an intriguing fever dream

this game was a trip i ♥♥♥♥ with it

So I've paid 10-ish dollars for this 3 hours long game. Well worth it.
I mean, the main draw is the bizarre world of Zenozoik with its Stone Age surreal Dali-esque aesthetic and beatdown-based system of self-governance, and you can't really put a price tag on that, though $10 is a fair price.

The game is a linear set of enclosed beat-em-up arenas with virtually no exploration interlaced with in-engine cutscenes. Really, the game is directed like a movie, which allowed the storywriter to tell an engaging story, walk the player through the world, and introduce and intrigue the player with its concepts. I especially like Ghat, who's the player character, but is also its own person with his own morals, goals, ideals and flaws; he's less someone for the player to identify with, and more is someone who occasionally lets the player to inhabit their body and deliver a beat down to yet another group of enemies.

Can't say much about the gameplay - it's a first person beat-em-up - not a lot of those around. It has enough mechanical complexity and tools and moves to keep things interesting throughout the duration of the game, and there are moves and attacks spammable enough to let you get through the game if you struggle with it.

Graphically, it's gorgeous. Not the most masterful use of Source engine, and it was already dated by the year 2009, but the colours, and the lights, and the general smoothness of the picture - all come together to enhance the delightful and surreal aesthetic of the game. So is the soundtrack - equal parts synthetic, orchestral, whimsical; I usually hate cinematic-sounding soundtracks in video games, but it 100% fits this game

Overall, love this game. You should go buy it.

A unique, atmospheric, and just plain fun first-person brawler that I must recommend. Never played anything like it.

Wanted to like it, cuz its cool and weird, and the combat system is almost good. Unfortunately, its super jank, and the gameplay feels clunky. Camera zooms in for no reason when you're not holding a weapon and you can't change the FOV. Plus a the auto-lock on makes moving around on the battlefield feel bad. Its really good other than that, but it kind of ruined it for me.

Oh the the VO is bad too

I find the game somewhat meh; since there's already so many positive reviews, I decided to give it a negative one instead.

The other reviews have covered the positive aspects beautifully; the world looks aesthetically other-worldly. Everything just looks incredibly weird in a positive way, etc.

However, the negatives make the game unpleasant to play:
1. The storytelling was not my cup of tea. The character you are controlling is thrown into a situation where you have killed your "Father-Mother" (whoever.. or whatever that is), and you are on the run. But an hour into the game and I still don't have any idea why the main character killed the "Father-Mother", what they even are, who the character is related to, who the main character is as a person etc, nor do I know much (if any at all) about the world except that he hung out with some insane people in some random swamp/forest. It is an incredibly weird approach to tell a story; usually the player shares the perspective of the main character he is following, and the player learns more about the story together with the main character. But in this case the player is just thrown into the game with very little context and you have to hit the road with fists swinging and guns blazing at targets you don't even know why you have to fight, all the while the main character seemingly knows everything but just doesn't want to share anything; it is hard to put your shoes into the main character when the main character is trying their best to hide their backstory from you!
2. Combat feels very clunky. Power attacks are hard to connect because they take a long time to wind-up, but you have to be right next to your target to land your power attack, which does not align with what is being displayed on the GUI; it feels like the hit should've connected, but the game didn't register it because the developers set the hitbox too close to the player. You also cannot run while reloading, nor can you cancel your reloading animation. The game tells you that you can punch and kick while holding your gun, but that's a little hard to do if you're stuck in a long reload animation! And on top of that, the weapons on the ground are sometimes really hard to spot; if you threw them away by accident, good luck trying to pick them up. The whole "lock-on" mechanism feels clunky as well, either because the camera feels janky, or because you're now zoomed into a target and it's hard to get a peripheral vision on your surroundings, so you sometimes strafe into random environmental objects. You also don't have a way to shove enemies out of the way, so if you somehow end up in a corner, you can get stunlocked.

tl;dr: not a big fan

Very surreal game. But also very atmospheric. Gameplay is PEAK.

Meant to come back to this earlier.

Lovely little gem.

god tier game better then elden ring

This is the most unique game I've ever played, and I love the bar fight brawls. I would do anything for another source engine game.