Punk rock Caveman living is a Surreal world would best sum up Zeno Clash, but goes nowhere near fully describing it.
And the people that developed this game were about as indie as you can get, indeed this is ACE studio's first game to date. For an indie game the voice acting, Production Values and overall presentation are spectacular. They have showcased that given the right tools you can make something that lives up to full priced mainstream games whilst eclisping many on them in innovation.
Firstly What exactly IS Zeno Clash? Well it's a first person fighting game based on the source engine that also features a shooting element. It by no means devolves into a gun-fest though, your weapons will only really be needed in sertain situations, and being knocked out of your hands pretty easily, If you are facing multiple emines then they are pretty much useless. The action is contained in certain areans of combat, but there are also much more open areas where you will face different challenges.
The combat it's self in very well executed, stasifiying and brutal (but can also frustrate) with the ability to focus on a singular enemy use a mix of heavy, light, charged, running and counter moves, blocking will also be needed extensively but this drains your energy which is a nice touch. The Gun play can feel a litte clunky but this makes the "Kick them in the Face " option all the more apealing, though it would have been nice to see it more natural feeling.
Each fight is also introduced by a Vs. overlay that also acts to showcases some brilliant art, wich is pretty abundant in the Game. It does Run on Source so expect some low Rez Textures and some dated looking features but this is kept in check by the games overall achivement in style. The game looks fantastic and playes to the engines Stenghts much as Team Fortress 2 did.
This also means that pretty much any PC can run it, although i did experence some framerate issues in some areas seemingly un-related to the setting. But this is the only quirk in an overall overwhelmingly striking looking game enviroment. Each character is also well realised with the highlight coming for me with each frankly disturbing Corwid of the free. These sureal looking 'people' reject sanity and reality and let their manias and insanity take over in the forests. The story it's self in somewhat underrealised, i won't give anything away but explination and fleshing out could have added ALOT to the intruiging tale told here. The ephasis here should be on differnece, you aint see or heard much like this before and it really smashes many first person conventions, this would be a good route for the combat in say Mirrors Edge to take.
There are also some pretty big quirks that stop this game from realising it's full potential. Control is a BIG issue in many fights. E does everthing, it locks onto enimies, it picks up food and weapons and opens doors. Why not have lock-on as Q? its just as close? As it is this can turn trying to pick thigs up in a fight a real cluster**** and leads to uneccessary fustration. You also can't drop picked up weapons unless they are knocked out of your hands. This is not as big of an issue as it would first appear but it does seem ilogical. The X or F key could have served nicely for this and as it is are not used. The game is also pretty short but does have added vaule with various challenge modes.
The sound also deserves a mention, all effects are well done and the combat sounds are just brutal for the more heavy moves. Each apponant also has a full set of sounds they will make in battle which gives a good level of immerion and variation.
That said the game is allroung pretty freaking good for the price, the combat is fluid, easy to pick up but also deep and tactical enough for extended play, Skill is rewarded. The setting and characters are well realised. For a game of this type with it's pretty huge handycaps it's staggering what has been achived. If you are into PC games, First peron games or just like to be freaked out whilst seeing some innovation and nice art then i recomed this game to you.
You see Gamespot, That wasn't so hard :P. Now get a move on!