Another drawback to the game is its clunky interface. In a move that shows that this game desperately wanted to be Unreal meets Deus Ex, it employs an interface that very closely resembles Eidos’ magnum opus. Except there’s a huge problem, this game is much more action-oriented than Deus Ex. Most times you’ll have to go through your inventory in the middle of open space while enemies take potshots at you. It’s all very frustrating and annoying. Speaking of annoying, the inventory system that Chrome employs ensures that you can never carry more than one weapon and one sidearm at a time (in an earlier draft of this review I mistakenly noted that you could not carry a sidearm). One of the problems with this is that the game emphasizes realism in one respect and then bends the rules of reality in another. I succumb to the realism of a limited inventory yet my character can still take an exorbinant amount of gunfire without losing any gusto.
It’s not all bad though, probably the most well done portion of
Chrome lies in the vehicular combat. While not quite up to snuff with
HALO, the vehicles are an awesome addition that really help beef up this lacking package. They all maneuver and handle very realistically and their arsenal is very convincing and powerful. It’s also nice to see that the designers allow for you to slow enemies out of their vehicles as opposed to making you blow them up entirely.
While some of the environments are nice they’re not quite up to snuff with the next generation of first person shooters. In recent years the FPS genre has been used as a showcase for graphics makers to show off their new technology. In this regard Chrome does absolutely nothing to push the limits of my card, yet it’s a massive resource hog. Environments are rather bland and the architecture is really nothing to write home about. Some of the elements are interactive but most of the environments can’t be destroyed or defaced. Most of the outdoor elements fare a little better, especially the well-done foliage, but it’s nothing to get excited about.
I have no qualms with the audio; in fact I’m actually impressed with some of it. Chrome makes excellent use of EAX effects here as the audio from the indoor sections sound decidedly different from the audio effects occurring outdoors. Indoor sounds have a convincing effect that makes them sound hollow due to occlusion and reverberation effects. Most of the voice acting is cheesy but it comes through nice and clear.
In addition to not being much to look at Chrome is an amazing resource hog. It runs rather sluggishly on my P4 2.4Ghz with an Ati Radeon 9700 All-in-Wonder, a system that’s capable of running
Unreal II at high resolution with little to no slowdown. What really disturbs me is the game’s performance on my laptop. My P4 2.0Ghz laptop is capable of running recent top tier titles such as
Max Payne 2 and
Freedom Fighters without a hitch, but forget about trying to run Chrome on it. It gives new meaning to the term sluggish with frame rates consistently running in the single-digits. For a game that doesn’t look so hot this really shouldn’t be such a huge problem.
If you’re looking for an excellent multiplayer game then keep right on looking. You have your standard FPS fodder here including variants of capture the flag and domination. Nothing too special and the lack of players on the servers makes for a rather boring experience. Could be fun if you’re looking for something different on LAN parties but not much else.
And that’s just is, Chrome is just so dated and boring that it really can’t carve its way into the crowded first person shooter market. It borrows some of the best elements from today’s premiere first person shooters but this is a case where the sum of the parts don’t quite add up to the whole. Decent outing but I wouldn’t put it on the top of my Christmas list this year.
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Strategy First D
Decent combat, excellent vehicular element and large environments make for a seemingly cohesive package. Too bad the sum of the parts don't quite equal the whole. Too much wandering around and watching cutscenes, not enough action.
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