Note: If I could, I'd rate this 4.5. First, I want to give my opinion on some issues brought up on other reviews. 1)The overall game is MUCH easer than the demo made me believe. 2)The lack lateral movement or "strafe": many of the best games have not allowed this, and I don't think it should be a requirement (Wing Commmander, X-Wing/Tie, Freespace, Starfox, etc...) In fact, this plays like the "all range" mode of Starfox but on a much larger stage. It's a free-roam but tightly focused arcade-combat space game. It does have a "drift" mode which is a very satifying interpretation of "newtonian" space maneuvering. 3) I strongly disagree that the game has a bad soundtrack. Might not be for everyone, but it fights the themes of the game perfectly. On to my own thoughs: It's very focused. This is a space combat game; its main goal it to provide tight space combat while delivering a pseudo-mystical high-tech power fantasy. At these things it succeeds brilliantly. It's also very pretty and it features some excellent mechanical designs for the various ships, fighters and weapons, with great visual effects, great lighting, etc. Cons? This is clearly a small team focusing on what matters so they can punch above their weight class, but willing to make compromises to do so. There's a lot of reused assets - there are like 4 civillian ships in the game, some of the pirates use the same kinds of ship as the main baddie faction, etc. There is also only one fully realized character model in the game - I found it very funny how much hwavy lifting they got out of that one asset. The story? Well told and interesting thematically, but shallow in execution. Again, due to how focused the game is on it's priorities. All in all, Chorus is a great game. Is it one for the ages? Maybe not. But it really knows what it wants to achieve and it does it with confidende and class. Bravo.
For me, that' s not an exaggeration. I am a game design student in large part because of these games. Amazing scope, a fantastic sci-fi story told in a way no linear narrative ever could, and a wide open space of possibilities; I have essentially been chasing the feeling this game originally gave me for two decades, and only a handful of times have I even come close.
