Is Clash: Artifacts of Chaos Worth Playing – Game Review

Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is an action-adventure game from the ACE Team known for their uncanny and esoteric aesthetics. If you’ve ever heard of Zeno Clash, you should know what to expect!

If you wonder if this strange game is worth diving into, you’ve come to the right place! We’ll break down the game’s strengths and weaknesses to let you know if it’s worth playing or not.

What is Clash: Artifacts of Chaos

Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is a purely single-player action-adventure game that’s primarily focused on beat-‘em-up combat.

Some might be quick to categorize it as Soulslike due to some of its elements, such as the overall combat style and how you need to return to where you die to recover your body.

However, it doesn’t have the deep RPG systems of a Soulslike, so this comparison is superficial. Don’t expect much in the way of building your character or RPG progression systems.

So then, what can you expect? Let’s go into more detail.

Bizarrely Beautiful World

The game’s biggest strength is simply how bizarre it is. Yet, it’s also beautiful despite some of its grotesque designs. This is thanks to its vibrant and well-realized art style.

Right from the start, you will be either weirded out or captivated by the strange creatures you find, including the protagonist himself.

This should come as no surprise to those who are familiar with ACE Team’s games. After all, they always manage to bring esoteric worlds to life, taking inspiration from Chilean culture and folklore.

Despite that, lots of players might find it just a tad too obtuse and weird to get into. The story can be hard to grasp, especially.

Do you enjoy trying to piece together seemingly nonsensical stories? Are you the sort of person to analyze every detail to make sense of a game’s world? If so, this game is for you!

The strange aesthetics and world of the game are accentuated by a fantastic and varied soundtrack which helps make Clash a standout audiovisual experience.

However, the same high praise can’t be said of the voice acting. While the voice acting’s quirks might add to the world’s charm to some, it just feels off usually.

Janky Gameplay

Sadly, the game’s interesting and strange world is brought down by frankly weak gameplay.

Most of the gameplay consists of brawling out with various enemies. While it does feel fairly satisfying at first, it can get old quickly due to little variation.

Sometimes, you get weapons or unlock different fighting styles, but the enemies just aren’t interesting enough to make combat truly engaging.

The game also tries to spice things up with “Rituals”.

These are a game of dice that can happen before certain fights. The loser will have a penalty applied to them for the duration of the fight. This can swing things in your favor if you are lucky.

Rituals do offer a nice change of pace and are a very interesting mechanic, but they just aren’t enough.

On top of that, the game’s world can be rather confusing to navigate. Some areas look rather samey, so you might feel lost often.

The gameplay doesn’t quite feel bad to be fair. It just so happens to feel repetitive and uninteresting, which brings the game down.

Conclusion

Whether you should play Clash: Artifacts of Chaos depends on what you’re looking for.

The game is not for everyone, but it does have enough to offer that it might just be a masterpiece for you.

Are you seeking a game with an engaging combat system and mechanical depth? You should probably keep looking as Clash won’t really be for you. The gameplay just isn’t good enough.

On the other hand, you should get this game if you’re just wishing to dive into a bizarre and unique world. Of course, you will need to put up with the gameplay’s shortcomings.

In the end, Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is a unique game that just won’t appeal to lots of people. Its strangeness is its biggest strength, but that alone can be extremely divisive for players.

This is the kind of game that won’t appeal to most gamers. Yet, it will definitely be worthwhile to those who are captivated by its bizarrely fascinating world.

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