Come and gawp at Clash: Artifacts Of Chaos' gorgeous, sketchy planet in this new dev diary

The first-person brawler Zeno Clash games have been long-time favourites here at RPS, and when Chilean developers ACE Team announced they were making a new game set in their weird and wonderful Clash universe back in July, we were over the moon. Admittedly, Clash: Artifact Of Chaos' reveal trailer left a lot of unanswered questions at the time, but the good news is that we've got an early sneak peak at a new developer diary that tells us all about the game's story and what to expect when it eventually releases next year.

As you'll see from the video above, the brothers Bordeu and founders of ACE Team mainly tell us about the game's background in this new dev diary. Fans of the series will be pleased to hear Artifacts Of Chaos takes place in the same colourful universe as previous Zeno Clash games - the fantastical Zenozoik - only here you'll be biffing your way through it using the long, gangly limbs of Pseudo, an aloof fighter who meets a frail creature called "The Boy" (although "The Blob" might be a better description, if you ask me). Together, they set off to explore the planet of Zenozoik in search of mysterious relics - and presumably the titular artifacts of chaos.

While the previous games were first-person, we can see here that there will be plenty of third-person manoeuvring in Clash: Artifacts Of Chaos, although it's currently unclear whether there will be any first-person face punching in there as well.

The thing I love most about this new gameplay footage, though, is being able to get a closer look at all of its wonderfully sketchy art. The ever shifting crosshatch effect looks super stylish against ACE Team's unique character designs, and watching it all in motion makes me hanker to play the real thing.

Luckily, this is the first of several dev diaries ACE Team have planned for Clash: Artifacts Of Chaos, so hopefully we'll find out more about the new gameplay elements they tease here in the next one.

Clash: Artifacts Of Chaos isn't due to hit Steam and the Epic Games Store until June 2022, but you can wishlist it now to get more dev diary updates as soon as ACE Team release them.