Delivers what it promises
Not perfect, but quite good and mostly fun to play. Worth its price - esp. if you buy it on a sale.
As other reviewers said: it's more an arcade(y) 3rd person space shooter than actual space-flight sim.
Pros:
* I encountered no crashes or other bugs worth mentioning.
* Graphics are great - even on my ageing gaming laptop.
* Music is good.
* The story is okay. Nothing superior, but won't make you cringe either. Somewhat cheesy at times, but it delivers the point - just as the whole game delivers what the intros promise. The story answers the philosophical questions it raises - about meaning of existence, loyalty, betrayal, guilt, redemption, honour, true and alleged righteousness, urge to save the world ... y'know - the works.
* Controls are fine - even KB+mouse, which some people complained about. I played an entire campaign with KB+M and found no issues. Takes a bit of getting used to, but nothing special really.
* Flying and fighting feel satisfactory and fun - though toward the endgame, you become so overpowered it isn't a challenge anymore. I played it on medium difficulty and only died a few times - mostly in boss fights. Perhaps Hard would be a better choice - but boss fights might become too frustrating then.
* All upgrades that you install in your junky generic fighter, which you start the game with, will transfer to your *real* ship when you get to it (even shields and armour), so you don't have to buy any upgrades twice.
So-so:
* Inertial glide (drift) is done okay, but it's locked from the start. You have to find your real ship first and acquire a special "rite" to do the glide. Yes, for some reason that counts as a special ability - as do other "rites", which are a sort of superpowers you unlock during the game. So only you and your ship can perform the glide. (In the description that's advertised as an "unique feature" - though most space sims implement it these days.) I find that a bit weird.
* Story is rather linear. No big dilemmas that would impact the final outcome. No multiple endings or similar - though you *can* go exploring around the semi-open world to find (or not) the side quests and finish (or skip) them at your leisure. Some quests bring you upgraded weapons, armour or shields. Most will only give you some background info, plus monies you can spend on buying equipment at the stores.
* Dialogs and monologues are delivered adequately (if sometimes even cheesier than the overall story about the chosen hero and her [that is: yours] ordeals). Indeed, monologues (in form of half-whispered thoughts of the main character) are a big part of speech.
* Tutorial isn't anything special. It works. IDK why some people complain about it.
Cons:
* The main gripe most people seem to have with it, is the limited freedom of movement. True, it isn't 6-degrees-of-freedom, but rather 1.5. That is: flying forward (no reverse) and banking left/right. Plus a smallish side-step (can't call that strafe), which turns into a roll when flying at speed. But, as I said: it's an arcade(y) shooter, not a sim, and you won't miss those 4.5 degrees during the fight at all. And outside the fights it doesn't matter anyway if you need to slow down or stop and turn every now and then, instead of using side movement...
* Some boss fights are tedious, with difficulty suddenly spiking above the usual fights. I had to repeat a few of them more times that I'd care to... But again - it isn't such a huge frustration as some say.
* If you fail a mission and have to repeat it, you have to wait and listen through all the banter again each time. Could be that's done on purpose because of the next point:
* Sometimes (and that also includes some mandatory fights), you have no idea what you have to do. There *are* some hints displayed as "to do list", but those don't always help. A few times I had to abort the mission, restart it and listen really carefully to the introductory dialog to get a clue what to do. (Eventually I did figure it out every time and never had to search the Net about it.)
Considering all the nay-sayers in the reviews here, I haven't expected too much from the game. But it actually turned out to be more fun than expected.
If you like flight- and/or space-fighting, Chorus is well worth buying and playing.
5 gamers found this review helpful