| State: | expanded |
| Clash: Artifacts of Chaos | |
| Developer: | ACE Team |
| Publisher: | Nacon |
| Designer: | Carlos Bordeu |
| Composer: | Patricio Meneses |
| Series: | Zeno Clash |
| Engine: | Unreal Engine 4[1] |
| Released: | March 9, 2023 |
| Genre: | Action-adventure, beat 'em up |
| Modes: | Single-player |
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is a 2023 action-adventure video game developed by ACE Team and published by Nacon. The game is the third installment in the Zeno Clash series.
The story of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos takes place in Zenozoik, the fantasy setting of Zeno Clash and Zeno Clash 2. The protagonist is a martial artist named Pseudo who becomes the bodyguard of the Boy, a small creature with healing powers desired by the tyrant Gemini and her henchmen.[2]
Like the previous titles of the series, the gameplay of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is centered on unarmed melee combat. While its two predecessors used exclusively a first-person perspective during gameplay sequences, the third installment plays mostly in third-person perspective. First person is limited to brief sequences which can lead to the execution of finisher attacks.
Combat against intelligent beings can be preceded by a round of the Ritual, a dice game that grants a tactical advantage to the winner from a range of options, such as an extra ally or a fog cloud opaque only to the adversary.[3]
For the first time in the series, the game features a character customization system including attributes to increase when leveling up and combat stances to unlock, such as the Spear stance which grants long reach attacks.[4]
Another innovation to the series is the maze-like world design: instead of maps divided by loading screens, Clash: Artifacts of Chaos takes place in a semi-open world inspired by Bloodborne.[5]
The game was announced at the Nacon Connect online press conference in July 2021 with a release originally scheduled for June 2022,[6] but was postponed to November 2022, then February 9, 2023,[7] and later March 9, 2023.[8]
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos uses a unique cross-hatched rendering filter which gives it a hand-painted pencil style.[9]
After a first collaboration with ACE Team on SolSeraph and The Eternal Cylinder, The Talos Principle writer Jonas Kyratzes has been involved in the development of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos.[10]
A free demo was distributed at the Steam Next Fest of October 2022[11] and at the ID@Xbox Winter Game Demo Event.[12]
On release, Clash received only a 64% from PCGamer[13] and a 71% from Metacritic[14] but a 95% score on Steam.[15] Ace Team co-founder Carlos Bordeau said: "