Pugnacious Pleasure- Zeno Clash Reviewed

Zeno Clash is a first person beat-em-up for the PC from new developer ACE Team. While it’s built on Half-Life 2‘s
Source engine, it has a unique “punk fantasy” visual style that makes
it look like little else. The peoples, creatures and environments all
seem to be inspired by the cultures of biblical times, yet with bizarre
tinges of alien sci-fi and punk lifestyle. Zeno Clash is very
much driven by its complex narrative but, at its core, the gameplay
remains rather simple and visceral. Conflicts in Zenozoik, the world of
Zeno Clash, seem to be solved almost entirely by close range
combat. When the game begins, the main character Ghat has done the
unthinkable and has killed Father-Mother. Father-Mother is a large
half-human-like, half-bird-like creature that seems to somehow be a
hermaphroditic parent to several species of humanoid creatures. We
start off not knowing why Ghat has killed Father-Mother, and neither
does his love-interest, Deidre, but she bravely chooses to follow and
help protect him anyway. However, Zenozoik is a strange and violent
world. Escaping will not be easy and little is known about where they
are headed, except that no one ever returns.

Almost everyone
along the way, will decide they want to hurt the protagonists. I wasn’t
so sure I could blame them at first but, as Ghat, the player is forced
to fight for his life. Zeno Clash is almost purely a
beat-em-up. There’s very little exploration, platforming or
puzzle-solving. Guns are available but weak and/or cumbersome, which
makes sense in such a primative society. Luckily, the combat system is
well done and fairly complex. The situations in which the player must
fight are varied enough to keep things fresh. Anyone who’s familiar
with the melee and gun combat of Breakdown or Mirror’s Edge
should know that while this is similar, it’s more fleshed-out and
forgiving. Even on hard mode (which is actually of normal difficulty
according to the description?), the game was rarely frustrating. The
game is guilty as sin when it comes to throwing the same enemies at you
multiple times, and enemies are a little under-varied in fighting
styles to begin with. Still, the enviroments are quite varied, causing
you to change your strategies, and there are a few memorable boss
fights. The game is also on the short side (though it’s only $19.99
USD) at about 4 hours of gameplay (not including the extra Challenge
mode), so the game doesn’t have time to get stale. The Challenge mode
(with online scoreboards) adds some replay by having you climb a tower,
facing a new and different fight on each floor.

This game is
strongest in its story and visuals. At first, the story came off almost
as weird-for-the-sake-of-weird but, in time it reveals itself to not
only be deep, meaningful and even touching, while still remaining
extremely mysterious. The characters, while often gruesome and odd, are
diverse in design and personality. A surprising number of these
characters are even endearing, especially Deidre. The environments in
the game are colorful, unique, and beautifully designed and rendered.
The voice acting is a bit of a mixed bag but for the most part it’s
quite impressive for a low-budget game. The sound effects are a bit
uninspired at times and I recognized some sounds from in the Half-Life 2 but the excellent driving tribal orchestral soundtrack made up for this slight deficiency.

Zeno Clash trips up slightly with some of the repetition that
tends to plague beat-em-ups, but manages to keep things fairly fresh
and quite fun. This is a great game with a great story and setting.
Although the game has some flaws, they seem to be the type that often
appear in the first game created by any developer.  A sequel could be
absolutely amazing with some more depth to the gameplay. While the game
has a satisfying conclusion, it is also obviously left wide open for a
sequel and I greatly welcome the idea. I’m already sold.