REVIEW : Clid The Snail (PS5)
When independent studios want to try their hand at the twin-stick shooter genre, we always feel a little bit of joy inside the heart. It is a genre that is simple to develop, the basic mechanics are linear, and even with modest means, titles capable of entertaining and entertaining for a few hours can come out, the right compromise to satisfy lovers of these productions. However, when the world of gaming everything moves at a crazy pace, it is good to consider what the market offers and what quality level its competitors have arrived at, especially if titles such as The Ascent on Microsoft platforms are distributed in subscriptions with negligible cost.
The developers of Weird Beluga, in their first experience, however, had a rather clear vision of the product and wanted to reach the public with something different than usual, with a game that put aside the sometimes exaggerated rhythms of the genre to return to a cadence. Slower and more reasoned, made up of inspired settings, lasers, and characters as curious as they are interesting.
A snail to keep us company
Clomid is a snail, as you could easily guess from the title, to be honest, who does not particularly like the comfortable and peaceful life of his fellow men, which is why he is soon sent into exile. Fortunately, Weird Belugadecided to give Clid two legs and make all the creatures of this imaginary world anthropomorphic, thus removing the annoying problem of the drooling wake that would have characterized our gastropod friends. The result is something unique, as said in the opening words, with a stimulating story and plot and, without a doubt, the flagship of the entire production despite the banal initial premises. The universe in which we find ourselves is fascinating, well thought out and full of details capable of telling a unique subtext, showing the player elements extraneous to the world of snails and quickly bringing the general vision of our problems to another dimension.
A match stuck in the ground to be used as a torch or a lighter placed as an insurmountable obstacle are just two small examples that make us understand the extent of our deeds, immense in the world of Cloud, but insignificant when evaluated with the weight of our size.
In short, like all self-respecting heroes, we will find ourselves having to fight against a huge threat, capable of bringing to their knees not only our travelling companions but also all the other races that we will meet on our path, an adventure told with general care and able to bring the player into the part, the only real goal of the production since from here on things start to go downhill.
The pace and the evolution of the levels are designed to give the player time to aim and repel rather dangerous enemies, capable of stealing much of Clid’s life energy with one shot. We could say that Clid the Snail is the Dark Souls of Twin Stick Shooter, abusing a now unoriginal meme, but the truth is that more than once, situations have reminded us of the trial and error fights of the From Software series. However, this is not always a good thing, given that the level of difficulty tends to surge often suddenly, with long and repetitive sections against which the player risks crashing brutally, inevitably having to start over from the nearest checkpoint feeling frustrated. This is because of more than a desire for revenge and revenge. All due to slow gameplay and an aiming system, albeit extremely simple, which leaves too much room for imprecision and carelessness, a lethal combination for a game like this.
Unfortunately, even the constant and continuous slowdowns on PlayStation 4, the platform we used to review the game, do not help, as well as an unclear and clean view of the setting, which ends up mixing everything that happens on the screen. The purple lasers clash with the dark colours surrounding Clid in his adventure. Even the other effects are not exactly noteworthy for a final result that shows the level of inexperience and the team’s few strengths in question.
Paraphernalia to unlock
Clid’s main weapon can fire in bursts and is equipped with a secondary fire to emit a charged pulse, enough most of the time to blow up various enemies in an overwhelming burst of innards. Unfortunately, although with the passage of time and the progress of the adventure, other firearms such as Gatling and flamethrowers are unlocked, everything happens in a too slow way. and with the constant weight of ammunition counted for all secondary weapons, a situation that leads the player never to change weapons to avoid wasting the few bullets available, leading him to use them practically never. A pity, therefore, that the variety remains a chimaera, where players will prefer to remain faithful to a weapon with infinite shots rather than being out of ammunition at the most beautiful and being surrounded, or worse stuck, by the enemies who will charge them head down.
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