GamerNode: Reviews - Zeno Clash

Zeno Clash

• Zeno Clash
• PC
• ACE Team
• Valve Software
• April 21st, 2009

Zeno Clash is an independent, PC-only first-person beat 'em up, released for digital download on Steam and Direct2Drive. It was created by Chilean studio Ace Team, and has turned many heads even prior to its release, its hype (for lack of a better word) driven by its completely original world design and aesthetic appeal, and only secondarily by the fairly innovative gameplay idea of a first-person beat 'em up.

It can be hard to explain how the game plays out because there's not a lot to directly compare it to. It has been termed a fighting game in sub-genre, but it only fits that genre in the sense that each instance of combat feels like an instanced fight, as the game starts the combat with a slide-in versus screen, and you can only continue further into the world once the fight is closed.

But what else to compare it to? Riddick and Fallout 3/Oblivion jump to mind, but the fighting in those games does not feel half as direct as that in Zeno Clash. I personally feel that despite the first-person camera, the combat best suffers comparison to the beat 'em ups of the 80s/90s, such as Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. Like these games, the basic control set-up is simple, and unlike the fighting game genre the combinations you can make tend to be short, one-two-three-throw moves rather than expanded key combinations to do a variety of super moves.

Like beat 'em ups, the portfolio of moves consists of punches, kicks and throws. Like beat 'em ups, it has a linear story, heavily reuses characters, meaning you can fight the same enemies over and over, and heals the player with fruit lying on the floor, as well as auto-healing between fights (perhaps more like fighting games in that instance). And, like beat 'em ups and unlike fighting games, pure skill at combinations is less important than a good intuitive feel for the way fights work. Singling out opponents and moving around a lot when fighting a group is more important than blocking. The blocking and dodging moves the game offered are just as easily replaced by quickly moving back and forth. The system is not simple enough for many players to master all combinations, but a bit of common sense can get you through fights just as easily.

One thing that does set it apart quite a bit is the usage of weapons, including guns (though I suppose Streets of Rage 3 had this as well). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the shooting action feels a lot more contrived. The guns are beautifully designed parts of the world, an do not feel like conventional FPS weaponry even though a few of them are (double pistols, rifle). But I would think most people prefer to keep their weapons holstered and go for the more direct approach whenever they can. The game does not force you into using weapons often, and in the Hunter boss sequence it pulls the need for a gun off really well, but Zeno Clash does occasionally stack the odds against you in a way that makes having a gun handy.

The other type of weapon is the traditional beat 'em up club, though baseball bats and iron pipes are replaced by weird-looking hammers and bone swords. Of all the action sequences, the ones featuring clubs are my least favorite. In particular fights with heavies feel unnecessary and cumbersome, lacking both the immediacy and intuitiveness of other fights.

In general, fights are interesting and Zeno Clash offers plenty of novel new situations to keep you interested, but at the end of 4-hour ride it's already getting a bit repetitive, and it's a good thing it doesn't last much longer. If you are hungry for additional fights, the game offers a 5-tier challenge mode with interesting combat situations. Still, first-person beat 'em up gameplay hasn't been done often, and it very rarely has been done well. Zeno Clash lacks the quality of close combat on the level of Mount & Blade, but it is superior to that of Oblivion. It's good, but it's not good enough to carry the game by itself.

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