I wonder why they keep calling these things DLCs instead of Updates? DLC usually implies that you pay for it, while Valve has always called their expansions to Team Fortress 2 updates.
Anyway, they've added three new Challenge Rooms to Zeno Clash. That game has some excellent hand-to-hand brawling in it!

Zeno Clash was overrated and disappointing. It is good that they are releasing some goodies for free because nobody would pay for them otherwise. They are calling it DLC because that's the trend, and having it free may earn them some small amount of respect.

...Hello, personal opinion, sounds like trolling?
Anyway, yeah, I'm gonna wait for some time and then replay the whole game because of it :D It's great that developers are actually supporting the game, which is not so usual nowadays - well, they ARE indie devs and they DO love their game, so it's probably no surprise :D I hope they'll announce second part soon - they were talking about more freedom. That would make the game perfect :D

I for one seriously enjoyed the game and have had discussions with the developers about it. So...
but I do hate the challenge maps.

No kidding. Everything people write in this manner is personal opinion; including disclaimers like "personally" or "in my opinion" is redundant, and their absence does not decrease the validity of an opinion.
The next game being more like an RPG sounds very promising. Zeno Clash had some fantastic acid-trip scenery, but unfortunately much of that detail was wasted because the way the game was designed there was never any time to just wander around freely and admire it all (except in a few areas where it was possible get momentarily lost while trying to work out what had to be done to reach the next area).

The best parts of the game, for me, were the brawling and the visuals. I kind of hated the gunplay and fighting the small creatures. Also, the giants that you fight every few levels were extremely easy to beat, once you knew that you had to charge with the right mouse button.
If they do make it an RPG, I hope that they keep it first-person and involve lots of brawling. The game has some of the best hand-to-hand combat I've ever played!

the hand to hand combat is nice, but I was mostly interested in the design and the story. the recycled characters over and over really get on my nerves.

Yeah, I know what you mean. They really stressed that the main guy was part of a family that was HUUUGE, but when you fight your family you usually see the same members over and over. Same with the Corwids.

I still haven't really tinkered with the challenge rooms. I found them somewhat boring, and goddamn impossible once I hit the third one.
I loved the game, though. I agree with the complaints, that we had no time to explore, that we were rushed from one area to the next, that the story felt rushed when it was presented as just being a string of fights one after the other, which all spell out INDIE, which is something I kind of forgot when looking around in the game, which in turn made me want to be more harsh than was necessary on its faults.
The sequel sounds like it'll be amazing. :) The Jodorowsky-inspired setting was just brilliant.

I never played it, and I probably never will. I never got into these kinds of games.

What 'kinds of games' would they be? Zeno Clash is kind of a game unto itself. It lifts conventions from a bunch of genres, but I can't name any other games that blend them this way... well, aside from possibly Condemned. Which the game doesn't resemble at all.
I just finished it about an hour ago, and loved it. I was lucky enough to not even agree with the linearity complaint - I got to admire the artwork just fine, and found the pacing and length of the game absolutely spot-on, aside from the last half hour or so, which (a) got a bit dull, and (b) really showed the cracks in the crowd-management aspect of the fighting . I kept getting sandwiched, and it never felt fair.
I'm very glad I played.

Kinds of games as fantasy first person "shooters". I didn't enjoy Dark Messiah because of this.