quality and quantity. While any good game worth its salt would be worth its price tag, a steep price tag for not enough content would drive out anyone who isn’t a big fan of the genre. Metroid Dread caught some flack with some critics not being interested in spending $60 for a genre that they have no interest in the series when the game is only around 5 to 6 hours long. While the price tag and time length aren’t indicative of a game’s true quality, a game not being long enough for the price for the time it takes does make it a bit harder to recommend to others, and unfortunately, despite not being as severe as Metroid Dread, CLeM, despite being a solid point and click game, still feels like it’s missing someone to be a worthy buy right away.
The story begins with you waking up in a basement. The voice of a female child called out to you and requested that you bring her a bug that represents an attribute that she wants. The doll wakes up with only starts with a book that can be used to write in any information they see and read about any bugs that this girl may need for some reason. Of course, you can’t just pick up the bugs and bring them to her; you’ll need to figure out several puzzles to get them in a container to bring them to her. Each day, you’re looking for a new bug in a slowly expanding mansion, finding new puzzles along the way. These puzzles will lead you to walk around the mansion, looking for the new tool of the day to help you find the bug of the day. As you go about your day finding bugs for this girl, you will find information about the backstory of the mansion. Solve the puzzles and catch those bugs, all the while learning about the history of the home and just what this child wants out of her doll.
The first thing to notice here is that the animation and graphics are charming with the simplest character design clashing with the more detailed and breathtaking backgrounds. It sounds like a negative with a clash of art styles, but it’s not a problem. It helps make your character pop off the background against the rest of the interactive objects you can experiment with, alongside just fitting the nature of the doll you’re playing as. The game encourages you to look around and interact with whatever you can to help you go around the home and solve puzzles to fill in the blanks about the backstory of the place, and its soothing graphics help with that.
Another contributing factor is the music and sound design. The sounds are equal parts peaceful yet foreboding. The music is soft yet uses the instruments to create stings of suspense as if telling you while this place is safe, there is no idea what you will find. From the quick zipper sounds of picking something up, to the girl’s voice echoing as she speaks to you, the sound effects also help play into this sensation of just being cautious for whatever you may see here.
As for the main gameplay, it’s been described as a unique narrative experience called a “Puzzlevania” game. There are the standard point-and-click elements of you looking around and getting items to help you with the insect you’re looking for the day, and the puzzles can be rather simplistic, meaning as long as you’re able to read through the notes you find carefully and thoroughly, you should be able to find the solution to most puzzles. There were a couple of puzzles that left me feeling like the game could have been a bit clearer with what it meant in its design, however. The clock puzzle comes to mind because it uses a set of symbols that resemble too closely to each other too closely, but it wasn’t that bad. With the items, with the whole game set in one place, you can find items that won’t be needed for a couple of days. It helps make the home feel organic and leaves you curious about how each tool will eventually be used. You can also take apart some objects you find and combine them with other objects to help open up new possibilities.
The “vania” part of the description comes with the magic tools you find. With each day, you put together a new magical tool that can be used to help explore the home and discover new secrets. The biggest tool you can get is the magic key that can unlock any lock, meaning the only thing stopping you from exploring the entire mansion is boarded-up doors. With this, you can find a lot of new tools to help you with not only the bug you need that day, but also a couple days ahead. You can only hold up to 9 items at a time, so it’s not overwhelming you with new options, so at the very least you can brute force a solution if needed. Plus, with the new magic tools you unlock, it allows you to look at puzzles with new items and think back to previous areas and see if you can use this new tool with an old item or clue you have found in some way. The room where you get locked in and have to go through a door you unlock through here but can’t before you need to open the way out being solved by using the teleportation stations you unlock was quite a fun and unique way to solve it.
Despite CLeM boasting that it’s both cute and dark, there isn’t that much in terms of actual scares in the story. It focuses more on exploring the past of the family that lived here, seeing how their daily lives were and just what tragic fates befallen them. The story is told through extra collectibles you pick up to fill out your book, usually notes and pictures, as the doll gives its thoughts on what it finds. On the final day, we get the magic tool that lets us see what a person was doing in the house in exchange for an item that was in that moment. It felt like a fair way of showing us just what happened but without showing off too much or not giving us a chance to come to our own conclusions first.
In terms of actual issues within the game, there aren’t really any big problems. The game is intuitive with where you need to go, but there are a couple of times that can leave you scratching your head, like with the previously mentioned clock puzzle. The other problem that this game has is that sometimes it’s just easier to guess your way to an answer than try to meet it on its own terms. The lockpicking mechanic literally is just feeling your way around and seeing where each piece goes before finally getting through, and the complex springs that slowly push back against some pieces only serve to drag it out instead of being a new and interesting challenge. The firefly puzzle where you have to guess your way around matching how the light of the firefly works till you get a perfect match also is a low point in the game in terms of puzzles.
The real trouble CLeM is facing is the price tag to time ratio. I beat the game and got all the PlayStation trophies for it in around three hours, and if you’re just there to experience the story and are already well-experienced with puzzle games, this can get cut down to between 1 and 2 hours. With the price tag being $16, that can be a bit of a hard sales pitch. The puzzles can get a bit tricky at times, but as long as you read the notes you find and explore every inch, you’ll be able to at the very least brute force your way to an answer. Given how other point-and-click adventure games out there that not only cost less while still being good, but have more content and in-depth elements like Love You To Bits, the Sam And Max games, and Into The Pit, it becomes a much harder sale for anyone who isn’t already into the genre before. It’s not that the game is bad and would leave a poor first impression; it’s far from it. It’s just that with its current price, it’s just barely not worth the price for what’s there. It’s an easy buy whenever it goes on sale; but otherwise, it’s not worth it.
That’s a bit of a shame, as what is here is rather decent. The game is a fun and interesting time with what little time it has with you. It keeps on giving you new and fascinating ways of interacting with the alluring location it built for the equally gripping story. The puzzles you solve in this cute artistic world are for the most part a good time as well. It’s the price tag for the short time this game has with you that’s the real point of contention here. If you’re willing to spend a bit more on a puzzle game that you can finish in the afternoon, there’s no harm in picking this game up. It’s not that overpriced, and it’s still a good game at the end of the day, but you should just wait for a sale of any kind before picking it up unless you’re a big fan of puzzle games.