Around 3 years ago, two FPS games came out from eastern European developers - Chrome and Chaser. However, it is pretty rare I see any mention of these anywhere - it's almost as if they never existed. They may be worth checking out for FPS fnas who have played all the usual suspects.
The first thing I noticed about Chrome was the stunning visuals. I played this in the first half of this year, and the graphics still looked decent - quite impressive for a 2003 title. In fact, I'd even go so far as to suggest that this is possibly the best graphics engine of the B.C. (Before Crytek) era. It handles outdoor environments very well and has a lot of lush vegetation etc. Levels are large and offer plenty of opportunity for sniping or moving forward behind cover. There's also a few vehicles to play with. However, I actually found this a pretty hard game - ammo is scarce in places and the lush, expansive environments can also prove troublesome when trying to locate an enemy taking pot shots from distance. I think that while on the surface it is a generic sci-fi shooter, it actually falls into the tactical category and may not suit players like me who tend to charge in, all guns blazing. I got to around the 4th level and then shelved it. It does have regenerating health, and some Deus Ex style augmentations to boost your abilities - so I guess the key is learning how to best utilise these.
Anyone played the more recent Chrome SpecForce?
Recently I have been playing another FPS from the same era, Chaser. The jury is still out on this one as far as I'm concerned. It does, at least, make an attempt at having a developed storyline and is punctuated with fairly extensive cutscenes both in between and during levels, using the game engine. The voice acting does leave a little to be desired but I suppose this is to be expected from a small Euro dev house. These do help to build up a bit of chacterisation. The game itself seems to be fairly standard fare, running and gunning your way through what so far are mostly samey city environments. Outdoor areas such as streets are suitably gritty and seem to fit well with the atmosphere of the game, but the indoor areas are rather bland and definitely look dated now. There is the occasional exception such as the sewer region but they are few and far between.
The plot has at least done enough to keep me interested and I shall soldier on. Of course the benefit of being a slightly older, patched title is that performance in 1680x1050 4xAA 16xAF max settings is excellent, running at 50-100fps.
So, anyone else played these two titles? Perhaps the reason they are forgotten is that they are, at the end of the day, fairly average games which did not recieve exceptionally good reviews. But in my eyes, they are certainly no worse than the likes of Area 51, Pariah and Halo, all of which seem to be somewhat better known sci-fi FPS.
The first thing I noticed about Chrome was the stunning visuals. I played this in the first half of this year, and the graphics still looked decent - quite impressive for a 2003 title. In fact, I'd even go so far as to suggest that this is possibly the best graphics engine of the B.C. (Before Crytek) era. It handles outdoor environments very well and has a lot of lush vegetation etc. Levels are large and offer plenty of opportunity for sniping or moving forward behind cover. There's also a few vehicles to play with. However, I actually found this a pretty hard game - ammo is scarce in places and the lush, expansive environments can also prove troublesome when trying to locate an enemy taking pot shots from distance. I think that while on the surface it is a generic sci-fi shooter, it actually falls into the tactical category and may not suit players like me who tend to charge in, all guns blazing. I got to around the 4th level and then shelved it. It does have regenerating health, and some Deus Ex style augmentations to boost your abilities - so I guess the key is learning how to best utilise these.
Anyone played the more recent Chrome SpecForce?
Recently I have been playing another FPS from the same era, Chaser. The jury is still out on this one as far as I'm concerned. It does, at least, make an attempt at having a developed storyline and is punctuated with fairly extensive cutscenes both in between and during levels, using the game engine. The voice acting does leave a little to be desired but I suppose this is to be expected from a small Euro dev house. These do help to build up a bit of chacterisation. The game itself seems to be fairly standard fare, running and gunning your way through what so far are mostly samey city environments. Outdoor areas such as streets are suitably gritty and seem to fit well with the atmosphere of the game, but the indoor areas are rather bland and definitely look dated now. There is the occasional exception such as the sewer region but they are few and far between.
The plot has at least done enough to keep me interested and I shall soldier on. Of course the benefit of being a slightly older, patched title is that performance in 1680x1050 4xAA 16xAF max settings is excellent, running at 50-100fps.
So, anyone else played these two titles? Perhaps the reason they are forgotten is that they are, at the end of the day, fairly average games which did not recieve exceptionally good reviews. But in my eyes, they are certainly no worse than the likes of Area 51, Pariah and Halo, all of which seem to be somewhat better known sci-fi FPS.
