You've left out the fact that Deadra's hair is even better this time round.
http://www.wasder.net/zeno-clash-2-review/
Zeno Clash II Review
Game Emblems
The Good
The Bad
Some might call it strange, some might call it bizarre; I just call it a pretty damn good first-person adventure.
Just like its predecessor, Zeno Clash II is a mediocre first-person brawler memorable mainly for its psychedelic storytelling and art.
The Good
- Surreal, unsettling level design
- Some cool new attack options help clear out larger crowds.
The Bad
- Crazy plot and characters leave you cold
- Mostly simplistic melee combat mechanics
- Some control quirks lead to frustration.
Combine first-person punching with liberal doses of mescaline, and you also might be able to design a game as insane as Zeno Clash II. ACE Team brings the weirdness in this beat-'em-up, a game every bit as bizarre as its 2009 predecessor and unfortunately mediocre in the end. Just like the first entry in this wacko franchise, this game is far more memorable for its surreal atmosphere than its artless fighting mechanics. Although the button-mashing brawling zips along quickly enough to be somewhat hypnotic, the main reason to stick around for the eight or nine hours of the campaign is to see what kinds of dengue fever dreams the developers have concocted.
As in the first Zeno Clash, you play as a guy named Ghat, who lives in an alternate dimension called Zenozoic, which is populated by all manner of creeps inspired by Hieronymus Bosch paintings. Everything here is off--way off. The plot is completely incomprehensible. There is a good tutorial that walks you through combat, but it doesn't touch on anything else in the game. So you're abruptly dropped into this crazy world without any sort of preamble about what's going on.
You begin by helping your adoptive sister, Rimat (who seems to hate you for reasons never entirely clear), spring this lurching freak called FatherMother from the jail cell that he/she/it was tossed into by a mouthless monarch called Golem. Then you move into an adventure that resists any sort of explanation. It is virtually impossible to sum up what's going on here, even after finishing the eight- or nine-hour campaign that makes up the sole mode of play (which can be played solo or online cooperatively). Even the dialogue is incomprehensible, with the meaning of many lines chopped into bits, and with many assumptions that you've played the first game in the series.
Reality is a long, long way from anything in Zeno Clash II. Landscapes are populated by freakish fauna never seen on this planet, impossible architecture, and outlandish extra touches like disembodied heads and hands on furniture. The entire game has been designed to keep you off-kilter; even basic background details are skewed. Roads run in insane directions. Steps wind around like something from an M.C. Escher sketch. Bookshelves inside buildings are at crazy funhouse angles. Birds are randomly tethered to the ground. Trees sometimes sprout trumpets that alternate between spewing water and blowing bubbles.
Enemies and non-player characters that roam the world tend to be bipedal humanoids, but after that, all bets are off. You encounter elephant men, dwarfs in hoods, three-fingered goons with furry satyr legs, giant bloody creatures that resemble plucked versions of Big Bird, and all manner of deformed monstrosities that combine various human and animal features. It all looks attractively nightmarish, but the strange nature of everything is also intimidating, with so many weird details littering the landscape that the huge levels in the campaign (which is far more open than the more linear levels in the first Zeno Clash) can be needlessly bewildering. This is a particular problem when you have to solve the game's handful of puzzles, because it's hard enough to figure out what things are supposed to be, let alone figure out what you're supposed to be doing in the midst of all this madness.
53 comments
1 Like "There is a good tutorial that walks you through combat, but it doesn't touch on anything else in the game" The tutorial includes background story information for the first game. It informs new players about your siblings and your adventure. It may not have been best to put this when you are trying to master combos, but it's there.
Very little is mentioned in this review about how the open areas improve combat. You won't be backed into a small space and need to beat people like the first game. I didn't really have problems with enemies punching my while using the gauntlet either. I think the tools are game changes, completely altering the combat approach. Linking enemies and doing twice the punch power is awesome. The first game was rather mediocre and the story is still problematic, but I think this game is much better than its predecessor.
1 Like Funny, I thought Gamespot liked games with no gameplay and no story, why else did one win game of the year last year? lmfao This should be a 10 out of 10 by Gamesport standards. smh
2 Like Simplistic melee combat? Dude, this is the most advanced first person melee combat I've seen so far. The only thing that comes close that I can recall is Breakdown.
There are even juggle combo's in this that require finesse to pull off.
The first one was actually pretty good and this looks to be more of the same. Really decent combat system, solid story and bananas visuals. I'll buy it when it's on sale mostly because I can't justify spending twenty dollars on a nine hour game. I mostly just play WRPG's to begin with so I rate length and depth.
2 Like @DrYnot I never quite understood the length argument as value. There are great games out there that are 6-12 hours in length. They value much more to me than dragged out mediocre 80 hour experiences.
If anything, I prefer shorter games. It gives me more time to play more different types of games. Sticking with one game for a long period of time gets tedious no matter how great it is.
I'd rather play 20 awesome games in a year than 4.
Wait, what? You've rated this game as "Mediocre"? Am I going crazy? From what I could tell from the review, this is anything BUT mediocre.
You have to have played the first game for the dialogue and plot of this one to make any sense. What is wrong with that? What???? This is a crazy game. A lot of people play this game for its crazy factor. It sounds as if they dislike the idea of a game based on craziness and dislike the series overall. I have not played number 2 yet, but if it even resembles number 1 then it will be a crazy blast; good, simple and bizarre in most moments, difficult and surprising in its best. Give them a shot if your looking for a different type of brawler or just a good crazy game.
Terrible review. I disagree in almost all fronts, and more specifically, the plot. While it is not spoon-fed, it gets explained and doesn't leave holes. The origin of the setting and its inhabitants is even discovered in a sidequest. This makes me believe the reviewer didn't put any effort and played the game with a closed mind.
4 Like WTF this game has some of the best first person melee combat out there.... and a cool art design.... and a budget price.
I have to say though, the art style had me intrigued. Gonna have to hear see some more reviews though.
2 Like Man from first glimpse at that thumbnail I thought that was a screen capture from Morrowind, then I looked a little more and realised their fists weren't squares.
3 Like "GOTY! 10/10!" - Hieronymus Bosch
"Inspiring!" - Salvadore Dali
"Hmmm..." - Everybody else.
1 Like @LE5LO I don't think they would have liked it either. Art is about more than interesting images.
5 Like I wouldn't consider the first game as "mediocre", it had a good reception (has a 77 avg on metacritic), just sayin'...
This one seems similar, but with better graphics and an open world setting.
@CursedCheetos Caveat: I've not played either Zeno Clash.
That said, this seems a similar issue to the Dead Island: Riptide review. The reviewer says it's basically the same as the first game, then docks it two points for no fully explained reason. If someone liked the first game (6.5 on GS in this case) they need to know why the sequel is 'worse'.
1 Like @maki206 You don't play Skyrim for the combat, you play it for...well, everything else. Fisticuffs seems to be all this game has. If it had a coherant plot and stronger RPG elements I would consider picking this up.
@e5115271 @maki206 Im going to assume it has a coherent plot, but you have to have played the first game. The clip in the video review that was supposed to show how nonsensical the plot is made complete sense to me soley because i played the first one. And the game is not an rpg. the rpg elements in it are just a spice, the game is about the first person brawling, bizarre setting and characters, and strange but specifically coherent plot.
5 Like Condemned 2 now that´s a game with really good first person beat-um-up mechanics...and aamazing atmosphere and sound design
Well I cant remember the combat being simplistic in the first one.. so I cant see how they could ahve messed it up for the second.. I thought the melee system was probally one of the best i have seen in an fps.. was hoping for more of the same.. might just wait until its on sale i guess.
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From what I am seeing it looks like this game is really trying to be like it is predecessor but oh well...
2 Like ugh this game looks so disgusting, the kind of thing that'd make you sick too look at.
@airboard360 @LazyGamerX There's nothing wrong with his comment. I could see a lot of people getting sick looking at the imagery in this game. It's really cool, but a lot of times, also really disgusting.
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Zeno Clash II
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- Publisher(s): ATLUS
- Developer(s): Ace Games
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
- ESRB: T
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