Chrome Hands-On

Over the years the single-player FPS genre has differentiated itself as one of the toughest and most resource-demanding game genres on the market. Titles like Half-Life, Deus Ex, Jedi Knight II, NOLF, HALO, and countless others have raised the bar when it comes to producing quality SP (single-player) shooters, and brought the genre that much closer to its ultimate goal of becoming a hybrid of games and movies - an interactive movie if you will.

This is my dream-view. I think I’ll move out here.

I wonder if there’s a drugstore around that corner.

There have been some exceptions to this rule however. Croteam's Serious Sam has clearly proven that there is still hope for more arcade retro-style shooters. Usually, smaller development teams, like Croteam, are fully aware of the obstacles that they might face during the development of a full-blown SP FPS (i.e. lack of more funding), so they opt for different, less financially demanding, but still quite effective solutions instead.

Polish developers, Techland, on the other hand, set before them a rather ambitious goal of trying to break into the single-player shooter genre with an all-around product, complete with vehicles, nano-implants, narrative, characters, and wide-open spaces... the works. One has to give credit to Techland for trying to achieve something that a high-budget team like Legend Entertainment (developers of Unreal 2) has failed to do, and even go beyond that, by making a gripping Sci-fi shooter that will not only run on their proprietary 3D technology, but have a cool story, mechs, vehicles and a multiplayer mode to boot. Ambitious? I would say so...

Chrome is a tactical FPS game that takes place in the future during the colonization of the newly discovered solar system of Valkyria. The player is cast in the role of Logan - one of the finest highly-trained mercenaries of the 25th Century. He has a standing of four long years in the so-called Expedition Corps and another four in the SpecForce, making him the perfect candidate for the lead role. Playing as Logan, you'll get a chance to shoot people's lights out among the huge and wild terrains of the five planets, within the residential complexes of the first settlers, deep within mines rich with precious minerals and inside the headquarters of the powerful corporations fighting among themselves over the unique riches of Valkyria.

In short, our hero Logan finds himself in between two powerful conflicting corporations that are constantly struggling to gain control of the valuable minerals and similar resources that represent the very essence of the Valkyria solar system.

The action in Chrome takes place across vast open spaces and inside military structures. In other words, Techland's proprietary engine is perfectly capable of combining rather huge outdoor levels with fairly detailed indoor environments, making the world of Chrome pretty consistent and immersive. When I first loaded the game I was impressed by the serene looking water surfaces and a real abundance of vegetation that didn't come at the expense of choppy frame rate. Both visually and in terms of level design Chrome looks a lot like Unreal 2, albeit not on the same level of quality. It should be noted, however, that Unreal 2 would eat up a lot more of my PC's resources than Chrome, but I should also note that due to the restrictions of the beta code I couldn't run the game in higher-resolutions, so it still remains to be seen how Chrome will fare in resolutions of 1024x768 and above.

Each of the five levels that I played was brimming with trees, tall grass that sways in the wind, and all the other visual treats that have become the standard for such outdoor environments. I even got a distinct feeling that Chrome's vegetation was even more abundant than in Unreal 2.

Let me stomp some sense into you.

Not a particularly inviting holiday resort.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, I think it's a bit early to pass any judgment on it yet, as the code (along with some of the game's main features) looks far from finished. The enemy AI would get stuck in the trees a lot and most of the special effects and voice-overs are missing, so I couldn't really get into the story, nor could I fully enjoy the supposedly intense firefights. Generally speaking, Chrome is an arcade shooter with your standard layout of futuristic looking nuts and bolts weapons (and possibly some beam weapons in the later stages of the game). The physics model works well, and so does the location damage on the enemy models and the skeletal animation.

Even though I didn't get a chance to drive vehicles in the game all that much (just seeing battle mechs on level 4 ruled though), it's clear that Techland has done a decent enough job on their engine to provide us with some exciting vehicular action. Once the 3D is polished up a bit; along with the AI; it should provide for a solid gameplay environment - one that could realize the ideas and goals of the development team. Because of the solid engine, players will get to drive and shoot in huge outdoor arenas, and have that relative sense of freedom that's so important in immersing the players into the game world. Weapons are rather well balanced and their properties really come into play during mid-range and long-range combat. For example, if you're going up against a baddie with an assault rifle, you'll need to strafe a lot in order to get up close and utilize the superior firing rate of your relatively inaccurate SMG.

Another cool addition to the game are the augmentations, which introduce an RPG element to the combat, as they can improve your abilities, and make your character more specialized for a specific type of missions.

Right now, Chrome is very rough around the edges, but I should state again that I've only played a 5-level beta. The game definitely needs more polish, not to mention decent voice acting, more dramatic in-game real-time rendered cut-scenes (better directing), etc. if it's ever going to come close to competing with the big boys. In all honesty, Chrome has a very long way to go to reach that lofty goal, but Chrome might find its place under the sun if several key factors in the development process work out the way they should. Let's hope that Strategy First (they're the exclusive publishers for the North American continent) realize this and invest some money into making Chrome seem like a shooter on a decent budget, and not just a great example of dedication and initiative by a small and talented development team that needed more funding the do the job right.