Chaser
It’s about a man with amnesia, and that’s about as inventive as it gets.
Tags: Chaser Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Sep 15th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaser (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Chaser is a perfect example of what’s wrong with first-person shooters today. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the game itself is decent, featuring good graphics, solid design, and a potentially interesting premise. Unfortunately, like many first-person shooter games being released these days, it does absolutely nothing to innovate, and soon after starting, you’ll already be getting the old “been there, done that” feeling.
Perhaps it’s appropriate then, that Chaser is a story set in the future about a man with amnesia searching for answers to is past while on the run from forces that want him dead. Over the course of the game, he’ll work his way through a gritty world where every corner hides danger and he can’t be sure who to trust. If it’s starting to sound like you’ve heard this all before, then you’re kinda’ getting an idea what Chaser is all about.
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Sadly, the game’s storyline is one of its strong points. At times, things seem like they might get deeper and more interesting, only to end in the same usual cliche we’ve seen time and again. And even the more original plot elements seem pilfered from other titles in recent memory. When Chaser starts to get flashbacks that pop up not only in storyline sequences, but in the middle of heated gunfights, it’s almost impressive, until you realize similar techniques have been done before (and better) in games like Max Payne and Eternal Darkness.
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The gameplay sadly has the same lack of originality to it. You’ll mow your way through dozens of one ore two kinds of enemies per level, usually with only one path from start to finish. There will be no real reason to explore, either, as you won’t find any shortcuts, or any hidden weapons. Just dead-end corridors with more enemies to fight. Most of the time, you’ll have two or three weapons in your repertoire, and won’t acquire more in the middle of a level, with a few rare exceptions, mainly when you run into areas with new enemies carrying new weapons.
Again, from time to time, a little variety is tossed in to spice things up, but more often than not, it’s poorly thought through, such as the third major area, that has you going on a stealth mission. Although, you’re guided through it step-by step, and automatically killed any time you get caught (Mainly when you deviate from the instructions you’re given), making it more of a “Follow the instructions” mission than an actual stealth situation like something out of Thief or Splinter Cell, with no opportunity for any kind of problem-solving or creative thinking involved.
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So, Chaser is a by-the-numbers first-person shooter. Certainly not a crime in and of itself. Without anything to set it apart, though, the small flaws drag it down immensely. Little things, like sub-standard enemy AI, or the fact that you’re often given no indication what actually killed you when you die.
I must’ve died a dozen times in the first mission alone, thinking some guard was getting off lucky head shots, before I realized the door slamming shut behind me was actually closing ON me and automatically killing me. I had no indication of this, no view of the doors crushing Chaser’s body to tell me “You need to get out of the doorframe faster, dummy”. I just had to guess that that’s what was causing it. Little things like this permeate the game, and suck all the fun out of it.
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And while the game’s graphics and sound are decent, there’s not really much to write home about. Every now and then, a little detail will come across that will impress, such as in the first mission, where you can see the the air escaping through the bullet-holes in the windows of the space station, or the cool view of Earth from above. Unfortunately, these are far outweighed by the rest of the game, with mostly non-interactive enviroments, and embarassingly bad lipsynch. I don’t mean “Their mouths aren’t moving to the words” bad, either. I’m talking about “Guy A’s mouth is moving when guy B is supposed to be the one talking” bad.
The long and short of it is, while this game isn’t necessarily bad, it simply doesn’t have much going for it. And with a slew of incredible first-person shooters just around the corner (Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Halo, Deus Ex 2, the list goes on and on), there’s many other titles you should be saving your hard-earned money for.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
-Decent graphics -Some original storyline elements |
6.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
-Boring, unimaginative gameplay -Boring, unimaginative level design -Boring, unimaginative storyline |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This isn't a bad game. That said, it does absolutely nothing to set it apart from the crowd, or warrant a purchase, for that matter. | |
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Tags: Chaser
Posted by Jake McNeill on Sep 15th, 2003 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
