CLeM Review

Released on the 6th of February and developed by indie studio Mango Protocol, CLeM is a short narrative-driven puzzle game published by Iceberg Interactive. In it, you play as a… I’m actually not sure, some sort of a weird bag thing that’s alive because of magic. 

The game begins when you wake up in a basement and hear a young girl telling you she needs you to bring her beauty. After waking up, you pick up a book that has the word CLeM on the cover, and it has strange symbols on it with each one representing an attribute. One says beauty, and if you press it, it brings you to a page about butterflies. You need to find a butterfly and catch it in order to progress. While solving the puzzles to bring the girl the things she asks for, you learn about who the girl is and about her life. CLeM’s two endings are both really good, and I teared up a little after reaching one of them.

The gameplay is pretty simple — you have to find a way to capture the bug the little girl asks you to. There are a lot of different puzzles to reach your goal: finding the correct passcode, combining or separating items, playing the piano in the correct order, and a lot more. While some puzzles are a little annoying, and not all of them make perfect sense, CLeM never feels impossible and is overall fun to play. You learn a little bit of trivia about the bugs you are trying to catch if you decide to read the description it has in-game, which is a small, nice touch. Progression can feel a little slow at times, even though the game is so short — mostly because there aren’t a lot of indicators that you are making it, which does make CLeM a lot less enjoyable than it could have been.

The art style of the game fits the atmosphere pretty well and nothing ever feels out of place; it’s really beautiful 2D art that could contend for being your wallpaper. The movement animations can look a little off, though, which is kind of a bother if you notice it. Nevertheless, the game is really nice to look at and its animations are very fluid and smooth, all being very impressive for an indie game. 

CLeM has voice acting for only one character — the girl who gives you your tasks. She talks to you throughout the game when you make progress and get certain items. The acting is great and emotion is conveyed really well in it, which adds to how emotional the game is. The music adds a lot as well, and the developer clearly knows how to use it in a way that fits the current on-screen events. While not memorable enough for me to be able to hum it off the top of my head, it sounds great.

CLeM is not a long game at all: you can finish it in under three hours if you’re quick, which does disappoint a little bit. A longer experience would feel much better, especially for a not-that-cheap price of £13.49. There is also a free demo that you can play to try the game and decide if you think it’s worth purchasing, which is something that should be standard in the industry.

Overall, CLeM is a really nice game with a lot of emotion in it. Featuring beautiful artwork and a great story, the experience is really enjoyable and it’s hard not to recommend this. This is a must-play for anyone who’s a fan of narrative-driven games, even if it is a bit short.