A cult in a galaxy not too close to here has taken over many star systems, a bit like an empire. You play the role of Nara, a pilot hiding in a backwater system who once fought for the cult. She is a marked one, a person with special skills called Rites that give her powers she can use a bit like a force. She joins the Resistance who are a bit like a rebel alliance of people fighting back against them. The Cult is led by a prophet who has some red lightning powers and was once Nara's Master and she sort of his padawan.
So maybe I'm laying it on a bit thick here but boy is Chorus a game that wears it's influences on it's sleeve, and then some. Mocking introduction aside I don't actually have an issue with that. Not everything has to be some revolutionary experience or idea for the sake of it. Sometime just using well laid down themes done in an interesting way can still be fresh and engaging.
The problem is Chorus doesn't do that.
Chorus has promise, it has potential, a good groundwork but just lets it dribble away like water through fingers trying to grasp it. The story just isn't told in a way that works well. You're hit with a huge exposition dump in a scene straight away about Nara killing billions of people and running away. This simply would have been better told in a more organic way through in game scenes and dialogue as other characters find out. Chorus attempts to do that any way but it awkward dribs and drabs often disconnected and in a way that just completely lacks impact or emotion. The dialogue to accompany the somewhat dis jointed plot as it unravels is equally often a little clunky, nothing is quite smooth or natural in how conversations flow and even after 20 hours of playing I just didn't feel any real connection to Nara or any of the events happening around her.
This is compounded by the game design. It plays a bit like a mini RPG with hug areas to fly around in, side missions to complete helping people, collecting resources and probably other things. I did them all and can barely really remember anything that stood out. The hub visual design was often great but the content was often dull involving traveling for 5 minutes n sub light speed 60km across the hub to talk to someone and blow up 6 ships in a dogfight. The aspect that bothers me most though is the hub areas occasionally will have dialogue between Nara, her ship or other characters giving more background and development. Which is almost always interrupted by random events of enemy ships or civilians needing help that simply cut it off never to be seen again. I tried stopping my ship dead to listen and it happened anyway. Awful design and I don't think the game works in the way it was designed.
It's a real shame because as you can tell by the score, I actually had good fun with it despite all the above issues. It has some of the best dogfighting mechanics of any game I've tried. It plays so smoothly. you can boost, fire guns, missiles, lasers, the usual stuff. What makes it great though is the drift mechanic making you able to keep your vector and acceleration but spin in any direction to fire or engage rockets again to do incredibly sharp turns, like 180 by pivoting to chase an enemy. No looping around endlessly trying to find them like some games I've played. By the end of the game when you can phase behind enemies, stun them, throw them into asteroids all at intense speed it's an absolute blast. The game controls wonderfully and looks great doing it on PS5. The frame rate, speed and gorgeous skyboxes as you blast through an asteroid field skimming close to the rocks before spinning out was a real thrill.
The foundation for an amazing shooter are here and at times in some of the pre-built main missions that potential I mentioned at the start shines through like a diamond in the rough but it would have simply been better to have had linear missions, bigger set pieces with a trimmed story building on the amazing combat system. It's a good game, but it's not a great one.
It's Star Wars by the way. In case I was too subtle >.>
So maybe I'm laying it on a bit thick here but boy is Chorus a game that wears it's influences on it's sleeve, and then some. Mocking introduction aside I don't actually have an issue with that. Not everything has to be some revolutionary experience or idea for the sake of it. Sometime just using well laid down themes done in an interesting way can still be fresh and engaging.
The problem is Chorus doesn't do that.
Chorus has promise, it has potential, a good groundwork but just lets it dribble away like water through fingers trying to grasp it. The story just isn't told in a way that works well. You're hit with a huge exposition dump in a scene straight away about Nara killing billions of people and running away. This simply would have been better told in a more organic way through in game scenes and dialogue as other characters find out. Chorus attempts to do that any way but it awkward dribs and drabs often disconnected and in a way that just completely lacks impact or emotion. The dialogue to accompany the somewhat dis jointed plot as it unravels is equally often a little clunky, nothing is quite smooth or natural in how conversations flow and even after 20 hours of playing I just didn't feel any real connection to Nara or any of the events happening around her.
This is compounded by the game design. It plays a bit like a mini RPG with hug areas to fly around in, side missions to complete helping people, collecting resources and probably other things. I did them all and can barely really remember anything that stood out. The hub visual design was often great but the content was often dull involving traveling for 5 minutes n sub light speed 60km across the hub to talk to someone and blow up 6 ships in a dogfight. The aspect that bothers me most though is the hub areas occasionally will have dialogue between Nara, her ship or other characters giving more background and development. Which is almost always interrupted by random events of enemy ships or civilians needing help that simply cut it off never to be seen again. I tried stopping my ship dead to listen and it happened anyway. Awful design and I don't think the game works in the way it was designed.
It's a real shame because as you can tell by the score, I actually had good fun with it despite all the above issues. It has some of the best dogfighting mechanics of any game I've tried. It plays so smoothly. you can boost, fire guns, missiles, lasers, the usual stuff. What makes it great though is the drift mechanic making you able to keep your vector and acceleration but spin in any direction to fire or engage rockets again to do incredibly sharp turns, like 180 by pivoting to chase an enemy. No looping around endlessly trying to find them like some games I've played. By the end of the game when you can phase behind enemies, stun them, throw them into asteroids all at intense speed it's an absolute blast. The game controls wonderfully and looks great doing it on PS5. The frame rate, speed and gorgeous skyboxes as you blast through an asteroid field skimming close to the rocks before spinning out was a real thrill.
The foundation for an amazing shooter are here and at times in some of the pre-built main missions that potential I mentioned at the start shines through like a diamond in the rough but it would have simply been better to have had linear missions, bigger set pieces with a trimmed story building on the amazing combat system. It's a good game, but it's not a great one.
It's Star Wars by the way. In case I was too subtle >.>