For the past few years, I have been playing a lot of games for my various various consoles. In fact, I recently bought a PS4, and am invested in the PS ecosystem. However, I did not really get into games for the PS4 until I bought Clid the Snail for £14.99.
Clid the Snail is a game in which you follow the snails to find food in their ocean homes. They will be able to eat their favorite type of food, which will make them stronger. The game comes with four different species of snails, each with their own look and color.
Clid the Snail is an extremely charming game, but is it enough to justify the price of the PS4?
Consider the following scenario: in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth, when humanity is no longer here to destroy everything for everyone, most of the tiny creatures we know and despise have evolved to the point of sprouting limbs and becoming clever enough to build weapons and civilizations. Then we encounter a cranky drunken snail who enjoys weaponry and causing havoc. He is expelled from his tribe, only to go on a series of totally absurd adventures, such as battling a flamethrower-wielding mouse. Clid the Snail, a video game based on such a bizarre idea, has been released.
Let me introduce you to Clid. He’s filthy.
Clid the Snail combines a bizarre concept with a traditional twin-stick shooter control system. In each of the game’s stages, you race about the landscape in a top-down viewpoint, shooting snails, rats, and other tiny (mutated) creatures while uncovering secrets and completing minor puzzles. There’s also a smidgeon of Dark Souls in here. Clid the Snail‘s dodging mechanism, stamina meter, limited health items, the fact that even the weakest of enemies can pack a punch, and the game’s general visual style all bear the impact. Everything is bleak and ominous, but it’s also applied to the size and scope of tiny creatures in a quasi-gothic A Bug’s Life kind of manner.
The game has some fascinating views and inventive stages, but I don’t believe the character designs fit well with the often silly concept. Take, for example, the titular Clid. He’s as disgusting as a snail with legs. He lacks excessive features or attractive characteristics. Even though the game tries to give him a history and a personality, his design is much too serious and unappealing. The creators even chose to give each figure lines of spoken speech in a strange gibberish language that sounded very similar to Greedo from Star Wars. I can’t say it was a wise choice since it sounds terrible, but they tried. Regrettably, serious people and a plot centered on snails with freakin’ lasers don’t mix.
Clid the Snail is both too gloomy and too bright, and I’m not sure why.
The gameplay is also out of sync with the overall level design. Twin-stick shooters work best in big arenas with plenty of room to maneuver about and shoot opponents from a safe distance. Clid the Snail, as previously said, takes its level design concept from Dark Souls. While I like the additional aspect of exploration and hidden things to find, these tight and gloomy corridors are not conducive to a fast-paced shooter.
You only get to use your weapons in wide areas on rare occasions, and when you do, you’re hindered by weak weapons, bad aiming controls, and some obnoxious monsters with an excessive amount of HP. Clid’s weapons aren’t very powerful, so you’ll have to constantly charging your bullets in order to cause any sort of significant damage. I was meant to enjoy a ridiculously over-the-top battle against Clid the Snail’s crazy bosses, but I despised every single one of them. Ironically, it was while I was exploring and gathering things that I liked the game the most, not when I was firing down neanderthal slugs.
Fighting a big rat with a flamethrower should be a lot of fun. I wasn’t one of them.
Clid the Snail is unusual, but not very entertaining. Even if its basic idea is unique among its contemporaries, it has a gameplay loop that conflicts with the level design and a lack of charm in its presentation and characters. Indie and AAA games with twin-stick shooters are a dime a dozen, and even the good ones struggle to separate out from the pack. Clid the Snail is unable to complete the task. Even though playing as a bipedal snail with a laser pistol is unlike anything else I’ve done before, I can’t say I had a great time with it.
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The level ideas of Clid the Snail are innovative, but the characters and color palette, as well as the blinding flashing lights, leave a lot to be desired. |
Clid the Snail’s poor twin-stick control system clashes negatively with the weaponry at your disposal and the Souls-like level design. |
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Clid the Snail is a game best played at a low volume due to bad mixing, a dull music, and strange Star Wars-esque “voice acting.” |
It’s an interesting game, but it’s not very enjoyable owing to the aforementioned gameplay problems and a general lack of charm. |
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Final Score: 6.0 |
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Clid the Snail is currently available on PlayStation 4.
PS4 was used for this review.
The publisher sent me a copy of Clid the Snail.
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