Every year there are several big name shooters released that grab all of the
headlines while numerous others come and go without much fanfare. In most
cases this is no big loss as most of the forgotten games certainly deserve to
be. However, there is an occasional unsung FPS that is better than your
average action game and deserves a look from shooter fans. Chrome is one
of those games.
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| This guy walks into a bar... |
Chrome is named for a futuristic commodity that holds great value with the
mega-corporations of tomorrow. Why it's so valued and what it is used for
is never really fully explained, but it's apparently important enough to name a
game after. Chrome (the game) is really the story of Bolt Logan, a gun for
hire mercenary who takes care of the corporations' dirty work. After being
betrayed by his muscle-head partner and left to die in a hostile base, Logan
crosses paths with a beautiful mercenary who helps him get out of his
predicament. They then decide to join forces and continue their mercenary
careers with Logan doing most of the dirty work. You can bet that it won't
be long before Logan crosses paths with his ex-partner again and begins to look
for the opportunity to exact his revenge.
The first thing that you'll notice about Chrome is that it is one nice
looking game. The outdoor environments are gorgeous, with plants and
bushes that sway in the wind, beautifully detailed skies, and great water
effects. You'll even come across some of the local fauna while traipsing
around outside. Inside, the buildings are detailed and the interiors
feature good lighting effects. Unfortunately the character models don't
measure up to the environments. The facial animations are stiff and a bit
awkward, and the color and shading of the characters looks unnatural.
Chrome delivers good gameplay - it's not up to par with the top titles in the
genre but is definitely better than average. The enemy AI will make use of
cover and call for help when they notice you, but their tactics are inconsistent
and their situational awareness is spotty. For example, they'll sometimes
wander through your kill zone without getting a clue from the pile of bodies
sitting there.
The game makes a break from most other first person shooters in that it
requires you to manage your inventory carefully. You have a limited
carrying capacity that will only allow you one primary weapon and a sidearm,
plus a few ammo packs and grenades. In addition, different weapons require
different caliber ammunition so you just can't load up with every clip that you
find. The weapons themselves are from your standard FPS arsenal - shotgun,
assault rifle, sniper rifle, etc. Each weapon also has the kind of recoil
kick that you usually don’t see outside of the tactical shooters that go for a
realistic experience. This forces you to use a tactical approach to each
firefight because if you just try to run into the fray with guns blazing you’ll
put more bullets into the walls than you will into your enemies.
With the emphasis on inventory management, it’s a good thing that the game
provides an easy to use interface for doing so. Items can be picked up and
automatically added to your inventory like in most games, but when space becomes
tight you can use a drag and drop interface to move items around or transfer
them between inventory and the ground or the corpse of a slain enemy.
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