As I was playing through Clash: Artifacts of Chaos I saw an article claiming it was harder than Elden Ring. At the same time Waypoint over at Vice posted an article by Renata Price about how people struggle to build level design in a way that makes sense to people outside of games, that a lot of conventions in level design mean that we learn rules that are insular.
Most of the challenge I see in Clash has to do with insular game design, the same insular game design that crowned Demons’ Souls as the hardest game ever. At the time it just had a unique outlook, which made it seem alien to most players, it wasn’t hard it was just something very alien to players that grew up on corridor shooters.
Thinking about this I have come to the conclusion that Clash is certainly alien/unique in many good ways, and a couple of bad. However, once you understand what is going on, it isn’t that hard – just different.
Set on the planet of Zenozoik, the player takes control of Pseudo, a hermit with the gruff voice of Ron Perlman (excellently done by Glenn Wrage) but the exterior looks like Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants in the Post-Apocalypse.
Pseudo stumbles into an encounter that leaves an old man dead and a small bundle of feathers, known only as ‘the Boy’, in his custody and from there the two of them travel across Zenozoik to try and keep the Boy safe. This involves exploring in third-person perspective, collecting items to mix potions, and trade in for weapons and gear, then using that to get into brawls with equally unusual-looking Zenozoik inhabitants. Hidden in Pseudo is also a night persona that allows him to explore an alternate world and unlock new paths.
Visually, Clash is not like anything else right now. The hand-drawn effect and the use of colours gives it a distinct look. The characters themselves (inspired by the developers’ previous titles Zeno Clash and Zeno Clash II) are warped and fascinating to look at. It means that their attack patterns and movement through the world is unbound from more conventional body types. There are cow men with three legs, tall gangly creatures with one of their arms taped to a stick, and robots that fire rocks from their chest.
This ties into the combat itself, a lot of people will start the game trying to play it like Dark Souls and the rhythm and tone is not conducive to that. There is no block button, instead the player has the option to eat a hit at the loss of their stamina bar, dodge, or parry (which gives them a damage boost if successful). Although attacks drain stamina, when all stamina is gone Pseudo can still attack, but it puts him at danger of huge amounts of reprisal damage. Movement and openings for combos are the key here, each fight feeling like a boxing match. There are three starting stances that go from heavy hitter, to fast stabber. Later there are plethora of other styles that can be switched between on the fly and it allows for a certain level of improvisation.
Later in the game the player will be taking on multiple opponents, sometimes screen filling ones and all of the thought and care of how to get the most out of the combat comes to the fore. Notably, because other enemies can hurt each other and even turn against their allies, so inviting an awkward attack can actually be tactic in itself.
The level design is also so much fun, paths twist in and around themselves. I found myself walking through a tunnel, opening a door and then going ‘oh damn, I am back here’. Exploration is constantly rewarding with another wonderfully rendered vista or new delightful enemy.
I’ve not even mentioned the mini-game that can be played between Pseudo and a lot of enemies – a game set out on a circle where each player rolls dice and then uses a number of modifiers to try and end with the highest number. The winner gets to make the opponent perform a forfeit. This adds a chance for the player to turn certain fights in their favour. It seems weird when first attempted but this mini-game ends up being a central focus for some of the story. Why the rule? Why agree to this? Who controls it? It all becomes important.
I think a lot of this uniqueness is why people consider Clash hard, it is trying to formulate its own visual and mechanical language, which is difficult for people to easily place as it is both like games they may have played but different enough that old habits don’t apply.
That said, I think there are parts of the game that don’t follow pre-existing rules in a way that is detrimental to the enjoyment of the game. The most prominent one is how the game presents exploration. Because the world is so vibrant it is hard to figure out what is something Pseudo can and can’t pick up. Conventional games would highlight the items , or provide a standard ‘lootable’ spot, this would allow for players to immediately lock into the items and move on. Clash doesn’t do this and enjoys placing items in hard to parse areas and little nooks and crannies. This resulted in me spending a lot of time looking at the back of Pseudo’s head while stuffing him into any corner in the hopes that I might find something useful.
With focus being on that it also meant that I spent the first few hours brushing along invisible collision, or trying to jump onto platforms that were actually blocked out to prevent traversal rather than enable it. That lack of conventional understanding where I could go led to me spending my time bashing my head against virtual walls. Ultimately, it meant I was a lot less adventurous in later parts of the game because Clash had taught me it was probably not worth my while.
These are minor complaints, as Clash sticks the landing when it comes to everything else. The fact that, by the end I looked at my character, a face like a hot dog that slipped down the back of the couch, and felt genuinely empathetic towards him was a huge success.
Conclusion
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is glorious to look at with an endearingly oddball approach to character design. A combat system that rewards and a story that goes deeper than the ornery main character suggests.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
