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Platform: PC Genre: Shooter Publisher: Fishtank Interactive Developer: Cauldron ETA: Fall 2003
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Chaser
First
person shooters have long since established themselves as one of the
current genre cornerstones of PC gaming, right up there with RPGs and
real time strategy. Of
course, what comes right along with a very popular genre is the
challenge of making it standout in the sea of titles that populate it as
one company after another tries to cashing on its success.
Some do this by finding a way to twist the genre and turn it on
its head, while others do just as well for themselves by nailing all of
the core, basic facets that can make it so fun in the first place.
Now we have Chaser on the way from the folks over at Cauldron,
who appear to be going for the latter route with their game, shooting
for a raw, visceral shooter with a strong story and just letting players
have at it. The game takes place in the late 21st century where poverty and suffering is the norm on Earth and Mars has only recently been colonized. Players take control of Chaser, a special agent who has lost some of his memory. Unfortunately it isn’t his PIN number and where he |
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left his keys that he's forgotten either, as his little memory lapsing kafuffle revolves around having no idea why a mass of equally secret agents want him dead. Hopefully the overwhelming urge to roll one’s eyes at the premise we’ve heard more than a few times before pans out. As it stands, what will determine if this plot works is the delivery, plain and simple.
It’s really hard to say if the gameplay will be anything out of the ordinary in Chaser. The focus so far has been on the engine being used for the title and the back-story of the game. More or less it appears that the |
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name of the game in Chaser is straight ahead blasting,
with lots of explosions, braking glass, big guns, and some intelligent
enemies just to keep it honest. While
some magazines seem to like to get on their high horse and pontificate
the importance of innovation as the be all, end all of design, there’s
something to be said for taking a formula that works and really driving
it home. This seems to be
what Cauldron is shooting for in Chaser.
Looking
at the visuals, Chaser appears fairly pretty so far.
The game is running on a proprietary engine, the CloakNT, which
is more slanted to indoor environments, but can handle the occasional
small-ish outdoor environment as well.
The most notable function of the engine is its ability to do
per-pixel real-time shadows which should add a great deal to the eye
candy on-screen. A nice
thing to note is that Cauldron is taking steps to accommodate those who
don’t have a terribly fast computer with all of the latest components
by making sure the engine is reasonably scaleable so that players can
turn of lighting effects and whatnot to improve the game’s performance
on their computer. Chaser
is definitely looking like it could be quite the pretty game, but there
are some big question marks hanging over it in terms of how well the
story will present itself and how the gameplay gels.
If Cauldron can bring it all together Chaser could well be a
pretty game that’s pretty entertaining. In the meantime you can
twiddle your thumbs, play checkers, or something. - Mr. Nash (February 25, 2002) |
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