Being more ambitious and realized than its predecessors, Clash: Artifacts of Chaos exceeded my expectations as the third installment in the Zeno Clash series. A self-contained spinoff gives ACE Team a clean slate to work with. This allows them to introduce new characters and conflicts that are more fleshed out.

You can choose to fight the henchmen at Gemini's Palace before obtaining a single Great Shield Artifact, giving you the freedom of nonlinear progression in such a tightly designed world. I love everything about the world.

An online coop mode was planned during development which would've been enabled through Pseudo's dream world. Unfortunately, it was scrapped, so the dream world serves no purpose aside from creating roadblocks.

I feel like some mechanics exist as window dressing. Giving the Boy cold protection clothing or a respirator mask does nothing and is merely flavor text.

There are minor bugs that are inconsequential for an indie developer as small as ACE Team.

An update released which addressed quality of life fixes and a New Game + mode.

I just wish the game was called Zeno Clash: Chaos or something like that. "Clash: Artifacts of Chaos" sounds like freemium shovelware garbage you'd find on an app store somewhere. Seriously, no one even knows this is related to Zeno Clash. It sucks because this game is truly special and it deserves more attention