Clash: Artifacts of Chaos

Lore & Background

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. The game uses a unique cross-hatched rendering filter giving it a hand-painted pencil style. Writer Jonas Kyratzes was involved in development after a first collaboration with ACE Team on The Eternal Cylinder.

Reader's Guide

Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is significant as the third entry in the Zeno Clash series, shifting from first-person to mostly third-person perspective for gameplay. It introduces a character customization system with attributes and combat stances, and a semi-open world inspired by Bloodborne, replacing loading screens with a maze-like design. Combat against intelligent beings can be preceded by a round of the Ritual, a dice game granting tactical advantages. The game received mixed or average reviews on PC and Xbox Series X/S, but generally favorable reviews on PS5 according to Metacritic. Critics praised the surreal world design and graphical style but criticized the uncompromising combat with fluctuating difficulty and confusing level design lacking distinctive geography. Eleven days after release, ACE Team co-founder Carlos Bordeau noted a disconnect between critic scores and a 95% Steam approval rating. Almost two years after release, Steam user reviews remained very positive, while Metacritic user score reflected mixed or average opinion.

Did You Know?

• The game was originally scheduled for June 2022 but was postponed multiple times, finally releasing on March 9, 2023.
• The official ACE Team account reported a 95% Steam approval rating for the game.

Combat, Customization, and a New World Structure

The third entry in the Zeno Clash franchise retains its core identity as an unarmed melee combat experience, yet it departs significantly from the first two titles in how that combat is presented. Where earlier games locked players into a first-person view throughout gameplay, Clash: Artifacts of Chaos shifts to a predominantly third-person perspective, reserving first-person moments for short sequences that culminate in execution-style finisher attacks. Beyond the camera change, the game introduces a character progression system entirely new to the series: players can allocate attribute points as they level up and unlock distinct combat stances, including a Spear stance that extends the reach of strikes. A pre-fight ritual—a dice-based contest against intelligent opponents—adds a layer of tactical preparation, with the victor choosing advantages like summoning an extra ally or deploying a fog cloud that obscures only the enemy. Perhaps the most structural shift is the world design itself. Rather than discrete maps separated by loading screens, the game unfolds across a semi-open environment that draws inspiration from Bloodborne's interconnected layout.

A Hand-Painted Surrealism

The visual language of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos sets it apart from most modern action games through a distinctive cross-hatched rendering filter that mimics the texture of pencil work on paper, lending the entire world a hand-painted, sketchbook quality. This stylistic choice extends the series' long-standing commitment to surreal, colorful environments that critics consistently singled out as a highlight. PC Gamer's Jon Bailes praised the world's vivid and imaginative design as a continuation of the franchise's visual tradition, while Rock Paper Shotgun's Ed Thorn echoed the appreciation for the game's graphical style and overall aesthetic appeal. The art direction also extends to the game's navigation philosophy: there is no on-screen compass or waypoint markers to guide the player. Instead, the only navigational aid is a zoomed-out map that Thorn described as only vaguely helpful, forcing players to rely on the environment's visual distinctiveness to orient themselves. This deliberate minimalism in interface, combined with the pencil-and-ink rendering, creates an experience that feels closer to wandering through an illustrated storybook than a conventional open-world game.

A Long Road to Release

Development of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos was handled by ACE Team, with publishing duties falling to Nacon. The project benefited from the involvement of Jonas Kyratzes, the writer best known for The Talos Principle, who had previously collaborated with ACE Team on SolSeraph and The Eternal Cylinder. The game was first unveiled at the Nacon Connect online press conference in July 2021, with an initial target of June 2022. That date proved unattainable, and the release was pushed to November 2022, then again to February 9, 2023, before landing on its final date of March 9, 2023. During the delay period, the developers distributed a free playable demo at the Steam Next Fest in October 2022 and at the ID@Xbox Winter Game Demo Event, giving potential buyers a taste of the combat and world design before launch. The finished product shipped simultaneously across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, marking the third chapter in a series that had been dormant for some time before this entry arrived.

When Players and Critics Disagree

The reception of Clash: Artifacts of Chaos revealed an unusually sharp divide between professional reviewers and the player community. On Metacritic, the PC and Xbox Series X/S editions landed in the mixed or average range, while the PS5 version edged into generally favorable territory. Critics praised the visual world but consistently flagged the combat as frustratingly inconsistent—PC Gamer's Jon Bailes called it uncompromising with a difficulty curve that lacks a sense of achievement, and Rock Paper Shotgun's Ed Thorn labeled the hand-to-hand fighting super tricky with careless difficulty spikes. Both reviewers also criticized the maze-like level design for offering little navigational guidance. Yet within eleven days of launch, ACE Team co-founder Carlos Bordeau publicly noted the gulf: the game sat at a 95 percent positive Steam approval rating, the highest of any title the studio had shipped, while press coverage largely read as lukewarm. Nearly two years later, Steam user reviews still register as very positive, even as Metacritic's user score remains in the mixed range, underscoring a persistent disconnect between the two audiences.