Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids Overview

I respect when video games attempt to put a brand new twist on a tried-and-true style. Without innovation, regardless of how small, we’d maintain taking part in the identical video games over, and over, and over once more. Don’t get me fallacious, I discover myself doing that typically regardless, however I like to present credit score the place credit score is due when recreation builders no less than try to present us one thing new.

Take the real-time technique style, for instance. There are tons of RTS video games on the market. There are tons of tower protection technique video games. And there are tons of third-person motion video games as effectively. But a mishmash of all three shouldn’t be one thing you see day-after-day, which is what excited me about Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids. Unfortunately, it didn’t fairly reside as much as my expectations that it could possibly be a method recreation unicorn, although it does provide a sturdy basis for what’s going to hopefully be a future sequel that expands on its huge concepts.

If Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids sounds like a Ratchet & Clank game, that’s as a result of it attracts heavy inspiration thematically and tonally from Insomniac’s lovable duo, make no mistake. Chip is an earthling that finds himself within the position of Earth’s defender alongside Clawz, his robotic companion. Aliens have invaded the planet to take management of its Brainium provide, a key pure useful resource that each the aliens and Earth’s robots run on.

It didn’t take lengthy for me to put in writing a observe about its huge Ratchet & Clank vibes, due to its tongue-in-cheek, fourth wall-breaking dialogue and kooky characters. Backed by good voice performing, Chip ‘n Clawz has the center essential to deliver levity to the technique style. In that regard, it’s a breath of recent air.

So, what does a third-person motion, real-time-strategy, tower-defense-game appear like? Not as sophisticated because it sounds, for higher and for worse. Chip ‘n Clawz is easy to pick-up, even if you’ve by no means performed a method recreation, due to simple controls on console, and a narrative marketing campaign that acclimates you to the mechanics at a pleasant tempo. Each mission takes about 20 minutes, and generally-speaking, the objective is to defend your HQ whereas defeating the enemy HQ or boss. Occasionally, missions are escort missions or straight base protection missions, which combine issues up ever so barely.

My huge criticism is that its novelty wears off about midway by means of its eight-hour marketing campaign. And like technique video games earlier than it, there comes a degree the place little to no actual technique is required, apart from constructing the utmost variety of buildings you’ll be able to to spam your robotic military and overwhelm the enemy. If something, you could discover that it’s essential to replay a mission to position your buildings at totally different areas on the map to be more practical. And that’s tremendous—I don’t want Chip ‘n Clawz to be Crusader Kings 3, but I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I wasn’t slightly underwhelmed, finally simply going by means of the motions to clear the mission. It wants a bit extra technique cowbell, if you’ll.

Okay, in order that’s the place the third-person fight comes into play to maintain issues recent, proper? Not precisely. Both with Chip and with Clawz, you melee assault with one button and shoot with the precise set off button, which suggests all you’re doing is button-mashing enemies and constructing a combo string as much as 16 hits earlier than it resets. It’s senseless and monotonous, and never the feather in its cap that I hoped it could be.

On the opposite, I did get pleasure from its tower-defense mechanics, which sees you buying blueprints for numerous robotic development buildings and putting them strategically on the map. There’s a pleasant number of robots to select from, too. Miner bots acquire Brainium, which is required to construct or restore something, however there are additionally Boxers, Shooters, Flyers, Turrets, Artillery, a Garage, and an Ammo Depot in your weapons. There is a restrict to what number of of every you’ll be able to place, in addition to a restrict to what number of robots every construction can produce. For occasion, a Shooter robotic constructing can produce a most of three robots, but when one dies, it should spit out one other one for you relatively shortly. You can place these on the fly with a button presses, or in Commander Mode, which supplies you a chicken’s eye view of the battlefield and allows you to set up rally factors in your whole military, or for every unit kind individually. Each robotic kind has a counter, too. So, for instance, if there are quite a lot of ranged enemies, it’s essential to dispatch quite a lot of melee-focused Boxer models to take them out. Or if there are tons of enemy buildings in your approach, lay down some Artillery buildings to bomb them from a distance. But when you get the lay of the land and work out which robots to deal with for every mission, that’s just about it.

With that mentioned, there are three boss battles, and I admit that they’re robust at first. I needed to replay each earlier than absolutely greedy what was being requested of me, which was tremendous. Additionally, in between story missions, you’ll be able to tackle non-obligatory problem missions, which push you greater than the usual missions, however usually are not all that totally different from the principle ranges. Where the story missions give three non-obligatory aims, problem missions typically make them a win situation as a substitute, as an illustration. Completing problem missions and gathering the HQ blueprints inside them unlocks further weapons for Chip and Clawz, in addition to passive boosts corresponding to more durable pleasant robots, or buildings with larger robotic manufacturing caps. You also can discover blueprints in the principle missions, although I don’t suppose they’re critically essential to your success or failure throughout the marketing campaign.

Adding a layer of performance, your complete story marketing campaign could be performed in co-op with a good friend. One performs as Chip and the opposite as Clawz as you’re employed collectively to finish missions. This could be completed each domestically in splitscreen or on-line, and it really works seamlessly in my expertise. It did assist to have each characters collectively on the similar time since they’ve totally different skills. Chip can overdrive buildings and robots to make them extra environment friendly, whereas Clawz can restore broken buildings, protecting you from having to do a pricey rebuild in the event that they get destroyed. Each character additionally has a unique automobile, that are typically wanted to entry hidden areas that will comprise further blueprints for robotic buildings and collectibles.

If you’re the kind of weirdo who likes slightly PvP in your technique video games, Chip ‘n Clawz has you covered there too. As with co-op, you can take on other players either locally or in online PvP matches, in 1v1 or 2v2 skirmishes. I admit that the inclusion of PvP is a nice one, especially considering that human opponents are more unpredictable than AI aliens. However, there are some balancing issues currently, with some of the HQ mods being quite overpowered. I was using one that allowed me to build robots faster, and I smoked my opponent in just a couple of minutes without suffering a single point of damage on my HQ. That’s the factor about single-player gear or options typically – you’ll be able to’t simply do a one-to-one copy of them in multiplayer with out breaking the sport in some type or style.

Ultimately, Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids has some good bones, even if they aren’t fairly as sturdy as I had hoped for. There are some good concepts current to construct on in a possible sequel, however the novelty of the gameplay loop does put on off relatively shortly. Adding melee fight and taking pictures to an RTS/Tower protection hybrid didn’t repay in a satisfying approach, and there are factors the place “strategy” is non-obligatory—a cardinal sin for technique video games. With that mentioned, it’s nonetheless charming, polished, and feature-rich sufficient to entertain you for 10 or 12 hours.