Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition

[Larry ward]

Introduction:
Released a year ago on PC, Zeno Clash is not a game like the others. Its developers, for example, are neither Japanese nor American, nor European, but Chilean. The Ace Team was founded by three brothers, Bordeu in 1999 and initially focused on programming mods before embarking on the project Zenozoik in 2002, which will be interrupted and then resumed and renamed Zeno Clash. A little over a year later, Atlus joins Chilean developers to offer a version of Xbox Live Arcade the game Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition is now available for 1200 MS Points cons, the surprise is it still good? Genuine curiosity in the sense that it manages to combine independent spirit and achievement of the first order, this stock is worth a visit. Here's why.

Game story:
In the land of Zenozoik, the city of Halstedom is ruled by a powerful clan, one which Ghat has betrayed by killing Father-Mother, the clan's leader. As Ghat, you'll have to face your brothers and sisters, insane anarchists and other enemies, in order to escape in this unique first-person puncher. The bare-knuckled brawl to reach the truth has just begun.

Features:

• Fascinating world of grotesque beauty--Equal parts breathtakingly beautiful and utterly disturbing, prepare to be swallowed up in a surreal fantasy world powered by the Source engine. Explore lush environments and confront bizarre animal-humanoid foes on your mission of discovery and redemption.
• Visceral first person fighting--Combat is up close, personal, and entirely satisfying. Start with a series of punches, kicks, and grabs, follow up with a knee to the enemy's face, and hit him with a finishing move to send him flying yards away. Learn new moves to mix it up. Guns and melee weapons offer additional power and tactical options.
• Ultimate edition additions--The already highly praised gameplay has received an overhaul that includes combat re-balancing, interface enhancements, improved animations, new modes, and new gameplay content.
• New cooperative play modes--Enlist a friend to take on enemy waves in Tower Challenge, a special survival mode that offers additional re-playability beyond the single-player campaign. Play cooperatively online, or locally via split screen. With leader-boards to rank you against your friends, the challenge never ends!

Gameplay:
Do not bother to expect an introduction in due form, the developers have opted to shake the player at all levels. We end up very quickly dropped into a world that we believe created by Tim Burton as hallucinogens without knowing nothing of the scenario. We discover course the ins and outs throughout the adventure, with great reinforcements of flashbacks, but the beginnings are really in the most total surprise. With his characters closer to the animals that live good homegrown, its decorations to the tunes of troglodyte architecture and palette of colors oh so colorful, it's enough to remain appreciative of the work.

Using the Source engine, the PC version of Zeno Clash shows a left engine showed its limits with some bland textures, very linear levels and a lack of enough life now. No miracle, so is the Xbox Live Arcade , even if for a downloadable title, Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition was ultimately not much to reproach himself with a visual standpoint. This is especially true of the universe as it reaches the basics: grab the player for a few hours totally unreal. There are some crazy weapons not to frustrate the lovers of the trigger, but most of the fighting is done in close combat with an arsenal for this expanded version XLA history to land his enemies in varying ways. To achieve his ends, Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition provides a targeting system to a key (via the Y button is pressed), to switch from using a weapon than fists.

The evil thus selected will then be at the center of the screen and player movement, to turn it all around, are just easier. And if the change of target or stop lock sometimes caused problems on PCs, handling becomes more flexible on Xbox Live Arcade though it also requires a little adjustment period. Protection and evasion are also part of the same combos, plus a few moves. Already pleasant PC, the combat system Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition is a success XLA and console gamers do not really struggle to become immersed in the clashes of fists. On this aspect, the teams of Atlus and Ace team have won their bet.

[Larry ward]

Welcome to Zeno:
Strange is the word that comes directly to mind after a few minutes of immersion in the world of Zeno Clash. Ghat, the main character in the story that leads to subjective wake meet Father-Mother, a large creature with the body end, members and over-sized eyes shining. This being, which is apparently the progenitor of Ghat, is dying, and our hero must flee to avoid being cut to pieces by his former brothers and sisters, a ragtag group of humans, bird-men and men -pigs. The reasons for all this pretty world is at best unclear, but will be revealed gradually during the course of soft, up to a final revelation quite satisfactory, indicating a possible result.

More than the plot itself, it is primarily the world of Zeno Clash, which marks the mind. Populated by strange creatures, combining primitive times and technology, he probably does not mention much about known at first, but this extreme exoticism that make it strong. The Ace Team has produced a great work of art design input, which can be discovered through a few galleries in the menus. And as the programming work is the road, Zeno Clash produced a haunting impression from beginning to end. Admittedly, the limited budget of the project is seen from time to time, for example on animation, but overall, the achievement is impressive for a title of this scale and effectively serves its special artistic touch.

Clash of the Titans:
The game offers a first-person view, one might suspect him of not trying much in terms of gameplay and a system based on classic shooter, based on various weapons. In fact, if Zeno Clash actually offers several firearms and hurling, the latter are not very well managed and are often the cause of the phases of the least exciting adventure. The title is actually not an FPS in the absolute sense. It is a fighting game in first person, and more than weapons, Zeno Clash is by its management clashes with bare hands. Fists, feet, combos, powerful strokes, cons: the software has a wide range of commands which requires some time to be properly controlled product but once that is done, the fighting enjoyable and rhythmic. So much so that often has trouble finding a game that has done better before (forget immediately Mirror's Edge).

Most of Zeno Clash is based on these fights, the levels occurring most often in the form of larger or smaller arenas, sometimes interspersed by small narrative sequences. The game ends in about six hours, a fairly good period extended by the challenges specific to the Xbox Live Arcade: you can take part in fighting in cooperation with a friend against opponents more and more dangerous, either on the same console split screen or over Xbox Live. The ideal would of course have to have a versus mode between two human players, who would have been, needless to say, difficult to program and balance for developers. An idea to dig for Zeno Clash 2.

The high quality soundtrack, is undoubtedly one of the ingredients that can dive headlong into this amazing world. The music, not many are successful enough to never give the impression of a repetition. And if the life of the main mode is weak, the version Xbox Live Arcade for Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition boasts to welcome two new modes in addition to survival mode, already present on the PC.

The first novel modes XLA is based precisely on the challenges of survival mode taking place in a tower, allowing them to face hordes of enemies and to scrape the floors with two players with a friend online. Rather nice, especially as the difficulty we have found more full-bodied and coordination between players is key. The second novel mode of Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition , Zeno Rush offers for him to replay sections of the main mode in cons-the-clock. Classical although the presence of a subtlety, namely a melee weapon that can win one second every time given, injects an interesting character in these parts.

Conclusion:
Zeno Clash, one of the nice surprises of the PC last year, arrives on Xbox Live Arcade in an advanced version. This is a significant event to see such a game console market access, but an event which is likely to pass unnoticed among the slightly larger output for the month of May Yet Zeno Clash deserves attention for its little crazy and surprisingly solid gameplay. That type of title that must be sustained if one wants to see more sights on Xbox Live Arcade.