Chaser

Chaser
John Chaser's memories have been lost, so he can't remember this bad game exists.
Genre(s): First Person Shooter Platform(s): Microsoft Windows Release: EU: June 27, 2003 NA: August 22, 2003 Engine: CloakNT Developer(s): Cauldron HQ Publisher(s): JoWood Productions

Chaser is a first-person shooter action video game developed by Cauldron. The game is built on the CloakNT 3D engine. It was re-released on Steam and GOG.com in 2011.

Sypnosis

The game takes place in the future when humanity has colonized Mars. A coalition of 36 top industrial corporations established the MARSCORP consortium in 2036 with the goal of terraforming the planet. In 2042, MARSCORP has become the de facto autocratic government of Mars, with its director Samuel Longwood being a ruthless dictator. Meanwhile, Graham Castor's highly elusive rebels seek to liberate Mars.

The game's protagonist wakes up in the medical bay of the space station HMS Majestic, which is under attack by unknown assailants looking for him. Having recovered a gun, he fights his way to an escape pod and flees, moments before the station explodes. The escape pod crashlands into the fictional city of Montauk somewhere in the United States, where the news of the Majestic massacre has preceded him. According to the television, he is a notorious Martian rebel whose memory was lost called John Chaser.

Why Its Memories Were Forgotten

1. The story is about a man named: John Chaser who lost his memories while it sounds good, its execution is bad leading to more plot holes:
   • Why does he need to go to Mars?
   • Why is he not asking who his name is?
   • XIII Another game that came out the same year had the same plot executed much better.
2. The voice acting is incredibly mediocre.
3. The graphics are subpar even for 2003 standards: Call of Duty, I.G.I 2: Covert Strike, XIII, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Contract J.A.C.K, Postal 2, Unreal 2: The Awakening, Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, Day of Defeat, and Star Trek: Elite Force 2 were released the same year and look miles better.
   • There are little to no facial expressions, aside from their weird constantly moving eyebrows.
4. Most of the time is spent on watching cutscenes that are unnecessarily long and it drags on forever.
5. Artificial Difficulty: The enemies can vary between being dumb as a bag of rocks, or simply killing you in one shot.
   • The way you take damage also doesn't make sense at all: Even when you have like say 100% Health and 100% Armor, in one simple shoot you can sometimes have no armor at all, or 100% Health to 5% Health, etc.
   • On top of that, the enemies can instantly see/hear you, even behind walls.
6. There is a slow-motion mode called "Adrenaline Mode" that can be used like in F.E.A.R. but it's pretty much useless because either way you still take too much damage, and it has this annoying filter whenever activated that can hurt your eye sockets.
7. Some of the levels are entirely copied and pasted.
8. The draw distance sucks and it's very limited, it makes seeing enemies in the distance hard
9. The stealth section in the second level is entirely broken, because sometimes the enemies will spot you out of nowhere, and you can't fight back, the moment they see you it's an instant game over.
10. Some of the level designs are totally confusing as most of them are really mazes which makes it easy to get lost.
    • For example, there is one part where you have to get past a laser trip that can instantly kill you, it's totally dark and the only option available is to jump over it, but that doesn't work, so what do you do? What Do You Do? Well if you got the answer correctly the survey says: You are supposed to jump on the wall, which you wouldn't know because the whole area is dark.
11. There are some bugs and glitches, mostly notable where you can sometimes fall out of the map and die.
12. The underwater level has a weird distortion effect that can cause headaches.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The weapon models look nice.
2. As said before, the plot sounds interesting on paper but it was executed badly.
3. It has a so bad it's a good vibe to it.

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Scott Osborne of GameSpot said that the game offers "loads of thrilling, old-school shooter action".

Comments

Loading comments...