Zeno Clash demonstrates brutal, variety-laden combat mechanics.
Appropriately self-described as both beautiful and disturbing at the same time, Zeno Clash is a first-person action game with an intriguingly unfamiliar play style. Plot details aside, players basically get to smack foes around, as it combines both first-person shooter and fighting game genres. Rather than centre almost exclusively around gun play, it’s at least as much about invading personal spaces with brutal melee combat, whether that be a sucker punch or, say, a hammer.
One can still use guns, of course, but they’re much less effective and merely a part of the overall fight. Brothers Andres and Carlos Bordeu of ACE Team Software have just recently demonstrated the game’s combat mechanics. It does seem that if a player wants to down an opponent in good time, they’re gonna have to whip out not only the knuckles, but a blunt object and their feet, to boot.
In fact, the really cool thing ACE is clearly working at is packing each fight with as much variety and as many choices as possible, handing players all manner of offensive and defensive measures that one can use at their own leisure. Aside from what one might expect in the game, such as punching and thwacking with various objects, these measures also include dodging and blocking enemies, stunning them, and even so much as tricking them to run into each other. Players can also shove them to the ground and wail on them while they’re down.
The developer demonstrates this while fighting two opponents in the ranking-based survival mode (which you can read more about here). “In the game, a skilled player will combine different moves to work to his advantage, depending on the surroundings,” explains one of the Bordeu brothers. “I can stun [the closest] opponent and throw a finishing punch to make sure he lands on top of the other opponent. When they’re both on the ground, I can use this opportunity to kick them while they’re defenceless.”
With the game somehow looking even more promising than what we previously saw, we’re seriously itching to get our hands on the final release. Meanwhile, though, the following clip should help pad that gaping hole.
Supporting our habits:
desadist
2009.03.07 06:33
Of course, the biggest problem with FP melee combat is your lack of spacial body awareness. You can't make a fluid combat system that looks "real" unless the player(and the game) is total aware of it's entire body.. Which is basically impossible in FP.
Maybe one solution would be to separate the head control from the body control somehow. No more floating camera head.
Post new comment anonymously (Anonymous Gibbon)