Before they struck gold with a third-person shooter in the form ofRemnant: From the Ashes, Gunfire Games had carved out a small little VR venture in the form of Chronos. Unbeknownst to no one save the developers and maybe a handful of people in the wild, it would turn out that Remnant was in fact a sequel to Gunfire’s 2016 VR effort. Set in the same fictional word and acting as a continuation of the lore and world-building that Chronos established. Four years later and following on from asuccessfulexpandingon last year’s surprisingly successful release, Gunfire have retooled the fixed-camera stylings and slower delivery of combat in the form of Chronos: Before the Ashes. A sans-VR iteration that incorporates a more traditional third-person perspective – resulting in the kind of attack-and-dodge real-time combat we’ve all come to know and possibly love over the last decade-or-so.
Familiar the combat may be, without the novelty of VR – and perhaps the lasting impression Remnant incurred – Chronos: Before the Ashes' relatively stripped-back exterior sadly comes to the forefront. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with a bare-bones iteration to an RPG formula we’ve more than become accustomed to in the span of around a decade, what Chronos loses isn’t off-set by any real attractive pull or intrigue with its gameplay. There are a sprinkling of curious little mechanics here and genuine attempts to ask of the player how much they’re willing to put themselves at risk, but Before the Ashes more than anything reveals a greater truth about Chronos' limited scope and scale. Once the visual perspective is subtracted and the relatively lack-luster, retrofitted presentation undermines what few ideas the game has going for it.
Because if one can put aside the unflattering amount of aliased PNGs of items faed again and again over the span of the eight-or-so hour adventure, Before the Ashes can shine as this more entry-level introduction to the grander action RPG sub-genre. As a result, the game is not the most complex nor the most rewarding title when referring back to the nature of its combat or lack thereof. Sure there are unique weapons to scout out – accompanying puzzles and branching puzzles/routes that require more time investment – and temporary challenges for players to seek out should the additional challenge tempt them. The problems is Before the Ashes isn’t the most challenging game from as broad a definition that the discussion on “difficulty” would entail. Death is, naturally, an inevitability as you get accustomed to enemy attack patterns, as much the arrangement and surprise presence of such around certain corners or down particular corridors alike. But a grueling, punishing amalgamation of small triumphs this is not. Rarely do the major encounters set themselves up as pivotal tests of one’s learned knowledge, incorporated gimmicks or otherwise and the game suffers because of it.
A disappointing reality that surfaces in no better form than with its major boss fights. Not least what may be considered those crucial to the main objective and the story being told here; some of the in-between fights are interesting enough in their set-up, but that curiosity is mostly surface level and their lingering sentiment quickly dissipates as you progress further in. Whether the original basing in VR territory can be blamed here or not is secondary to the main argument: fights in Before the Ashes can quickly get stale and repetitive. Battles do incorporate that familiar trick of shaking things up around the half-way mark, but even then it’s disappointing that a lot of fights are relegated to so easily making one solitary dodge into or out of an attack, striking once (maybe twice if you like playing a more risky style), moving out of an enemy’s range, then repeating the process until victory. As such, said victories feel too hollow in Chronos: Before the Ashes – more so than they should – and you can’t help but wonder that even with the somewhat low-poly, simplified aesthetic that Chronos' world is hoping to maintain, perhaps reworking the mannerism and versatility of an enemy’s or boss' attacks, could’ve done the game a great service.
Though there are tidbits of lore and world-building to pick up on – all while a few of the puzzles incorporated do require, admittedly, a little more observation and deduction, which is welcome – one’s adventure is, like its boss fights, relatively sterile and without much reason for immersion. Die-hard fans of Remnant may get something out of the many diary entries or references back to the 2019 shooter, but it’s a fleeting feeling and one that doesn’t excuse Chronos' straightforward, linear world design. Yes there are shortcuts to unlock and passages to peak curiously down to see where it ends up, but more often than not players will find themselves doubling back on the route they’ve traversed simply because they’ve gone the wrong way. It’s in no way the most entwined form of level design and the linearity lets itself be known perhaps more than it needs to.
For all its misgivings and basic feats of presentation, Chronos: Before the Ashes does admittedly throw up a few interesting ideas on the combat front. Ideas that prevent, thankfully, the game from feeling like a total waste despite the underwhelming stature that its interface or even its semblance of upgrading presents. Players regularly and quickly acquiring upgrade points on their travels whereupon they must decide how much areas on health, strength, defense and arcane damage deserve. These spots of intrigue are integrated well enough for the long-drawn lulls to be worth the trek. One of which is a dedicated meter that when charged allows you to initiate one of four special selected abilities that unlock upon discovery in the world. These can be buffs to one’s attacks and movement speed or even the ability to temporarily stun foes regardless of their implied poise. It seldom feels like a tense deliberation on which one to use though with one, maybe two, of the four only ever seeming like viable choices throughout. Regardless, what makes this mechanic at least a curious looking-into is the manner with which players charge the associated meter. Occurring when players either successfully time a dodge, parry or most interestingly of all, dedicate the time to charge up a strong attack and land a hit.
The latter of which is the most interesting, because it’s one of the few times in Chronos that comes across as a request for players to voluntarily engage with the challenge put before them. Though enemy encounters in the later parts of the game do thankfully get more complex and precarious – attack patterns and the sheer amount of threats presence cranking up to where even genre veterans will have to think carefully on a plan of attack – it’s this mechanic, self-contained, that feels smartly integrated on a moment-to-moment basis. Another mechanic that is less so is the ageing feature your main character goes through with each subsequent death. The idea is that every time you die, a year passes in-world – meaning your player-character could start the quest as a young adult, but end it as an old man. Along the way after every ten years, players unlock a permanent upgrade which serves as a means to make the journey easier. The problem here is that because of Chronos' blatant lack of challenge – with deaths only ever coming either through an unforeseen trap or later-game enemies – veterans of this genre will be able to beat the game with only around a dozen deaths to their name. But even so, for complete newcomers, such is the lack of evolution and variety to encounters, it wouldn’t be a stretch to surmise that that same number of deaths in total may end up the exact same.
Closing Comments:
Whether fans of Remnant: From the Ashes will see it as a comfort or disappointment depends entirely on their personal investment in the 2019 game’s lore, but Chronos: Before the Ashes is in no way an essential addition to those already familiar with Gunfire’s sci-fi/fantastical premise and one whose own dispensable tale will barely feel relevant. Though as middle-of-the-road and seemingly uninspired the world design and presentation may seem with its non-VR iteration, a few lingering ideas and neat mechanics do admittedly stop it from rotting entirely into some complete dismissal. They may not be the ones Gunfire had hoped Chronos would stand out on, but when the game convinces you to take up a more riskier strategy with enemy encounters is when it game – for a flicker – finds its feet and delights. Complete with a satisfactory sprinkling of puzzles on top. Far from the most complex, in-depth or even immersive game it may be, Chronos: Before the Ashes' straightforward, if a little dry, non-VR trip does avoid overstaying its brief, pleasant-enough welcome.
