Comments on: World Exclusive: The Zeno Clash Review

By: DoomRater

DoomRater — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:48:39 +0000

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!

By: Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:07:00 +0000

This game was made for me!

I CHALLENGE ALL WHO DISAGREE TO A CAGE-MATCH TO THE DEATH!!!

By: Y3k-Bug

Y3k-Bug — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:02:16 +0000

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/

By: Rostere

Rostere — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:18:41 +0000

This game rules. I think I will buy a second copy on Steam and gift it to a friend, just because.

By: Bob Hope

Bob Hope — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:32:59 +0000

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.

By: skalpadda

skalpadda — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:12:07 +0000

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 :)

By: Devan

Devan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:57:53 +0000

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.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:04:57 +0000

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.

By: alseT

alseT — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:07:31 +0000

@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.

By: jalf

jalf — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:55:50 +0000

Maybe it’s just because I’m tired and grouchy after a 21 hour return trip from Vegas?

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. ;)

By: Simon Jones

Simon Jones — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:46:01 +0000

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?

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:10:46 +0000

The “Are you sure they want us to review this first?” discussion in the RPS chatroom was quite the thing.