Clash: Artifacts of Chaos Reviews

Pretty fun

Big developers just don't make games like this anymore. This is a solid recommend. Ace Team took the foundations of Zenoclash and added in a bit of God Hand, a little bit of Dark Souls, and weirdly, a little bit of Shadowman, and made something truly unique yet again. [h1]The Good[/h1] -As with all the Zenozoik games, the world building and atmosphere are completely unique and bizarre. -The presentation is top notch, with great graphics, a cool artstyle, and gorgeous (and sometimes very weird) music, along with some punchy anime-inspired sounds. -The combat is straightforward but fun: combos are simple but there is a surprising amount of depth to the dodge and stamina mechanics. -There's a semi-optional dice minigame that is almost like a mini deck builder. It's called "The Ritual" or "The One Law" and it happens before most battles. It's fun and simple but with deceptive depth for plays and counter plays. It could almost be a game in and of itself. -The voice acting is pretty good. This sets it apart from the other, more amateur voice-acting in the ZenoClash games, but it also detracts a bit from the weirdness factor, so it feels a bit more polished than the ZenoClash games, but not quite as "weird." I personally liked the weird voice acting in the first two games, so I was a bit disappointed they had more conventional acting in this one. Some of the more iconic voice actors from the first two games do make a return though. -As with the other games in the ZenoClash series, some of the enemy designs are weird and some of them are WEIRD. Depending on your tolerance for weirdness, this could be a negative or a positive. [h1]The Bad[/h1] -The only thing I'm not in love with is the crafting system. It's a bit over-simple, but despite having clear symbols in the top right hand corner of each ingredient in the menu, it's not clear what each ingredient specifically does, and to what degree. Also, the specific combinations of ingredients seem to change the dominant effect. Recipes you make don't get saved anywhere either. -The exploration takes a bit of getting used to. The levels can somehow feel cramped and enormous at the same time. Still, as you start opening up shortcuts and finding the ways the map twists in on itself, you get a bit of that souls-like landmark awareness feeling, but I never really felt compelled to revisit some areas just for the sake of it. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] If you liked Zenoclash 1 & 2, or really any of Ace Team's other games, pick this up without even thinking about it. I'm a huge fan of their games, and in my opinion this may be their best work. If you're a fan of the most recent God of War games, or the Souls series, or Godhand, this is a solid recommend as well.

While I don't think it's necessary to have played Zeno Clash 1 or 2 before this, I think you will enjoy this much more if you have played the other two... I love the Clash series, I think thesy are some of my favourite games of all time. The character designs, settings, and premise are incredibly refreshing. The willingness to subjugate expectation playfully, whilst simultaneously remaining grounded enough to not transcend the overly absurd... It's a very welcome and well-achieved balance with these games. This game feels much different mechanically-speaking, compared to it's predecessors. Combat is much more varied, fleshed out, and I feel overall a huge improvement in pretty well every way. There's much more depth to item collection, however, I still feel more could have been implemented in crafting and merchant mechanics... for the most part, most of the consumable items you collect are used to make healing brews, however, as far as I know, these foraging items never respawn, leading you to essentially have finite healing capabilities later on. Which is okay, and can be a welcome challenge even, if one expects this going into the game. Some of the forage items can be traded for items that the crafter-merchant can make use of, build you weapons and armour, etc. but, the crafting items you find are already so abundant, I can't imagine why you would need to exchange them. It would have been nice to have a merchant that stocks materials for healing brews. Maybe there is one, or maybe there is some way to get more access to healing forage items, but in my 27 hours, I did not encounter one. However, at any rate, a very minor gripe. The scope of the environment is much larger compared to ZC1 or 2, which I am quite fond of for the most part, but it does innately create the dynamic wherein you can be exploring an area, expect to find more, or an easter egg, and end up feeling a little under-whelmed sometimes. Again, relating to the increased scope of the game, there are times where I feel there could have been more variety of NPCs that you fight as well. Especially considering how creative these developers are, there are times when I really wanted to see what else they could come up with. I think the Day/Night dynamic attempts to address this to some degree, but I feel like it only slightly does so. I personally find the ritual and the one law a very interesting game mechanic, and I like how it pertains to the story. The ritual is a pre-fight game mechanic wherein dice and modifier items are used to alter dynamics of the fight. I can see how some players may not like it as much, but thankfully the ritual is usually not necessary, or sometimes can be played out with somewhat of an auto-play mechanic, wherein The Boy will play the ritual for you. I thought they implemented this aspect into the game very well. Overall, Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is my favourite game set in Zenozoik. I think these games are an incredibly creative, very worthwhile and refreshing experience, and I would encourage you to try them out, especially if you are feeling jaded, bored, or underwhelmed with other games.

amazing surreal adventure through a high intensity combat fever dream. Complete with amazing voice acting, beautiful art style and fun RPG elements really make this game a hidden Gem.

An incredible expansion on the lore of Zeno Clash & Zeno Clash 2. An incredible story about an encountered relationship between characters, with development arcs and a coherent narrative. An incredible portrayal of Zenozoik; with engaging map design, collectibles and secrets all over. An incredible art style, original and a fresh take on the vision of the first two games. An incredible extension of gameplay, with intricate mechanics and entertaining loop. I have to say, Team Ace did deliver, and left me wanting for more. It's a yes for me, not only because I loved the Zeno Clash series from start, but because this game proved that the concept and lore of the world can take any form it wants. It shows it can keep improving, and it can keep getting bigger. And I hope it does.

Another great entry in Zeno Clash series, this time heavily inspired by most recent God of War games. Even though I liked first person fighting in ZC1 and 2, transition to third person was a great move, making the combat even more enjoyable and complex, adding a lot of different combat styles and special attacks. Level design change to semi open world metroidvania style also made exploring the world much more enjoyable, although sometimes quite confusing. But the confusion is caused more by the weirdness of the entire world, than the level design itself. But as the setting of this series is it's most unique aspect, it is more than acceptable. Added RPG elements such as crafting, upgrading your character, finding armor sets, brewing potions, and even adding its own version of "how about a round of gwent?" before most of the fights, this time playing dice instead of cards, with various modifiers to how combat will be played out, adds another layer to already excellent gamapley loop. And least but not least, the visual style and soundtrack are some of the best out there. The uniqueness of setting, monsters and environments in every corner of the world is just jaw dropping from the beginning till the end, with truly nothing else out there quite like this. The same goes for music, consisting of original, but still epic and cinematic songs, making every fight and story set piece as engaging as possible. So yes, I can not recommend this game enough!