Clid the Snail from Koch Media, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Weird Beluga is a top-down action-packed twin-stick shooter. Learn more in our Clid the Snail review!
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Clid the Snail from Koch Media, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and indie studio Weird Beluga is a top-down action-packed twin-stick shooter. This is a post-apocalyptic world with intelligent humanoid creatures such as the titular Clid, a rather talkative firefly named Belu (which will remind you of Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64), slugs, bats, turtles, giant flies – at least from Clid’s perspective -, and more. Humans, which they call giants, are no more, and all that you’ll find are their skeletal remains here and there. Unfortunately, there’s a mysterious plague that is wreaking havoc across the land, so you must do whatever it takes to find its source and eradicate it before it’s too late. Do you have what it takes to save all?
After going out of the city to fight against a group of nasty slugs, Clid returns, only to find that a bunch of traps have been set up for no reason – or so he thinks. This section will work as a short tutorial to teach you all of the basics – more on this in a bit. After entering the city and trying to make your way to the bar, you see a notice about a big meeting taking place in the town’s square. You rush there to see what all the fuzz is about, especially since the bar is closed for the whole day!
Clid does not want to sit around doing nothing, but the other snails don’t want to risk their current situation getting any worse, so they vanish Clid to live outside of the citadel, thinking this will keep everyone else safe. As you can imagine, he’s going to have to find a new group of creatures since no one can survive in this world on their own! You’ll end up joining the group known as Alastor, which includes a mute bat, a ninja-like frog, a hedgehog, a turtle, and a one-eyed chameleon, who is their leader. After this, it’s up to you to help those who are being attacked by slugs, giant flies, moles, and more!
You’ll move Clid with the left analog stick as you aim with the right one, shooting with the R2 button. If you press and hold down the R2 button, you’ll be able to prepare a powerful charged shot. You can use aim assist with the L2 button if you want to make sure every shot lands. The Circle button is for running and rolling around. Your weapons can be changed by pressing left or right on the D-Pad and can switch to a grenade by pressing down. Once selected, throw that grenade with the R1 button to make things go boom! If you’re hurt and have a medkit, you can use it by pressing up on the D-Pad. Oh, and since Clid is a snail, you can use its shell with the L1 button.
To heal your wounds and save your progress, you’ll have to get close to the many dandelions in your journey. That way, when you fail, you’ll be able to progress from the last checkpoint as you learn from your mistakes. As you explore each area, be sure to shoot all objects and open any chests that you find so that you can collect the glowing currency that is used in Clid the Snail. Once you find Hermes, you’ll be able to purchase some grenades and medkits to top off your stock. You can also buy extra mines or fuel for the flamethrower you’ll be rewarded with after beating the game’s first boss.
As you play the game, you’ll unlock stuff that will be sent to the Extras menu. This includes a Gallery section where you can check images for the Alastor members, the enemies you fight, weapons, grenades, and shells you obtain, the species you meet, as well as other miscellaneous images, a Cassette segment where you can listen to the different music you’ve listened to during your time with Clid the Snail, or an Illustrations segment where you can review key art made for the game, such as the cover art, or the illustrations created for each of the different areas you’ll explore.
If you want to unlock all the trophies for Clid the Snail, including the Platinum, then you’ll have to keep your eyes open at all times as you search for all Ralar Seeds, Shells, and upgrades, as well as complete the miscellaneous objectives for the missable trophies in the list. For example, you will come across an engagement ring during one of the early levels, and if you collect it, you will get some extra currency while also knocking out one of the missable trophies. A bunch of trophies will pop as you progress through the game’s story, but the rest you’ll have to work for.
Clid the Snail is a good-looking indie game on Playstation 4 that is fun to play in short bursts. As you gain access to new weapons and shells and progress through the game, the difficulty will ramp up at a steady pace, so you should pay attention to how each enemy moves and attacks so that you can avoid dying as much as possible. The good news is that the checkpoints that regenerate your health will allow you to give it another go when you die, but you should be ready for a big jump in difficulty after you’re done with the first third of the game, so be sure to collect as many Ralar Seeds as possible so that you can boost your overall health! Other than Clid’s roll needing a bit of an invincibility window so that it’s used as a proper dodge gameplay mechanic, there’s not much to complain about this one. Weird Beluga mentioned to me that they’re indeed working on a patch to address this, so do keep that in mind! Clid the Snail is out on PlayStation 4 with a $19.99 price.
Disclaimer
This Clid the Snail review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Koch Media.
