Clash:ArtifactsofChaos– thefirstZeno
game in almost a decade – pulls back the
camera to third-person without, so far,
ruining this peculiar blend of incredibly
storied aesthetics and wanton brutality.
The new viewpoint accompanies an
expanded premise with new subsystems
such as gear crafting, beefier multiplayer,
and a ‘Ritual’ minigame that functions like
an arcane modding feature. But even as it
zooms out, the threequel also zooms in
- adding depth to the combat with a
stance system and attack cancelling,
while preserving the bruising feel and style
of the original games.
Clash is the story of Pseudo, a rangy
orange hermit in braces. As the adventure
begins, he wakes from troubling dreams
and hears a mysterious music that guides
him to the Boy, a monstrous yet endearing
bundle of feathers with startling yellow
eyes. The Boy has certain gifts that render
him of great interest to Zenozoik’s ruler,
Gemini, mistress of the titular Artifacts. In
becoming the kid’s companion, Pseudo
must fend off her minions while
excavating his own past as the forsaken
student of a legendary warrior.
FAMILY MATTERS
The premise recalls God of War, b u t i t ’s
also the kind of story ACE Team is good at
telling. “[Zeno Clash was] a story about a
man in conflict with his own family,” says
Andrés Bordeu, cofounder. “But over
time, you discover that there’s a larger
world, there are forces overseeing
everything. In this game, we’re diving even
deeper into that idea of something grand
and mysterious that you don’t see from
the beginning. It starts super-small – this
character forming a relationship with this
creature and becoming his foster parent.”
The Boy perches on Pseudo’s shoulder
during play, taking to the air when the
punching starts. He’s no pugilist, but he’ll
help you explore – squeezing through
gaps to gather treasures unless hindered
by terrain variables such as swarms of
mosquitoes, which see him peering
miserably from Pseudo’s shoulder bag. He
can be taken captive, but you can rescue
him by following the peculiar music that
binds Pseudo and the Boy together.
“Music is going to be a main driver for the
story, and it has kind of helped us design
the world,” Andrés Bordeu notes, adding
that, “It’s music that drives them to find a
certain key locations”.
The Boy can also talk to birds in order
to send messages to other players, which
brings us to Clash’s heavily From
Software-influenced, yet powerfully
idiosyncratic, take on multiplayer. By
sleeping at campfires Pseudo can enter a
dream world that functions like a
multiplayer lobby, with other players
appearing as wraiths who can be greeted
and fought over peer-to-peer connection.
While there’s no trace of PvP at day,
the story will ask you to visit the night-time
world at intervals, and the dream harbours
riddles of its own: Pseudo appears here as
a wooden marionette. “It’s not a fully
featured co-op game,” says Andrés
Bordeu. “It’s a reinterpretation of what
Dark Souls does with phantoms, so the
interactions between players – helping
people, fighting bosses, all that happens in
our game in this different plane and not in
the main campaign.”
The combat certainly sounds like it’ll
shine in PvP. ACE Team is working on
around nine melee stances with
upgradeable movesets, plus specialZ
eno Clash is known for two things. First,
a setting inspired by classic fantasy
illustration. Second, harsh beatdowns.
The shock for newcomers is how well
these aspects combine. True, chain-whipping a bird
with teeth is an odd way to appreciate a world that
often feels like it belongs in a gallery, but it
hammers home the anatomical detail.
ACE Team returns to the weird
and wonderful land of Zenozoik
CLASH: ARTIFACTS
OF CHAOS
CLASH IS THE STORY OF
PSEUDO, A RANGY ORANGE
HERMIT IN BRACESRELEASE
2022
DEVELOPER
ACE TeamPUBLISHER
Nacon, BIGBEN INTERACTIVELINK
aceteam.clNEED TO KNOW
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Clash: Artifacts of Chaos