Clash: Artifacts of Chaos

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It's Dark Souls, but with ugly mutants.

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learned controls in seconds. game was long enough to actually enjoy. for $3 its one of the greatest games ever.

★★½ out of four. I played this then played the other two Zeno Clash games. Though I know of no meta-text to say these games are the same canon, they presumably are, and there are shared characters. This game's story is not helped by that connection. Most importantly, let me discuss expectation. These game trailers are made to the highest standard -- at least three to this standard --, which more companies could theoretically do given they have all the game assets. They do feature an alternative paint for the main character and a hat (paid DLC exclusive) for the other. I did all the achievements and I did everything in the game and I got zero alternative paints other than the initial two (dunno if it's even possible to get the one in a trailer) and one hat (while there are also three other hats that have game function). Anyway, years after release, I still had wrongly high expectation for the game. The amount of story/dialogue and its substance is less than I expected. One thing I didn't expect is to have to parse again every single area in the main character's other form. This isn't required for every patch of land, but that can be a hindsight benefit. It is required for achievements (or if not: a guide is used to an extensive degree, which is just as much a negative). One may think it gives stats via the exclusive armors, but the stats given by armors will be made useless because they won't scale with the amount of stats from leveling. One may think there are exclusive chests to the different modes, which isn't explained and I'm still not certain -- some chests have icons which match the theme of the modes. This is very time costly and there's also no fast travel. The terrain is twisty; This may be a warning for people, but I don't know if it is, or even works as one because I don't know of other games that are this way. At least the design is not cruel in that the amount of possible paths to keep track of for investigating doesn't go absurd. The nightmare version of bosses (for achievements / exclusive armor) will be available with other boss progression, and they'll be at previously cleared areas on the other side of the map, and there is no indication to their availability. This means the player won't know they are there unless they read a guide. The first person mode is an ultimate move that is less used, and when it is used the rules of the whole game change: target enemy becomes more passive, other enemies back off, and it is most true to say you do one move until it is over. So, it is less engaging than it could have been. This game has the design where you want to spend stat points now, but you don't know what stances and special moves are yet to be found which would inform that decision. There are no meta-resources for this game which alleviate this; There is a steam guide that gives name and location, but not the stat impacts. There is no redoing of spent resources on character building. There is no manual control of saves, only autosaving, and you will have to note when the icon appears to learn its rules. I was tricked once. The main character's second mode can be entered at will at certain places, but also when they die. I cannot see why this mechanic exists, including story. There is one use for it I have theoretically, but the game doesn't do that and doesn't inform that it doesn't work that way. The dice game is fine to play a few times first for novelty, but it's still a coin-flip. Next is not playing it because it is a coin flip that takes too long to be worth it. Next is not playing it because it still takes time and it would take resources to stay competitive with opponents. For the last chunk of the game, the player may have their resources sorted now and may be ready to play up to two more games of novelty again, but enemies in this chunk don't play it. I like that the combat isn't memorizing combos. Stances have a standard attack combo, a running attack, a jumping forward attack, and four more attacks via dodge + up/down/left/right + attack. Three found special moves can be equipped and mapped to up + special attack, special attack, and down + special attack. I'm not a fighter/brawler genre player, but the combat probably is undermined by other factors. Unevenness in strength with enemies is a factor. This could be due to: leveling itself, players being unsure how to invest stats (thus underinvesting), and enemy-to-enemy strength given I think two of the areas have same strength enemies given both areas are probably available to the player at the same time. Parrying probably also undermines. I'm not sure if the timing and window is appropriate. I think the problem is most enemies multi-hit and parrying a hit will not stop the other hits, as well as enemies moving around so much thoughout their distance-covering attack sequence means a player in theory needs to predict that sequence (if they aren't one of the enemies that can just add on more attacks) in space and purposefully position themselves at the space where only the last hit of the sequence will hit them and then parry it, possibly while avoiding other enemies, including their projectile attacks. A value of the parry is doing one increases attack damage for a time. Ultimately, I don't know if I can call the story a positive, the combat and progression experience was uneven while I appreciated the core controls, and there was too much time on world traversal and scrounging map edges for unhighlighted resource materials. The game's score is helped by uniqueness: a third-person 3D non-realistic brawler with world traversal, with my appreciation of the controls.

Herrlich schräger Brawler mit Souls-Einschlag Clash: Artifacts of Chaos ist eine ziemlich ungewöhnliche Mischung aus Brawler und Souls-Elementen. Die Welt lädt zum Erkunden ein, das Totenreich bringt eine interessante Mechanik fürs Sterben mit und besonders das kleine Würfelspiel vor vielen Kämpfen ist eine schöne Idee. Das Kampfsystem ist manchmal etwas chaotisch und nicht perfekt ausbalanciert – gelegentlich gewinnt man hauptsächlich deshalb, weil sich die Gegner gegenseitig auf die Fresse hauen. Dafür hat das Spiel unglaublich viel Charakter. Das Artdesign ist herrlich grotesk. Gefühlt gehört jede Figur einer anderen Spezies an und alle sind so hässlich, dass ich mir irgendwann die Frage gestellt habe, wie Fortpflanzung in dieser Welt eigentlich funktioniert. Ich möchte die Antwort aber eigentlich doch nicht wissen. Auf dem Steam Deck läuft es nach etwas Anpassung der Einstellungen ebenfalls richtig gut. Schräg, eigenständig und überraschend gut. Klare Empfehlung. 👍

This is one of the weirdest games I've played in recent memory, and also one of the best. Incredible artistic vision. Character designs are sick, the scenery and style reminds me of David Bowie's Labyrinth. There's no two characters that look anything alike, in a good way. So many unique enemies and movesets. Game design decisions in this game are just so good. The way you go into first person when you enter punchy mode is bizarre and absolutely inspired. The Ritual is fun (possibly better than Gwent?) and the artifacts change fights completely. The game has me more excited to get a new die or a new Tchak than getting a new weapon. The voice acting is great and the character personalities are all interesting. The main character is basically Kratos, complete with his own Boy. This is the easiest recommendation. One of the best indie games I've played in a long long time.