[♪ Music and Keyboard Typing ♪]
Finally, it's time for a look back at a game I've been anticipating reviewing for years.
This is Claw, often referred to as Captain Claw,
distributed by GT Interactive's WizardWorks and developed by Monolith Productions for Windows PCs in 1997.
This was a game that Monolith's CEO, Jace Hall, billed as
"one of the few, if not the only, PC action/adventure games that is extremely entertaining... without resorting to excessive violence."
Yeah, he would know, considering their only other game to date was built around excessive violence: Blood!
And yes, that means Monolith released two games of completely differing genres only months apart in 1997,
with Claw here being their sophomore release.
And they *really* went all out with the box art. Ugh!
I love a detailed, glossy, embossed package.
This is probably not how most people got the game though,
considering how exceedingly rare and costly this box can be nowadays.
It was far more common to get Claw as a loose disc in a sleeve,
seeing as it was widely distributed in computer hardware bundles in the late '90s.
Bundles like these Creative Labs Encore Dxr2 DVD-ROM kit,
a popular option for computer users looking to upgrade from CD to DVD,
and yes, that means Claw came on a freakin' DVD in 1997,
making it one of the earliest games to appear on the format.
Unfortunately, it doesn't come with this magnificent packaging, but that's okay.
Other than the lovely artwork, you're not missing much.
Inside, all you get is a jewel case with a CD-ROM and a cheap paper insert telling you how to set up the game.
Once you get it installed, you're greeted by some Saturday morning cartoon awesomeness.
Claw opens with a seven minute cutscene, skillfully introducing you to the game's world and characters.
"Fire!"
"She's firing again!"
"They'll never take us!"
*Cannons Firing*
"Reload cannons and give them another round from our broadside!"
Dude, this is quality stuff!
I feel like I should be sitting around in my PJs, downing Lucky Charms.
Aw crap, I am!
Anyway, the intro gets even better if you have the DVD-ROM version,
which provides the same cartoon in glorious 720x480 resolution.
Man, there's no understating how exciting DVDs were back then!
Especially when played on a PC.
There was something magical about having that kind of video quality coming at you through a monitor.
But enjoyed on CD or DVD,
the gist of the story is that cats and dogs are pirates now,
so expect a lot of animal and piracy puns.
For instance, the main enemies are known as the
"Cocker-Spaniards."
*Fake Chuckle*
Yeah, I see what they did. But how am I supposed to take *this* seriously as a bad guy?
Anyway, you play the titular Captain Nathaniel Joseph Claw,
and join him on his quest to escape dog prison, track down his crew, and find the fabled Amulet of Nine Lives.
And he's voiced by Stephan Weyte, the same voice actor as Blood's Caleb,
so every time he talked, all I hear is
Weyte (Caleb VO): "I live, again."
We'll mostly be looking at version 1.3 of Claw throughout this video,
and specifically, the single player mode.
Although the multiplayer was a major selling point of the time,
with the impressive feature of supporting 64 person multiplayer over a serial or modem connection
and even online leaderboards for high scores.
Yeah, for a family-friendly excuse to make animal puns, Monolith weren't messing around when it came to pushing the technology here.
[♪ Trumpet ♪]
"There's got to be a way out."
[♪ Music & SFX ♪]
*Enemy Death Noise*
So, this is Claw and it is just gorgeous, even today if you ask me!
All this detailed pixel art running at 75 hertz is just glorious,
especially on a nice CRT.
Fun fact: the underlying game engine code was written by Brian Goble,
the same guy who created the classic MicroMan shareware games for Windows 3.1.
Those were certainly enjoyable in their own right, but Claw is head and shoulders above and it's a sight to behold.
Unfortunately, my capture device doesn't quite do it justice,
but the result in person is a platforming experience that is deeply satisfying.
And that's just on a responsiveness level alone.
As you can see, Claw is an action-platformer, a fitting approach for its theme of swashbuckling.
Your main attack is a sword, which swipes about as fast as you can press the key,
and happens while either standing or crouching to hit different parts of enemies and dodge incoming attacks.
This can also be combined with holding down the arrow keys while close to an opponent,
unleashing a "furry-ous" array of punches, kicks, and grapples, letting you brutalize and toss enemies aside.
*Collectible SFX*
Not just enemies, though. You can break and pick up objects as well, lending a welcome dash of environmental manipulation to the recipe.
Beyond the sword, you also have a pistol for taking out baddies at a distance,
some rather Blood-like dynamite bundles for tossing above and below,
and a special attack called the Magic Claw, which hastily blazes through multiple enemies in succession.
You'll also run across power-ups for your sword,
which converts it into a projectile-firing weapon that delightfully makes no sense when you think about it.
Swords that shoot out elements like fire and lightning make any game better, *that* is just a fact.
Of course, while the combat is front and center,
the platforming side of the equation is just as vital to the experience.
Thankfully, that feels good too,
with controls that are swift and direct with Captain Claw's movements,
regardless of the ongoing character animations.
It reminds me a bit of Aladdin on the Sega Genesis and MS-DOS in terms of how it feels,
with your quick movement and the sword-slashing/projectile-throwing gameplay.
But unlike Aladdin, here there are far more treasures and shiny things to snatch,
clumped up and littering each level in a way that makes them instantly satisfying to collect.
Jumping strength can also be increased temporarily through powerups,
allowing you to find even more treasures, secrets, and alternate paths through each level.
And there is no shortage of timed platforms and tricky hazards to get through,
especially notable in the latter half of the game's 14 levels.
Each of them can be completed in less than 10 minutes, but make no mistake,
Claw is a truly tough game, so chances are, it'll take much longer due to all the inevitable game overs.
In fact, if I have one real *complaint* about Claw, it is its searing difficulty.
And dang, man, considering Monolith actually patched the game to be a bit more forgiving in version 1.2,
I can only imagine how it was on launch.
These levels are large and full of terrors, and while there are few checkpoints along the way,
*Duke VO*: you'll need Hairballs of Steel
to make it through a level without having to restart the entire thing
due to one tricky platform or one cheap boss battle.
Mercifully, you can restart from the most recent map once your lives run out, but ugh!
Claw really ground me down into a sad pile of complaining
due to the cheapness of these stupid birds and various instadeaths.
Still, there is a tangible, pleasing feel to Claw that kept me engaged.
It's the kind of game where a speedrun could be hugely rewarding,
due to the way you slash through flimsy boxes, cosplay dogs, and hazardous hazards,
while running at breakneck speed.
You feel powerful, while remaining vulnerable, and to me, that's an important yet elusive mix in an action-platformer.
And to plenty of other folks it seems, considering the fanbase for Claw continues to this day.
Communities like "The Claw Recluse" continue to create copious craploads of custom maps, programs, and mods,
and even patches to get it working on modern hardware.
Monolith themselves planned to continue the Claw mythos, too.
But unfortunately, that has yet to be seen.
In the credits, you can see them refer to a Claw 3D being in the works,
and while that did eventually happen, it wasn't quite in the way they'd hoped.
The story goes that Monolith's development on Claw 2 was halted, due to some kind of copyright dispute
and developer Techland picked up the rights to the project.
After years of restarts and delays, all references to Claw were removed and it was released
as Nikita: The Mystery of the Hidden Treasure in 2008.
And well, fans were understandably unhappy.
However, until we eventually get a sequel to Claw or even an official rerelease of some kind,
it's worthwhile to check out the original game in one of its various forms.
Tracking down the complete physical package may be a nightmare,
but if you can get your paws on a copy of the game in some incarnation,
I highly recommend it.
[♪ Music & SFX ♪]
And if you enjoyed this episode of LGR, perhaps you'd like to see some of my others.
I post new videos every Monday and Friday, here on this very channel!
So... if you want to, then watch these, or stick around, and as always, thank you *very much* for watching!