Chaser

The Good
Right from the get-go, the graphics are outstanding. I mean that, too. For a 2003 game, these are 2004 graphics (cliché, but true). The accurate reflections on any wet spot of ground, off the window glass, and the ripple-prone water. The glass will fragment, and breaks about as you’d expect too, and oh is it spectacular. This all comes at a frame rate you can adore; on a Geforce 4 4400, Athlon XP 2700+, there were no hitches to speak of. Granted, the computer is no slouch, but it’s also a far cry from running Far Cry (I never get tired of that pun).

Sound is similarly pleasing, though it doesn’t hold a candle to the graphics. The soundtrack adds just the right amount of flavor to the combat, and once turned down to an acceptable volume, it makes the boring parts of the shooter more tolerable. The weapon sounds are good, though once you’ve fired several thousand rounds from a gun you tend not to ‘hear’ them anymore. The screams from your armed victims are pretty satisfying too.

A final strong point would be the story, which is what you can thank for this review. From the opening scene of the intro, you know you’re in for good, cheap sci-fi. It’s the standard fare, but it’s done well. When you start playing and there’s a space station in Earth orbit that’s exploding all around you, you know you’re in for a ride. Chaser does not disappoint, and I congratulate the writers. This is the kind of game that can make a person pick up a copy of Analog just to quench the thirst for talented, quickie sci-fi.

A final note; I picked this game up because I wanted to check out the story. I didn’t try the multiplayer in the full version, but I played the heck out of the demo. I can’t attest to the current state of multiplayer, but I do know that I regret not buying this game when it was first released when multiplayer would have been going strongest. Multiplay was solid in the demo, and I expect it is in the full version too.

The Bad
There are two major flaws to this game in single-play. I’ll start with the one that annoyed me the most… the difficulty. Because I just wanted to experience the game and its story, I opted for normal (out of Easy-Normal-Hard). I play a lot of Unreal Tournament 2004 and its mods, I’ve played a lot of multiplayer everything, and more single-player games than I can count. I can honestly attest that normal mode for this game is the hardest ‘normal’ I’ve ever encountered. You will quicksave/quickload so many times during the course of the game that you will be using the keys for those two functions almost as much as your ‘weapon reload’ key. The game’s Adrenaline mode (akin to bullet-time, but different enough to make its own mark) does not offset this inherent difficulty. When you finish the game, the story is all the sweeter, but damn. This is one hard game.

The second flaw, which I probably shouldn’t gripe about, but I have to register the complaint. It’s well-documented in the game reviews, I’m sure. This game drags out. It will drag out to the point of your being in tears due to the sheer volume of bad guys to kill, of tunnels to go through, of quicksaves and quickloads. The game’s story is epic, and the gameplay is near-infinite. I enjoyed the length at first, but when story was waiting for repetitious shooting sequences to finish, I had had enough. The game is just too long.

The Bottom Line
If you have patience, you enjoy a good single-player game, and you enjoy cheap, Analog-grade sci-fi, Chaser’s single-play will make you giddy and/or content. I would recommend the Easy setting, and I don’t say that lightly. The graphics don’t stop being good at any point of the game, and the music will keep you company during the slow parts of the game. I found the ending to be worth it, and there were many novel sequences that I’m glad to have seen and experienced. It’s not for everyone, but it is worth a shot. Just don’t expect a Half-Life, and you might be pleasantly surprised.