It immediately shows that Claw will be a unique experience once you star the game. The Main Menu looks like a Pirate chest-hunting hand-drawn map. Indeed: Claw himself, the main character, is a super elite cat-pirate which has to take on the Spanish Dog Armada during the inquisition period. Claw has to fight his way trough nine full acts to reclaim ancient lost treasure (jewels which together create the Amulet of Nine Lives. How many lives did cats have in legends again?
Every act is divided into two levels and at the end you'll have to face a boss.
If you manage to stay alive, you'll be rewarded with one of those nine jewels. If you don't... Ah, but a pirate won't be defeated that easy, won't he? Every stage breathes a fresh and unique air: a big fort, a wide forest area, the ship yard... The music tunes on the background are very pirates and are quite suited for the game.
A feature of this game which stands out is the multiplayer possibility. Claw even has a built-in net play module so you'll be able to battle or co-operate with your friends via the internet. Sadly Captain Claw still uses rather old methods to setup the connection: the out dated IPX method. But it's not impossible to play with your friends thanks to various wrapper scripts
found on your beloved friend Google.
Bored with the standard levels? No problem, just make your own! Yes indeed, like in Jazz jackrabbit 2 you can make your own fully-featured levels and distribute them via the internet. By fully-featured, I mean fully: power-ups, treasure, all kinds of platforms, background whistles, etc. Sadly, it is not possible to smash different levels into one complete package called an Act like the main game. Since there are only nine main themes available, the level tool might get boring after a while
Between the different acts, you'll be rewarded with an impressive cut screen. These little videos are animated which expand the story of Claw's past and future. The screens are very well animated and of high quality, after a while you really have the feeling you've entered a pirate world and you're being chased by the inquisitors. After finishing an act, you can re-watch each cut scene via the Main Menu. Maybe Monolith should have made this game into a series of multiple ones... Ah well.
Now, what's less good about this game? Quite a difficult question. Except for the noticeable short single player adventure of course. The game does play easy at the beginning, you'll breeze trough the first few acts. But once you reach the Harbor, you'll encounter much smarter enemies and especially much trickier platforms. It's a platform game after all, don't forget. The bosses are generally tough nuts to crack (except the first few) too.
