1d ago

I've played Chaser (2003) and let me tell you...

tldr; A budget shooter that goes from tolerable to insufferable real quick

Chaser is a 2003 FPS from Cauldron, who would go on to create all time classics like Secret Service (2008) and Cabella's Dangerous Hunts 2011. Clearly a household name synonymous with quality. This game is also billed as having "A gripping story full of intrigue, plot twists and believable characters."

In this game, you're John Chaser, an amnesiac protagonist who escapes a space station and crash lands back on a futuristic Earth city. Shortly afterwards, you find yourself working for the local mafia because Chaser's too fucking stupid to take a hint. No, seriously, there's this dude in the cutscene that says "If you got any sense, you'll turn around and head as far away from this city as you can" and mr. protagonist goes back to the mafia owned casino. You also get some flashbacks in the first couple missions, but they go away. Don't worry too much about the story, everything done on Earth is like a sidequest until you get back to Mars. Overall, the game can be divided in 3 thirds: shitty city, soviet part, Mars. The latter 2 drag on for-fucking-ever.

For the story, here's a rundown of it:

Story spoilers

Chaser is "forced" into the mafia, but a dude kinda helps him get off it by telling him about a doctor that can remove the bomb chip that gets implanted on every mafia thug. After doing so, Chaser follows the plan to get to Mars and accidentally kills the mafia boss. The smuggler that'll get him to Mars starts the whole soviet Siberia part of the game, which feels like the world's worst sequence of bodyguard missions. Chaser gets betrayed and shot by the smuggler, but miraculously survives. He finishes the trip to the Cosmodrome thanks to some old russian help and flies to Mars. There, he goes to jail, meets up with an old acquaintance and finds out about the rebellion against Mars Corp. Jailbreak happens, then it's off to do some rebel terrorism. A bartender does a load of exposition, as he's also the main informant/connection of the rebels and its operators. A couple of awful levels later, ready to celebrate their best victory, the rebel HQ is invaded by Marscorp forces. At the end of it, Chaser is told by Marscorp CEO, which he thought he had killed a couple of hours ago, that he's actually the man he wanted to find and "get some answers", Stone, and that he had his memory wiped and fake memories implanted to become Chaser in order to infiltrate the rebels. He gets shot and dies. The end.

But it's a first person shooter, so how's the shootin'? Kinda decent, most of the time. Ironically, the futuristic weapons feel like the worst ones when it comes to killing enemies. While a M4 rifle will typically kill an enemy in 1 or 2 shots, the futuristic HK11 might take 10+. Sometimes fucking explosives to the face won't kill enemies outright. Hand grenades are the worst, you don't click and hold to throw, you click and he'll do a fixed distance throw because fuck you. Fucking Quake 2 and Medal of Honor let you hold the grenade to throw it further or drop close by.

One of the main problems of the game is that a lot of the time you won't even know you're losing health. Save for a few situations when you're shot from the front, you'll have a hard time knowing if there's an enemy shooting you from the sides or from behind. There's nothing to indicate you took fall damage, not even a grunt or crunch sound. Savescumming is essential not only because of that, but also due to the likelihood that you might end up stuck somewhere in the scenery. Ladders are one of your biggest enemies, too.

Level design goes from "eh, ok" to "oh, fuck you" - the latter especially on levels like Lighthouse, Submarine, Cosmodrome and the entirety of Mars. Levels become overly long for no reason, with enemies spawning in places carefully designed to piss you off the most, sometimes behind your back and where you already went through: in some situations, you can literally see them popping out of thin air in front of you because now you stepped on the trigger!

The game has multiplayer and I wish I could test it, but I don't wish anyone to suffer through this game. Still, I suspect the multiplayer is leagues better than the singleplayer experience simply because it's not the singleplayer experience.

In all seriousness, if you do decide to check this game out for whatever reason, like morbid curiosity, don't be afraid to put it down and give up for good before you even . It does not get better. It gets more tedious and more groan inducing. There is no fair challenge, nothing that will give you any sense of satisfaction.