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Genre: Third-Person Action Publisher: Valve Developer: ACE Team Players: 1

By Lachlan (23rd Apr 2009)

Often the best works of fiction are nothing more than thinly veiled excuses to take a tour of a remarkable place which doesn’t really exist. Some worlds just beg to be explored. Part surreal frontier western, part Jim Henson’s darker leanings, the world of Zeno Clash is one of those places. Frighteningly detailed, bizarre yet somehow familiar, the game universe is home to a colourful array of genuinely other-worldly creatures.

Chile’s ACE team have obviously put in some serious overtime building and play-testing their first real title. A beat-‘em-up with a first-person perspective, the gameplay has just as much in common with Final Fight or some other ‘80s side-scroller as it does with Doom. The single-player campaign clocks in with about five hours of gameplay, a lightning tour of Zenozoik, the world the game takes place in.

The game sees you playing as Ghat, a malnourished-looking member of the city of Halstedom’s most powerful family. This family is led by the hermaphroditic Father-Mother, a spindly colossus with the world’s creepiest voice that serves as the game’s main antagonist. The family fits in well with the overall aesthetic, that of a world without laws, without criminals or any meaningful constraints, full of forgotten technology and insanity. Might makes right in Zenozoik, and Father-Mother casts a long shadow.

The story skips around a bit in terms of chronology, kicking off with Ghat killing Father-Mother and then trying to escape his vengeful siblings. The narrative moves back and forth between Ghat’s escape, to the events that led up to the confrontation with Father-Mother, as Ghat relays them to his travelling companion Deadra. The plot takes a few unexpected twists and turns as the game progresses, and after leaving the city of Halstedom, Ghat and Deadra move through several different locales. One leg of their journey takes them through a forest populated by the violently insane, where Ghat has spent time previously. Another sequence is set in a desert, patrolled by giant creatures which look like the bastard offspring of a brontosaurus and a giraffe.

The game mechanics mostly revolve around fist-fighting small groups of opponents. Rather than simple button-mashing, timing and recognising visual cues are all important. The camera tilts and shakes realistically as blows connect, and there’s a terrific sense of weight to everything. Much like in real life, you can almost tell if a blow is about to connect in the split-second just before it does. The learning curve is a little steep – it probably takes an hour or two of playtime before things start to click.

Weapons are present and occasionally come in handy, but the balance is such that they are pretty soon discarded in favour of your own two fists. The dual-pistols, precision musket and grenade launcher are useful at delaying or knocking down enemies at the beginning of a brawl, but their reload times are such that their usefulness is limited. When facing larger opponents, a hammer or club becomes necessary to defeat them. The weapons are rendered convincingly, and look as if they’ve been cobbled together from whatever Zenozoik’s inhabitants find lying around. The melee weapons actually start to splinter and fall apart after repeated use, and enemies will pick up any discarded items to use against you.



There are lots of amazing small touches throughout the title, some of which you’ll only notice on your second or third playthrough. Clouds of flies buzz around the filthy-looking inhabitants of the forest, while the Halstedom bar is populated by many strange characters, including a fellow wearing a coffee-pot as a helmet. Complementing the weird and wonderful art design, the different creatures that you meet (and beat up) actually make use of some different moves and animations. As well as adding a bit of individuality, this forces you to break up your tactics - what works against the pink potato-faced fellow outside the bar might not work on his skinny ginger-nut friend.

The developers have done a good job of varying the different fighting segments, with different combinations of enemies and a few twists. One fight has a demented musician that dances around the arena, bringing dead combatants back to life. Another takes place in a cage, with you and two other prisoners battling it out before a cannibal turns up to try and eat you. The combat is hectic and brutal, and often comes right down to the wire, split seconds dividing the living from the dead.

The fist-fighting engine is the main strength of the game, but there are a few segments where you’re forced to pick up a weapon or try a different approach. Some of these sequences work better than others. While the showdown with the blind sharpshooter your family has hired to hunt you down is a highlight, another sequence involving vaguely Aztec-looking natives pelting the boat that you’re in with rocks goes on just a bit too long.



Zeno Clash is an indie game for a budget price, and although production values are of a surprisingly high standard, there are still some rough edges. While the artwork and animation are both excellent, some of the voice-acting and sound effects are a little below-par. A few of the scripted sequences don’t kick off quite when they should, and Valve’s Source engine (which also powered Half Life 2 and the recent Left 4 Dead) is starting to look a little creaky. The combat tutorials are nicely executed, taking place during dream sequences in which you’re knocked unconscious. It’s a nice touch, weaving them seamlessly into the main narrative, but brief as they are, including an option to skip them after your first playthrough might have been a good idea.

Once the single-player campaign has been finished, the challenge arenas are unlocked. Kinda like Bruce Lee’s Game of Death, this mode has you progressing through a tower, except instead of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, it's populated by the foes you encountered in the single-player game. Beating five floors unlocks the next section of the tower, for a total of 25 floors. There’s no multiplayer, but the scores that you receive for the challenge levels appear on an online leaderboard, where you can compare your scores to those of your friends. There are also several Steam accomplishments tied to the main game, further enhancing replay prospects. The one thing missing here is an option to play custom arenas.

For all its ambition, Zeno Clash is clearly a labour of love, blending creativity and playability in equal measures. The only real problem with the game is that it’s all over way too soon. Although the ending of the single-player campaign brings a sense of closure at least so far as Ghat’s story goes, there’s a sense that bigger things are afoot. Here’s hoping that a follow-up is on the cards.

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