Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids PC Review
Summary: Great effort at pushing the RTS genre in new directions with the addition of third-person action platforming, and I suspect you will either love it or loathe it.
3.3
RTS meets Fortnite
I found Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids an interesting effort at introducing some evolution to the RTS genre. It is bright, colourful, sassy… and a little bit frustrating. I will admit to being a little disappointed – my expectations were influenced by Snapshot Games Phoenix Point (and the obvious X-COM association via Julian Gollop) and Chip ‘n Clawz ain’t no X-COM. So whilst I can appreciate the novel take on RTS and the increased complexity of strategies Chip ‘n Clawz offers by expanding the player perspective, I struggled to play without wishing it was more like Starcraft or Age of Empires, let alone Red Alert 2. I reviewed Chip ‘n Clawz on PC, and none of the images below will show anything past the first hour of the campaign.
I found the gameplay mash up the most interesting part of Chip ‘n Clawz – it’s a mixture of RTS and third-person action/platforming. The game immediately prompts you to consider playing with a controller rather than keyboard and mouse, and onboarding feels more like a Fortnite ‘mod’. You start each match (“grav sphere” map) as either of the titular characters, Chip – a human who is seemingly a genius inventor and overgrown threenager; or Clawz, a robot companion modelled as a humanoid cat. And you are tasked with defeating yet another alien invasion to steal Earth’s resources. Both start with melee attacks that deliver greater damage with sequential strikes; have the capability to gain ranged attacks; and both can use vehicles (some areas of the map seemed only accessible by vehicle). The significant difference between the characters is that Chip can ‘overdrive’ units to allow faster actions, whilst Clawz can repair. By the time I completed the first couple of campaign missions using the controller felt natural, which is an amazing feat by Snapshot Games given how much I struggle without a mouse and keyboard.
It’s hard to not consider Ratchet and Clank when considering the characters, their dialogue and the overall ‘vibe’ and art style. Unfortunately, I did not warm to either character in the same way, nor does the platforming feel as smooth or fun. I never felt as fast as I wanted to be, never jumped as high as I wished (oh my god I would kill for the staple double-jump). But the RTS mechanics are smooth as butter. As much as I did not gel with the gameplay loop I certainly appreciated how easy it was to zoom out into a ‘strategy’ view, command units to counter enemy types and control lanes, whilst running around the map claiming ‘replikons’ (nodes required to build certain unit types). I wish I had the opportunity to play Chip ‘n Clawz when I was a kid given how smooth the campaign introduces the gameplay, and how well it might work as a gateway to the RTS genre for a younger audience or people who are unused to the pace and strategic forward planning of an RTS.
The campaign offers a great way to learn the usual rock-paper-scissors for the different troop types that claiming replikons offer. Only the first several missions will let you get away with spamming troops, forcing you to learn the value of building placement and each unit’s relative weakness and strength. Each campaign match seems designed to only take a short amount of time, maybe 20 minutes for reach run-through. Most of the strategy element is relatively straight-forward once you get the knack required for each mission, allowing you the pleasure of running around and whacking enemy units in order to feel like you were a part of the victory too. There is only a single resource to collect (“Brainium”), each building creates a single unit type and automatically deploys until it reaches its maximum, and replenishes for losses. Except the boss battles – they were tough, I really struggled with trying to manage competing priorities and attention simultaneously and found the mental juggle between third-person and RTS-view challenging from a cognitive perspective.
There is an additional layer of strategy in being able to collect unlockable blueprints during battle that you keep if you win – and you gain currency to unlock these perks depending on how well you perform in each mission. It is easy enough to replay missions if you need a bit more currency (or you’re a completionist like myself and can’t stand to see a single star missing). You can only choose 3 perks prior to each mission allowing for another layer of custom strategy and experimentation.
I played the campaign in single-player and offline without issue – however it only took me a few minutes to realise Chip ‘n Clawz would benefit from the free ‘fun bonus’ of having a friend. Wonderfully there is a co-op split screen mode for local play – I was reminded of how fun Supergiant’s Pyre was to play with a friend. Of course there is the usual crossplay, however Snapshot games have offered the same ‘friend pass’ meaning only one of you needs to purchase the game to play together. There are also online modes for both PvE and PvP. I never got around to playing against a human opponent, and from what I could see on the forums there are already concerns regarding player numbers, so it might be worthwhile waiting for word-of-mouth to spread before diving into the online modes (I hope).
I’ve managed to get through the meat of the review without mentioning the story – mainly because I didn’t find much of one. I not only struggled connecting with both lead characters due to what I felt as a lack of context and history, I didn’t recognise the world I was trying to save; and found the tone a bit grating for my personal taste. Again, my background with AoE, Starcraft and Red Alert/C&C might be leading me down the wrong path here. Chip ‘n Clawz gives you an opening cinematic that glosses over an alien invasion and subsequent proliferation of a new ‘Brainium’ mineral as the primary story set-up for the world. The way it introduces both Chip and Clawz had me going to Google to check this wasn’t a sequel with backstory and context that was assumed – nope. On the one hand, I applaud the effort at efficient onboarding. On the other I lament for yet another world that I won’t feel compelled to care about or explore.
Each campaign mission has short little cinematics that I began to skip out of habit – they mostly deliver pithy and deliberately over-the-top characterisations that I preferred over the cinematics. Don’t get me wrong, the production on this game is delightful, I enjoyed the colourful palette and the cartoon aesthetic. It ran smoothly on my average-PC at mostly ‘Ultra’ settings, and that is what I would expect given the relatively low demand – I did notice quite a bit of blur when capturing image and footage though, so don’t go into this expecting to be blown away by visual fidelity. Audio communicated what it needed to for enemy activities and the one-liners did not get in the way (often); it is sufficiently forgettable to let you strategise without distraction, and avoid distracting you by being bad. But the dialogue and story tone was not for me, and I found the plot mainly forgettable. I reckon Chip ‘n Clawz is best enjoyed with a mate, chips and a beverage to go with the light self-aware tone.
Final Thoughts?
Overall I think what I enjoyed most about my time with Chip ‘n Clawz was that it is trying something different. I can tell it’s not for me, and I can only imagine playing it again when I have some mates over – but I have a lot of time for games that contribute to the evolution of a genre. I would recommend giving it a go if you have ever been a fan of RTS, just to appreciate the novelty – or if you want an accessible entry into the genre. But you might need to be more familiar with MOBAs and Fortnite, and more open to the aesthetic than myself to love it.
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