Zeno Clash (2009)

Zeno Clash came completely out of the blue for me. At first glance, it seemed like some kind of a demented lovechild from a three-way between Salvador Dali, Hieronymus Bosch and Jim Henson. And it involved punching people. Suffice to say, Zeno Clash was an immediate purchase for me, and this was helped by the game being on a pre-order sale on Steam at the time. Nevertheless, it took me a while to finally get to play it, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

One might be slightly apprehensive about buying the first game made by a small indie developer in Chile, but this apprehension is completely unfounded. These guys know what they're doing.

How would I put this? In a nutshell, Zeno Clash is a First Person Puncher. The player progresses in the story with brief travel sessions, and a series of brawls with assorted characters. The concept is fairly simple, and the result reflects this. This is not a bad thing by a long shot, however, as the development team has obviously seen a lot of trouble fine-tuning the features in the game that they decided to include. There are some ranged weapons to engage your opponents with, and they can lend an advantage in a battle, but the real meat of the game is in the up-close and personal ass-kickery applied in liberal doses. The close combat in this game feels very dynamic, and sufficiently complex to allow for some tactics in a fight, without becoming complex to learn. The combat is well made overall, and is somewhat reminiscient of the close combat in Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. All in all, it's great fun, and kneeing your enemies in the face is just very, very satisfying.

The game puts the player in the shoes of Ghat, one of the eldest children of a massive hermaphroditic bird-creature called Father-Mother, and follows the events that unfold when the rest of his family begins to pursue him after killing Father-Mother for undisclosed reasons. This journey involves punching a lot of people in the face, and shooting critters, seeing wonderful scenery and immersing yourself into a game that feels like something between a fairy-tale and a demented dream. And you punch a lot of people(with occasional kicks thrown in). As I remarked before, stylistically the game bears similarities to an odd amalgam of the works of Salvador Dali, Hieronymus Bosch and Jim Henson, with healthy amount of imagination thrown in. The Zeno Clash team has several artists, and it shows in the inspired designs, with Zeno Clash differing significantly from the current trend of grimdarkgreybrownangst gaming.

Zeno Clash is a little on the short side, with a complete playthrough ranging from 3-5 hours, or maybe more, depending on the speed of the player. Then again, the game is priced half(or one third, depending on where you live) of what most retail games go for. There is also little to no filler in the game, and those 4 hours are all gameplay. Zeno Clash is no 30-hour game with 15 hours of traveling between game areas, and the game never overstays its welcome. There is also a tower-challenge mode, if a quick fight is all you want, with some statistics that can be compared between Steam-friends. There is no real multiplayer mode though. I must also mention that the ACE Team(ze developers) are wonderfully responsive to feedback, quickly taking care of issues that players discovered shortly after release, in addition to incorporating minor features that fans felt were missing from the original release. Props to them for that.

The gameplay of Zeno Clash is solid, if a little limited, but it serves splendidly for what it set out to accomplish. The ACE Team crafted fun, and relatively realistic and interactive fighting mechanics for the game, and after the patch fixing the issues I had, there are no complaints. It might feel a little awkward at times, but I don't remember a similar system off-hand that handles itself any better. The graphics in Zeno Clash are wonderful, with ACE Team creating wonderful critters and vistas to see. I was honestly quite surprised that their first game would be so good-looking. The sound and music side of the game is quite well made as well, with very different, yet oddly fitting score. The voice acting ranges from passable to good, and it's quite good for an indie game, with the developers themselves dabbling at it themselves as well(quite successfully, I might add). The story of Zeno Clash is bizarre, but not quite as out-there as I had come to expect from the visuals. Still, it was quiet entertaining, and meshed in well with rest of the game. I was actually quite curious after finishing the game, and wanted to know more about the world of Zenozoik, so here's hoping that ACE Team gets to make more games in the same vein. Indeed, they have made one semi-related game, Malstrums Mansion, which is an old-school adventure game playable by Flash on their website. Finishing it gives an unlockable achievement in Zeno Clash, if one needs incentive to play it(even though it's quite fun).

The game feels sometimes a little rough, but the end result is overall quite polished, well executed and refreshing effort, which everyone with even a cursory interest should consider trying out. There is a demo out, if you want to try it out first.

In conclusion, Zeno Clash is an interesting and refreshing game, definitely worth checking out. I truly hope that the developers make enough from it to stay in business, and keep making more games, as they seem to have new and fresh ideas to share. More developers and games like these, thank you very much!

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10 for being a little rough]

http://www.zenoclash.com/

Mount&Blade (PC, 2008)

“Here’s your lame horse, pair of worn pants, and a club. Welcome to Calradia! Enjoy your stay.”

Alright, that isn’t actually said anywhere, but it pretty much the standard start of a game of Mount&Blade. Mount&Blade is a game originally developed by a Turkish couple, although somewhere along the way the developing team expanded to few more people. It had been in development for several years, and boasted a unique financing system, where people could buy the game while it was still in development, for a reduced price, while their registration code would work for any future versions. Of course, the price went up the closer to finishing the game got. This worked surprisingly well, and when the game got picked up by Paradox Entertainment and was put up in Steam, everything started rolling. Mount&Blade is an indie success.

Now, many professional reviewers have given the game fairly average scores, but Mount&Blade is one of those games that boast the coveted “Civilization effect”, also known as “One More Turn Syndrome” or OMTS. It often occurs, that on a first try, the planned 30 min splurge into the game turns to realizing that it’s 4 in the morning. So, what is the game really about then?
Mount&Blade is something akin to a medieval version of Elite, where after character creation, you start off as a poor nobody in Calradia, which is a land with four warring kingdoms, populated with all sorts of scum and villainy. Your objective? Do whatever you want. You can start trading between the cities, you can become a hated rebel warlord, anything within the game’s capabilities, really. One thing is certain though; sooner or later you’ll encounter combat. And oh boy, if it isn’t fun.

Mount&Blade is THE game that got mounted combat right (should have seen that coming just from the name). Riding on the battlefield, with a couched lance which you handily land between a knight’s eyes at full gallop is satisfying, as well as riding past peasants and swinging them in the face with a battleaxe. If you’re bit of a Mongol, horse archery is brilliantly executed, and riding circles around your enemies while peppering them with arrows is great fun. You can also take the role of a commander, and let your troops do the fighting for you.

That’s right, you can also gather an army of your own, and fight massive battles, or siege and conquer castles and cities. All of this is horribly addicting, and the game manages to pull off something that many big titles fail at: It’s simple, good fun that you don’t really get sick of. Ever. I should have some idea, I’ve been playing the game on and off for years. The reason I’m reviewing it now, is due to buying the newest version on Steam.

“But it looks like shit!!1 Itt aint as purty as Haloz!11!” Yeah? Well, the game does have a… rustic appearance, but bear in mind that it was made by pretty much two people for most of the time. Besides, you won’t mind the graphics when you slam a guy off his horse in the heat of battle. Also, the game boasts an impressive amount of mods available, and it is fairly easy to mod, introducing anything from Lord of the Rings, Song of Ice and Fire, the 100 year war, flintlock guns etc. into the game, as well as graphical improvements.

The game is fairly easy to learn, and there are wikis online that have pretty much any information one might want relating to the game. There are problems, of course. The game feels slightly unfinished, and much of the diplomacy and quest system feels simplistic. The graphics might be off-putting to some, although I’ve never really been that big on graphics as long as they do their job. There is a feeling that more could have been implemented, and some other minor problems. There are no game-breaking discrepancies though, and you won’t mind these issues when cracking skulls for the fifth hour in a row.

It might also be of interest, that whispers in the ether suggest that there is an expansion on the way, boasting improvements to AI, graphical adjustments and… MULTIPLAYER! I can imagine the 32-player online death-match, and IT. IS. GLORIOUS.

Mount&Blade is a thoroughly enjoyable game, with plenty of replay value. We need more games like this.

If you can see yourself even possibly enjoying M&B, get the demo from their website. It’s the full game, although you’re restricted to a level 7 cap for your character.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://www.taleworlds.com/