Clash: Artifacts of Chaos Review (Cahalith)
Ten years after Zeno Clash 2, Clash - Artifacts of Chaos welcomes us back into the thoroughly bizarre world of Zenozoik, this time with a much more open world, some soulslike gameplay elements and a unique cross-hatching art style that makes every frame of the game look like vivid hand-drawn artwork. The resulting game may be more limited than its inspirations from the soulslike genre due to the lower budget, but it's an engaging experience from top to bottom, with some really well-implemented features and a world like you haven't seen before.
Part of what makes Clash AoC so engaging are its two main characters, the emotional core of the story: Pseudo, a grouchy hermit with a hidden past, and 'the Boy', whom Pseudo adopts at the start of the game. This setup was probably inspired by similar character dynamics we've seen in recent games like God of War and A Plague Tale, but Clash has the distinct advantage of doing away with hideously featherless human children in favour of an incredibly adorable owl-like sidekick.
This sidekick spends most of his time sitting on your shoulder (instead of turning the game into an extended escort mission), only dynamically flying off during cutscenes or when you start punching the crap out of Zenozoik's inhabitants. He even occasionally dive-bombs enemies during fights, and you can send him into certain context-sensitive holes to gather resources you wouldn't otherwise be able to reach. The idea of dressing the little guy in various clothes to protect him from certain environmental hazards feels a bit undercooked, but everything else about him works great. And the occasional dialogue sequences and cutscene interactions between our main characters are definitely one of the highlights of the game.
Gameplay-wise, think of this as a comparatively forgiving soulslike with an added dice game you can use to influence certain boss fights in your favour (if the dice favour you first). As someone who's always preferred the exploration and moment-to-moment fighting in soulslike games to the boss fights, I definitely approve. Much like in other souls games, the maps are very intricate and loop into each other, with unlockable shortcuts all over the place. For fights, you get to use strong weapons with a limited moveset as well as a variety of unarmed fighting styles and special attacks you can mix and match to complement your playstyle. All of these fighting styles have vastly different attack patterns, which rewards learning special moves and switching between different setups depending on the situation. Where Ghat’s moveset stayed mostly the same throughout Zeno Clash 1 and 2, Clash AoC actually offers a lot more complexity and variety. I’d go so far to say that this game probably has the best punching in this entire series built around punching people in the face.
Much like in previous games, the art design is extremely varied and deliberately bizarre, though this time around, ACE Team have implemented a cross-hatching art style that I personally think fits the world of Zenozoik wonderfully. It gives the entire thing a slightly 'rough' hand-drawn look that makes it feel like a playable art book (make sure to activate the 'animated lines' setting). ACE Team refers to this game as 'punk fantasy', and they've chosen the perfect art style to emphasize this concept during every single moment of the game.
Clash - Artifacts of Chaos is a great experience if you're willing to give it a chance and don't mind the occasional rough edge. I've mentioned games like God of War and Dark Souls in this review, but while Clash AoC is surprisingly polished for a game made by a very small studio, it's still a game made by a very small studio. So don't expect it to operate on a similar level of budget. For example, the little interactions between the main characters are often cutscenes with fade-outs and fade-ins, where a more big-budget game would probably have tried to add them directly into the gameplay or have cutscenes and gameplay flow seamlessly into each other. But as far as I'm concerned, none of this takes away from the fact that Clash - Artifacts of Chaos is an amazingly beautiful and thoroughly entertaining game, as well as a great achievement from a small studio with big ideas.