And here we are with the review for Zeno Clash II, the sequel to the excellent first person brawler.

Zeno Clash II continues the story of Ghat, while expanding on the world at the same time. This time the world is bigger and more open and there’s a much larger variety in opponents. The story is less confusing, but still confusing enough for, well, anyone really.

Where the first Zeno Clash had separate levels the game is now more explorable, but it’s all still fairly linear. Don’t expect a big open world like today’s RPGs (or other games for that matter). But given its budget it would be unfair to expect anything else really. And what it has is just perfectly fine, because you should play this game for the combat. Learning about the world itself is just a nice bonus. Punching an opponent in first person still has that nice ‘oomph’ sound from the first one. It’s just so satisfying.

Combat wise the learning curve is steeper. Some new improvements have been made in the combat department so naturally there’s more to learn and to try. New to this game are skills like the elbow dash and combos among other moves and there’s also a larger variety of weapons. There are also two new abilities; one that lets you link an opponent to another one and therefore inflict damage on both by just hitting one and the other one sets off explosions if the ability is charged and you look at the either the sun or the moon. Melee weapons, guns and bombs are also still in the game, but except for the melee weapons the other ones just don’t feel as good to use.
You now also have a partner that will help you out during battles (or at least, they’ll try). In reality they aren’t very useful, but the game has a co-op option available this time so you can take on the bad guys with a friend if you want or need to. Otherwise you’ll still be able to manage just fine because the target lock has also been improved and this was a much needed improvement. Taking on groups should now be easier because target just works a lot more smoothly in comparison to the first one.
ACE Team has also introduced RPG mechanics. Think of stats like more health, more stamina and leadership. The last one allows you to recruit more powerful AI allies. This will make fights easier later on, but don’t expect to much from them, as I already mentioned. You can gain experience by finding totems and not by doing fights. Which is a bit of a weird choice in a game about fighting, but I guess it encourages exploring the world. In general the RPG stats don’t add to much to the game and it feels a bit tacked on.
Despite all my whining, I enjoyed it even more than the first one, so I guess that’s saying something.
Finishing the game should take you around 8-9 hours this time so it’s almost been doubled in comparison to its predecessor.

Graphically it’s just as weird and abstract as the first one, even more so this time since there are more environments and opponents. The humanoids and hybrids fit in to the world perfectly, and the world stands out with its weird landmarks and geometry. It’s all very colorful. There are just no comparisons to make to other games or anything else since it stands entirely on its own with its visual style, just like the rest of ACE Team’s games. And I can only applaud that, but it might not be for everyone. Zeno Clash II does use a new engine, so there may be some behind-the-scenes improvements, but on the front there’s not much difference compared to the first one.
The voice acting is largely the same. The budget may have been a little bigger, though, but Ghat is still voiced by someone who sounds as raw as Geralt of Rivia (once again, this could just be me).

Zeno Clash II improves on basically all of the shortcomings of the first game. And that one was already great. Now with a bigger, more open world and improved combat there’s no reason for you to not play this game. If you like weird and if you like brawling in first person then there’s no better choice than Zeno Clash II.

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And here we are with the review for Zeno Clash II, the sequel to the excellent first person brawler. Zeno Clash II continues the story of Ghat, while expanding on the world at the same time. This time the world is bigger and more open and there’s a much larger variety in opponents. The story is less confusing, but still confusing enough for, well, anyone really. Where the first Zeno Clash had separate levels the game is now more explorable, but it’s all still fairly linear. Don’t expect a big open world like today’s RPGs (or other games for that matter). But given its budget it would be unfair to expect anything else really. And what it has is just perfectly fine, because you should play this game for the combat. Learning about the world itself is just a nice bonus. Punching an opponent in first person still has that nice ‘oomph’ sound from the first one. It’s just so satisfying. Combat wise the learning curve is steeper. Some new improvements have been made in the combat department so naturally there’s more to learn and to try. New to this game are skills like the elbow dash and combos among other moves and there’s also a larger variety of weapons. There are also two new abilities; one that lets you link an opponent to another one and therefore inflict damage on both by just hitting one and the other one sets off explosions if the ability is charged and you look at the either the sun or the moon. Melee weapons, guns and bombs are also still in the game, but except for the melee weapons the other ones just don’t feel as good to use. You now also have a partner that will help you out during battles (or at least, they’ll try). In reality they aren’t very useful, but the game has a co-op option available this time so you can take on the bad guys with a friend if you want or need to. Otherwise you’ll still be able to manage just fine because the target lock has also been improved and this was a much needed improvement. Taking on groups should now be easier because target just works a lot more smoothly in comparison to the first one. ACE Team has also introduced RPG mechanics. Think of stats like more health, more stamina and leadership. The last one allows you to recruit more powerful AI allies. This will make fights easier later on, but don’t expect to much from them, as I already mentioned. You can gain experience by finding totems and not by doing fights. Which is a bit of a weird choice in a game about fighting, but I guess it encourages exploring the world. In general the RPG stats don’t add to much to the game and it feels a bit tacked on. Despite all my whining, I enjoyed it even more than the first one, so I guess that’s saying something. Finishing the game should take you around 8-9 hours this time so it’s almost been doubled in comparison to its predecessor. Graphically it’s just as weird and abstract as the first one, even more so this time since there are more environments and opponents. The humanoids and hybrids fit in to the world perfectly, and the world stands out with its weird landmarks and geometry. It’s all very colorful. There are just no comparisons to make to other games or anything else since it stands entirely on its own with its visual style, just like the rest of ACE Team’s games. And I can only applaud that, but it might not be for everyone. Zeno Clash II does use a new engine, so there may be some behind-the-scenes improvements, but on the front there’s not much difference compared to the first one. The voice acting is largely the same. The budget may have been a little bigger, though, but Ghat is still voiced by someone who sounds as raw as Geralt of Rivia (once again, this could just be me). Zeno Clash II improves on basically all of the shortcomings of the first game. And that one was already great. Now with a bigger, more open world and improved combat there’s no reason for you to not play this game. If you like weird and if you like brawling in first person then there’s no better choice than Zeno Clash II. [quote]If you enjoyed this review please consider following me: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41144728-markdj/]curator page[/url] [/quote]