Clash N Slash Review

Written by: David Laprad Published: May 11, 2005 For years, Hollywood and the media have propagated the universal fear of an asteroid or alien invasion pulverizing Earth. Game developers share the blame for this widespread apprehension, too; ever since a vector-based ship first battled an onslaught of whirling space rocks and UFOs in 1979, the idea that we could be reduced to orbiting rubble has clung to our collective conscious like a tick to a hound dog. At least games let us pretend we could do something to avoid such a catastrophe. In the case of Clash 'n Slash, a new arcade shooter from Enkord, salvation comes in the form of a ship that circles our pale blue dot, firing its weapons at incoming aliens and asteroids. Judging from the gameplay, saving the world would be nail-biting fun, in addition to being the ultimate good deed. Here's the setup: Earth lies in the center of your screen with your ship caught in its orbit. You circle the planet by moving your mouse. Your hard-working input device also points your ship in any direction and fires its weapons. As you hammer enemies and space rock, you fill your ship upgrade progress bar. When the bar is full, the action pauses and a screen offering you new weapons and an assortment of ship enhancements appears. You get to choose one. Whereas some action games drop a pile of military hardware in your lap without giving much thought to its strategic potential, Clash 'n Slash takes a higher road, offering weapons with different firing rates, bullet speeds, clip sizes and reload times. You can only outfit your ship with one weapon at a time, and each weapon is custom made for dealing with specific situations. For example, the Shotgun fires a spread of shrapnel that can take out entire clusters of invaders, while the Impulse Gun shoots a white hot projectile that can slice through a row of enemies with ease. Several weapons are on hand for mopping up the space around Earth. If you want to hold on to your current weapon, you can opt to install a ship upgrade, although you'll still have to put some thought into your selection. One approach is to minimize the inherent weaknesses of your current firearm. For instance, the Rocket Launcher shoots slow-moving projectiles and takes several seconds to reload; installing a bigger clip and reducing its reload time increases its effectiveness. Along the same lines, damage upgrades are useful for the weapons that fire weak projectiles. Depending on the nature of the current stage, another good strategy is to strengthen your ship. If you're dealing with enemies that like to skim the atmosphere, you can install armor and repair technology, thereby giving your tiny craft a fighting chance against the oncoming hordes. If you lose your ship, you don't fail the mission; however, it does take several seconds for a new craft to appear, leaving Earth vulnerable to an unmerciful thrashing. Luckily, you can periodically upgrade your planet, too, so that it can withstand whatever the enemy brings. For example, during stages in which a massive amount of aliens converge on Earth, it's best to upgrade your regeneration and defense powers. Other planetary upgrades include an airport, which decreases the time it takes to spawn a new ship; a research facility, which reduces the wait between planetary upgrades; a power plant, which increases the regeneration rate of your planet; a navy squadron, which boosts its defense capabilities; and more. If all of this tactical decision-making sounds like it would weigh down the action, rest assured that's not the case. Whenever an upgrade becomes available, the game pauses, allowing you to think through your options and choose wisely. When the fighting resumes, all you have to worry about is aiming and firing; the computer takes care of the rest. That's a good thing, because there's a lot of shooting to do. Since you're dealing with a 360 degree battlefield, there's no time to rest as you fire at flying saucers, mines, kamikaze fighters, asteroids, and more. At first, a few legions of weak enemies are all you have to handle; eventually, bigger and tougher versions of these same aliens begin appearing. The pacing can be relentless; a few hulking terrors might appear in the corners of your screen, slowly advancing toward Earth as detachments of lesser opponents move in at a faster rate. Just when you've cleared away the first weaklings and start concentrating on the bigger ships, a bunch of mines will pop in and surround your planet. Fortunately, help is available in the form of crates and barrels that drift onto the screen. The former contain bonuses that help to fill your ship or planetary upgrade bars; the latter contain all manner of resources that can aid in your defense, including nuclear waste that explodes on contact, a fungus that infects nearby aliens and slows them down, a freezing agent that momentarily stops enemies in their tracks, and more. Some of the most satisfying moments in Clash 'n Slash are when you set off a stunning chain of destruction by hitting a single barrel, thereby detonating nearby barrels. Every aspect of Clash 'n Slash is well designed, including the interface. Upon loading the program, you'll see a menu sporting big buttons and an animated deep space backdrop. Clicking "Options" allows you to tinker with the audio and graphics, set the language, and choose whether or not to have the ship and planetary upgrade screens automatically pop-up during gameplay. After jumping back to the main menu and hitting "Play Game," you're asked to select a level. There are 60 stages in all - not counting the bonus levels - and each is unlocked as you beat the prior one. Once you select a mission, it's time to lock and load. The game screen enables you to see all of the information you need at a glance. A picture of your current weapon and a line of bullets indicating how much ammunition you have in your clip reside in the upper left corner of your display. Below that is the level progress bar. Even lower are two icons, one representing Earth, the other, your ship. Next to each of those are a damage bar and the upgrade progress bar. None of these elements obscure the action. When it's time to install an upgrade, a window offering your selections appears; hovering your mouse over a ship or planetary enhancement provides detailed information regarding that option. My only complaint is that you aren't shown the names of the planetary upgrades you're already using. This makes it hard to determine whether or not you need to install something that increases your planet's regeneration, for example, or if you already have something that tends to that concern. Clash 'n Slash is also strong visually. In this age of 3D accelerated wonders, it's refreshing to see a developer use professionally drawn 2D graphics to pull players into a game. For instance, even though a sprite represents the planet you're charged with protecting, like an image in a pop-up book, it's bursting with substance and detail. You can see clouds drifting through the atmosphere, and as you install upgrades, the additions appear on the surface of the planet. By the end of a busy level, it looks like you're guarding a miniature, sphere-shaped metropolis. The aliens remind me of the flying saucers common in science fiction movies in the 1950's; they're cheesy, but at least they drip with style. The same can be said of the animated backdrops across which various celestial bodies glide. The thing I enjoy the most, however, are the explosions and weapon effects. Not only are they well rendered and a bit dazzling, the chain reactions to which I referred earlier truly are eye-popping. The energy expended in the explosions must somehow be transferred to you, as the gameplay is absorbing and fun, if repetitive after an extended session. Some players don't like having to start each level fresh, without any upgrades, but this forces you to play strategically and allows the levels to be designed in such a way that they encourage good tactics rather than mindless gunplay. Besides, it's hard to deny the catharsis that comes after waiting for your weapon to reload while a ring of aliens and burning rock narrows to within a few pixels of Earth, and then watching everything but you and your precious planet go up in smoke as the clip clicks into place and you unleash a devastating chain of explosions. So far, Clash 'n Slash is one of the best shareware games of 2005. If you haven't performed your good deed today, why not try saving the Earth?