The combat in this game is wayyyyyyy too good not to add player vs player in the next game. I would love to whoop some peoples ass after a hard day at work at the office. I mean it would really be enjoyable. Leave the combat as is, don't add any special abilities, no fireballs no guns no power ups no crap like that. Just some hammers, bats, and maybe a knife and some more different kicks and punches. Keep it simple and i am telling you that game will be even more awesome.

Thanks for the feedback! I assure you that when we develop the next game we will not make any unjustified alterations to the combat system. We'll probably want to polish it more. There's some space for improvement in some areas, and that's what you'll see. As for player versus player, the system was not designed to fight human opponents so it's something that would be quite difficult to implement because of the design structure. Anyways, it's too early to say what we'll be putting on the table for a future game.

Omg a developer that actually reply's, thanks for replying!! i haven't played zeno yet i heard rumors that it may come to OnLive very soon so i watched the videos and started to think about the idea of player vs player. But its cool though its an awesome game from what i've seen. I've been dieng to play a first person hand to hand combat.
I haven't played that kind of a game since Supreme Warrior for 3DO heres a vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrZGJ6CbMOs .

Hahaha. Such an old game! I never got to play it, but I think you'll find our combat system a little less static

Anyways, there's one or two other titles that you missed that also did first-person melee before Zeno Clash came out:

Breakdown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAhta6vaEXo

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyijiz6i_Pk

Breakdown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAhta6vaEXo

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyijiz6i_Pk
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Holy cow! Breakdown looks awesome, how did i miss that, what yr was that? And How could i forget Reddick, that game was a blast. But it seems that your game does have much more dynamics in terms of melee. Which is super awesome. I noticed that there are 2 vers one for PC and for Xbox Live arcade, i know the pc ver will be on OnLive but will it have the effects like when you punch or kick a guy, will they go flying backwards?

The XBLA version has a few additional melee attacks, a couple of extra weapons and two or three extra enemy designs. Oh, and you can play the tower challenges cooperatively. Still, the backbone of the game is present in the PC version, so you'd not be missing too much.

After playing the first Zeno Clash I bought Rock of Ages as soon as it was possible, and I will do the same for the next game (hopefully Zeno Clash II). I really wish to express my gratitude for Zeno Clash which is by far the best, immersive, atmospheric and beautiful game I've played in years. It really makes me nostalgic since it reminds me of older games with phenomenal design, such as Shadow of the beast, Agony or other Psygnosis games for the Amiga system, games I truly enjoyed. Way too many games these days tends to be all about advanced graphics (not good for that matter) and quick fixes. With Zeno Clash, I got back some of my gaming enthusiasm and Rock of Ages I also enjoyed a lot.
So thank you guys and good luck with Zeno II or what ever games you are developing

Thanks for the awesome support! We're really glad Zeno Clash kind of reminds people of cool games from the past. It's been a recurrent comment we've heard here at the forums and we're glad we've been able to convey that feeling. We'll keep on making more weird unique stuff so stay tuned for future updates!

Thanks for your response. Really appreciate it!

Well, I came here to echo what the thread creator said, keep it simple and focused. Just polish the hell out of the combat system. I think more important than adding is subtracting, removing all of the pieces that served only as a distraction and enhance the parts that worked well.

I get a really satisfying experience from games like Portal 2, Mirror's Edge, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Super Mario Bros. mostly because by the end I feels like these games had almost no rough edges, specially Portal and Mario. Those games were focused, the developers knew what they had to focus on, polished that and drove it as far as it had go, no more or no less.

Games like that, you leave them with a smile. I feel like many games have unnecessary elements that are there out of convention or because it is a sequel that just needed to be bigger and better. I have tons of fun with games like Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Just Cause 2, and put way more hours into them then on the games I previously mentioned, but they are filled with needless distractions with the potential to frustrate the player. They are tons of fun but they are very flawed too.

I read Zeno Clash 2 is going to be an open world with RPG elements. While playing Zeno Clash the one thing I wished the most was the ability to move past the invisible, or rather, the worm/fog walls and see just what was beyond. The world you guys at ACE Team crafted is absolutely amazing. Your game looks and sounds perfect, I hope that's what you guys focus on, expanding the game world.

At times Zeno Clash got repetitive because I was fighting the same enemies in similar scenarios, I defeated the same people over and over and they just kept coming back, that really removed from the game. The combat was fun but I would have preferred the chance to explore more of Zenozoik (is that how I call the land from Zeno Clash?).

I love challenge in games but I think there's another strong aspect to the medium that goes mostly overlooked, which is the joy of exploration. Exploring worlds in games is like appreciating a sculpture and I think it is where the artistic inspiration from the developers shine the most. You guys had tons of originality to show off.

I know it sounds contradictory to say "keep it simple" and then "expand your world" but I think it is possible to make a tight, polished and focused free-roaming experience that is mind blowing. Zeno Clash had one of the best worlds I've ever visited and it would be nice to get a open world that isn't a modern city, a ruined future or a medieval past.

Thanks for your feedback Vicaris. You are quite on spot with your wishes for a sequel. Improving the combat system and making an open world with exploration are important factors we will take in to consideration for the next game. I think you will be happy with the direction we will take in the future.

Most important thing is to for you guys to leave some loose strings in the ending so there can be zeno clash 3!

There will always be mysteries to unravel in the land of Zenozoik, so don't worry, we'll have a lot of material to follow up with future chapters of the story.

I think a good idea would be if very few of the places and characters from zeno clash 1 were repeated. The point of the game setting was how innovative and strange it was. So it would be kind of counter-intuitive if most of what we see was in the previous games.

Also I think it would be good if all of the npcs responded to Ghat, even with just one sentence, word or mutter.

We will want to bring back old locations for the sake of the story, but these will have a visual update. We think players will want to be able to explore some of the places that they saw in the first game and learn more about them. But we'll certainly bring a lot of new bizarre environments in every new game.