Chip 'n Clawz vs. The Brainiods Review - Charming Strategic Fun
For those who like turn-based strategy titles as much as I do, then Julian Gollop is someone you should be familiar with. He was one of the driving forces behind the original early-to mid-90s XCOM titles and has built a career working on games of a similar ilk (apart from a stint at Ubisoft, where he worked on Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six), including the excellent 2019 title Phoenix Point. Now he has a new game out in the world, Chip ‘n Clawz vs the Brainiods, but instead of dark, turn-based alien invasions, we have bright and colourful real-time alien invasions. It is a change that, while somewhat unexpected from Julian, is exciting to engage with and one that caught me a little by surprise.
Chip ‘n Clawz is something of a hybrid game. Part 3D action title, part tower defence, part Pikimin-like, it forges its own path, giving it something of a unique feel in the strategy space. About the closest game I can think of that matches a similar style is the old Overlord games from the PS3/360 era, but even then, it is hardly a one-to-one comparison. Basically, the concept is reasonably simple. You protect your base while at the same time trying to take out the enemy’s. To do so, your hero character will have to explore the map to find schematics that can then be used to create minions and towers, each with a particular purpose. The hero can then place these in strategic locations on the map to both defend and attack, all the while engaging in a bit of enemy bashing themselves.
That may sound simple, but there is a surprising amount of depth here. Firstly, the minion types. Each of the minions has a specific purpose and weakness. For example, Flyer units are great against melee units but are weak to shooters, while Artillery units have a massive range but can’t protect themselves. This sort of thing should be immediately familiar to anyone who has played an RTS before, but instead of directing these units with a mouse from an overhead perspective, here you guide them with a waypoint system from a 3D action game view. The key, of course, is to mix and match the minions in a way that both protects them and your base, as well as allows them to go on the offensive. This paper-scissors-rock setup is a classic video game convention for a reason, and it once again works wonderfully here.
In addition to the minions, players can place gun towers in key locations to protect their base and installations. I found that I often had to set these up near my mining droids to protect them, as the enemy seemed to love taking out my economy by destroying my happy little workers. The real key here is that a combination of both minion units and buildings is essential to be successful; otherwise, I found the more-than-competent AI would take great pleasure in my destruction. This was especially true in the challenge missions that offered a little more difficulty than the base story ones. Getting through these really required me to get my mix right, especially if I wanted to get all of the bonus objectives. All of this is controlled with a simple system that works perfectly on a gamepad, so playing on the go with a handheld PC is absolutely one of the best ways to play this game.
Speaking of stories, there is a simple yet fun one here. Aliens have stolen large chunks of Earth in order to mine a resource called Branium. It is the job of the title characters, Chip and Clawz, to stop them. Players can choose to play as either of the characters, with Chip able to overdrive robot minions to make them more effective, while Clawz can repair them. It is a subtle difference, but the fact that I could switch between the two at any time allowed me to use these abilities in effective ways, depending on whether I was on the defensive or the attack.
The whole game shares a similar look to something like Ratchet and Clank in regards to the enemy and character design. It is a colourful, bright world that exudes a sense of charm and whimsy that is often missing in strategy titles. It does, however, become a bit monotonous after a while because there isn’t an awful lot of variety in stage types. A few basic biomes and that’s about it. I also found the whimsical approach to be a little grating after a while, mainly because the writing feels a bit forced. It is trying hard to give Saturday morning cartoon vibes, but ends up feeling like a string of bad puns and dad jokes put together. Hardly the worst thing, but it did make my teeth itch a little after a long session.
Chip ‘n Clawz can also be played both cooperatively and competitively, which adds a host of replayability if you know someone else with the game. I couldn’t really test this out because, sadly, the player numbers just weren’t there for me to get a good read on it with randoms. Luckily, the game includes a nice single player mode that runs for a good 7 hours or so, with each mission offering multiple side objectives, bonuses and collectables to keep players more than entertained. There is actually quite a lot of game here for a very reasonable price so even if you are only playing by yourself, value for money is not a concern.
That said, overall, I had a blast with Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainiods. It has the feeling of a passion project that has been put together with care and love. I don’t see it having as much of an impact as Julian’s more notable strategy titles, but that is fine; not every game has to be a genre-defining title. Instead, Chip ‘n Clawz feels like the perfect in-between game. The game you play for short bursts to clear your head after something deeper has held your attention, the breath of fresh air after a bleak or serious gaming binge. If you have a love of strategy and want to try something that feels fresh and unique, you could certainly do a lot worse than Chip ‘n Clawz. It may not break any records or win any awards, but it will give you a fun and engaging time that can be enjoyed solo or with friends and as far as goals go, that is a pretty good one to nail.
Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainiods was reviewed on PC with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
