Chaser is a 2003 sci-fi first person shooter by Cauldron, a Slovak developer team. I really wanted to like it but... let's just say it has its ups and downs.
Atmosphere is good, shooting is okay, story is complex but the elements of the game just doesn’t come together. It’s due to the fact that map design feels repetitive and lifeless, the horribly overlong campaign cancels the effectiveness of the story and movement is butchered by truly bad coding.
Even though the basic premise of the game is lifted from a culc classic movie, the devs still get a point for the effort. The plot is complicated, has some bold twists and a brave ending. The presentation, however, is just bad. The plot is uninvolving because the characters, the game world, the gameplay and everything feels bland and empty.
If you want to make a powerful impact with your story, fill it up with rich characters, pump up the tension and/or the pacing and give a bit of freedom for the player. Build up your world, not just throw it at us half-baked and hope for the best. Dammit.
Anyway, cutscenes are directed with bit of a cinematic flair, so they look pretty nice even though the visuals are dated.
The world of the game also feels somewhat lifeless and lacking. Two pubs in cutscenes and running through an office complex full of screaming NPCs: these are the only somewhat crowded areas in the game. Yes, there are signs of life throughout the game but still, everything feels barren and empty.
I get it, it’s an alienating dark future and walking the dog can wait until the war down the street is over. Or yeah, Barky Boi won’t like the winter night in the wilderness of Siberia. And the surface of the Mars. So at times this design choice worked. Exploration in Chaser is limited and the number of meaningless dead ends is way too high for my taste. But shorter missions, less repetitive layouts and some living-breathing environments would’ve made wonders to the game.
Most missions consist of exploring the surroundings, shoot enemies and complete smaller objectives. But there are some unique ones, like manoveuring through an underwater naval graveyard full of smart mines or providing cover for a car with a sniper rifle. I liked the underwater levels, they gave a sense of loneliness and claustrophobia.
Moving around feels a bit similar to Unreal which is still a fun, well-crafted game 20 years after its release. (It’s especially refreshing nowadays, really.) But Chaser has a huge problem: the implementation of movement is just full of bugs. You can’t just dodge and jump around quickly and freely because you often get stuck on uneven surfaces like piles of rubble. Platforming is also annoying because of this.
Damage indicators in Chaser are inconsistent. When you’re shot at, it’s okay. But feedback for blast or fall damage is lacking which sometimes ends up in surprising (and annoying) deaths.
Chaser has a so called adrenaline mode which is basically bullet-time with an additional flashy visual filter. The ability of slowing down time plays a huge role during combat. It lasts fairly long and it helps you kill an overwhelming number of enemies. It recharges automatically but slowly which is a problem near the end of the game. I often just went AFK for a while until it fully reloaded. Using it can become a bit repetitive but it also provides some pretty visuals, especially when it’s raining in the game.
There is also a surprisingly useful nightvision feature in the game, too.
(Oh, I almost forgot to mention: at one point you will also have to fight waves of enemies with an exoskeleton on Mars’ surface.)
Storming into rooms isn’t a great idea in Chaser: use the corners and the adrenaline mode! At some points enemies spawn right behind your back which can also result in unfair deaths. So just be careful in general. On higher difficulty levels enemy health points and damage output is increased.
My main heart ache come from the multiplayer maps because some of them have better design and richer atmosphere than most ones in the campaign.
The effort is well appreciated but… it just doesn’t really work well. Some dated visuals and midtier gunplay is no problem for me but I truly hated to unsure, broken movement.
Besides the broken jumping mechanics I only found one major bug during Chaser. I was trying to find an exit from an area in the Cosmodrome (sometimes it’s not always clear where to go next), suddenly parts of some models lost their texture and became red and green. A quick save and reload solved the error.
Feel free to leave a comment about your experiences with the game!
Should you get it?
Nostalgia for the game or for the era in general can add to its value if you’re into this kind of things. Fortunately Chaser is a cheap game even for its full price. I got the Steam version on Fanatical for about 1.5 Euros so no regret here.Atmosphere is good, shooting is okay, story is complex but the elements of the game just doesn’t come together. It’s due to the fact that map design feels repetitive and lifeless, the horribly overlong campaign cancels the effectiveness of the story and movement is butchered by truly bad coding.
The Story of Chaser
You play as John Chaser, a guy who wakes in an orbital space station without memories. Soon the station is attacked by unknown forces, and Chaser has to escape. He crashlands on Earth, starts his journey to recover his memories while trying to identify his role in a conspiracy concerning Mars.Even though the basic premise of the game is lifted from a culc classic movie, the devs still get a point for the effort. The plot is complicated, has some bold twists and a brave ending. The presentation, however, is just bad. The plot is uninvolving because the characters, the game world, the gameplay and everything feels bland and empty.
If you want to make a powerful impact with your story, fill it up with rich characters, pump up the tension and/or the pacing and give a bit of freedom for the player. Build up your world, not just throw it at us half-baked and hope for the best. Dammit.
Anyway, cutscenes are directed with bit of a cinematic flair, so they look pretty nice even though the visuals are dated.
Gameplay Elements
Mission Structure
Chaser is split up to episodes and stages with occasional cutscenes between them.Layouts and environments
Now one of the main problems with the game are the repetitive nature of level layouts. There’s a variety among mission environments which is great. However, there are loads of similiar looking areas and rooms within levels which makes the game feel artificially overstretched and monotonous. They’re not exactly copypaste but still not that fun.The world of the game also feels somewhat lifeless and lacking. Two pubs in cutscenes and running through an office complex full of screaming NPCs: these are the only somewhat crowded areas in the game. Yes, there are signs of life throughout the game but still, everything feels barren and empty.
I get it, it’s an alienating dark future and walking the dog can wait until the war down the street is over. Or yeah, Barky Boi won’t like the winter night in the wilderness of Siberia. And the surface of the Mars. So at times this design choice worked. Exploration in Chaser is limited and the number of meaningless dead ends is way too high for my taste. But shorter missions, less repetitive layouts and some living-breathing environments would’ve made wonders to the game.
Most missions consist of exploring the surroundings, shoot enemies and complete smaller objectives. But there are some unique ones, like manoveuring through an underwater naval graveyard full of smart mines or providing cover for a car with a sniper rifle. I liked the underwater levels, they gave a sense of loneliness and claustrophobia.
Movement
Movement in Chaser is like Windows 10. The concepct seems okay. The surface seems okay. But there are- so
- many
- tiny
- goddam
- problems.
Moving around feels a bit similar to Unreal which is still a fun, well-crafted game 20 years after its release. (It’s especially refreshing nowadays, really.) But Chaser has a huge problem: the implementation of movement is just full of bugs. You can’t just dodge and jump around quickly and freely because you often get stuck on uneven surfaces like piles of rubble. Platforming is also annoying because of this.
Gunplay
Chaser offers a standard but nice enough selection of weapons. SMG’s, assault and sniper rifles, pistols etc. It’s also nice that Earth and Mars has a functionally similar, yet different arsenal. Some weapons also features secondary fire and scoping capabilities. Shooting in Chaser is okay, nothing fancy, it just works. A bit more character would’ve helped though.Usual stuff: health, armor, ammo, drops, fillups and inventory and etc.
HUD, health, armor and ammo management works the same as in every other shooter in this era. The amount of supplies are alright on Normal difficulty.Damage indicators in Chaser are inconsistent. When you’re shot at, it’s okay. But feedback for blast or fall damage is lacking which sometimes ends up in surprising (and annoying) deaths.
Chaser has a so called adrenaline mode which is basically bullet-time with an additional flashy visual filter. The ability of slowing down time plays a huge role during combat. It lasts fairly long and it helps you kill an overwhelming number of enemies. It recharges automatically but slowly which is a problem near the end of the game. I often just went AFK for a while until it fully reloaded. Using it can become a bit repetitive but it also provides some pretty visuals, especially when it’s raining in the game.
There is also a surprisingly useful nightvision feature in the game, too.
Enemies, Artifical Intelligence, NPCs
Most enemies in Chaser are simple footsoldiers of different organizations with similar skill sets like shooting, not moving enough and being kinda dumb, also dangerous in numbers. You will also encounter some beefed up boss-type enemies, automatized turrets and soldiers with exoskeletons.(Oh, I almost forgot to mention: at one point you will also have to fight waves of enemies with an exoskeleton on Mars’ surface.)
Storming into rooms isn’t a great idea in Chaser: use the corners and the adrenaline mode! At some points enemies spawn right behind your back which can also result in unfair deaths. So just be careful in general. On higher difficulty levels enemy health points and damage output is increased.
Artistic Elements
Visuals
Visuals are pretty basic in Chaser. Most of the stuff is mediocre compared to other games from 2003 and the level design doesn’t help. However, there are some really pretty areas with nice reflections lighting effects, breakable glass. The bullet time effect also looks lovely in certain parts of the game. |
| There are some surprisingly lovely visuals in the game. |
 |
| Great job with the lighting effects. |
Audio
Sound design and score is also mid-level stuff. Voice acting is mostly uninspired, flat and sounds somewhat unnatural.Atmosphere
Even tough elements are mediocre when everything comes together, Chaser has a good atmosphere. Walking through the rundown cityscape in Earth while it’s raining… the orange glow in the windows on Mars… the snowy environments in Russia… it’s all pretty stuff.Multiplayer
Chaser’s multiplayer offers connectivity via Lan or the Internet. Unfortunately the latter was powered by Gamespy which was shut down in 2014. Modes are standard deatmatch, team deathmatch and an objective based teamplay option (which actually sounds solid).My main heart ache come from the multiplayer maps because some of them have better design and richer atmosphere than most ones in the campaign.
Technical
When I first started Chaser I was convinced that it runs on the Unreal 2 engine. Turned out I was wrong, the game uses Cauldron’s own unit called CloakNT.The effort is well appreciated but… it just doesn’t really work well. Some dated visuals and midtier gunplay is no problem for me but I truly hated to unsure, broken movement.
Compatibility
I had no problem running the game with 1280x1024 resolution and FPS counts on this setup:- Windows 7 Pro 32-bit
- 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM
- Intel E4600 CPU
- Sapphire Radeon HD3650 with 512 MB DDR2
Besides the broken jumping mechanics I only found one major bug during Chaser. I was trying to find an exit from an area in the Cosmodrome (sometimes it’s not always clear where to go next), suddenly parts of some models lost their texture and became red and green. A quick save and reload solved the error.
Feel free to leave a comment about your experiences with the game!
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