PLATFORM: PC, PS4/5, STADIA, XBOX ONE/SERIES X (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Touted as a “true evolution of the space-combat shooter”, Chorus puts you in the shoes of Nara, a space pilot who finds herself fighting for harmony across the galaxy in the face of the Great Prophet, a maniacal leader who wants to take over the universe with his cult of followers known as The Circle. Taking control of Nara – or, more specifically, her sentient ship, Forsaken – you’re free to explore a vast section of space, taking on missions and side quests that can be found dotted all around the place, making allies and rallying the troops while slowly but surely chipping away at the Circle’s defences en route to the final showdown.
This is very much an arcade-style shooter rather than any sort of simulation game – Nara’s ship is both fast and responsive, with movement controlled easily with both thumbsticks, and taking down enemies is as simple as lining them up in your sights and blasting them to smithereens with a quick pull of the right trigger. Your ship can be upgraded with new weapons and modifications, with more powerful equipment becoming available as you work your way through the story, and a handful of special abilities give Nara a range of additional powers that can be combined to devastating effect, like grabbing an enemy ship to hold them in place before teleporting behind them to unleash a barrage of missiles and lasers. Combat in Chorus can be great fun, especially when things get a little more involved, although locating your tiny enemies on screen can sometimes be easier said than done and pulling off some of the more intricate attacks and manoeuvres can be rather fiddly to say the least…
In the downtime between frantic space-bound dogfights, though, Chorus doesn’t really give you a whole lot of options. Being confined to your ship the entire time means that there’s very little in the way of variation – after you’ve repeated a few loops of flying somewhere, shooting some baddies along the way, then flying off somewhere else, occasionally with a bit of racing or chasing thrown in for good measure, it doesn’t take too long to feel like you’re retreading your steps. There are, unfortunately, a few mis-fires in other areas too. Nara’s decidedly disinterested tone of voice and “Sunday night BBC costume drama” diction seem to be at odds with her look and personality, making the story difficult to engage with while also resulting in Nara herself coming across as someone who you really wouldn’t want to be stuck in a spaceship with for any length of time. Pesky technical issues become prevalent towards the end of the game too, with multiple instances of stuttering framerate drops, the ship refusing to respond when loading up the game, and crashes / frozen screens, all of which required a complete reboot to get around.
When Chorus hits its stride, it’s capable of some wildly exhilarating space battles that look, feel and sound excellent. These moments are spread fairly thinly throughout the campaign though, without too much of note going on between the high points. Given time to fix some of its tech problems, perhaps this might be one to pick up while chilling with some music or catching up with podcasts rather than being something to really sink your time into.
