Acid Clash
To say it straight, Zeno Clash is a great game. It features some truly excellent melee combat, decent shooting, gorgeous visuals, and one of the most memorable game worlds and atmosphere in memory. These elements work together in a great synergy, complementing each other to give you an experience of unending thrills and delights.
Zeno Clash casts you as Ghat, a lean but tough young guy who just killed his parent Father-Mother. Nothing makes sense at first; your angry siblings jump you, a girl named Deadra with a badass haircut joins you, and then you're dashing off into the distance. It is truly impressive how the game immediately throws you into the story, into the combat, and into the world without question or hesitation, overwhelming you with a sense that you are truly partaking in a universe with its own established rules and traditions.
This sensation never lets up as you're treated to wonder after dreamlike wonder. The art design is stellar--each character, enemy, creature, gun, and environment are otherworldly but all seem to follow a certain pattern that hints at the logic underlying this universe. The game's story, while confusing and at times incomprehensible, nevertheless shares this unique feeling of meaning just beyond your grasp.
All this would be good, but not great had not the gameplay been so compelling and well designed. First-person melee is always a hit or miss affair, but Zeno Clash eases you into the subtleties of gameplay through a series of well designed tutorials and challenges. You'll be pulling off triple combos, heavy punches, and throwing opponents into each other in no time, but the accessibility belies a depth that rewards skillful play. Underlying all of this is an unremitting sense of brutality. The game world, while colored with a soft and subtle pallette, and scored with light dreamy music, is still violent and dangerous, and your opponents equally so.
The melee combat was clearly the focus of the gameplay design, but there are also occasional shooting segments. The shooting is satisfactory without being exceptional. One memorable boss battle depends on your skill with a gun, and is exciting and refreshing mainly because it breaks up the continuous hard-smacking melee combat. On a side note, the guns also share the game's art design; I can best describe them as stonepunk. It's pretty rad.
As great as the pros are, Zeno Clash is not without its faults. Occasionally, especially towards the end of the game, Zeno Clash throws tons of enemies at you, and throws them in waves, which can be difficult and sometimes frustrating. Switching between multiple enemies can be awkward, and it is even more frustrating switching between guns and melee combat at a moment's notice, especially given the fact that the game autoequips guns if you're holding them. There are also some irritating but thankfully short segments involving you shooting local fauna.
All these are minor points, however, in face of the game's greatness. Nothing really compares to the feeling of awe when you first encounter huge elephant like creatures swaying serenely in the desert, or the uniquely nail-biting sequence battling dark stone monsters. The game tends towards the short side, but there is a challenge mode where you can try and beat times in set melee scenarios to try and lengthen the ride.
Ultimately, Zeno Clash is an unapologetic, amazing experience. Play it now.
P.S. The reason why I called it Acid Clash is because the game was definitely made by people on acid. It's awesome.
