- Joined
- Jan 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,067
It happens in all media forms: A piece comes by with a unique art style and insane story that sounds interesting and new. Sometimes, the final product does end up being as unique as it looks, others are simply a derivative product with a pretty dressing. Zeno Clash falls into this category, but somewhere inbetween. There are moments where you feel you are playing something different, others where you're just playing a HL2 mod made for a college digital-art project.
The story in Zeno Clash is... interesting, at least in characteristics. There are many different and interesting characters, at least excluding the two main characters who have little personality and suffer from terrible voice acting. While most characters have that same disease, many of the supporting NPCs are quite interesting and have a wonderfully bizarre design. The story itself is kinda neat, but its told in a very poor way, with brief flashbacks that often feel like they have no context other than to show you another weird denizen of the nameless world, which I like to call Salvador Dahli-meets-Oddworld land. You play as Ghat, a grouchy voiced sarcastic human (And apparently the only one, even his more human brothers/sisters appear to have dead crows attached to their heads.) who apparently found a loony bin in the forest, went home, and killed a strange hermaphrodite creature named the Father-Mother (Apt, I guess?) who was his parent. He's exhiled and blah blah blah and must traverse Salvador Dahli-meets-Oddworld land and clear his name.. or something like that. The game takes too much time distracting you with his past and less on WTF is happening currently.
The game has moments where it's 'good' and when its 'bad.' The good times are the 3D Fighting Arenas, the combat system is well fleshed out and brutal, and the bosses are great. The 'bad' moments are when you are given a gun and are forced to walk from Point A to Point B. Sadly, there isn't much in your way on the way to Point A to Point B and these levels are linear in the absolute definition of the word- usually consisting of a straight line with a few things to shoot with your bizarre weapons (Which are often just as strange as the creatures you fight, one weapon is essentially a crossbow that shoots severed shrunken heads held back by a hook in a nose ring.) but the AI here is horrid, and it often feels like a rail shooter with little consequence for not getting hit. The arena levels usually finish once the fight finishes, but they are still interesting and fun, and the combat system is as mentioned above, very fun to toy around with. The saddest part though - There's no multiplayer. Oh how I would have loved to have multiplayer in this game.
Zeno Clash is a decent game, when it wants to be. Other times its as average and tired as an FPS can get, just with pretty graphics and an art house theme. At 20 dollars, its not too bad, but I still might consider waiting till its down to $10 before you decide to buy it. It's a short, strange, and sometimes poor experience, but when its good, it is good.
7.5/10
The story in Zeno Clash is... interesting, at least in characteristics. There are many different and interesting characters, at least excluding the two main characters who have little personality and suffer from terrible voice acting. While most characters have that same disease, many of the supporting NPCs are quite interesting and have a wonderfully bizarre design. The story itself is kinda neat, but its told in a very poor way, with brief flashbacks that often feel like they have no context other than to show you another weird denizen of the nameless world, which I like to call Salvador Dahli-meets-Oddworld land. You play as Ghat, a grouchy voiced sarcastic human (And apparently the only one, even his more human brothers/sisters appear to have dead crows attached to their heads.) who apparently found a loony bin in the forest, went home, and killed a strange hermaphrodite creature named the Father-Mother (Apt, I guess?) who was his parent. He's exhiled and blah blah blah and must traverse Salvador Dahli-meets-Oddworld land and clear his name.. or something like that. The game takes too much time distracting you with his past and less on WTF is happening currently.
The game has moments where it's 'good' and when its 'bad.' The good times are the 3D Fighting Arenas, the combat system is well fleshed out and brutal, and the bosses are great. The 'bad' moments are when you are given a gun and are forced to walk from Point A to Point B. Sadly, there isn't much in your way on the way to Point A to Point B and these levels are linear in the absolute definition of the word- usually consisting of a straight line with a few things to shoot with your bizarre weapons (Which are often just as strange as the creatures you fight, one weapon is essentially a crossbow that shoots severed shrunken heads held back by a hook in a nose ring.) but the AI here is horrid, and it often feels like a rail shooter with little consequence for not getting hit. The arena levels usually finish once the fight finishes, but they are still interesting and fun, and the combat system is as mentioned above, very fun to toy around with. The saddest part though - There's no multiplayer. Oh how I would have loved to have multiplayer in this game.
Zeno Clash is a decent game, when it wants to be. Other times its as average and tired as an FPS can get, just with pretty graphics and an art house theme. At 20 dollars, its not too bad, but I still might consider waiting till its down to $10 before you decide to buy it. It's a short, strange, and sometimes poor experience, but when its good, it is good.
7.5/10
