Zeno Clash II: It's a ratmanpunching bonegunshooting hermaphroditefreeing rubikscubeathon

TychoCelchuuu

Warning: the trailer for the second game has some slight/moderate (but not serious) spoilers for the first game if you haven't played it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJk2qqXbPiM

Zeno Clash II
The sequel to Zeno Clash. What's Zeno Clash? Just the best first person brawler ever.

All we really know right now is what's in the trailer and in the description text, so let's take a gander at that:

Sequel to the award-winning indie first-person melee brawler is Zeno Clash II from Chilean developers, ACE Team. The world of Zenozoik comes alive like never before, an open world waiting to be explored, rendered with breathtaking splendor. As Ghat, players can fully and freely explore every natural and architectural wonder his world has to offer. In addition to most of the characters, enemies, and items from the first game—all of which return with dramatic visual enhancement—Ghat can also expect to encounter awe-inspiring new sights, jaw-dropping new creature designs, and wildly creative new weapons and items.

PC Gamer also says that the game will have drop-in/drop-out coop so you can punch shit with your friends. Your drop-in friend will play Rimat, the lady in the trailer who you fought with in the first game. She's one of your sisters.



So basically we don't know anything about Zeno Clash II yet except what the trailer shows. The original Zeno Clash came out for the PC, then eventually for the XBOX 360 on XBLA. Zeno Clash II is coming to PC, PS3, and XBOX 360. Release date is early 2013.





Zeno Clash
Never played Zeno Clash? Go play Zeno Clash. (Zeno Clash is one of the most original settings you'll ever see married to the best punching you'll ever punch.) Played Zeno Clash and need a refresher on the story? Well, here's where we are so far:

WHAT THE FUCK.
Serious spoiler:

Ghat (you) learned that Father-Mother, your hermaphroditic father and mother, isn't hermaphroditic and isn't your father and your mother. He's just a baby thief. But he seems to have good intentions sort of? In any case this is why you've been fighting your way through your many (not) siblings to reach Father-Mother, who you defeated in a final battle, and then Golem, who is... some sort of king... got out a Rubik's Cube? It's... complicated...

And now Ghat's back in Zeno Clash II where it looks like he'll be traveling to even more exotic destinations and fighting even more exotic enemies. As if that were possible.

Since apparently most of the stuff from Zeno Clash will return in Zeno Clash II, let's reminisce a bit about that, then! Remember...


This dude on the right? He's Oxameter. He walks in a straight line. Forever. He's one of the Corwids of the Free. Ghaat used to be one of them but now he isn't.


These fucking rat/mole/shrew? guys were a pain, eh? At least you got the massive bone clubsword to fight them.


The world of Zeno Clash has more interesting codpieces than any other video game.

About the Developers
The developers of Zeno Clash are ACE Team. They are a small group of people who live in Chile and who make games. It was founded by Andres, Carlos and Edmundo Bordeu: three brothers who founded the team to work on mods. If you ever played Batman Doom or ZanZan, for instance, that was them.

After moving on up in the world to become real game developers, their first plan was a free-roaming action RPG brawler called Zenozoik. They quickly realized that for a small team their ambitions were way too big, so they pulled back and made Zeno Clash, which knocked it out of the park. They then went on to make Rock of Ages, which is best described as Marble Madness meets Monty Python meets tower defense meets an art history lesson. And now they're back with Zeno Clash II. The devs are pretty nice folks and although their English is not perfect they're fairly active on the forums in case you want to talk to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjKpzWSrWTc

SoundsPlush

There's a couple screenshots up on their site.

In the foreground here you can see the Borax, who speaks for the weird things, here's that weird guy looking at that weird thing, and here's a guy running at you in town, presumably to punch you in the mouth. Behind the clothesline is what we can only assume is a prostitute. The rock in the background top center is clearly a cameo from Rejected.

PCGamer says there's a full drop-in drop-out coop feature with the second player as Rimat (the lady in the trailer), so that's pretty great, too; plus the punching and also the punching has been 'refined', so awesome combat now more awesome. Hooray!

TychoCelchuuu

Oh shit, nice catch! I shall edit the OP. Why didn't I just type "Zeno Clash 2 dot com" into my browser?

initiatefailure

did they just break and then refer to breaking father-mother out of jail in that trailer?

I'm already so confused

TychoCelchuuu

initiatefailure wrote: »

did they just break and then refer to breaking father-mother out of jail in that trailer?

I'm already so confused

I can one-up you: I was confused about what the sequel was about before it was even announced.

DrunkMc

I really enjoyed the first one. I'll def. pick up the second. I loved Oxameter for some reason.

I was very sad to see him dead against a pillar

curly haired boy

i'm happy it's returning to the PC, i loved the first one; it's games like these that mean i never need to drop acid to go on a strange, strange trip.

Lalabox

I still haven't played the first. Hopefully the announcement of the sequel will make the original go on sale or something.

SoundsPlush

The teaser is a total feint—after the intro where you discuss the matter with Rimat and then dream about what it would be like, you wake up as a hapless squirrel who some psychopath is trying to strap explosives to. The rest of the game is timed escape challenges punctuated by squirrel brawling with draccoons and birdpossums. Obviously.

Lalabox

Huh, just found it for $10. Not even on sale. Probably going to look into that in the next couple of weeks.

Rami

I'm so glad this sequel is coming.

Panda4You

This will probably be exciting, ZC1 was basically 2000AD fantasy: The game.

initiatefailure

steam summer sale is coming up within a month probably. it's generally really cheap during those.

SoundsPlush

Here's the comic they released back before the first game came out, too, featuring Rimat and someone much worse.
- - -

SvK

Time to reinstall the original and actually beat it this time.

Monger

Yes.

Yes.

Golden Yak

Awesome, so glad to hear about this. Freakin' loved the world of Zeno Clash and dying to see what the aftermath of the first game's ending is going to yield.

Especially in light of Ace Team's intent to make the 2nd game bigger than the original.

initiatefailure wrote: »

did they just break and then refer to breaking father-mother out of jail in that trailer?

I'm already so confused

Yes! Just like the trailers for the first game! I'm intrigued and weirded out already!

subedii

Perhaps the only game I've played which made First Person Brawling feel fun.

Defeinitely looking forward to this.

Uselesswarrior

Looking forward to this one. Loved the art in the first game.

TychoCelchuuu

Rock Paper Shotgun interview with a dev. Choice quote:

RPS: The melee combat stood out in the original Zeno Clash, is that something you’ve changed for this game?

Bordeu: It is constantly changing, evolving – both being improved and also expanded. We already have a functional preview in our pre-alpha E3 demo that feels a lot like the original game, but smoother. Because it’s an early build it’s still missing a lot of new stuff that is coming, but things like collision detection and other features have already been improved. For instance now you can aim your punches at the head while locked-onto an enemy. This makes the regular punching more interesting and less monotonous, since your punches can miss, graze or fully hit the face. Same with different parts of the body – they are all independent now. We still have eludes, counters, deflects, run-into attacks. We also have some new face deform-punches (a rather early implementation is in the E3 build) plus some new stuff we are currently working on. Some things are still under development and we will be showing them later on – probably with a gameplay trailer.

Monger

To reiterate:

Yes.

Yes.

Zombiemambo

Holy shit, Zeno Clash is getting a sequel! I was totally jazzed for the original and followed it very closely. I love it and I'm excited to see more.

Basil

Moses' hairy balls, fantastic. May many more powder squirrels die for our sins.

Turkey

Day one. Day fucking one. I own Zeno Clash 1 on Steam and XBLA, and Rock of Ages on PSN and XBLA. I absolutely love their work.

I just hope they do a 2d horror adventure game to promote ZC2.

kaorti

This is the best news I've had all month.

TychoCelchuuu

Sort of a weird interview by a Russian website. Some good info, though. Most interesting part (for me):

We’re adding more depth to the combat system to make it more interesting. Since the game isn’t only about the fighting and there are more things to do now, the combat will not be the only gameplay of the game anymore, so it won’t be judged basically alone on how fun the combat is. (And we also have coop gameplay). With that said I think we have the advantage that we made a pure fighting game first and now we are designing something more diverse and complete.

This means that compared to other RPGs the combat will be more deep and developed. A big change is that now the player will be able to aim punches at the face of enemies. We have hugely improved on the physics and collision detection of the combat mechanics. You can now fully connect, graze or miss punches when striking at the face of a completely idle enemy. You can also strike their arms/hands instead of their face (which means that the combat stances of enemies are no longer just for the looks).

In Zeno Clash 1 punching at an idle opponent would always count as a hit as long as the enemy didn’t do a dodge or block. It basically meant we had a very simple system which was mostly enriched by adding variety of attacks to the player. Now the core of the game is more complex – the simplest thing of the game (striking regular punches) is more fun because it depends of how enemies move and their combat posture.

Ynuu

I'm still not sure whether or not I enjoyed the original Zeno Clash; it was sometimes fun and always unsettling.

also there was that one fucker

where is he getting all those squirrels

SoundsPlush

Zeno Clash 2 is still very much action oriented and with a strong linear story. Those were the two key elements of the first game and we cannot betray them and redesign a completely new thing. However: We are doing many things that make the game become an action-RPG hybrid. We have player progression with a skill system.

We have an open world system where players move through the game world and they can really explore different locations (You can go back and forth between areas / there is a day and night cycle / there are fast travel options). We have powerups and items that allow the player to open new areas. There are secrets. There are quests. The game design is more easily compared to a Zelda adventure than other types of RPGs. That is the balance of action/RPG that we have.

Mm yes tell me more.

Also I like that STALKER and Metro are in his lexicon alongside Skyrim and Brawl etc.

Monger

The cornerstones of Zeno Clash 2 are vast open world, open ending, RPG elements and co-op multiplayer. This sounds pretty much like your standard MMORPG. Why is an open world/open ending concept so important to your project?

Before dealing with this question I need to tone down the terms being used: “Vast open world” and “open ending” aren’t two things that the game is (at least not on that level). We don’t want over-promise and then under-deliver to the expectations of gamers. Zeno Clash 2 is way more open and explorable than the first game. We have a couple of levels that in area could probably contain all the walk-able areas of the first game combined. But in no way is this game on the scale of a MMORPG or a Stalker or Elderscrolls game. We are still a rather small indie studio and we’re making a downloadable game which is pretty huge compared to titles in the same segment.

These kinds of answers make me respect a person. "What the hell kind of question is this? I live in the real world, and the game is what it is."

SoundsPlush

The interviewer is pretty terrible. "Fighting was only entertaining for liek 40 minutes how u fix??"

curly haired boy

interviewers are always asking clown questions

TychoCelchuuu

$0.99 for the original Zeno Clash. Buy it an experience the brilliance!

SvK

I've given out two copies already. I'm stalking wishlists.

TychoCelchuuu

In the incredibly unlikely event that you want a Golem figurine/statue, check this shit out. See also the 'making of' process.

Golden Yak

Bah, should've given him a rubix cube.

His figurine looks a lot more slender than his in-game self, almost like a younger version. That face is almost sad and haunting...

Man, gotta find some time to replay this. Such a bizarre and engrossing story. Really looking forwards to the sequel.

TychoCelchuuu

Screeeenshots.

SoundsPlush

Look at all that weird shit. Lobstergut flamingos? Alarmed meatman? Spineface?

Zeno Clash is back, baby.

curly haired boy

hot damn. dat character design.

Monger

Yep, that looks about right.

Straight into my veins, etc.

Curly_Brace

I have Zeno Clash sitting on my "to play" list. Perhaps I ought to move it up the list? It looks... weird. But a kind of weird I know I will probably enjoy.

curly haired boy

it's too weird and too short to not play.