Zeno Clash II

Zeno Clash II continues were Zeno Clash left off: after the Golem took over and Father-Mother was imprisoned, Ghat’s clan was torn apart. Together with his clanmate Rimat, who serves as steady AI companion, he continues to travel through the fantasy world Zenozoik to learn more of the Golem and how to get rid of it.

The basic gameplay mechanics are largely unchanged: the majority of time is spent in first-person fist fights against one or multiple enemies. Ghat can not only throw regular and charged up punches, but also kick downed enemies or block/dodge attacks. However, most of the special actions and combos use up Ghat’s stamina. Sometimes Ghat can find items which are either used for combat (melee or ranged weapons which quickly break) or solving basic puzzles.

The main difference to the predecessor, which mostly consisted of linear combat sequences, are the open areas which can be freely explored. Besides walking to main and optional objectives (which are marked on the new map) and picking up weapons or health/stamina refreshments, the most important things to find are totems. Those reward points which are used to improve Ghat’s statistics in health, stamina, strength and leadership. While the first three are self-explanatory, leadership allows to recruit a second companion to assist in combat. The game also introduces a co-op mode.

Windows-exclusive are the two arena modes with spawning enemies waves to beat. While Colosseum offers no surprises, the Frame-rate arena is made of computer components and puts the player against wire-frame enemies. Those need to be dispatched quickly, because they keep spawning in until the frame-rate drops under 25 fps.