Zeno Clash

In the main story mode, players assume the role of Ghat and progress through the world of Zenozoik, visiting various locations in a linear sequence. Gameplay is presented in a first-person perspective, with occasional cutscenes in a third-person perspective. When the player enters certain areas, it triggers a scripted sequence, initiating a battle in which the player must defeat all enemies to proceed. Ghat is proficient in martial arts, and can dodge or counter enemy attacks.

While there is a strong focus on unarmed combat, Ghat can also obtain unconventional melee and ranged weapons by several means, such as disarming enemies. Intermittent segments of gameplay happen similarly to a linear progression shooter.

The story takes place in a fictional fantasy world called Zenozoik, and begins in a town called Halstedom. The game begins with Ghat, the game's protagonist, regaining consciousness after setting off an explosion which kills Father-Mother, an ostensibly hermaphroditic creature, which has raised a large and influential family. Ghat is one of Father-Mother's children, who turned on it after discovering its secret. Ghat runs away from the town, chased by his brothers and sisters seeking to kill him, and is banished from his family. He is accompanied by a female companion named Deadra who has saved Ghat from apathy.

During their travels away from Halstedom, Ghat explains to Deadra through partially interactive flashbacks the events that led up to his attempt on Father-Mother's life. One of the first things that is mentioned is that he lived for a time with the Corwid of the Free, the insane residents of the forests of Zenozoik. While he has turned away from his past life as a Corwid, his brothers and sisters still consider him as one. Ghat still harbors a sense of admiration for the single-mindedness of Corwids. Regardless, when he encounters them a fight ensues.

While Zeno Clash was ACE Team's first original game, they have been developing game modifications since the 1990s. Their last project, Zenozoik, was far larger in scope than Zeno Clash, and attempted to incorporate the disparate elements of shooting, role-playing, melee combat and sandbox gameplay. ACE Team later realized that it was too ambitious for a small independent studio, and decided to make a more focused game. Zeno Clash is what emerged—player exploration is linear, and role-playing elements were excluded altogether.

The game was initially conceived as a total conversion modification using the Source engine. ACE Team showed a demo version to Valve, the creators of the engine, who were impressed by the game's quality. The two companies then negotiated an engine licensing and distribution deal.

Zeno Clash received "generally favourable reviews", while the Ultimate Edition received "mixed or average reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

In January 2009, Zeno Clash was a nominated finalist in the Independent Games Festival yearly competition, in the category of Excellence in Visual Art. It was one of five games to be selected for this award, from a total of 226 participating titles. It was named PC Game of the Month by IGN for April 2009. It was praised for its originality and "satisfying sense of combat."