Zeno Clash Review

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Zeno Clash is a first person shooter/brawler, by the new independent developer "ACE team" from Chile. Set in a kind of surreal fantasy world, Zeno Clash boasts a very unique, rich and colourful setting; brutal fighting mechanics reminiscent (ripped off) of the Condemned games, and a rather bizarre but intriguing storyline. Available on Steam for an inexpensive $15, Zeno Clash is a brief experience that can be finished in around 4-5 hours, but is something I enjoyed more than I expected I would, and a game that I feel will stick in my mind for a while.

The game begins with the protagonist, Ghat, killing "Father-Mother", a hermaphrodite creature who has raised a large family well-known in the game's world. Ghat is one of Father-Mother's children, who has turned on him-her for unknown reasons. As a result, he is run out of town by his brothers and sisters seeking to kill him, and is banished from his family. The story is told largely through flashbacks showing the timeline up to this point, as Ghat explains the story so far to his sister Daedra, who is also your companion for a large part of the game. The game flicks between past and present so often it's sometimes difficult to distinguish which is which, but the story is mostly quite compelling and unique. The worst thing that can be said about it is that it's quite impenetrable for a while, mostly because the game begins with you completely clueless as to what is going on and then becomes clearer as you progress further. It's usually a good tactic for keeping players intrigued, but the generally bizarre qualities this game boasts will likely cause many people to stop paying attention and just assume it's supposed to be as random as it first seems. The dialogue is also quite haphazardly presented and/or over-clarified, with several phrases such as "Armenia peed on herself and starved to death anonymously" boggling my mind. There are some obvious inconsistencies with the translation from the original language to English, and there is also a distinct lack of character development throughout the game.



Zeno Clash plays far from your standard fare for a first person game, with its gameplay mainly focusing on fist-fighting. Each fight begins with a VS screen showing you and who your opponents are, and they all have health bars on the screen, much like arcade fighting games. Your normal attacks are controlled purely with the left mouse button, and the right mouse button for a powerful "charged" punch; space to block, E to lock onto enemies. It's all a very simple layout, but you can string together combo's and special moves quite easily with combinations of player movement and the buttons already mentioned, and certain context-sensitive attacks such as throwing enemies. It's simple to pull off, but a bit clumsy sometimes and lacking a whole lot of depth. Regardless, it's always fun and satisfying, and rarely gets repetitive simply because of how brutal and visceral it is.

You do get hold of some weapons too; mostly clubs and hammers, further emphasizing the importance of melee combat in this game, but there some long range weapons as well. They can't exactly be classed as guns; though they do have a major resemblance, they seem to fire pellets rather than bullets which take a while to knock your enemies unconscious. You can't hold more than one weapon at a time and you can be easily disarmed by a single attack from an enemy, so most of the time you'll have to rely on heart-pounding close combat encounters rather than having the luxury of attacking from a distance. This is a good thing, as the fist-fighting is what elevates Zeno Clash above most standard first person games in terms of gameplay originality.



As mentioned already, the timeline of the game's story changes continually, but the pacing is always quite good regardless. The levels are presented as linear bite-sized chunks through varying scenery; lasting somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes each, in-between short cut scenes conveying the story. This keeps things interesting, (though feeling a little scattered) and makes boredom pretty difficult. The enemies you face are well-matched and even while facing off against several baddies at a time you rarely feel overwhelmed, even though the game remains quite challenging throughout; which is a good achievement on the developer's part. There is no difficulty labelled as 'Easy' in Zeno Clash, and it ranges from Normal (which appears to be the game's equivalent of Easy, though it still gets rather challenging at times) through Hard (the game's default and normal difficulty) to Extreme, which basically doubles your enemies health. Zeno Clash is a satisfyingly challenging game all the way through, with a progressive difficulty curve in all the encounters you face, and some interesting (and sometimes quite silly, though not going against the game's tone) boss fights thrown in there to spice things up.

Once you've finished the main story, you can spend an extra hour or two honing your skills in the challenge rooms, if it appeals to you. The challenge rooms are separated from the story and focus entirely on your combat abilities, slowly pitting you up against more and more enemies as you progress. Situated as a large tower in which you move upward as you advance (probably a nod towards the early Mortal Kombat games) it gets progressively harder, and damn near impossible near the end. People looking for a challenge away from the oddities of the storyline will enjoy this feature, but it doesn't last long and is merely a distraction from the rest of the game. You can compare scores with friends on Steam if they also own the game, but chances are, your friends don't, seeing as this isn't the most well-known or critically acclaimed of games.



The visuals are what I've been itching to talk about while writing this review. Zeno Clash is artistically stunning; with such lively, vibrant environments it was basically sex for my eyes. As I make quite obvious in all my reviews, I'm not a fan of bland visuals and I find they can even partially ruin the experience for me; as I'm very observant while playing games, and the same colours repeated constantly or just a generally dull colour palette can make an otherwise fun game quite boring for me. Visually, Zeno Clash has many varied locales and imaginative characters. You'll be engaging in fist fights with creatures that are half man half pig, while traversing rocky mountains across a sprawling desert populated by giant creatures that look something like a cross between a brontosaurus and an anteater. You'll also encounter a beached whale on your travels, a town which is designed to look quite pointy and over-the-top almost like an exaggerated painting, lush forests with bizarre and colourful plants and life forms, and foggy swamps populated by birds with no wings that spit green slime at you. It's all very creative and all looks stunning thanks to being built upon the latest version of the Source engine used for Valve's "Orange Box" games, the Source engine allows for the game to look stunning, colourful and alive while not being too taxing on people's computers. Thanks to the rather heavy use of motion blur effects, all of the encounters in the game feel very fast, intense and immersive. On my setup I played the game on the highest possible settings at 1920x1080 resolution with 16xQ AA and it is arguably the best looking Source engine game available.

The voice acting is mostly quite good, Ghat's voice is fairly believable and so are all the other characters you'll meet on your travels, but your companion Daedra sounds very amateurish at times and was almost painful to listen to. I almost feel bad singling her out like that, but it's not like the person who did her voice work is going to read this. As you're with Daedra for most of the game it's very noticeable and the other good voice actors are almost drowned out because of her. The sound effects are decent, with satisfying crunches, cracks and yells as you pound on people. Atmospheric sound effects seem a little limited and most of what you hear will be the music, which is thankfully quite good but slightly repetitive.



Zeno Clash is a fresh concept, which is easy enough to pick up and play, while also having a decent and very unique story, imaginative characters and beautiful and creative environments. A great example of how indie developers can create things the big companies could never risk doing, and a showcase of how games can still look fantastic without being technically impressive. Zeno Clash is available at a budget price, so it's short length is softened by that fact; and it succeeded in satisfying my increasingly high standards in games, which is something I should start dishing out awards for or something. Bottom line is, if you enjoy unique games that try to do something different instead of sticking to the tired old conventions, Zeno Clash is a game you'll probably enjoy.

Mirror's Edge Review

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Mirror's Edge is a first person action platformer by EA's DICE branch, and tries to mix up the ordinary linear shootyness of the average first person game by allowing the player to maneuver the environment in never-before-seen ways, and centering the game around traversing the levels themselves rather than constantly killing things. Mirror's Edge can best be described as a first person "Prince Of Persia" set in the future. You are Faith, a refreshingly non-sexualised female protagonist who is a 'runner'; a rebel of sorts against a totalitarian government where communication is heavily monitored, and she sends packages and messages around to people without them being intercepted by the regime (though this is only actually witnessed in the prologue.)

The story is a bit weak and doesn't really give a good impression, trailing off a few levels in and becoming less of an interesting motivator and more of your average setting-the-scene type of back story to give an excuse to be in certain places. It doesn't help that it's told through anime cutscenes while missions are loading which really detract from your immersion and are honestly just bad. I mean, I don't like anime at the best of times, but it's badly done here, like an amateur attempt; and just seems poorly animated. Not to mention how out of place it seems in this game.



To be more precise about the gameplay; Mirror's Edge is about speed, and momentum. It's like a racing game on foot. You can leap over obstacles, run along walls, jump long distances, roll across the ground, etc, and the point is for you to do all these things while maintaining your pace without slipping or losing too much speed. Objects that can be interacted with in some way (vaulted over, jumped from, etc) glow red to indicate their significance, but this can be turned off if you want a challenge. Much like a racing game, one little slip can spiral you out of control and ruin everything. There are even time trials and speed-runs you can do separately from the story that are centered completely around this idea.

Not to say that Mirror's Edge is strictly a fast paced platformer in the same vein as Sonic; it's still very much an action game too, and there is enough combat involved to mix things up. Every now and then you bump into some enemies, and can take them out or (sometimes) just avoid them. The game emphasizes the idea that stopping to fight enemies isn't a necessity and avoiding them is usually the better and less violent option; which is an uplifting tone for something like a first person game. The problem is, when you do stop to fight, or on the occasions when you simply have to fight, you find that the combat is very imprecise and just not refined enough. You can disarm an enemy by pressing a button at a certain point when their weapon glows red to indicate your chance, and this initiates some fantastic martial arts move, but it's difficult to get it right, and if you're not fast enough the enemy will hit you; and this, combined with others shooting in your direction, probably means a quick death. You can pull of a couple of other moves if you work out the keys, like a sliding kick to the nuts and a jump-kick, but it's all a bit clunky to pull off no matter what you're doing. When you get hold of guns yourself you are surprisingly accurate for someone who doesn't use weapons often, but they slow you down a lot so you have to discard them if you want to be fast, which adds some strategy.



Mirror's Edge gives off such an amazing sense of freedom; though not because of the levels. The levels aren't linear, as there are a number of ways to reach your objectives and the layout is good; but it's other things that really capture your attention. Sprinting and jumping across rooftops, seeing cars below you and hearing the wind rushing in your ears gives this fantastic sense of speed which is a completely unbridled experience I have felt in no other game than this. Mirror's Edge is the type of game that; if you are good at and focus on what you're doing, you can get completely sucked into and maybe forget for a second that it's actually a game you're playing.

But the key phrase in the last paragraph is "if you are good at it." Mirror's Edge certainly won't appeal to everyone, as it requires quite a lot of dedication for a fast paced first person game. Maintaining control of your speed and the momentum of your body is difficult to master; and you need good reflexes coupled with a good sense of direction and the environment around you. Either that, or you need patience to play through areas multiple times in order to get a good idea of the levels and how to navigate them properly. The people who just want to pick it up and zoom through the campaign aren't exactly going to have a problem doing that, especially not on the easy difficulty; but they can expect to fall to their death an awful lot and go through plenty of trial and error if they don't put some effort into mastering the various movements. The PC controls of Mirror's Edge are enhanced over the Xbox360 version, making everything a little easier to pull off with the precision of a mouse. The layout of the keyboard controls may seem a little strange at first, but they are like that for a reason, and once you get used to a slightly foreign way of moving around it works very well.



Mirror's Edge has some quite stunning visuals. Although technically inferior to a lot of games, there is such a bright, shiny and vibrant colour palette which is such a refreshing change to the dull, dark and gritty environments of most current generation games. There are a lot of whites used, as everything is supposed to look very immaculate in this city, and everything glistens in the sunlight in a wonderfully unrealistic, pristine kind of way. Bright reds shine through the whites, indicating your next move, and all the other textures are mostly made up of many primary colours, making absolutely everything stand out and catch the eye. It certainly doesn't look real, but it's not that kind of game, and it looks very striking in its own surreal way. The PC version is enhanced by higher resolution textures over its console counterparts, PhysX effects and the obvious such as higher Anti-Aliasing levels. It's a fairly nice port job, but has a few technical issues preventing some people (such as myself) from using the PhysX option without severe slowdown during gameplay, even with high end PC's. It also has some minor audio incompatibilities, which however, appear to be an inherent problem in many UnrealEngine 3 games from my experience.

But when the sound works properly, it sounds marvelous. Mirror's Edge has amazing sound effects, with little details that really stand out, such as the aforementioned rushing of wind in your ears as you run at high speeds, and the slight grunts of Faith as you pull of moves; catching her breath when you stop. Environmental sounds such as birds, the bustling of the city below you, and sirens in the distance set the tone of the game a lot; and it's mostly a very peaceful sounding game, the occasional gunshot cracking through the calmness notwithstanding. This is coupled with a brilliant soundtrack, which is mainly electronic, but atmospheric most of the time, slowing into serene background tunes during the games many outdoor vistas and fast paced beats in moments of action. The main theme is outstanding; a beautiful tune and vocals, and the PC version comes with a free music CD of the single, plus remixes.



From an objective standpoint, Mirror's Edge is an acquired taste due to its tricky handling and trial and error gameplay. But if you are the type of person who would be good at a game like Mirror's Edge and don't mind some repetition to master an 'art', you will absolutely love this game, as I did. Playing through the time trials and speedruns and trying to beat high scores is the real meat-and-potatoes of the game here, as the campaign is too short. So, if you're the type of person who gets enjoyment out of obsessively repeating levels for points and for the feeling of perfection, and also love a powerful feeling of speed and agility, Mirror's Edge may be a new favorite. For the average gamer however, Mirror's Edge is a fiddly game that requires too much precision, and the high price of failing even the smallest jump will put off a lot of people.

No One Lives Forever 2 Review

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When I look back over my relatively short time as a gamer, there are a bunch of games I hold fond memories of, and every now and then I have an overwhelming sense of nostalgia towards a particular game and have to play through it again just to relive all the memories. Of course, over time as these games get older, the quality of them deteriorates to some extent, but there are some which still hold out as true gems which are more fun and polished than a bunch of newer games on the market right now; and No One Lives Forever 2 is one of these. Perfectly blending together stealth and no-nonsense action with some truly witty dialogue, a stereotypical, campy 60s world and characters, and colourful, vibrant environments; all put together in such a seamless way despite all these aspects usually being so separated from each other. NOLF 2 blends its mechanics together in a way most games don't do in this day and age, and is largely a very entertaining and original 8 hours of good, daft fun.

Once again you step into the go-go boots of Cate Archer, super spy for the British anti-terrorist organisation, UNITY. A year after the events of the first game, Cate is sent on an assignment to infiltrate a secret meeting taking place in Japan, with the task of photographing the new director of H.A.R.M, the rather colourful terrorist organisation back at large again after their previous defeat. From this point the game follows a strictly linear plot, not on par with the quality of the original, and eventually delving into the very familiar territory of super soldier projects; which is rather snore-worthy in text, but the obvious tongue-in-cheek manner keeps it fresh and fun the whole way through. Cate is undoubtedly one of the best playable female characters I've seen, she's sexy but in her own unique way, and is actually believable as a personality (even while the other characters in the game aren't). Never designed to be a sex symbol, Cate has a rather conservative but fashionable 60s attire; and is charming, but not excessively seductive. Obviously, by her job description, Cate is smart, quick, can take care of herself, and doesn't take crap from anyone, it's because of all this that I view Cate as one of the best examples of a strong, well-characterised female role, of which I wish we could see a little more of in the video game industry.



Gameplay in NOLF 2 mostly consists of sneaking around, gaining intel from various areas, and silently incapacitating or killing threats around you without arousing suspicion. There are quite a lot of James Bond type gadgets and tools at your disposal, but much sillier and more suiting to a female spy. These include a mascara stun gun, a lipstick spy camera, a nail-clipper lock pick, a welder hidden inside a can of hair spray, and 'perfume' that actually removes bodies. There are also a number of more 'direct' gadgets which can be used toward your enemies, such as various types of grenades, like laughing gas and sleeping gas, a robotic kitten that explodes when enemies approach the vicinity to pet it; and my personal favourite, a banana which can be dropped over your enemies patrol points, having the comical effect of causing them to slip and fall, knocking them out. I do wish there were a couple more combat-oriented gadgets available though, and the couple that you have are rarely used effectively to the point where it's easier than dispatching an enemy with a quick shot to the head from your trusty silenced pistol. It's certainly more satisfying to use your items on your foes, but rarely very necessary.

That isn't to say that NOLF 2 is strictly a stealth game though, as there are a number of sections which require pure force to proceed, and this is also treated with gusto by the designers. Along with your silenced pistol there are a number of other conventional weapons available to use, such as machine guns, a sniper rifle, a shotgun, a crossbow, and even a katana. The AI certainly isn't particularly bright, as the enemies don't take any cover and have the basic one-track mindedness of standing there and shooting everything they have at you, and every now and then running off to somewhere else to continue their attack. But you rarely get into big fights anyway, and in the moments where it's necessary the enemies usually spawn in spots which already seem like decent perches to shoot you from, which makes the mediocre AI much less noticeable at any rate.



During one of the first few levels, you're required to drive a snowmobile over some short distances, and this was one of the most infuriatingly flawed parts of the whole game for me. It's terribly clumsy to drive, accelerating to full speed almost instantly and slowing down just as quick; but turning is slow, and it doesn't grip to the ground well, making accelerating directly into a wall quite a common occurrence, and while being shot at by several people, it's not difficult to imagine how annoying it is trying to control this thing. There's no collision detection either, meaning that you basically slide across the ground everywhere, and if you crash into a wall you just continue driving into it without so much as a bump, until you turn it around to go in the right direction. Needless to say, it just feels badly implemented, and that particular snowy level is otherwise one of the most memorable in the game, meaning it's a big shame, and it also makes it stand out like a sore thumb.

The visuals are nicely vibrant, which suits the game's tone and style well. Though the characters look rather plastic, they are pleasantly detailed for a 2002 game, and there are some surprisingly high resolution textures. Characters are purposely stereotypical and over-the-top, like Angus the kilt-wearing, angry drunk Scotsman; the cigar-chomping, loud-mouthed, tiny American commander, and the extremely flamboyant new director of H.A.R.M who always gets scathing phone calls from his mother. The characters all being absolutely ridiculous makes for some very humorous conversations between them, and the dialogue is always witty and well-written. The game world is all designed with 60s fashions and eccentricities in mind, which not only makes the game's particular style of visual flair very memorable, but also adds to the general humour and facetiousness of the game in an effective way. You are also treated to some refreshingly open-ended level design which allows you to approach situations in a number of different ways, with very little backtracking. NOLF 2's slick visual style has aged very well, all things considered.



No One Lives Forever 2 brought Cate Archer back to life once again and satisfied the fan's need for more. While the story isn't on par with the quality of the first one, it works efficiently as an excuse to take you to a number of bright, varied locations to take use of the very original setting and game mechanics. In the sum of its parts, the game improves substantially on the design of its predecessor, stumbling in only a few minor areas, and holding up as a fantastic achievement which should be played by anyone who can appreciate some light hearted fun and well-balanced gameplay.

Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy Review

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I never like to get stuck in my ways, playing the same type of games time after time, and always embrace games that try to be unique and break the mold. But this isn't to say that I'm some snotty artsy type who instinctively adores every original game to come out regardless of its flaws, and neither will I accept a game that tries to be so different in all its features that it neglects the gameplay to show them off. Fahrenheit is the perfect example of a creation from the latter category. Introducing some new, but mostly obtuse and pointless gameplay mechanics to the table, Fahrenheit ends up feeling quite pretentious; the few good scenes in the game overshadowed by pointless halts in the experience, along with some really poor controls, annoying-as-hell sneaking levels, and a story which sadly goes completely off the rails during the second half.

The story begins on a cold winter's night in New York City, where you, Lucas Kane, stab a man to death in the restroom of a diner while under a trance. You return to your senses standing over the body of your victim, with blood on your hands, and no clue what happened. From this point onward, you follow this man through his journey to find out what really happened and clear his name, slowly losing his sanity and discovering mystical things about himself and the world around him. You don't just play as Lucas, though. Throughout the story the perspective will shift between him and the two supporting characters, detectives Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles. As Lucas is wanted for murder, these two obviously want to bring him down. Playing them gives you a chance to piece clues together and actually see things from the other side of the fence, and also allows for a much broader portrayal of the story. The other character's having some show time lets the player get to know them and characterizes them in the best way possible.



The game is played out largely through context-sensitive actions and "interactive cutscenes," meaning that the gameplay feels much different to any other game in the Adventure genre, or for that matter, any other game at all. The personalities in the game are relatable, and mostly well characterised; Lucas in particular showing an increasing desperation as the story unfolds further, and the supporting characters also playing their parts in a believable way, great voice acting and all. It's all punctuated in quite an effective way with the use of some split-screen camera techniques to create tension, and an atmospheric (but slightly repetitive) soundtrack.

It's such a shame that the actual game doesn't nearly live up to the quality of the world it's built upon. The game is basically designed around quick time events, and every other cutscene requires you to play a game of Simon for the character to continue whatever they're doing and not fail. This has to be the most peculiar act I've ever done in a game, as I am basically being asked to play a mini-game to watch a cutscene. In general, quick time events don't bother me much, because usually they are presented in the form of buttons on the screen that correspond to whatever stunt the character is pulling off, and seem to fit well with the control scheme. For example, if jump is the space bar, and the character does a jump in a cutscene while a quick time event is going on, then the game will likely ask you to press the space bar at this point (or at least the "up" button); creating the illusion that you're actually contributing to what is happening on screen, even though you're really not. In Fahrenheit by contrast, you're basically asked to play a game on the screen completely separated from what is actually happening, apart from the minor indications of up, down, left and right. Exposing these sections for what they really are: simplistic distractions from the actual game that prevent you from continuing until you do them correctly. But in Fahrenheit this isn't even true, because they're not distractions; they are a major selling point of the game.



When the game actually gave me the controls and let me play it, I found the experience distinctive, but unpolished. There are a number of other unique additions to the gameplay, including the context-sensitive actions mentioned earlier. When you approach something your character can interact with, there can be a number of different ways to do so, and all decided by which direction you flick the mouse. There is a hefty dosage of interactivity with the environment, and it's actually done in quite a good way, barring a few hiccups, it feels quite smooth and intuitive; though the necessity of it all is questionable. There is also quite an abundance of sequences that require you to hammer the left and right keys as hard and fast as possible to assist the character with some strenuous activity such as swimming or pulling something. But again, I enquire the whole point of it all, attacking your keyboard with your fingers is quite a divergence from doing any kind of physical activity, and even though you feel some kind of strain it doesn't do anything to immerse you. There are also a handful of sections which require you to press buttons to do negligible things, like pressing the left and right keys to keep your breathing steady in a dark corridor. Yes, you are required to press buttons to breathe. It just often feels like a pointless hindrance trying to disguise the game as something deeper than it really is.

My comment about the game being unpolished, however, stems partly from some very poor movement controls, but honestly encompasses the entirety of the game's parts. No individual section of Fahrenheit feels polished enough, because it tries to do too many things at once, which is an admirable feat, but Fahrenheit comes out short because in game design you have to focus on key areas to refine them to be the best they can be, and it neglects that in favor of throwing as many different manners of gameplay at us as it can. As a result, some stiff, robotic animations, bland levels, bad camera, and spiralling story are all completely overlooked; which is a crying shame because Fahrenheit often oozes potential with its atmospheric tone and character portrayal.

There are a handful of really decent scenes in Fahrenheit that are really atmospheric, and help to grip you and help set the mood. Sadly, you just have to wade through all the irritating and gimmicky crap that they are surrounded by. There are some wholly uninspired 'spooky' sections that require you to do that breathing exercise, some completely out-of-place levels involving the supporting characters working out or playing basketball, and some infuriating sneaking levels made up of repetitive trial-and-error gameplay with the kind of stealth mechanics you would expect from a PlayStation One game.



You may initially be gripped by the overarching plot, which starts off at a high note, and indeed stays there until about half-way through the game, where it begins to slip, and then rapidly slides downward. The story quickly loses much of its appeal and becomes difficult to understand mostly due to poor storytelling techniques and lack of explanation, and there is a major tonal shift from detective story to superhero journey, which, while implied early in the game, just feels a bit bizarre. The game also tries to give the impression that your actions have an impact on how events unfold, but after the first few levels it settles down into mostly linear paths, and nothing but very minor things are actually affected by your choices.

I'm left wondering if this would simply have been better as a movie, because as it stands it's less of a game and more of a movie that you have to play little mini-games in order to continue watching. When the gameplay is a hindrance preventing me from enjoying the product, something has gone wrong. As much I praise this game for its ambiance and the way it portrays its story, the actual game part of the game is almost missing here. There isn't any challenge in Fahrenheit, and there aren't many adventure elements or exploring to do. It sometimes just feels like a story that the game was added onto, instead of the other way around like it should be.