Sisters of Claro Largo

Christopher Huang
Claro Largo is described as a community formed by exiles and refugees from an unnamed authoritarian city. Belona, the retiring “Mary” of the pair, is a strange, troubled character who seems to have been seeking after a spiritual truth ever since she was a child; Alma, the active “Martha”, is a leader who eventually forms what is essentially a local militia, and takes charge of protecting (or controlling?) the community. Parallels might be drawn between the girls’ situation and the history of the authoritarian city. It seems almost certain that the two sisters are representative of larger causes and factions: church vs. state, perhaps; or spiritual freedom vs. earthly control.

Gameplay is presented in the form of hyperlink words that add sentences to the displayed text, expanding the story. In some ways, this feels very much like a case of “click to continue”, and I was unimpressed. On a second playthrough, I did find that not every link needed to be clicked and expanded in order to continue to the next chapter. I rather suspect that the idea is to form differently nuanced stories by what is or is not revealed.
See the full review

Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling
It takes an expansive approach to storytelling: each time you click a link, that sentence expands with extra detail, growing the story. Sometimes you’re expanding the end, sometimes the beginning, sometimes a bit in the middle; often you’re gaining just a phrase per click. When the narrator remembers an early event that influenced later outcomes, you jump back to fill that event in at its proper place in the narrative. I was reminded of NJ Lowe’s writing on holographic story.

At the end, the situation reverses and you’re removing items instead (a little reminiscent of Detritus, which also inverts its core mechanic). Inventive, but also quite constrained and linear—I didn’t see any points where it felt like the player’s choice could alter the outcome, and very often there was only one link available at a time anyway.
See the full review

Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Story of two sisters and the sinister towns they called home. This is a twine tale constructed in an unusual way, beginning with a couple of words, expanding into a sentence, and expanding further into paragraphs. The narrative jumps from one paragraph to another, always adding things where they belong in the chronicle.
See the full review