Review - Chronos: Before the Ashes... Tower Offense

 

Image Courtesy of Gunfire Games

A few months ago I reviewed a game called Wayfinder. It was one of the first reviews that I've done, and I wanted to showcase it early on for a couple of reasons. For one, I had just finished it so as always I wanted to stay pertinent to what I am playing at the time. For two, it was made by Airship Syndicate, a company that I have grown fond of after playing Battle Chasers and Ruined King. There's a storied past here, but I'm not going to go into full detail for the sake of your time. Suffice to say that there was once a game studio called Vigil Games (the originators of the Darksiders series) that was established by a couple individuals named Joe Madureira (comic artist/developer Joe Mad) and David Adams. Vigil eventually went bankrupt and everyone had to go their separate ways, with some of company joining Airship Syndicate with Joe Mad and the others going with David Adams to start Gunfire Games.

    Fast-forward into Gunfire's resume, we have a solid jump-off point with Chronos. Originally Chronos was a VR game, but after the success of Gunfire's surprise hit Remnant, the company decided to re-release Chronos as a more typical/user-friendly 3rd person action-adventure. 

    Chronos: Before the Ashes tells the story of a young hero that is tasked with taking down a calamitous dragon that threatens the world. In order to do so, the hero must traverse to a great tower in the middle of the ocean and unfold the mystery housed therein. The most unique component of the game comes from when the character dies. They are flung back to their typical realm of existence because the doorway back to the tower is only open one day every year. Over the course of the next year, the hero is supposedly training and preparing to go back inside. This means that each time you die, you will age another year. Agility and strength are easy to come by in the hero's youth, but not so much as they age. On the flip side, the arcane abilities of the youth are nothing to get too excited about, but as the character dies and ages with a rinse and repeat formula, the arcane levels are easier to come by to replace that strength and vigor with magic and wisdom.

The Good

I'm not exactly sure where to put the story. I suppose I'll put it here because it did interest me quite a bit, although it left more questions than it answered. Chronos is not a tale that holds your hand along the way. In fact, you could virtually skip all bits of lore as you venture through the tower if you decide not to read a single book or log-in to any computers. Yes, you read that right. Your character is a sword-swinging wannabe magician traveling towards a final showdown with a dragon, but there are computers in the area that house information from the 60's and 70's. Is any of this really explained? Sort of. Here, there, and everywhere. But not really. Either way, it was compelling enough that I didn't put it in The Bad.

    The graphics are impressive enough for a game that was revamped from 2016, and this is especially true when you consider the VR roots. It doesn't strive to win any awards with its effects, but they do the job well enough. 

    As for gameplay, Chronos emulates any typical soulslike. There's a major emphasis on stamina management as well as carefully watching your opponents' moves. One on one fights aren't too bad because there's a limited amount of patterns that an enemy will utilize. Once you know them, it's easy to make short work of any engagement. That said, not every fight will be easy because not every fight will be fair. There are times when extra enemies will move in. No matter how memorized you have those patterns, there's just no way to dodge and duck every swing coming your direction when there are three or four enemies pressing in on you. It keeps you on your toes, in this sense, and that's a good thing.

The Bad

It's tough to go too hard on a game that has gone through such a transformation. The fact that it was adapted from VR to a 3rd person soulslike makes it stand on its own in an impressive feat. I would also like to play through Remnant and Remnant II in order to give my full assessment of the narrative. That said, I can't use any information gleaned from the sequels to distort my opinion of the first installment.

    In some ways, you can tell that the game used to be a VR. That works against it in multiple ways, but probably the most glaring one is the amount of time. Most VR games have a reputation for being fairly short, and Chronos definitely falls into that category. While I did not get the platinum trophy, I did complete the game and 80% of the total trophies in a total of 10 hours. Now that's fine because I got the game on a great sale for only $5, but if I had paid $15 or more I would have been a little put off by that.

    Sound in the game goes from negligible to bad. The sounds of combat are simplistic. They're there. There's nothing awe-inspiring about them. I couldn't even tell you what the score was like. If it exists, it was so background that I couldn't even distinguish one theme from it. Lastly, the sounds of the hero are terrible. He/She only makes sound when fighting or getting hurt, and always sounds like such a weakling when they do. The scream that is reiterated throughout the game borders on humorous although I know that was not Gunfire's intention.

My Ruling

Overall I think that Chronos does what Gunfire intended for it to do. Before the Ashes bridges the gap a little better between the initial niche VR game and their more successful Remnant franchise. It serves as an introduction to the lore and the world that they are creating with what will likely be their juggernaut title, and it tells an interesting - albeit confusing - story in the process.

    It could certainly have been better. But for an initial venture on their own after Vigil, I think Gunfire starts off with a decent-sized bang.

7/10

Good Enough

For a game that does all of this a bit better, check out my thoughts on Asterigos