Clive 'N' Wrench Review

Clive N Wrench was a hard to game to get into at first, it has a very unpolished feel to it and the platforming in general is not as smooth as it could be. The first level was also not that great and felt very small and compact, partner that with the game not being very clear how progression works and the opening few minutes of Clive N Wrench was miserable for me. I was left confused and bewildered on what I was supposed to do and what I was supposed to collect in order to progress through the level. The tutorial wasn't very good and it doesn't do the greatest of jobs explaining how your moveset works. I was almost considering dropping the game during the first few minutes. Add the fact that you need to see multiple loading screen and skip a number of logos and cutscenes just to start up the game and to say I wasn't enjoying the game at all would be an understatement.

Then the more I played the game, the more I slowly started to like it. First, I discovered that gems unlocked levels and ancient coins unlocked bosses for you to fight in order to get to the next level, you need to 88 anicent coins for you to get to the final boss. I also slowly learned the controls are no different than something like Jak and Daxter. You get a double jump, a high jump, a ground pound, a spin attack, and rolling jump. There are also differences like being able to stay in the air with much longer with your spin move and a sprint button. The former is robust to use and gives you a surprising amount of freedom during exploration.

The level design in outside of the first level and the Egypt levels are solid and enjoyable to explore. The movement system is flexible enough to make the act of exploration enjoyable. You will be gliding around, double jumping, long jumping and ledge grabbing throughout the game to find ancient coins, if the movement system was awkward and cumbersome, the act of exploring and jumping around would be a chore but luckily this game is more like Jak and Daxter and less like Banjo Kazzooie. Unfortunately, the game doesn't have the seemless world design and lack of loading screen that the first Jak game has but the loading screens outside of loading individual from levels from the hub world is fine so it doesn't get in the way too much.

Now on to the bad, the platforming can be really stitled when during levels with extra chellenge, the Egypt and pirate boss guanlet levels being the worst since it requires you to be precise and has timed platforming and the camera isn't great makes it awkward to traverse. They have pseudo 2D levels something like Crash Bandicot, but the controls are meant for free form movement rather than precision so when the game requires accurate platforming, it's hard to make jumps that won't accidentally lead to your death since I am worried about accidentally running outside of the psuedo 2D plane. Partner that with the lack of invinciblity frames when you get hit and it can lead to frustration pretty quickly since you can get hit, and then get hit again when trying to run away and avoid cannon ball and spikes. I was only able to beat the platforming gaunlet for the pirate "boss" due to me relying on speedrunning tactics to get past the game's more annoying platforming challenges due to the above mentioned issues. If I didn't do these tactics, I probably wouldn't be able to beat the game. That and the game having a very forgiving checkpoint system. 

Combat also ranges from tolerable to terrible. With fights that involve normal enemies, it's fine. Since it requires a quick tap of the melee attack button to kill most if not all enemies all though enemies have a knack for running into you even when mashing the melee attack button constantly so while combat with normal enemies is tolerable it's not always reliable due to the game's lack of polish and before mentioned lack of invinciblity frames.

Now the final issue with the game: the bosses. Most of them range from okay to really bad. Some of the bosses feel like the devs didn't have enough time to program in any bosses so instead they are tough platforming challenging where Clive and Wrench beat the boss in a cutscene, this happens a lot and despite the game having multiple bosses, only some of them will be direct boss fights where you actually fight them where you fight them head on. The one on one fights also aren't great since they will be accompanied by other enemies and the before mentioned enemies can make the bosses very grating to fight. They are beatable but it's guarenteed you will get annoyed by them while fighting them on repeated attempts.

Overall, despite the issues I have with Clive N Wrench, it's an enjoyable 3D collectathon platformer, I was able to tolerate it's lack of polish, I don't think everyone will and I understand that but the game gave me a solid movement system and level design that I was able to look past it's issues. If you never liked collectathon platformers to begin with, skip this since this game does nothing new and has very iterative design. If you do like this kind of game, it's worth at least one playthrough.