Zeno Clash
xeno- prefix. from Ancient Greek ξένος (ksénos, “alien”) a. Having to do with foreigners, as in xenophilia, or more commonly, xenophobia. b. From a foreign place, as in xenolith.
clash noun. onomatopoeic a. A skirmish, a hostile encounter. b. Opposition, contradiction, such as between differing or contending interests, views, purposes etc.
In my imagination, the development of Xeno– sorry, Zeno Clash – started when folks at Ace Team got together, got high, and got onto the subject of ancient mythologies (Roman, Greek, Norse, etc.) and how weird they all were. I mean, if you want crazy characters and crazier stories, you need look no further than some of the gods and goddesses traipsing around back in the day. Athena, birthed fully formed out of the sweaty forehead of Zeus; Pan, the goat-god of wanton sex; Artemis, goddess of the hunt, who for some reason was depicted in various interpretations as being literally covered with breasts; Medusa, she of the stylish snake perm and stony gaze, being some kind of metaphor for psychosexual wackiness (I’m pretty sure we can blame Freud for that); Jeff, the God of Biscuits; and even some nutter who told people to eat some bread and drink some wine and pretend it was his flesh and his blood… I mean, ew, dude. I’m sure we have enough problems without adding cannibalism to it. So anyway, the developers were shooting the breeze about Gods and Golden Fleece and rivers of blood and whatever until one guy, as I imagine it, stood up and went, “Yeah… but like, what if… Dude! What if there were, like, aliens, right? And they were weird, like totally, heh, but then, like, THEY also had myths and shit! I mean… dude…”
– Real player with 92.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beat 'em up Action Games.
Over the years I occasionally return to this game to replay it for a bit (or sometimes, in its entirety), on one hand because the gameplay is genuinely fun, and on the other, because the world design slaps hard.
Running on the Source Engine, it runs buttery smooth and doesn’t need any sort of config editing or patching to make it support high refresh rates and high resolutions.
Saying this, you might expect some big budget title with huge production quality, but the reality is that it’s still very much a small indie game. The voice acting ranges from charmingly hammed up to okay to “literally random person we sat into the studio”, because that’s essentially what they did. No seriously, check the voice credits, most of it is just the development team and everyone is doing double or triple-duty. The character with probably the most lines, the protagonist, thankfully is voiced by a professional voice over guy.
– Real player with 18.8 hrs in game
Zeno Clash 2
I was worried from the first impressions that people on youtube had about this game. Having really enjoyed the first one, I was really excited with a sequel’s potential, and yet, the general opinion was that this was a far less enjoyable game than the first Zeno Clash. Regardless, since I had the game, I decided to try to right after finishing the first.
So, let’s say it has a pretty confusing and “not as exciting as I hoped for” beginning. Even having played the first one, this game throws you into the wolves right from the start in regards to its story, and that sort of continued through the rest of the game… That’s my biggest complain.
– Real player with 18.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beat 'em up Action Games.
I’ve had this game (and the first one) sitting in my library for a while now, the way “bundle fillers” usually do… but I gotta say, these games were a nice little surprise.
Starting by the universe they present: Everything is weird as hell, but it feels original and interesting and if you’re like me, you’ll be hooked instantly and will want to know more. The first game serves as an introduction to the universe by way of a rather limited (in scope) and more personal story about the main character and his “family”… The second game serves as both a continuation of that story as well as a deeper exploration of the world they live in. And it’s all a breath of fresh air among the countless traditional fantasy/sci-fi plots that plague every game these days.
– Real player with 13.1 hrs in game
Astro Knight
You are a carefree astronaut with a sword, the Astro Knight. But because of you, your fellow astronauts came to an untimely demise. As you grapple with your loss, you find yourself in a dream world full of monsters. You must wield your sword and your special abilities to combat waves of foes. But after each stage you must give something up. Can you let go?
Astro Knight was made as part of the inaugural Hackubator class, a game accelerator program where we are split into teams of 5 and tasked with making a game in 3 months. Our team, House Rogue, embodies the values of competence and candor with a sizable helping of rebelliousness embodied by our mantra “Go left”.
Read More: Best Beat 'em up Action Games.
Soulstopia -PHI-
I’m waiting for the second part
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
A cool fighting game simulator that will help pass the time
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Soulsland
Dark Souls? No! Soulsland!
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
Black magic?!
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-
Impressive game, I enjoy it a lot. Felt a rush in my heart while I was playing it, Remind me a lot of Castlevania:SOTN. By far a true gem, I will hope for the sequel to buy it ASAP.
Thank you for creating such a beatiful experience
– Real player with 19.6 hrs in game
Warning: If you’re photosensitive, stay away. There are a number of flashing cutscenes and transition effects that cannot be turned off or disabled. At the end is a series of flashes that are painful to watch even without being photosensitive.
Another very solid Metroidvania-lite from Team Ladybug, who made the wonderful Touhou Luna Nights a few years ago. Like their previous game, this is a “lite” form of the genre, where you have the game broken up into stages (while still being interconnected) and it is much more linear than some of the other examples of the genre. Each stage after the first contains one major progression ability, two bosses, and a scattering of other upgrades, spells, and weapons lying around.
– Real player with 16.4 hrs in game
New Ice York
This game is so much more than I expected it to be. At first, playing it- I was charmed by how weird it was but after playing through it, I found myself feeling connected to this universe and the characters within it. It’s intuitive- familiar, but totally different. Refreshingly fun, and an overall great release by magicdweedo, an artist I’ve really enjoyed since Mealmate™. Make sure to check out the soundtrack, too- it’s really catchy!
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
New Ice York has deceptively good writing. The first chapter is unfortunately slow, which is a bad problem for a game of this length to have, but that slowness does its job of lulling you into a familiarity with the characters that it uses as a platform to build off of. NIY unfurls in a way similar to Frog Fractions or magicdweedoo’s last major game, Ticket: breaking its own rules and shuffling weird mechanics around. Where the former games engage themselves in a game of zany one-upsmanship, though, New Ice York’s treatment of mechanics is much more narrative and constrained. Detective has an oblique resemblance to Deadly Premonition’s Francis York Morgan / Twin Peak’s Dale Cooper, and similar to those stories New Ice York’s descent into surrealism takes on a personal significance in the quest of the protagonist.
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
Honkstory 2: There was No 1
A modern classic.
A true masterpiece.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
Funniest game I’ve ever played
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Lithium City
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Lithium City is a wonderfully atmospheric isometric twin stick action game. You play as a female warrior working her way higher and higher up in the city towards a final battle.
The game utilises guns, melee and thrown weapons and at times you will need all three. All will need to be used and due to the scarcity of ammunition you will frequently have to change weapons on the fly. Shooting is tight and easy and the various guns have the weight you’d expect. Even when everything feels far too hectic you can usually get back on top with judicious weapon use and occasionally running away! The controls are simple shoot/stab/punch with one button and dash with another, that’s it. Though the dash can be a little imprecise at times.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
A lot of people are comparing this game to Hotline Miami, which is true in a way. You enter a room with a pre-set enemy placement, and try to kill everyone in there, learning and adapting to where they are and what weapons they drop and the best way to plan your assault through it.
That being said, there’s a few stark differences between the two. Hotline Miami is focused more on larger levels, entire floor plans and buildings you have to clear out, whereas Lithium City has smaller rooms. Lithium City is a bit shorter, and each level has more of a specific concept it goes with, whether it’s utilizing moving floors or defending a single room with waves of enemies running in. The biggest complaint I have in regards to gameplay would be that Lithium City is short, with only six chapters it shouldn’t take you more than five hours to beat. Which is fine, for the price, but I found myself wanting more stages that were fully open, which don’t really come in until near the end of the game. It’s also isometric, which works really well with this kind of gameplay.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Where They Cremate The Roadkill
Where do I begin - I’ve just recently finished this game. It’s been in my library for a good time now but I just got around to finishing it with two endings (one being the dead end ending) I got this as soon as I could as soon as it was released because I have played the creator’s previous games Gingiva and Middens. I was not disappointed - quite the opposite. If you are familliar with the two aformentioned, it’s a bit of a step in an experimental direction as far as gameplay goes as it is a beatemup. It takes a little getting used to but it isn’t widely difficult to.
– Real player with 69.8 hrs in game
Imagine if Ralph Bakshi just know how to create a video game and just made one of the most insane looking world he ever come up with, you got Where they cremate the roadkill. A game that base on what I research for this review is this is the third game created by a developer who had successfully launch at kick starter and previous of his games included Middens and Gingiva. Which I heard those two were made in RPG Maker and has a small fan base over those two games. I only briefly looked at the gameplay and is…different to say the least.
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game