Chorus Review – Hunt for revenge among the stars

Space simulators today are a very niche genre that has a relatively small but very loyal audience. Today, the biggest names in the genre include Elite: Dangerous and the roguelike Everspace. Studio Fishlabs, known mainly in the field of mobile games, this time brought us a space action shooter with a pinch of something “extra” and is trying to break into the minds of fans of space action.

• Platform: PC (Review), PS4, PS5, XSX | S, X1, Stage
• Publication date: 03/12/2021
• Producer: Fishlabs
• Genre: space shooter
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: Not
• Data to download: 36 GB
• Game time: 12+ hours
• Availability: ESRB T
• Sales version: digital and box
• Price: 949 CZK (Xzone)

A long time ago, in a neighboring galaxy

The game puts you in the role of a tormented Nara from the past, a young woman who makes a living as a “Scavenger” – looking for sunken ships, hidden places in the asteroid field and fighting some of these pirates from time to time. The Nara lives in a galaxy under pressure from the so-called Circle (or Cult) – semi-religious fanatics who subordinate all systems to their doctrine. Rejection means death.

After the Circle’s attack on its system, the Nara is forced to revert to their old self – the Nara was the Circle’s absolute elite. The most deadly and dangerous Elder, the chosen and more or less the second most powerful figure in the entire Cult after the Prophet and under the name Naran inspired fear in all audacious star systems. However, after one incident, Naran could not bear the consequences of her actions and deserted. In addition to the determination to fight her former people, Nara needs something else – her thinking Forsaken Ship (full name Forsaken), with which she has at least a slim chance in her upcoming battles and the pursuit of revenge, which is as important as driving. force for her as a necessity to protect the innocent inhabitants of the surrounding systems.

In addition to his determination to fight his own, Nara needs a Force Thinking Ship.

Nara and Force interact very often during the game, whether they are commenting on what is happening around them or simply reporting during the fight. And this is the communication where I will have my first complaint about Chorus. While I have no problem with the story’s premise or how it unfolds, the dialogue itself and the whispered internal monologues certainly don’t inspire anyone for their quality. The dubbing isn’t the best either, and it’s pretty clear that so much of the budget didn’t fall into those two areas. In this case, the problem is even more pronounced, because there is no musical accompaniment in the game. Therefore, in addition to ordinary conversations, you are limited to listening to special effects.

Supernatural abilities against waves of enemies

Controls in Chorus are very simplified and after a while you can get used to it without any problems. I went through the whole game with a keyboard and mouse, so I definitely don’t need to buy a joystick. Definitely don’t expect any space sim. As for moving in space, of course you have complete freedom of movement – what upset me a little is that in space the “down” and “up” are clearly marked and in space it looks a little unnatural. However, the combat itself is clearly the game’s strongest point. Nara and Force can maneuver and miss the enemy together, although their arsenal is rather limited. At one point, Force is armed with three weapons: an energy laser, a standard rapid-fire gatling gun, and missiles. Energy weapons do a great job of dropping shields, gatlings tear apart small targets, and missiles in turn deal unmatched damage to the ships themselves, which is balanced by the slow speed of the missile and the lack of a guidance system.

It’s a bit disappointing that it has a place clearly marked “below” and “above”.

Nara gains several special abilities that give her and Force great advantages in fighting enemies. Whether it’s units of the Circle, Pirates, or the Mysterious Faceless – beings from another dimension that have a great influence on the galaxy in which the story takes place, and are the driving force behind most supernatural phenomena and abilities. It is the combination of these abilities and maneuverability that will give you the feeling that you are really a predator hunting game. Whether your opponent is a fighter or a huge fighter, you are never in the position of being weaker, and combined with the fluidity and dynamism of combat, quite often the game managed to put a smile on my face. Force’s ability to drift, as well as Nara’s skills (such as warp) – everything in the game works in the first place and fits very well into the dynamics of the battle. Definitely improves the situation with the lack of variability in weapons and with rather boring modules that improve only some properties of weapons or ships.

As for the content of the game – the main story missions do not offend and some are even very good (especially the ending surprised me very pleasantly) and some side missions are also worth going through. The boss fights are also very successful and the difficulty is well balanced. Puzzling passages where you have to demonstrate the ability to pilot your ship dexterously enough are also quite fun. What’s even worse is the action you face in the open world. Everything revolves around “kill x enemies” or “collect x items”, which is a shame and takes away much of the game’s variety and feel of life. Technically, I didn’t have the slightest problem on PC. On my RTX2080S, the game was moving at a very consistent 120fps in 1440p detail at maximum detail (I set a limiter for this), and I didn’t find a single bug or glitch – visual or system – throughout the game. The game is powered by Unreal Engine, so the visual quality is somewhat guaranteed. While the game will probably never be used for benchmarks or as a tech demo, it certainly won’t offend and some of the scenes are really beautiful.