Zeno Clash

Fight night.

Father-mother has cast you out, but of course that isn't the end.  Your siblings, dozens of them, are all trying to get back at you for what you did.  You know you have to turn around and face the issue head-on, but can you really bear to kill your family just to save yourself?

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 10 8 PC, Xbox 360 Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 8 2 2   5 2 1 0 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 0 0 0 0 0 2 1

1.     Gameplay

• Overall Fun - 8

Fighting games are one of the few video game genres that I have never been able to truly enjoy.  The sometimes ridiculous button combinations, the simple, repetitive scenarios, and the difficulty of including a real story kept them from being enjoyable or engaging to me.  Zeno Clash is a fighting game, but through its first-person mechanics manage to solve most of these problems.

It's go time.

First person fighting mechanics are often extremely difficult.  The 2D nature of the screen prevents any real sort of depth perception.  With ranged weapons this isn’t a huge issue, since rounds continue on until they hit the target. But punches have a very short reach, which can be extremely difficult to judge.  Zeno Clash does a decent job at making the player’s reach feel somewhat realistic, but it isn’t perfect in this regard.  There were still plenty of times when I was purely guessing at whether I was going to hit my target or not.  The easiest way to know my punches would land would be to walk at the enemy until I was stopped by the enemy’s collision.  You can’t miss at point-blank range.

But the fighting mechanics in this game are still the best first person fighting mechanics in any game I have ever played.  Things flowed smoothly, fighting was fast paced but controllable, I didn’t have to memorize any ridiculously complex button combinations, and enemy fighting styles varied enough to keep things fresh.  While there were some ways that could take down almost every enemy, those styles did require a good amount of timing, skill, and luck.  I always felt superior to my enemies, but I never felt like the game was a complete cakewalk.

I am the Ali of cave men.

The only major issue I had with this game was its brevity.  It was extremely short.  Fortunately it is a fairly inexpensive game, but I still felt like it could have included even more levels and enemies.  Fortunately, the story stayed simple, which has become a rare thing in video games lately.  The simplicity of the story helped to explain the short playtime, but I still feel like I want more of this game.

• Length - 2

This game was extremely short, which was disappointing because I enjoyed the mechanics and the story.  It took me less than 3 hours to beat the campaign.  I had to check that number twice because it felt like more time (in a good way).  There were challenge levels that I could go back and beat, but the simple story was what kept me the most interested.  Despite this game’s brevity, I believe it is well worth the discounted price.

• Frustration Factor - 2

There were certain sections that were briefly frustrating, but once the player figures out how to effectively combat enemies things stayed pretty simple.  The only enemy time that I felt was a bit “cheap” were the giant beavers.  They had a habit of parrying my attacks, which frustrated me because I had to wait for them to slowly drop their guard.  All heavy enemies could only be damaged with heavy melee weapons, which was also somewhat annoying.  However, I was never truly frustrated at any point in this game.

• Violence - 5

Zeno Clash is a first person fighting game.  Primarily, the player will punch and kick his enemies into submission.  Melee attacks, both with and without weapons, result in little blood at all.

Is that a chastity belt? I don't think he needs it, really.

There are ranged weapons that the player can use, but these can be difficult to use frequently since enemies will often rush at the player while he is reloading.  Sometimes hits from these weapons will result in an insignificant amount of blood.  But the reaction of enemies to the hits is more obvious than the blood.

The ranged weapons were surprisingly effective.

The player can also use skull grenades on enemies.  There is no blood or gore from these weapons.  Additionally, I found them extremely difficult to use since they tend to roll past the enemy I’m targeting, so I only used them on rare occasions.

• Sexuality - 2

The only time when sexuality was even a minor factor was with one of the enemy types.  There were some sort of female rat creatures that had two sets of breasts.  They would “cover” the breasts with belt-like straps, but it was still a bit noticeable simply because it was so odd.

I don't see how that helps.

• Substances - 1

Health is obtained in the game by eating some sort of glowing orange fruit.  They look somewhat like large apricots.

There are also a few “bars” in the game (or what would be equivalent to bars in an imaginary caveman environment).  The drink of choice is rooster blood.  However, despite being offered rooster blood in one bar, the player is never able to drink anything.

I guess this would classify as a "dive bar".

• Gambling - 0

Gambling is not a factor in this game.

3.     Other Factors

• Mods - 0

While there are mods for this game, the modding community seems small and most of the mods are levels or textures.  Therefore, mods are not a factor in this game.

• Religion - 0

Religion is not a factor in this game.

• Anti-Law - 0

There is no law enforcement in this game.  As a result, anti-law is not a factor.

• Online Community - 0

There are no multiplayer modes for this game.

• Extreme Sports - 0

Extreme sports are not a factor in this game.

• Magic - 2

There is one section where the player has to use a sort of wand to gather light energy and use it against oozing tar-like enemies.  The player can cast the light in order to hit shadows from a distance.  However, this ability is only present in one level of the game.

Expelliarmus!

• Miscellaneous - 1

Human Disfigurement

Some of the characters are clearly humanoid, but not really human.  They are designed to look disfigured, sometimes orcish.  However, this is mitigated by the fact that they look like an entirely different species simply because of the differences between them and the human characters.

I guess it is human? Or was human? I'm not really sure.