By RPS on April 19th, 2009 at 6:53 pm.
We’ve been playing Zeno Clash. Developers Ace Team were kind enough to suggest that we should furnish you with the world’s first review of their insane beat ‘em up. Our razor-sharp analysis of defeating elephantmen and bludgeoning lunatics follows.
Jim: Right, our subject today is the esoteric fist ‘em up, Zeno Clash, by Chilean types, Ace Team.
Alec: I liked the bit where I repeatedly punched a bird-man in the face.
Jim: Bird-men are scum.
Kieron: Shall I do a brief fact-o-list of the game so we have the FACTS on the table?
Jim: Yes, facts, because facts are super-true.
John: I once heard that a fact can be so true it can slice a lie in half.
Kieron: Right – Zeno Clash is a linear first-person fighting (with bits of shooting) game built in the Source Engine. There’s no multiplayer, bar a challenge mode where you can compete to beat friend’s scores in set battles. It’s ACE team’s first game. They live in Chile. And that is all for the facts. SUBJECTIVITY ENGINES GO!
Jim: I believe it’s only available on Steam, at least initially? That might be a fact?
Kieron: No, it’s not. It’s on Direct To Drive.
Jim: Ok then, no fact there.
Kieron: Oh – for the record, how much has everyone actually played of the thing? I’ve finished it and played some of the challenges.
Jim: I finished it and I’ve not played any challenges.
Alec: I am on the very last fight, but became annoyed by it and haven’t yet completed it. I’ve also done a few of the challenges.
John: I’ve finished it ten minutes ago, so no challenges.
Jim: So it’s a game of melee, and of shooting. But it’s not much like any FPS I can think of. Can anyone think of any good comparisons or references to help give this game of context?
Alec: It reminded me a little of Riddick, but only a little.
Jim: Oh yes, Riddick is the closest in terms of sheer fist-action.
John: Hmmm, imagine if Condemned were set in the world of Mirrormask, and not shit.
Alec: Aesthetically, it’s Outcast meets a slew of crazy late-90s French adventure games.
Kieron: I think it’s actually a lot like a trad linear fighting game ala Double Dragon, as in, you move from fight to fight and it makes no pretense of being a “world”.
Jim: Yes, it did feel rather like the FPS rejig of a classic scrolling beat ‘em up.
Alec: It cheerfully repeats its enemies in the same way. That curious thing of fighting games: “oh, it’s that guy again.”
Kieron: Yeah – in a “You’ve had this guy – now fight this guy with a little friend” way.
Jim: Even down to food lying about to heal you up.
Kieron: But fruit instead of chicken. So healthier.
Alec: Mmmm. Chicken.
Jim: Yes, and it does feel healthy, as a game.
John: Going back a step: I don’t think that’s fair to the aesthetics, Alec. Those French adventures were lazy in their surrealism, just doodles for the hell of it. This feels like Bosch meets Dave McKean.
Jim: Quite so. It’s really unusual to look at. The visuals are something of a reward, I felt.
Alec: Yes, the main driving force for me was to see what new madness they’d show me. And agreed, it’s far more visually imaginative than those old adventure games – I was just scrabbling for some sort of context.
Jim: Anyone not actually like it?
John: Only a dangerous idiot wouldn’t enjoy it.
Kieron: No, adored it. Reminded me of French graphic novels too.
Jim: If one part of it disappointed me, it was that it didn’t escalate the craziness at the end – that final arena was *boring*.
John: And familiar.
Alec: Yeah, after the boat ride it pretty much just repeated earlier stuff.
Jim: Where as the beach whale-monster, or the giant elephant-giraffe things were incredible.
Alec: It does suffer a little from the Halo backtrack/repeat effect.
Kieron: Actually, about the graphical style – it’s worth noting that Alejandro Jodorowsky is actually Chilean. It feels a lot like a Jodorowsky joint. Even the plot.
Jim: Is he? I thought he was Spanish
Kieron: No, Chilean.
Alec: (The readers will have no idea what we’re talking about now. Giant elephant-giraffes, readers! With sheds hanging from their necks!)
Jim: Yeah, those should give you a gist of the kind of world it is, it’s probably one of the maddest I’ve seen since Sacrifice.
Kieron: For the uninitated – Jodorowsky’s a writer/director chap best known either for his weirdo westerns (El Topo, etc) or his comics (Metabarons) or just being gloriously mental. Anyway, yeah – someone paraphrase the plot.
Jim: Hmm, well, the raw story Zeno Clash tells is actually fairly unexciting. It’s journey of discovery thing. A young male protagonist fleeing after killing his monstrous “Father-Mother”
John: And having learned a terrible secret. Trying to return home, he’s outcast by his siblings. He had joined a clan called the Corwids of the Free, a group “not slaves to reality or common sense.” But their insanity makes them his enemies too. So he’s trying to escape, along with a friend, to find new hope.
Kieron: It’s the mentalness of the details which elevates the stories – the woods full of monomaniacal psychopaths, for example. They were amazing.
Jim: His friend seems like the biggest mystery of the game, to me. The actual key plot “mystery” was obvious fairly early on, but his companion remains unexplained.
Kieron: She’s an odd un, isn’t she?
Alec: She’s just a friend/lover, with antlers on her ‘ead.
Jim: That old cliché.
Kieron: She’s Alyx with an enormous furry hat.
John: I figured that was splendid hair.
Alec: She’s curiously uninvolved – always disappears off to a safe ledge as you face-punch people.
Jim: Going back to what Kieron was saying about the Corwids: the entire game felt a bit like an excuse for the incredible character designs. Your companion is part of that, but just a tiny part: almost everything you meet is an awesome concept.
Alec: Yes. The Corwids are really there so that you can tour through a bunch of mad ideas, though they’re affectingly tragic too. There’s that bit where the narration tells you about one who basically curled up and died. And then later you actually pass her body – it’s weirdly distressing to do so.
Kieron: There’ s a real poetry to them.
John: Does this remind people of films like The Labyrinth and MirrorMask? A series of extraordinary visuals, loosely sewn together as a story.
Kieron: Yeah, a little – but really, much more the French stuff which you haven’t read.
John: Actually, it reminds me more of a Serbian thing that you’ve never even heard of.
Jim: No, it’s like Chinese stuff from a future only I can see.
Kieron: CHINA!
Alec: I definitely got a vague Metabarons vibe off it.
Jim: It does have a real whiff of esoterism to it, and I wonder if that will put people off.
Kieron: Maybe. But I dunno – to choose an example of its ideas, one of the Corwids who believes it’s most important to be invisible. To do so, he tears out everyone else’s eyes. I think that stuff captures the imagination.
John: Anyway, shall we talk about the game itself? I had thought, having played the few preview levels before, that it was just going to be a series of arena fights. So I was really delighted by the magic torch sequences.
Jim: Yes, it just about manages to be varied enough
Alec: If it had just been fight to fight to fight it would have failed, but it’s impressively diverse, with the exception of the last three-ish levels.
Jim: how does everyone feel about that base-line action: the melee combat? I was surprised by how good it felt.
John: I was really worried it wouldn’t work. I was convinced it would become a jumble. But it’s just stunning. I never got a good hang of the blocking, but I wonder if that’s because I never get the hang of blocking in games.
Alec: The only thing I thought was that some of the modeling is off – some beasts’ punch-range doesn’t seem to match the visible length of their arms, or their distance from you.
Jim: Boss battles in an FPS are usually achingly rubbish, but with perhaps the exception of the very end, the “character battles” in Zeno Clash are really something, especially the parachuting squirrel-bomb sequences.
Kieron: My main problem was the lock on system – where you lock onto an enemy and can circle them – was on the same key you use to pick up stuff. So trying to make a grab at an object near a baddie was literally impossible. And allow me to repeat what Jim just said: “Parachuting Squirrel Bomb sequences.”
Jim: In terms of feeling manageable, and visceral, the melee is about as good as anything other than Riddick.
Alec: The other thing that annoyed in the melee was if you knocked someone down they were automatically de-targeted, and if you had a gun at the time, that would auto-pop up, which totally alters the fighting style.
Jim: Yes, that was what was interesting about it how it mixed in the ranged combat: it allowed you to put away your weapon and fight, or to have it knocked from your hands when an enemy got close. You could try to play a shooter at times, but it wouldn’t work. Or, at least, it would only work so far.
Alec: I was actively trying to get my weapon knocked out my hands at times, just so it wouldn’t pop up whenever I knocked a guy down.
Jim: I didn’t notice that, but then I generally had the weapon knocked away from me.
Kieron: The problem with that is how long some moves take – like, say, reloading. How slow you move when you reload is… grating.
John: On a number of occasions, in the middle of a battle, it would take control away from you and show a cutscene in which you were losing. And I bloody wasn’t! It did this twice when you’ve actually beaten the enemy, cutting to your being held to the ground and only winning by an action in the cutscene. I WON THAT!
John: So what were the other problems, Kieron?
Kieron: Doesn’t end, for a start.
John: It sure seemed like it ended.
Kieron: Explain Golem. What did Golem do? Who was the enormous dude? All the spoiler stuff we can’t really talk about in this verdict?
Jim: The end was unsatisfactory. I think it needed a bigger reveal to be any good – I’d already guessed the secret.
Kieron: I didn’t. I wasn’t trying, admittedly. I thought it was a pretty funny secret.
John: I was perfectly happy with it. I didn’t guess the secret, which I guess helps.
Alec: I shrugged the story off as cheerfully inchoherent bunkum – just a backbone to show us mad stuff.
Kieron: But fuck you, y’know? I paid for a story. You didn’t say it would be a Halo 2.
John: I paid for fistifights. Well, none of us paid a thing because we’re too important.
Kieron: Well, obviously.
John: Regarding linearity, I think that’s great. Double Dragon was linear. Hell, the Half-Life games are linear. It’s an ideal way to give us this sort of game.
Jim: Kieron, you’re not satisfied with just the ideas and the fights? I think that would be enough for most people?
Kieron: Oh, I like the game a lot. But I think for developers to end their first game with so many things open is an act of incredible arrogance.
John: It felt more dreamlike for me. Aimless start and aimless end, with a couple of threads through the middle.
Jim: It is quite dreamlike in that way, but then the narrative of dreams tend to not be much good. It’s an incredibly visual game, and not in an “oh we’re showing off with technology” way. It was more about their abilities as animators and artists. And even the voice acting is okay.
Kieron: Which is all the more amazing when it appears to have been done by the team.
John: There’s so many needless mistakes.
Jim: I think you’re exaggerating that, John. Look at it in the context of almost every other foreign game. The dialogue is fine.
John: I’m not exaggerating that there were many needless mistakes.
Jim: Oh come on, the voice acting in Men Of War makes Zeno Clash seem like an Oscar winner.
John: The subtitles were littered with typos, and many statements weren’t correct.
Jim: I didn’t have any subtitles, mistakes in the subtitles would emphasize it enormously.
Kieron: I dunno. It felt okay, in a translated foreign film way.
Alec: When the world it depicts is so strange and alien, it’s easier to forgive grammar messiness. They almost add to the strangeness, in the way they did with Russian in Stalker SHOC.
John: I think that’s nonsense.
Kieron: I didn’t notice a single typo.
Jim: And in the game? Aaaanyway, does anyone have anything they’ve not yet vented?
Kieron: We haven’t even hit the major problems, you know? As in, it’s 4 hours long.
Jim: How much is it going to cost at release? Because for £7 on pre-order, that seems okay.
Kieron: When its released, its 15 quid.
Alec: I genuinely think it would have outstayed its welcome if it got much longer, some of the multi-enemy fights were getting pretty frustrating as they were – if it had been longer, it would probably have involved more escalation and thus become miserably hard.
Jim: I think it could have been longer, if they’d had more visual awesomeness to throw at us. Towards the end it was losing that edge, for me.
Alec: It’s best they quit while they were still ahead.
Kieron: Which actually seems reasonable for me – you’re right, that they’d have to have added more art assets and general mentalness to justify extending the game. As a budget game, it sits right. I think the actual challenges show the game’s combat system up for the best actually – stuff like enemies fighting each other becomes much more important.
Jim: Do the challenge mode things have any life to them? I mean, I can’t see myself replaying the story any time soon
Alec: If you’re into competing with your mates for leaderboard places, maybe.
John: I want to say about the melee: The visceral nature of the combat is just astonishing. The force and heft makes you reel, and the sense of contact is incredible.
Kieron: Totally. KICK! PUNCH!
Alec: It’s incredibly brutal in its feedback loop. I really felt bad about kicking guys when they’re down.
Kieron: Yeah. I mean, I didn’t feel bad. I felt ruthless. For me, the height of the game is stuff like stunning an enemy, grabbing him, kneeing him in the face three times – no more – and then throwing him to my left, where I know another enemy is, knocking them both over.
Jim: Compared to Mechants Of Brooklyn – a very similar project in size and attitude – this is a true feat of design and production.
John: We’ve been quite picky about bits and pieces, but I think that’s testament to the fantastic standard overall. It in no way feels like the first game from an indie developer.
Alec: Yes, we’re not criticising its fundamentals. It’s an FPS fisticuffs game that looks and feels incredible.
John: My concluding remarks would be: Amazingly brutal, properly good melee combat, in the most beautiful lunatic world.
Jim: Enough! VERDICT!
John: BUY!
Alec: The Meerian thumb is aloft.
Jim: BUY!
Kieron: Yeah, thumbs up. If you’re interested, I suggest you pre-order now. It’s ten dollars on Direct2Drive right now, a 50% off offer which ends on Sunday night. On Steam it’s only 25% off, but that’s up to launch, I believe.
Our verdict: SALE!
Jim: Hooray, good work, Ace Team. The name proves befitting.
John: And punching bastard elephants is always good.
Kieron: I’ve always wanted to punch an elephant.
John: RPS instructs you to buy this immediately.
19/04/2009 at 19:01 jalf says:
Ooo, world exclusive! RPS is all famous and important now! Grats :D
19/04/2009 at 19:13 hydra9 says:
Glad you all enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to seeing a big whale tomorrow.
19/04/2009 at 19:15 Respectable Gentlemen says:
RPS is clearly in the pocket of Big Chile
19/04/2009 at 19:20 Jarmo says:
Thanks, that was a nice read and felt like a pretty comprehensive review with good heft and punch.
19/04/2009 at 19:25 The Hammer says:
Nice review! Really looking forward to trying this one for myself. What an incredible visual style, and the ideas that it throws at you look tremendous.
19/04/2009 at 19:25 teo says:
Will buy right away!
Yay for shorter cheaper games. (COD4 is like 6 hours so…)
19/04/2009 at 19:27 Kanamit says:
Sounds awesome. Hopefully I can get my friends into it to get some extra value out of the challenge mode.
19/04/2009 at 19:29 Pantsman says:
So, which of Steam and Direct 2 Drive gives a bigger cut of the sales income to the developers?
19/04/2009 at 19:30 Scott says:
I paid for a story too :(
19/04/2009 at 19:34 Jazmeister says:
Ì like, enjoy, and felt good whilst reading, this thingy.
19/04/2009 at 19:43 Kieron Gillen says:
Scott: Worth stressing that the main arc of the story is totally complete. It’s the other stuff which… well, really isn’t.
KG
19/04/2009 at 19:44 420Yos says:
Glad I bought this for $10 when they had the pre-order special.
19/04/2009 at 19:45 RLacey says:
Yay. Glad I preordered it now. Shame that what I thought was a bargain (the 50% off Steam offer) still manages to be more expensive than the current price, but I suppose I can’t really complain about 50p…
19/04/2009 at 19:50 teo says:
fuck D2D doesn’t take debit cards =/
19/04/2009 at 19:56 nakke says:
It takes Paypal, though.
19/04/2009 at 19:57 Smurfy says:
Pantsman: I wouldn’t really judge it like that, but Valve already got a lot of money when the team licensed Source from them so Direct2Drive is fairer. D2D just give you a key to activate it with Steam so it’s the same end product either way.
19/04/2009 at 19:57 cyrenic says:
Steam preload should start tomorrow for it if anyone’s interested.
19/04/2009 at 20:01 John says:
Thank you for reviewing this while the sale was still on. I give this review a PC Gamer score of 81%.
19/04/2009 at 20:01 Garu says:
I would like to preorder this, but Direct 2 Drive simply refuses to let me make the purchase. Tried my credit card, tried my paypal account, set up a shopsafe credit card number and used that. Doubled checked my billing address multiple times. Each time, just got a “transaction failed” message. Support page is worthless. Those guys can go to hell.
19/04/2009 at 20:02 James G says:
I’m so glad to hear that thius has turned out good, although sadly still remain undecided on the whole concept. First-person melee combat really isn’t my ‘thing,’ and will inevitably end up with me button bashing in blind panic as I become completely disorientated. However the imagination shown in the art direction is something which almost tempts me alone, and I’m really excited to see what ACE Team will produce next.
19/04/2009 at 20:04 John says:
By the way, while you’re there you might as well add Immortal Defense to your cart for a mere five bloody USD:
http://www.direct2drive.com/481/7807/product/Buy-Immortal-Defense-Download
19/04/2009 at 20:05 malkav11 says:
But what if we can’t buy this immediately? *sadface*
(because we already preordered it for $10 on Steam, which is soooo much better than D2D.)
19/04/2009 at 20:05 psyk says:
“Yay for shorter cheaper games. (COD4 is like 6 hours so…)” Thought they were just getting shorter to be honest.
19/04/2009 at 20:08 Dominic White says:
I’d imagine that if you like the gameplay, this will at least have some replay value. The advantage of such a physics-driven combat system means that battles could play out very differently on repeat attempts.
Either way, £7 (closer to £6.70 right now) is a great price.
19/04/2009 at 20:08 teo says:
Yeah but I mean this is cheap
Fuck COD4
19/04/2009 at 20:11 Pantsman says:
@Smurfy: I don’t really take that transaction into account. It’s not as though Valve no longer deserve more money just because they also got some from elsewhere. I’m not trying to evenly distribute money between distributors, I’m trying to maximize my distribution to the developer.
19/04/2009 at 20:13 Pantsman says:
In any case, does anyone actually know how much each service gives to the developers, or do they keep that information secret?
19/04/2009 at 20:13 Meat Circus says:
It does seem the sort of thing that deserves to be rewarded for its sheer determination to be odd.
19/04/2009 at 20:17 A-Scale says:
Quick mates, I need advice. I want this game, but I don’t want to pay more than 10 dollars. However, I’ve never used direct 2 drive and it looks like rubbish. If I buy it on D2D, will I have any regrets?
19/04/2009 at 20:18 Markoff Chaney says:
Anticipatory Hype Levels – Rising! 2 days, and then that 10 dollars will be spent and a punching I shall go. The Jodorowsky comparison seems apropos as well.
Excellent review, gentlemen. Thank you for the thoughts.
19/04/2009 at 20:31 Tworak says:
“RPS instructs you to buy this immediately.”
Sold! Or bought! Acquired! Yay!
19/04/2009 at 20:33 Starshot says:
I’m a college student, so disposable income is more or less extremely hard to come by. I am VERY much on the fence about this game, just because I’m very much the type of person who wants all the bang for his buck. $10 for four hours of gameplay kind of sounds like a good deal, mainly because pf the innovation and indie-status, but the lack of multiplayer and a less-than-compelling story certainly doesn’t sound good.
Which, leads me to another point. I enjoy story, and story’s game can sometime make or break a game for me. Case in point, I certainly enjoyed Half-Life more than I did Half-Life 2, just because there was a sense of mysteriousness around it. Was the story in Half-Life closed? By all means, no. There were openings the size of the Atlantic ocean. Did you have a damn good time questioning what the hell was going on the entire time you played it? Without a doubt. I enjoy games were you’re literally figuring out the story in your head as you play though the game, not something that is spoon fed to you. To me, Half-Life 2 felt much more spoon fed.
However, above all, the length is what I’m worried about.
I’ll be watching the reviews as they come in throughout the day, then make my decision before D2D closes their sale. Like I said, money is tight, so I just need to be careful.
19/04/2009 at 20:37 Kieron Gillen says:
Starshot: As far as we’re aware, there won’t be any other reviews before D2D closes their sale.
KG
19/04/2009 at 20:44 Senethro says:
Time to vacate the fence and buy this.
19/04/2009 at 20:56 Dominic White says:
Four hours long it may be, but how much extra playtime do the Tower stages add? There’s 5 sets of 5 levels there, I believe, and they scoreboard-tracked as well. If that’s an extra hour or two, and replayable to boot, that’ll push the value up quite a long way indeed.
And here’s something to chew on – Max Payne 2 was about 4-5 hours long INCLUDING cutscenes, so long as you don’t die often. Dead Man Walking mode added a lot more life to it once you’d beaten the story.
19/04/2009 at 21:06 Starshot says:
Kieron: Well, bloody hell; Looks like I have to make my decision sooner than I thought.
This is one of those times where being indecisive really, really bites.
19/04/2009 at 21:22 Mo says:
Any word on the system requirements and/or a demo? Have a feeling my Macbook (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, Intel GMA X3100) isn’t gonna cut it. :(
19/04/2009 at 21:28 LewieP says:
The biggest crime with this game is that it is out on Tuesday, not tomorrow, the 20th of April.
19/04/2009 at 21:33 Matzerath says:
I am, at this moment, very happy with my decision to adopt RPS as my singular go-to place for PC reviews. Exclusive first Zeno Clash review?! Dear God that’s magical!!! With the additional bonus of said review being the funniest goddamn thing I’ve read all week.
(I would also like to mention that I commented elsewhere that this game looked like Jodorowsky’s first foray into video-games, so I beat you on obscure comparisons, and I want a cookie.)
19/04/2009 at 22:11 John Walker says:
Mo:
Minimum System:
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista / Vista64
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 3.0 GHz
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: At least 3 GB of free space
Video Card: 128 MB, Shader model 2.0, ATI 9600, NVidia 6600 or better
Sound Card: DirectX® 9.0c compatible sound card
DirectX® Version: DirectX® 9.0c, DirectX® 10
Starshot – buy it! It’s two beers.
19/04/2009 at 22:26 ordteapot says:
@A-Scale
the Bargain Bucket post says “Although this is bought from Direct2Drive, they will give you a serial number for you to plug into Steam.”
Haven’t used D2D myself, so I can’t comment as to whether or not it’s otherwise rubbish.
19/04/2009 at 22:39 Matzerath says:
I used it yesterday to get Immortal Defense, paid with Paypal and everything went fine. Also, Immortal Defense came as a regular install file, no DRM or reconnection or limits!!!!
(At least as far as I can tell)
19/04/2009 at 22:39 Matzerath says:
(‘It’ being D2D, of course)
19/04/2009 at 23:00 pilouuuu says:
Wow! Am I the only one from Chile here? Proud to be a chilean now!
So it is like Double Dragon meets the metabarons… I like it.
Great review by the way. And I am curious to know if the dialogues were made by chilean people because, really there are not many of us which speak english and for that I think it is much more forgivable a little typo here and there…
Really this is something to be proud of. The first chilean PC game!
19/04/2009 at 23:11 Chis says:
GMA X3100 is what I have in one of my systems. It will definitely play SM 2.0 games.
Technically. In practise, it will be slow as hell. Mo, I’d recommend selling your MacBook and getting a newer one mate, if you really want to game with it…
19/04/2009 at 23:12 qrter says:
I wonder if this review will create a noticeable (albeit modest) bump in preorders on D2D and Steam.
19/04/2009 at 23:31 PleasingFungus says:
I just preordered after reading the review. Had been on the fence for a bit, but, yeah, four Optimus Primes are enough for me. Steam has my money.
(I’m profoundly dubious of Direct2Drive. Something about their site design/company name just sets off alarm bells for me. I’m pretty sure they aren’t evil-malware-men, but… hm.)
19/04/2009 at 23:36 A-Scale says:
Well I bought it on D2D, but it isn’t giving me any code. The Download button just says “Pre-Ordered” on it. One would think that they would give me the key, but not let me download it yet. Anyone else have a similar experience?
19/04/2009 at 23:53 Jajusha says:
A-Scale, thats normal. Once the games released the “Download now” will show up. Its on the 21st i belive
19/04/2009 at 23:55 A-Scale says:
Right, but I’m not actually downloading it from D2D, so why withhhold the key until game day?
Or have I misunderstood?
19/04/2009 at 23:57 Rob says:
Sold! Timely review guys, I really didn’t want to buy this without some review-type comments on it, but was very tempted by the sale. This article neatly solved that quandry, cheers
19/04/2009 at 23:58 Dominic White says:
PleasingFungus: D2D have been around for a very long time. They’re Gamespys storefront. You remember them, right?
19/04/2009 at 23:59 Starshot says:
Alright, gents. I’m purchasing this.
After thinking it over, I decided that this game is exactly what I’m looking for at this point in time. With finals coming up, I certainly don’t have the time to log 10+ hours in a game, so this is right up my ally.
Thanks for the review, gents. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.
20/04/2009 at 00:04 DrGonzo says:
@Mo: It’s Source engine so I imagine if you can play any of the Orange Box games it should be fine. I don’t KNOW that though, just assuming.
20/04/2009 at 00:46 malkav11 says:
If I am going to sacrifice having a physical disc to install from, my absolute minimum is being able to download the game whenever I want so long as the service remains operational. D2D doesn’t meet that standard (fine print says you only get so many downloads), so the one and only time I’ve given them my money was purchasing half-off Defense Grid – because it had the same “here, have a key you can put into Steam” option.
I think D2D games also require special patches, but I’m not sure about that.
20/04/2009 at 00:49 Mo says:
@Chis: Cheers, that’s about what I expected. I think DrGonzo is right, in that it’ll work if I turn everything down, but this is one of those rare occasions where I think you need to play the game in all it’s Medium or higher glory to appreciate it. :)
20/04/2009 at 00:51 Pags says:
Thank God I bought this when it was on the cheap, now I feel like the smartest person around.
20/04/2009 at 01:11 Krondonian says:
Okay, my first ever impulse buy from the web, first game bought off D2D, first PayPal account set up for the occasion and first game preorder . That’s a lot of firsts.
I watched their progress for a while on ModDB, and it’s great to see such a poisitive review. Woohoo for Zeno Clash!
20/04/2009 at 02:08 MeestaNob! says:
For those worried about where their money goes, Direct 2 Drive appears to be a subsidiary of Fox Interactive (Fox/News Corp). Make of this info what you will.
Re tech stuff queries, Zeno Clash is Source 2007, so if you can run TF2/Portal/Episode 2, you should be able to run this.
20/04/2009 at 02:53 M.P. says:
Can anyone confirm that D2D actually give you a serial to put into Steam? Their “download protection” feature has so many caveats attached to it in their T&Cs that I don’t want to trust my continued ownership and enjoyment of this game to it.
20/04/2009 at 03:37 Rob says:
aww, how cute. you guys gave it “toy robot thumb up”
20/04/2009 at 03:42 Pantsman says:
@MeestaNob: Steam it is, then.
20/04/2009 at 04:11 anon says:
this read like rps fanfic, glad the pants stayed on, explaining jodo was awkward
20/04/2009 at 04:19 ForTheLulz says:
“We haven’t even hit the major problems, you know? As in, it’s 4 hours long.”
Are we really still saying things like this in a post-Portal world?
20/04/2009 at 05:29 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Didn’t need much of a push to preorder this. Thanks RPS!
20/04/2009 at 06:07 qrter says:
It’s coming out on the 21st on Steam now too – it was the 24th before, if I remember correctly.
One day left for preorders, mainland Europeans!
20/04/2009 at 06:13 Thiefsie says:
that’s not just any toy robot thumbs up!
ha
20/04/2009 at 07:01 Mungrul says:
Mo: I don’t think it’ll work. I have the same MacBook (the last BlackBook before the new single-piece body MacBooks), and it won’t play any Source engine games so far.
20/04/2009 at 09:01 Subject 706 says:
Aah, nice to know my money was well spent.
20/04/2009 at 09:16 Morph says:
Only 4 hours? Well I suck at games, so I assume it’ll be about 6 hours for me – but still I’m glad I got it cheap, don’t think I’ll play any challenges.
Still – excited.
20/04/2009 at 09:27 PC Monster says:
REALLY looking forward to this. Got my pre-order waiting, piles of pringles sitting by the PC, my finest gaming-houserobe has been cleaned and pressed….let’s bash some elephant!
Congrats on the Chilean exclusive, RPS.
20/04/2009 at 09:41 Ian says:
RPS must have lost their touch temporarily. Normally when they do one of these things I not only want to buy the game RIGHT FUCKING NOW, but also send them a selection of fancy pastries to thank them for enlightening me. This looks pleasingly bonkers but I’m not convinced I actually want to buy it.
20/04/2009 at 09:57 Heliocentric says:
Woah. Rps sold out. How many packets of twiglets did they pay you for that unanimous review score? I hope you choke on them.
Srsly thgh? I picked it up from d2d alongside immortal defence. Now to resist playing until i submit my degree project this week.
20/04/2009 at 11:18 Ginger Yellow says:
Where now for RPS’s World Unexclusives?
20/04/2009 at 12:03 phuzz says:
Got as far as typing my credit card details in, and then remembered my MOT has run out so I need to get hat sorted.
DAMN YOU REAL WORLD!
20/04/2009 at 12:03 Richard Beer says:
I feel vaguely disappointed. I wanted this to have the massive scale of Outcast or Giants: Citizen Kabuto with the same brilliant weirdness and strange humour. It sounds like mildly diverting fun (4 hours? Hmmm) but I don’t really want to buy Double Dragon in FPS.
Were my expectations too high?
20/04/2009 at 12:09 Alec Meer says:
Well, something we didn’t get into here was that this is really, totally linear. There is zero room for exploration. At times, I found that a little stifling, but it’s a deliberate part of the fight-to-fight-to-fight structure (i.e a series of large arenas, but with a bit of short wandering and sight-seeing between bouts) rather than a failing. So it’s really not similar to Outcast/Giants in that sense, but its oh-so-alien world is stranger and more beautiful than either of those.
20/04/2009 at 12:20 Richard Beer says:
So what you’re saying, then, is that this is a piece of art that’s worth gazing at appreciatively for a few hours, and you get the added bonus of punching people in the face and killing elephants with hammers?
20/04/2009 at 12:24 Jim Rossignol says:
The hammer-killing face-puncher is the greater part of the equation.
20/04/2009 at 12:27 Gap Gen says:
It’s actually a shame that the Kabuto bits in Giants were (I thought) some of the weakest, with no plot exposition until the end (when you went back to being a space dude). Stomping was kinda fun, but what made Giants was the humour. Hell, SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER you weren’t even actually Kabuto, if I remember correctly.
20/04/2009 at 12:33 clovus says:
If this is a Source game it should be easily mod-able right? And if that is true, can’t someone mod up a multiplayer for it? I’m guessing the developers had a good reason to not doing multiplayer though.
20/04/2009 at 12:50 Tei says:
A linear experience make sense. As a small team can’t really make a world where everything is interesting, so making a linear path interesting is compatible with a small team.
What I don’t know if a small team is compatible with Me.
More problematic if this game is anything like XBlades or The Devil May Cry. Where you are artificially forced to stay in a “arena” till everything is killed.
Anyway It probably deserve to be buy, If only for the fresh ness, elegance and fun of the crazy monsters plus mele fights.
20/04/2009 at 12:52 SirKicksalot says:
John, what’s that Serbian thing that we’ve never even heard of?
I always think of Milorad Pavić when I see this game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milorad_Pavi%C4%87_(writer)
20/04/2009 at 12:54 Kieron Gillen says:
Tei: It’s arena based, but the arenas aren’t often quite as restrictive as either of the games you site – at least, unless there’s an in-game reason.
(e.g. Actually being in an arena).
KG
20/04/2009 at 13:18 Man Raised By Puffins says:
What silliness is this, an RPS Review? What happened to the all-conquering RPS Verdict? I demand a refund.
More seriously, I am actually slightly curious as to why you’ve changed the terminology. I seem to recall you guys had a thing about not explicitly calling your reviews reviews. Anyways it’s good to hear the game turned out to be rather spiffy.
20/04/2009 at 13:44 Jim Rossignol says:
Puffins: We just like to play with the terminology. I mean there’s no point just keeping the terms in a box, gathering dust. You have to get them out and have them fight each other in a tiny arena.
20/04/2009 at 14:00 Gap Gen says:
I demand a more non-linear review where you can go off an explore different paragraphs without having to trudge through the main review.
20/04/2009 at 14:03 Heliocentric says:
If they dont call it a review, the next group could call what they do the exclusive review.
It could be an “exclusive waffling chat” but thats whack.
20/04/2009 at 15:59 jonfitt says:
When are all four of you going to be on the talky box together? The two-on two-off system I’m sure is great for your schedule, but it lacks the insanity of all four of you together. :)
Good stuff.
20/04/2009 at 17:29 Wedge says:
Sounds like I’ll be happy with the $10 I paid for it. Now just gotta wait for it to let me d/l it…
20/04/2009 at 17:56 Nero says:
Sound like I will enjoy this game. 4 hours isn’t bad since many full priced games are 4-6 hours these days.
Also, Steam pre-loading has begun!
20/04/2009 at 18:20 terry says:
Target : Renegade was waaaaay better than Double Dragon.
:P
20/04/2009 at 18:21 army of none says:
I rarely buy games, but I pre-ordered this. Even if it is distressingly short and has flaws, something that’s this unique is something I want to support.
20/04/2009 at 19:16 cowthief skank says:
Same for me. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to buy it. Pre-ordered the day it came on Steam. Doesn’t matter so much if the game is good or average, they got my money for their ideas… Figured if the game was just average, the money would be like an investment in their next project.
20/04/2009 at 19:48 Lambchops says:
A comparison to Outcast (no matter how vague) is enough to confirm that I was right to pre order this game.
Looking forward to bashing some faces!
Plus “parachuting squirrel-bomb sequences.” sound all kinds of awesome.
20/04/2009 at 20:27 qrter says:
How large is the preload? I don’t have a lot of HD space at the moment..
20/04/2009 at 20:49 Gorgeras says:
I’m sold. Five Optimus Prime hands can’t be wrong.
20/04/2009 at 20:53 Little Green Man says:
YOU CAN PRELOAD IT!!!!!!!!!!!
@Gorgeras
5? WTF you been smoking mate?
20/04/2009 at 21:41 CrapAttack says:
preordered. this game looks absolutely fantastic
20/04/2009 at 22:18 Markoff Chaney says:
@ LGM it is 4/20, ya know.
My unofficial guess on the size is a couple hundred MB. That’s based on how much the steam folder changed going from 0% to 1%. Absolutely random and probably completely wrong. -EDIT- (Make that around 345mb total, I think) -EDIT2- Whoa 435 now. I’ll edit when it is done since it seems to keep embiggening itself.
Outcast. Oh that game so rocked. I loved that music. I need to try to find my second disc around here somewhere…
20/04/2009 at 22:30 Villane says:
I bought it when you mentioned chicken. Or was it monomaniacs.
20/04/2009 at 23:05 Nighthood says:
According to Ace Team, the game is around 3gb. More than just a few hundred mb really. :P
20/04/2009 at 23:10 qrter says:
Nevermind, I took the plunge and preloaded it anyway.
It’s about 3.23 Gb.
20/04/2009 at 23:30 Markoff Chaney says:
Excellent. I’ll end my vigil then. ;)
As far as its’ finished size goes, it is a couple hundred Peggles. I just had the order of magnitude incorrect. Clearly it goes MB –> Peggles –> GB –> GP –> TB –> TP so I reckon I was only off by a magnitude of one.
21/04/2009 at 00:39 Dan K says:
I will buy this based on this review, I mean, £6 for melee combat, the only game that’s gotten 90% melee combat right before this was Dark Messiah Of Might And Magic.
Discounting F.E.A.R because it’s a shooter at heart.
21/04/2009 at 02:11 Akirasfriend says:
It’s my brithday today, as of 2 hours ago, and my good friend Draan Idracil bought this for me on Steam (after singing Happy Birthday to me on Skype, of course).
DRAAN IS CREDIT TO TEAM.
21/04/2009 at 02:19 Matosh says:
Yeah John, we want to know what that Serbian thing is that we’ve never even heard of! I wanna know if I’m on the right track. And if not, what stuff needs to be bought.
As for the game, I actually won a free copy in a contest yesterday! Can you believe it? That never happens to me! But if I hadn’t I would’ve bought it today. I may not have fifty bloody Euros to spend on Empire: Total War, but I don’t mind supporting a creative new team from an unexpected country with a great little game. After all, when Serious Sam first came out we all had our fingers crossed that people show that kind of trust in our guys.
21/04/2009 at 04:42 Sam says:
Excellent review. It’s things like this I read RPS for!
I’ll buy it, but not yet. No time for more games right now–I still have several sitting and waiting to be finished.
21/04/2009 at 07:28 Presagio says:
Does any one knows if there are plans to sell the game in other sites, aside of Steam or D2D? I long time ago decided not to use either service, but I really want to support new developers that:
a) Develop primarily for PC
b) Focus on design, rather than on technical prowess.
c) Emboss their own visions in the game, instead of being constrained by external sources (movie/book adaptation, franchise, previous successes, etc )
d) Not afraid to indulge into odd aesthetics, that escapes the current tendencies (More Morrowind, less Oblivion)
e) No doubt add richness of their own amalgam of cultures, in a medium dominated by the usual suspects (USA, Japan, UK, Canada, Germany and recently Poland, Russia)
Hope it becomes a financial success, and inspire other Latinoamericanos to break into the market.
21/04/2009 at 10:18 mister k says:
I completely missed this post until just now. I’d just like to say- yay for a full rps verdict! I missed the optimus prime thumbs…
21/04/2009 at 13:08 Piotr Burzykowski [LocWorks] says:
(self-serving plug) Play it with Polish, French or German subtitles and tell me if they do the job. The audio will still be in English, though.
And it all started back in 2005 with me pestering Adam Foster to let me localize MINERVA…
21/04/2009 at 14:34 Lewis says:
Zeno Clash first impressions: a tentative thumbs-up.
21/04/2009 at 15:13 kadayi says:
Bought, I just hope it lives upto the hype
21/04/2009 at 19:49 jalf says:
Just played the tutorial thingy for all of 5 minutes. Have to run for a bit now, so will try more later, but so far, my first impression: DAMMIT, THEY RIPPED OFF OUR IDEAS! :D
Nah, srsly, I made a Source mod a couple of years back, featuring a very similar close combat system (including the lock-on mechanic). And yes, we also found out it worked surprisingly well.
But WE DID IT FIRST :D
21/04/2009 at 20:45 vlphx says:
China Mieville, anyone?
21/04/2009 at 21:36 Piotr Burzykowski [LocWorks] says:
@vlphx: Not tonight, I’ve got a splitting headache…
21/04/2009 at 22:56 Dominic White says:
The game has only been out a few hours, and I’ve seen opinions running the whole spread, including a few ‘Holy shit this is the worst thing I’ve ever paid money for’ rage-fests.
Is every videogame these days horribly divisive?
21/04/2009 at 23:36 Markoff Chaney says:
Holy shit this is one of the best things I’ve ever paid money for.
How’s that? :)
Art is phenomenal. It looks even better in motion than the pictures. The Source engine can still amaze me… Most amazing is how well the melee works. Fantastic. It’s like playing Streets of Rage mixed with Street Figher (3 on 1 edition) in a First Person perspective.
Awesome game. Excellent work, ACE. Amazing this is your first outing. Thank You.
22/04/2009 at 03:01 MD says:
Is every videogame these days horribly divisive?
I think it’s pretty much inevitable with anything this heavily-hyped. So you get it at both ends of the spectrum, from mega-budget sequels to interesting indie games, but I’m pretty sure there are plenty in between that get by relatively unscathed. Of course, gamers being gamers, there will always be someone willing to fight to the death either in defence of a game or in a fit of rage at how appalling it is.
I was lucky enough to score a free copy of Zeno Clash, but I’m yet to download it as my ISP seems to have forgotten that daylight saving time is over, counting a bunch of my off-peak downloads as on-peak and throttling me :-[
Really looking forward to trying it, although I’m a bit nervous as my CPU doesn’t actually meet the minimum spec. I’m assuming the game will still run, as it’s not like I’m missing a crucial pixel-shader or anything. But has anyone here run the game on a low-spec machine? I’d appreciate any information on how it is likely to run on an Athlon XP 2600+ (with a Radeon 9800 Pro and 1GB of RAM).
22/04/2009 at 05:24 jalf says:
This was heavily hyped? I hadn’t even heard of it until Steam did their 50% off on preorders dealie. Bought it because I like weird art styles, and the price was right. :D
I can understand why this game would be somewhat divisive though. It’s kind of borderline between indie and “real commercial game”. It’s a bit rough around the edges, and not all parts of the gameplay work equally well (and probably not everyone likes the arena-based melee combat) and the setting is likely to turn some people off (it’s not brown and realistic), so there’s definitely something to hate if you’re into that. On the other hand, it looks crazy and colorful, the story keeps you entertained, and the combat system actually works very well I think (at least when the shooty bits don’t collide with the smashy bits), which is rare for fps melee games. I guess it just depends on what you focus on.
I’m definitely enjoying the game so far. By the way, I’ve been through the boat ride, and I can’t recall seeing any beach whale monsters yet. Do I get to that later, or is my memory that bad? :D
22/04/2009 at 06:16 MD says:
“Heavily-hyped” wasn’t a great choice of words (nor a great choice of hyphen, probably), but how about “high profile (for an indie game)”? Maybe it’s just because most of my gaming news comes from RPS, but I felt like ZC was quite eagerly anticipated, as well as obviously being a relatively major production given the cirumstances (small team, first game, bizarre original concept). There seemed to be a hilarious/crazy new trailer every few weeks featuring dual fish guns or hammer-based elephanticide, which must have generated quite a bit of interest.
22/04/2009 at 08:29 Rumpel says:
I’d like to point out that this was an exclusive review. Never ever trust exclusive reviews, no matter who’s writing them. Ever.
22/04/2009 at 08:38 Jim Rossignol says:
Rumpel’s point seems valid. But here’s why it isn’t.
It’s true that some publications have thrown away their credibility for the exclusives. But you should probably examine their motivation for that. Most such exclusives are deals made with large publishers who have a catalogue of other major games, and probably an advertising portfolio with the same editorial outlet.
In this case, however, Ace Team have nothing: no forthcoming game we’re desperate to preview, no prior reputation that would set an army of fanboys on us if we slagged them, no advertising money. Hell, as a bunch of indies they might not even be around to make another game. If Zeno Clash had been a terrible piece of crap we would have had no motivation whatsoever *not* kick the shit out of it.
Fortunately it was a good game, and we were able to pimp it pretty heavily. And that just adds to our credibility. In fact, long term it makes no sense to mess up the exclusive review thing: we have to be honest because otherwise our readers simply won’t come back. We’re a tiny site that relies on the patronage of experienced, perceptive gamers for its survival. If we fuck up something by being corrupt, then we’re done for.
22/04/2009 at 09:33 f3nyx says:
Some of your questions can be answered on the official Ace Team forums.
Give those Chileans a palm on the back for the amazing work.
http://www.aceteam.cl/
22/04/2009 at 10:57 unclelou says:
Played it for 2-3 hours last night, and it’s excellent. Very, well, *playable*, the combat is visceral, it looks gorgeous, and the setting is wonderful and coherent in its weirdness.
22/04/2009 at 14:50 shamanic miner says:
Just read the Eurogamer review which sums it up quite well.
I would have gone with “Muhamma-Dali” as the tagline though ;)
22/04/2009 at 15:42 MA6200 says:
This game is a whole lot of fun! The combat and animations are so smooth and I can’t believe how well dodges are handled. All I can remember from other first person melee games is that you hold a few buttons and the screen moves to the right or left a bit.
EDIT: Holy crap! Is that an edit button?
22/04/2009 at 19:14 Andrew Dunn says:
The combat in this is incredibly kinetic. I really do find myself getting into the fights, thinking “Stitch this ya cunt” when I kick fallen enemies all ower ra shoap. Bit worrying that.
It is very, very pretty too. Some stunning scenes. I’d imagine that its extreme linearity will stick in some people’s craws, though. It’s about as linear as it’s possible for a game to be and some people will absolutely hate that.
22/04/2009 at 19:41 Guhndahb says:
What a spectacular game. I sure hope they continue the story in sequels. The auto-locking and auto-weapon issues desperately need to be fixed (also, tournament mode unlocking) but otherwise I adored it.
I enjoyed the story. I guessed the secret as well but late enough that I realized I could have figured it out earlier and early enough that I felt myself clever. That’s pretty much the perfect time to figure out a plot secret.
I’d really like to learn more about the things that happened and, of course, about Golem and what is beyond the end of the world (don’t worry folks, that’s not a spoiler), but I felt it had a well defined and satisfactory ending leaving me hungry for more insights.
Control issues aside, combat was exceptional. I agree that there were a few enemy moves where the connect distances were not just too far but so far that it hurt my immersion for a moment. Aside from that I just loved melee in FP. As a person who only tolerates 3rd person, this was a breath of fresh air. They didn’t just prove this could be done and done well but that it can be very fun and satisfying.
All told, I’m completely happy with my purchase!
22/04/2009 at 23:31 unclelou says:
Please tell me I am missing an obvious trick in the final battle, and it’s not just awful game design with a 1000% difficulty rise.
I’ve died significantly more often in that fight (without having beat it yet) than in the rest of the game.
22/04/2009 at 23:39 Lorc says:
You do the most damage to father-mother if you press E to focus on him/her when he/she’s on her knees. As usual, counters are especially effective. You should be able to get one round of wailing in before the first helper turns up.
Prioritise the “helpers”, killing them with the fish guns and the skullbomb. Only two join in in total, so once they’re both down you can concentrate on father-mother. Getting bogged down in melee with them seems a bad idea since father-mother can strike through them.
23/04/2009 at 00:04 unclelou says:
Cheers, Lorc – of course, as it always is, I managed to do it right after complaining (and reading your comment). :-)
Your tip that there are only two helpers helped a lot – I was more or less trying to ignore them before because I thought it would be the whole clanship again, and I’d have to kill Fa-Mo as quickly as possible.
Brilliant game, all in all. And the universe they created sure can be built upon for something bigger.
23/04/2009 at 11:50 Dominic White says:
Having read up on the history of this game a little more, it’s hardly arrogant that they began and ended the story where they did.
Before they ever started work on Zeno Clash, they had a design doc for a huge sprawling surreal RPG world called Zenozoik. Unfortunately, making such a game would be an absurdly ambitious project, and would almost certainly crash and burn.
So they chose to just tell one small story from this strange world, and they did. And they did it very well. I’d love to see them expand and reuse the melee combat system in any future games. Hopefully they’ve made enough money to expand into a full-fledged Zenozoik adventure next time.
They’ve got a whole world worked out here, and we’ve only seen part of it.
23/04/2009 at 14:19 danielcardigan says:
I played for around forty minutes last night and I felt like I’d been dumped into a washing machine and left to fight for my life. I seemed to finish every encounter virtually dead. But I generally triumphed. Then my screen went weird and I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be like that, because I was fighting the guy who wanted to be invisible, or it was a bug. I crashed out about fifteen minutes later, playing with a weird mosaic overlay on my screen and all my bars messed up for the whole time. Made targeting with the guns a real joy. Where’s THAT achievement?
I love the art style but I think I’m just getting too old and cranky to play games like this.
23/04/2009 at 15:03 Matosh says:
shamanic miner: “Muhamma-Dali”
You, sir, win the Internet. If you haven’t got it already, someone should give you a free copy of the game for that.
23/04/2009 at 15:44 Rumpel says:
“In this case, however, Ace Team have nothing: no forthcoming game we’re desperate to preview, no prior reputation that would set an army of fanboys on us if we slagged them, no advertising money.”
:-) You’re missing something quite obvious, though. They have Zeno Clash. And they gave the exclusive to you. They gave you a specific advantage over all other gaming sites(*). For free. Gosh, how nice of them.
I’m not suggesting corruption. But corruption is far from the only reason exclusive reviews should not be trusted. The fact that a specific site gets a clear favour from a developer/publisher is in itself questionable enough.
(* other sites were not allowed to publish reviews before april 21st)
23/04/2009 at 16:01 Jim Rossignol says:
@Rumpel: You were implying that the review could not be trusted in this case *simply* because it was an exclusive. Which is not the case in this instance, for the reasons I’ve outlined. The exclusivity made no difference at all to the critical judgment. If Zeno Clash *had* been rubbish, what good would have moderating our criticism have done for us? In fact we’d warned Ace Team that we might kick the game if it was crap (which I fully expected it to be, incidentally), but they were confident enough to insist we had the exclusive. Rightly so: it’s a great game.
23/04/2009 at 16:10 Kieron Gillen says:
The “Are you sure they want us to review this first?” discussion in the RPS chatroom was quite the thing.
KG
23/04/2009 at 19:46 Simon Jones says:
Have only played it for about 30 minutes but it’s felt quite unintuitive so far – possibly due to being dumped in at the deep end, both story-wise and in terms of the combat.
I’m never entirely sure about the timing of the punches – some of the longer/stronger moves seem very difficult to time. Obviously this is half the point, but it feels like it’s all introduced a bit too quickly. I’d barely got the hang of the basic punching before I was being told to do something else. It’s not giving me time to explore and become familiar with a move before throwing a new one into the mix.
One aspect of the fighting I find particularly odd is when you knock someone to the ground. In such cases you lose your ‘lock on’ to the enemy and they lie there immobile for a bit, indicating that you’ve defeated them, only for them to get up again shortly afterwards. Knock-downs are fine, but removing the lock on seems like a weird choice.
Strange how tiny the levels are, too – I don’t mind the arenas being small, but why does it have to load each one individually? Surely they could have fit more than one into a single load?
As nice as the character designs are, you rarely get to actually appreciate them as you’re too busy running around in circles. The surrounding landscape art seems rather poor in comparison – rather featureless.
Hurm. So far, Dark Messiah’s melee and swordplay seems much more intuitive, fun and flexible.
Maybe it’s just because I’m tired and grouchy after a 21 hour return trip from Vegas?
23/04/2009 at 19:55 jalf says:
I’d consider that a definite possibility. ;)
I’m probably biased because I once made a mod with a *very* similar combat system, but I settled into it pretty easily. Don’t bother too much about the advanced counters and such. It’s handy against a couple of big nasty enemies, but in a lot of cases, you can really get through just by punching and regular blocking, and occasionally running like hell. ;)
23/04/2009 at 20:07 alseT says:
@Simon
Keep at it, you’ll get the hang of it soon. As a matter of fact, I was playing Dark Messiah alternatively with ZC, and the combat felt much more satisfying and fluid in ZC.
24/04/2009 at 17:04 Tom says:
I think the combat is pretty horrible – inferior to Riddick. All sorts of control fuck ups are in there: auto targetting, auto weapon draw, combat range… and then there’s the fact that the combat system makes no concessions to the fact that you’re almost always facing multiple enemies with ranged attacks.
25/04/2009 at 04:57 Devan says:
Well, this is a game I probably wouldn’t have given a second glance if not for the repeated articles on RPS. I’m glad I picked it up, though, as I found it thoroughly enjoyable.
26/04/2009 at 17:12 skalpadda says:
Tom: “and then there’s the fact that the combat system makes no concessions to the fact that you’re almost always facing multiple enemies with ranged attacks.”
I’m absolutely rubbish at games like this, but I found that the ranged attackers were easy to deal with by simply running up to them and ramming them, making them drop their weapon. Mind you, I did play on “normal” difficulty (that’s the lowest, default seems to be “hard” for some reason). Having a bit more control over the weapons would be nice though, but they weren’t really overly useful except in a few cases anyway :)
29/04/2009 at 04:32 Bob Hope says:
Jodorowsky is making a new film and I for one is looking forward to go seeing it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892411/ Try google and you will find a video interview with more details surrounding the project.
29/04/2009 at 22:18 Rostere says:
This game rules. I think I will buy a second copy on Steam and gift it to a friend, just because.
30/04/2009 at 03:02 Y3k-Bug says:
What a lovely game. Just very, very accomplished. And the glorious art…
By the way, an update to the game was just released that fixes the (valid) issues the RPS reviewers had with the lock-on system, notes here:
http://store.steampowered.com/news/2459/
30/04/2009 at 03:07 Hulk Hogan says:
This game was made for me!
I CHALLENGE ALL WHO DISAGREE TO A CAGE-MATCH TO THE DEATH!!!
20/12/2009 at 07:48 DoomRater says:
I like how some of the people are talking about ACE Team as if they have no prior game to base themselves on. Actually, they do- though they were both Total Conversions for the Doom engine (one ZDoomGL, one a vanilla Doom 2 mod), they’ve shown they’re quite capable of handling a full on edit with just their own ideas. Batman Doom was a fan project of love but well executed, while the ZanZan is essentially a short Zeno Clash-like game with just as freaky effects and surreal environments. In all, they had a bit of a cult following from the ZDoom community because of it.
As a fighter myself, it feels quite real for a street brawler. But then again, that’s what I expected and paid for- lots and lots of running around punching things in the face. I really can’t get enough of it. In fact, I’m snacking on the tower challenges to prepare myself for punching people in the cage!
11/08/2010 at 08:59 party gowns says:
This looks pretty interesting and I’ll share it with my friends.