Claws & Chaos review - "Auto-chess your way to the Ark with cute capybaras, weeb warriors, and samurai shibas"

• Rise up against a chubby king for a seat on a boat
• Cute characters with cute cosmetics
• Early paywall and an okay game loop

Animal uprisings are nothing new - it doesn't have to take a dictatorial pig running a farm to see that some animals are "more equal than others." Perhaps that's exactly the kind of mindset King Chipmunk had when he decided to reserve all the seats in Claws & Chaos - particularly, all the seats in a world-saving Ark in the midst of a looming Great Flood.

Yes, it's the same story but also not quite, as you'll take up arms and join forces with fellow wronged animals to fight for a seat on a giant boat. What makes this auto-chess battler interesting is how it's presented, but is it more than just a fancy coat of paint over a tired old genre, or is it better off getting washed away by the flood?

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Table of contents:

• Claws & Chaos visuals

• Claws & Chaos gameplay

• Claws & Chaos verdict

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Claws & Chaos Visuals

Having once again been lured by the promise of shiny things, I went into this strategic auto-battler eager to see what the adorable animals would actually look like in-game. The quirky trailer talked about these animals' epic quest to overthrow the chubby chipmunk king on the throne, and while the narrative is pretty cool, what really drew me in were the character designs - and I'm happy to report that Claws & Chaos didn't disappoint.

Every anthropomorphic animal you'll meet will come dressed in incredibly well-thought-out garb, with everything from Robin Hood-esque squirrels to Assassin's Creed-looking cats. Cut scenes are presented with painterly visuals too, so you'll really get a sense of the "grand" scale of the narrative (no matter how adorably ridiculous it may all seem).

Claws & Chaos Gameplay

Controls are a simple drag-and-drop affair, with you positioning your team from randomly generated cards onto different formations on the battlefield. It's perfect in this mobile format, as all you'll really have to do - just like your typical auto-chess battler - is to prep, hit Start, and watch the madness unfold.

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Winning will no doubt help you progress through the next level while losing will cost you a heart. Lose all your hearts and your run ends - make it through all ten rounds and you move on to the next chapter.

Now, the free version will only unlock the first three chapters for you, as you'll need to purchase the rest of the chapters if you want to know whether or not your brave protagonists will find justice in the end.

There's still plenty to do though even when you hit that paywall, given how you can fight waves of enemies in the Rapture mode with helpful buffs you can choose from after every three rounds.

Completing achievements will reward you with Acoins, which you can use to redeem random rewards and score cosmetics for your valiant team. You can also unlock each animal's individual stories in your journal, or dress them up with cute hats to give them a little bit more pizzazz when you're duking it out on the battlefield.

What's the appeal?

I suppose this is where Claws & Chaos stumbles a little bit in my opinion, because while the stories are cute and all - like the Jiang Shi-inspired Red Panda Zombie who steals people's good vibes - I just don't feel like it's enough to compel me to want to unlock them all.

The strategy element during battle is also very much influenced by RNG, so it becomes a matter of how you can spend your resources wisely (in this case, your Gold) to make your turns as efficient as possible.

You can choose to buy a Unit, increase your max lineup, unlock more slots in the Shop, or Refresh, with each Unit having its own faction bonuses you can also strategise in combat. I do like that each Unit has very varied and distinct skills that will really make you think, but more often than not, you'll be thinking about maximising Gold rather than actually maximising Unit skills.

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The animals are adorable and they're all creatively crafted though, which is what makes the whole experience enticing to me. There's even an aptly named "Weeb Hamster" who's got a One Piece straw hat on its head, a Naruto forehead protector, Cloud's Buster Sword, and a weeb body pillow - I mean, if I'm going to fight for a seat on a boat or on any kind of public transportation for that matter, I honestly can't ask for a better physical berserker in my team.

Overall, Claws & Chaos is an adorable auto-battler that offers a cute story for its cute characters, and with cute cosmetics to boot. The combat wasn't as compelling as I initially thought it would be, but the animal costumes are still more than enough to make me want to pick this up on a train ride or two.