I was actually going to ignore Zeno Clash entirely and start talking about playing Phantom Dust on the original Xbox, but I've thrown you enough curveballs lately.
Zeno Clash is a first person fighting game. Historically, those suck. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is the only FPF (first person fighter) I've played that even felt functional. Or it was. Zeno Clash is also functional. I'm still not going to call it good. Sometimes punches seem to connect or miss randomly, but it mostly works.
But I think the reason people on the internet have talked so much about the game is that, in addition to being in an genre that almost doesn't exist, the setting and art are also well outside the norm.
Where is this place? Is it a giant sand castle? The character designs are also pretty out there.
Well, okay. She looks pretty normal, or at least human. But this guy definitely does not. It's a testament to the developers' skill with Half-Life 2's Source engine that they've managed to used the facial animation system so well on faces that are definitely not human.
And what's more gratifying than seeing this look on the face of someone who was all sneers and death threats less than a minute earlier?
Not. Much.
Still, the voice acting is terrible, which sort of kills the atmosphere. And I've heard the game takes something around five hours to complete, so even at $20 I'm balking. I'll probably pick it up on sale.
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