Review: Zeno Clash [PC]
josh, 31-May-09 » Zeno Clash Review, by Josh
I have to tell you honestly, this is one of the trippiest games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Zeno Clash, from Chilean developer ACE team, is the story of Ghat, a resident of a faraway land where the world resembles something you would only see while on acid (I assume). The game pulls a Tarantino and gives you two storylines that intertwine. The real time storyline starts the game off with Ghat having just woken up from the explosion he used to kill FatherMother, the apparently hermaphroditic creature that is parent to all the residents of the city you live in. From there, the back story is revealed in playable sections of Ghat’s time leading up to the fateful event. Oh and by the way, killing FatherMother... didn’t go over so well with your brothers and sisters... and by that I mean they desperately want to kill you and will continue to show up and attempt to do just that. The game, as I said, is split up into two intermingling parts, one happening in the current and shows Ghat’s path as he runs away from the city, the second is told through playable flashbacks of Ghat’s time among the Corwid, the people who, as Ghat describes them, are not restrained by normal conventions, and are therefore a bit mentally unstable/completely batshit insane (for example the creature who wanted to be invisible... so he ripped out the eyes of everything around him... cheery fellow isn’t he?).
It is not uncommon to be fighting against 3 or more opponents at any one time.
In terms of game play, this is a FPS with very little of the S to speak of. There are guns, but 90% of your fighting time will be up close and brutal. This is where the game really shines. Combat is hand to hand, with punches rocking the screen and feeling truly visceral. You honestly feel like the punches you’re landing have some weight to them. You can dodge, duck, dip, dive, and.... dodge... to your hearts content and the game actually teaches you how to avoid punches and counterattack because the system the game uses for counters is a bit different from its counterparts. The health system, and you will need the health system (death is pretty common considering the default game difficulty is pretty high) comes in the form of glowing orange fruit that you can pick up from the sides of the battlegrounds. The enemies are intelligent enough to block your punches and land a few of their own before you get a hit in on them, but with a suitable combination of strong punch, weak punch, and kicking them while they’re down will reduce most enemies to death fairly quickly. Speaking of the enemies, the ACE team have put a ridiculous amount of detail into their character models, as weird as they are (you’ll have fun looking at them as you proceed to kick them to death.... if you like that kind of thing). The only complaint I have about the fighting system is that, obviously with all the focus being on close personal combat and the first person view, it’s fairly disappointing to see the same enemies over and over again, I’m talking specifically about the Corwid characters, who I saw on numerous occasions repeated. All these fights however, give the game a feeling of just a collection of fights tied together via a story. The story is important, however it feels like it’s taking a back seat to the visuals and the combat system. Not that I’m complaining because both those elements are outstanding, I just wish the story had been fleshed out a bit more. The game play on the other hand is really excellent, with the close quarters combat system providing loads of enjoyment.
Fighting is brutal and your opponents can dodge just as well if not better than you, making for an interesting fight.
The visuals, which you can see in the images I’ve posted in the review, are some of the most peculiar things about the game (the story being another). Like I said at the beginning, the game takes place in this world that obviously was thought up while on a heavy drug trip, because I can’t think of any other way you would create something that looks like this. It’s like a Salvador Dali painting turned into a game. Proper surrealism at its finest here for any of you out there who know art. As was mentioned earlier, the character models are all intricately detailed, and you will look forward to the next fight just to see what new enemy the game will throw at you. The environments are actually pretty ordinary, which is a bit of a letdown, but considering that the environments are basically just arenas for more fights, they don’t necessarily need to be anything more than walls to contain the action. The focus is definitely on the player and your opponents. The backgrounds and settings you find yourself in are fairly forgettable, but with all the action you won’t notice that much. An interesting visual element appears at the beginning of every fight, with a vs screen showing up giving you a look at who you’ll be fighting for that particular battle. While this is a cool thing to look at, I didn’t find myself paying much attention to it. Essentially the fight continues till you’ve beaten all the enemies, which can prove a bit difficult when an enemy, and this happened to be in the press version I was given, not sure about the full version, but occasionally it would get stuck in the situation where there was supposed to be an enemy around, but I had to walk back and forth in the particular laneway about 5 times before he finally shot me and gave away his position (from which he was promptly dispatched of so I could move onto the next fight). Not sure if this was just me not paying attention or an actual game mechanic that didn’t actually get him to show up till then.
Yes... this is FatherMother... creepy isn't it?
The game is truly a sight to behold, with plenty of fun to be had, but it does have its drawbacks. As I’ve already mentioned, the characters seem to repeat, especially near the end of the game, where you have quite a few... “Didn’t I kill your twin earlier in the game? Wait that was you? How are you alive then?!” moments. The arenas are pretty bland, with generic forest, generic field, and generic city, but I did enjoy the brief section in what appeared to be the end of the world, where you are given a torch to light a path through a particularly dark land inhabited by evil shadow creatures. Another gripe I have about the game is the wash rinse repeat that it takes to kill most of the enemies. Strong punch to break defense, weak punch to knock the enemy down, then a couple of strong kicks to them as they’re laying on the ground will take down most enemies, with the notable exception of the boss type characters, who can only be taken down by using a club or hammer or other large baseball bat type object. The boss fights are great fun as well, just for adding a little bit of difference to the game play. Certain boss fights are like normal fights, only the boss character will only receive damage by using a club weapon. Other boss fights, such as the one with an assassin sent out by your brothers and sisters actually involve gun play, which is a welcome change. The battles with the assassin potentially provide the best weapon ever, however its one use by him, so you just have to appreciate its brilliance without being able to use it. He essentially straps little barrels of black powder onto the backs of squirrels (think Wanted only with squirrels instead of mice) and parachutes them down from his place on top of whatever creature he’s standing on (the first time it’s a zebra/anteater type animal, the second a whale/sawfish type sea creature). He then proceeds to shoot the black powder, and voila, he has small squirrel bombs that essentially act as homing mines because they run around till they explode. Like I said, brilliant... too bad you can’t use it.
Fortunately you don't actually have to fight the animals in this scene, just the assassin standing on their heads.
Zeno Clash is an excellent game in general. It’s got a few technical issues, but again I was playing a press copy, so they might have fixed these issues since I got my copy of the game. The combat is intense, the visuals are trippy as hell, and, while incredibly short (the story mode of the game only takes about 4 hours to complete, with the arena mode providing a bit more playtime, but no more story) this game proves to be an entertaining way to spend a few hours. The game is $19.95, with a demo also available, from Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/22200/ or from Direct to Drive: http://www.direct2drive.com/481/7949/product/Buy-Zeno-Clash-Download/.
For more information, including trailers and screen-shots, visit: http://www.zenoclash.com/
~Josh
P.S. If you've got any suggestions for games or hardware you'd like to see reviewed, send me an email at Josh@netgameradio.com and I'll see what I can do.*
I have to tell you honestly, this is one of the trippiest games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Zeno Clash, from Chilean developer ACE team, is the story of Ghat, a resident of a faraway land where the world resembles something you would only see while on acid (I assume). The game pulls a Tarantino and gives you two storylines that intertwine. The real time storyline starts the game off with Ghat having just woken up from the explosion he used to kill FatherMother, the apparently hermaphroditic creature that is parent to all the residents of the city you live in. From there, the back story is revealed in playable sections of Ghat’s time leading up to the fateful event. Oh and by the way, killing FatherMother... didn’t go over so well with your brothers and sisters... and by that I mean they desperately want to kill you and will continue to show up and attempt to do just that. The game, as I said, is split up into two intermingling parts, one happening in the current and shows Ghat’s path as he runs away from the city, the second is told through playable flashbacks of Ghat’s time among the Corwid, the people who, as Ghat describes them, are not restrained by normal conventions, and are therefore a bit mentally unstable/completely batshit insane (for example the creature who wanted to be invisible... so he ripped out the eyes of everything around him... cheery fellow isn’t he?).
It is not uncommon to be fighting against 3 or more opponents at any one time.
In terms of game play, this is a FPS with very little of the S to speak of. There are guns, but 90% of your fighting time will be up close and brutal. This is where the game really shines. Combat is hand to hand, with punches rocking the screen and feeling truly visceral. You honestly feel like the punches you’re landing have some weight to them. You can dodge, duck, dip, dive, and.... dodge... to your hearts content and the game actually teaches you how to avoid punches and counterattack because the system the game uses for counters is a bit different from its counterparts. The health system, and you will need the health system (death is pretty common considering the default game difficulty is pretty high) comes in the form of glowing orange fruit that you can pick up from the sides of the battlegrounds. The enemies are intelligent enough to block your punches and land a few of their own before you get a hit in on them, but with a suitable combination of strong punch, weak punch, and kicking them while they’re down will reduce most enemies to death fairly quickly. Speaking of the enemies, the ACE team have put a ridiculous amount of detail into their character models, as weird as they are (you’ll have fun looking at them as you proceed to kick them to death.... if you like that kind of thing). The only complaint I have about the fighting system is that, obviously with all the focus being on close personal combat and the first person view, it’s fairly disappointing to see the same enemies over and over again, I’m talking specifically about the Corwid characters, who I saw on numerous occasions repeated. All these fights however, give the game a feeling of just a collection of fights tied together via a story. The story is important, however it feels like it’s taking a back seat to the visuals and the combat system. Not that I’m complaining because both those elements are outstanding, I just wish the story had been fleshed out a bit more. The game play on the other hand is really excellent, with the close quarters combat system providing loads of enjoyment.
Fighting is brutal and your opponents can dodge just as well if not better than you, making for an interesting fight.
The visuals, which you can see in the images I’ve posted in the review, are some of the most peculiar things about the game (the story being another). Like I said at the beginning, the game takes place in this world that obviously was thought up while on a heavy drug trip, because I can’t think of any other way you would create something that looks like this. It’s like a Salvador Dali painting turned into a game. Proper surrealism at its finest here for any of you out there who know art. As was mentioned earlier, the character models are all intricately detailed, and you will look forward to the next fight just to see what new enemy the game will throw at you. The environments are actually pretty ordinary, which is a bit of a letdown, but considering that the environments are basically just arenas for more fights, they don’t necessarily need to be anything more than walls to contain the action. The focus is definitely on the player and your opponents. The backgrounds and settings you find yourself in are fairly forgettable, but with all the action you won’t notice that much. An interesting visual element appears at the beginning of every fight, with a vs screen showing up giving you a look at who you’ll be fighting for that particular battle. While this is a cool thing to look at, I didn’t find myself paying much attention to it. Essentially the fight continues till you’ve beaten all the enemies, which can prove a bit difficult when an enemy, and this happened to be in the press version I was given, not sure about the full version, but occasionally it would get stuck in the situation where there was supposed to be an enemy around, but I had to walk back and forth in the particular laneway about 5 times before he finally shot me and gave away his position (from which he was promptly dispatched of so I could move onto the next fight). Not sure if this was just me not paying attention or an actual game mechanic that didn’t actually get him to show up till then.
Yes... this is FatherMother... creepy isn't it?
The game is truly a sight to behold, with plenty of fun to be had, but it does have its drawbacks. As I’ve already mentioned, the characters seem to repeat, especially near the end of the game, where you have quite a few... “Didn’t I kill your twin earlier in the game? Wait that was you? How are you alive then?!” moments. The arenas are pretty bland, with generic forest, generic field, and generic city, but I did enjoy the brief section in what appeared to be the end of the world, where you are given a torch to light a path through a particularly dark land inhabited by evil shadow creatures. Another gripe I have about the game is the wash rinse repeat that it takes to kill most of the enemies. Strong punch to break defense, weak punch to knock the enemy down, then a couple of strong kicks to them as they’re laying on the ground will take down most enemies, with the notable exception of the boss type characters, who can only be taken down by using a club or hammer or other large baseball bat type object. The boss fights are great fun as well, just for adding a little bit of difference to the game play. Certain boss fights are like normal fights, only the boss character will only receive damage by using a club weapon. Other boss fights, such as the one with an assassin sent out by your brothers and sisters actually involve gun play, which is a welcome change. The battles with the assassin potentially provide the best weapon ever, however its one use by him, so you just have to appreciate its brilliance without being able to use it. He essentially straps little barrels of black powder onto the backs of squirrels (think Wanted only with squirrels instead of mice) and parachutes them down from his place on top of whatever creature he’s standing on (the first time it’s a zebra/anteater type animal, the second a whale/sawfish type sea creature). He then proceeds to shoot the black powder, and voila, he has small squirrel bombs that essentially act as homing mines because they run around till they explode. Like I said, brilliant... too bad you can’t use it.
Fortunately you don't actually have to fight the animals in this scene, just the assassin standing on their heads.
Zeno Clash is an excellent game in general. It’s got a few technical issues, but again I was playing a press copy, so they might have fixed these issues since I got my copy of the game. The combat is intense, the visuals are trippy as hell, and, while incredibly short (the story mode of the game only takes about 4 hours to complete, with the arena mode providing a bit more playtime, but no more story) this game proves to be an entertaining way to spend a few hours. The game is $19.95, with a demo also available, from Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/22200/ or from Direct to Drive: http://www.direct2drive.com/481/7949/product/Buy-Zeno-Clash-Download/.
For more information, including trailers and screen-shots, visit: http://www.zenoclash.com/
~Josh
P.S. If you've got any suggestions for games or hardware you'd like to see reviewed, send me an email at Josh@netgameradio.com and I'll see what I can do.*
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| Category: | Game Reviews |
| Posted: | 31-May-09 1:17:27 am |
| Author: | josh |