The video game market today is flooded with first person shooters that all blend together into one indiscernible mass of browns, grays, world wars, and space marines. I’ve always had a love for the first person perspective because of its ability to completely draw the player into the game environment. You’re not controlling the main character from a distance you are the main character and seeing everything from his eyes. Unfortunately, games that use the first person perspective in an amazing way are few and far between. Bioshock, Fallout 3, and Half-Life 2 are good examples of first-person done right. When I saw screens and videos from the upcoming Zeno Clash game it really stood out to me. Here was a first person game with brightly colored visuals and an amazing surreal art direction. I couldn’t wait to play it.



The game revolves around you playing the role of Ghat who has turned against his Father-Mother (more on that later) and been kicked out of his home city. The Father-Mother is a hermaphroditic character who is the mother and father of tons of children in Ghat’s hometown. All of these children are Ghat’s brothers and sisters and you will be fighting them throughout the game as Father-Mother has put a price on your head. Early on you meet Daedra, a female character that accompanies you throughout the game. The game tries to create an emotional connection between Daedra and Ghat but it never quite grabbed me personally. The below average voice acting being one of the main reasons the dialogue between the two characters never really resonated. Being set in such a strange alternate universe the developers could have created their own unique language with English subtitles and the poor dialogue delivery would not have been as noticeable.



The game is divided into around twenty or more stages where you will do a little exploring but mostly hand-to-hand fighting. When you reach a combat area the screen will freeze and display a versus title screen and tell you who you will be fighting. The combat usually takes place in enclosed areas of various sizes that contain various weapons, bombs, and health restoring fruits. You could almost think of it as a first person fighting game, although usually you are fighting two to three people at once.

The fighting is really well done and reminded me of Condemned 2 in many ways. You lock on to enemies with the “E” key and then punch with the mouse buttons. The right button delivers a weak but faster punch and the left button is a stronger but slower punch. You can block and dodge by using the space bar and direction buttons. In addition to this there are various combinations that add even more to your repertoire. It all works really well and it’s always satisfying laying the final uppercut blow on an enemy. Occasionally, the lock on system got a little frustrating when a lot of enemies were around you, but 90% of the time I didn’t have a problem.



There are guns in the game but I rarely used them as they never felt very powerful and took too long to reload. I’d fire a few shots off, hit reload, and then get punched and drop the gun. A few boss fights and levels require you to use a gun and it works fine in those situations but I usually stuck with the hand to hand combat.



The art direction of the game is strictly amazing and was the main reason I couldn’t put the game down from beginning to end. I couldn’t wait to finish each level and see what the next one would be like. The surreal architecture and landscapes are extremely beautiful. If Salvador Dali designed a video game it would probably look similar to this. The levels all have a lot of variation between them and you’re never bored from seeing too much of the same thing. You go through the main city, deserts, forests, sea shores, and each one is as good as the last. And if you think the environments are amazing the character models are even better. Humans mixed with birds, pigs mixed with humans, strange masks and clothing, the beautiful Daedra, the hermaphroditic Father-Mother, every character is great. One of my favorite characters was a character who always walked in a completely straight line “because that’s what he wanted to do”, and there’s many more strange characters you meet.



I really can’t recommend this game enough. For $20 you get a game that is completely unique and unlike anything you’ve ever played. I would gladly pay $60 for this over many of the games being released today. The game took me maybe 5-6 hours to complete on Normal difficulty. There are a couple other difficulties as well as a challenge mode (with leader boards) that takes you through a lot of different combat situations, so you definitely get your $20 worth of gaming. Zeno Clash 2, Ace Team?