Preview: 6 Clid The Snail Gameplay Features You Should Know

The meanest, fastest, and punniest snail in gaming.

Weird Beluga Studio and Koch Media will be releasing Clid The Snail this summer as a timed exclusive for PS4, but what is it all about? Who is this hero in a crunchy shell? Why does he have legs? Could he be the next Rambo? I can’t guarantee answers every question, but here are six things you should know about Clid The Snail.

Game Information
Release Date: Summer 2021
Developer: Weird Beluga studio
Publisher: Koch Media
Availability: PSN (Digital)

Humans are a distant memory

The first thing you’ll notice is that the world has been taken over by the little creatures of the planet – like the snails, slugs, and everything else.

Each species has its own citadel, and because we all know the human race is total scum and would never allow another species to form a complex and intelligent society, there is only one possibility – the humans are gone. Good thing, too, because you just know that Clid would get stamped on within the first hour if humans were still around.

Fastest snail in gaming

Clid is officially the fastest snail in video games. I can’t actually verify that claim because I can’t think of any other games that let you play as a snail. I can think of Gary from Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, and that’s it. And I don’t think you even get to play as him, so he doesn’t even count.

Clid has two legs rather than a slimy floor ruining bum, so he can run, sprint, and even roll during combat and exploration. That’s not bad for a species that often gets ripped for taking its time.

Looks and sounds great

Clid The Snail looks and sounds great. I wasn’t sure about the music at first though – it’s gentle and calming, which is nice, but at the same time, the developers could have easily gone with a heavy metal soundtrack to emphasise that this is not a snail to be messed with. I’m glad they went with the serene tunes instead, though. Really nice and unexpectedly fitting for a game about a war among the tiniest creatures in the animal kingdom.

It’s a top-down shooter with shooty puzzles

Clid The Snail is a top-down shooter and a good one, too, at least from what I’ve played so far.

In the short demo I played, Clid had a few guns at his disposal, including a laser blater, a machine gun, and what I think was a vomit bomb gun? Minging, sure, but if I could fire little bombs full of my biomatter at people, I definitely would.

The gameplay is a mix of shooting, exploring, and some light puzzle solving, and while I’ve only had a tiny slice of that puzzle solving, I liked it and it was really clever and most importantly, it made me feel really clever.

Clid has puns…

Clid has got mad puns, though you won’t hear him speak his words because everybody speaks gobbledegook, so it’s a read the subtitles job, unfortunately.

The writing is kind of cheesy but I couldn’t help but laugh at some of the lines, especially when Clid said “what the shell has happened here.” Such a dad joke. Clid has definitely got some little rascals back home… Which would be sad, actually because…

Clid is a sorry shell

Clid has been banished from his home – the snail citadel – so if he does have kids, they’re growing up without a daddy, which is sad to think about, and now I feel bad for all of those snails I stamped on as a kid.

Clid is an outcast, a loner, and a badarse killer. He’s Rambo the snail, and if you don’t know what a Rambo is, ask your dad.

He comes across a psycho flamethrower wielding mouse on his journey and after killing the mouse – after a couple of deaths and reties, at least that’s the canon in my world – Clid is introduced to the animal Avengers – or as they call themselves, a group called Alastor. And that’s all I know because then the demo ended and I forget I was playing a demo so I got annoyed. But that’s a good thing, because it means the demo worked and when the full game comes out and I do the review, there’s a good chance it’ll be positive, which is nice because I don’t like playing crappy games.

Disclaimer: This preview was carried out on PC using preview code provided by the publisher. For more information, please read our Review Policy.