What if every time your character died in a video game he was aged one year? What would the costs be? But would there be benefits? Would that change the way we play during the same game? All these questions and some more are the ones that may come to mind at this time. We tried to answer them all in our review of Chronos: Before the Ashes.
The truth is that the starting point of Chronos: Before the Ashes (hereinafter Chronos) caught my attention during its 2016 VR release for Oculus Rift headsets. At the time it captivated users of the Facebook device and now Gunfire Games brings us its adaptation to traditional screens. In addition, the game shares a universe with the third-person shooter Remnant: From the Ashes . In fact, if you have played this title, you will soon realize that some of the enemies and scenarios are shared by both. With this context Chronos is presented as a third person action RPGwith a very interesting proposal for us. Each time we fall in combat, a full year will pass for our character before joining the battle again. It really is an original concept on which to spin some souls-style combat mechanics . But the question that assailed me from the first moment was whether the game would be able to carry out its proposal in an effective way, which would be well reflected in the game beyond painting a few gray hairs.
Chronos manages to exploit this mechanic only half , but it is nonetheless less interesting. The truth is that the reflection of our aging in what we see and handle during the game is purely aesthetic, there are no limitations of movement or osteoarthritis that make us weaker as far as I have seen at the end of the adventure at 58 years of age. The bet to subtract the player’s abilities is not carried to such extreme points in this Chronos. I would have liked this possibility to be explored, since it is something that works tremendously well in games with this style of combat as Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption demonstrated , which, instead of adding skills and traits with each combat, was stripping us of them. .
If you die, you lose a year of life. Chronos: Before the Ashes video gameplay
Chronos’ answer to this section is to make the level up in some features more expensive, enhancing others as we get older. Thus, at the beginning of the adventure, with only 18 years we can quickly increase strength or vitality. However, the arcane power, more focused on wisdom and knowledge, cannot even be touched. Over the years, this power begins to be improved, while the costs of increasing our strength or agility are increasingly higher in terms of improvement points. Every 10 years the player is “rewarded” by allowing them to choose a talentout of three in order to improve a complete feature of it. All this is very good, but they are just numbers, what is really interesting is how these elements affect the game, combat and its risk and reward system.
Secure the fight or take risks and buy more time without aging? This thought is a constant in the game.At first, if you come from playing other action RPGs, you are surprised how quickly you level up in Chronos, it seems almost absurd, but as you progress in the adventure you begin to understand that everything has a reason . In this title the healing is very limited, we have some health jars that we will add during the exploration and that will not be refilled again unless we die. Therefore, our life is what it is in each pass, so each blow hurts much more taking this into account. But, Chronos reserves an interesting mechanic: the other way to recover our full health bar is by leveling up. It was at the moment that I realized this that I started to love this game more. In each confrontation the player has to balancethe pros and cons of using or not using these healing jars. Insuring the fight and mortgaging for later or taking risks and buying more time without aging? This thought is a constant in the game. And works.
Fix, dodge, block
In combat things are not going as well as one would like in an experience of this style. The truth is that Chronos offers the player a game system very similar to what other souls-style experiences do. The button mapping is almost identical and the resources at our disposal are practically the same, standing out above all to perform locks and dodges in time. The problem is given because the program rewards the player with arcane powers in their weapon for a small window of time if they manage to perform these movements at the appropriate tempo. However, this tool is out of place when the rest of its mechanics bet on slow and studied movements in which every button press counts. This is transmitted by the character’s movements, slower and more imprecise than it could be desired, something that makes the developments of the fighting a bit more cumbersome than it should.
It is very satisfying when everything fits in your head, a matter of perspective.
I do not know to what extent its roots as a virtual reality game have dragged it into these mechanics, but the truth is that it does a little better in the exploration section . The main challenge of this conversion is to transport the fixed camera angles of its version for Oculus Rift to a free camera in the third person, it achieves this with solvency despite the fact that the fixation of the enemies has room for improvement. However, its scenarios suffer from their origins and, despite having a good design in terms of general mapping, with shortcuts and a multitude of paths to explore, they feel somewhat narrow and limited on many occasions.
However, Gunfire Games shows great ingenuity in terms of creating puzzles throughout the experience, being especially notable in the last third of the game, where locations integrated into the puzzles and vice versa are the most original and challenging . Chronos: Before the Ashes has a graphic adventure point , since it forces us to find certain objects to continue advancing and combine them with each other, we even have the occasional optional mission to carry out with its consequent and succulent reward. The nod to games like the classic Zelda is evident, especially when we find the solution to these puzzles, since the game rewards us with a melody that, unfailingly, has transported me to Hyrule.
Enemies, development and the world
he story of Chronos, although simple, manages to captivate the player
Character development is very simple, attending to only four basic statistics. As I have already explained , leveling occurs a lot during the game, so the simplicity of this aspect is appreciated. Its origin is once again present when we talk about objects to collect or loot, where everything is relegated to the items necessary to advance in the adventure, stones to have different arcane powers or shards of dragon stones that allow us to improve the weapons that we find during the game and that they are, naturally, essential use if we want to be successful.
The cast of enemies is varied, with really good designs, well worked and versatile in their mechanics. The title presents them in a slow manner, without overwhelming the player at any time except in the last third of the game where everything becomes somewhat more complex. In spite of this, we are not facing a first-rate work in this section since these rivals sin by telegraphing their movements excessively, something that is even more enhanced during the fights with the final bosses , which require more patience than skill. .
The difficulty of Chronos: Before the Ashes may go unnoticed by those viewing it from the screenshots or video accompanying this review. Simple textures, betting on pastel tones and a tremendously stylized look invite you to think more about Fable than about Dark Souls. Despite not having too many elements within each scenario and focusing more on the essentials, the game manages to convey its atmosphere , also being excellently polished in the version I have analyzed (Xbox One) with a performance of 30 stable images per second. .
To move quickly between scenarios we can use the teleportation stones.
This is not a game for the second roundThe game has texts in Castilian and dubbing into neutral Spanish that manages to create a story setting that suits you wonderfully, with good interpretations, although there are not too many lines of dialogue. The musical section does not go beyond the merely environmental, counting, yes, with a good execution in the sound effects. Completing the total adventure can take between 15 and 20 hours depending on the skill of the player or if you get stuck in one of their puzzles. The truth is that it is not a game that takes a second round, beyond wanting to try the experience in one of its three difficulty modes, or to improve (or worsen) our age mark at the end of the title.
“Interesting”
Chronos: Before the Ashes
Chronos: Before the Ashes is a good action RPG. His proposal to gain age with each death is interesting although it could have been explored in greater depth. Despite this, the adventure places the player on the razor’s edge in each combat and knows how to accompany their exploration of good and original puzzles that are perfectly integrated into their design. Unfortunately, the game loses consistency during combats where its origins in virtual reality may have ended up being too great a drag to get rid of. All in all, this is a recommended game for those who love souls challenges looking for a slightly different experience.
- The puzzles, well designed and integrated into the scenarios
- Experience boost and healing system adds a new dimension to battles
- The idea of gaining years with each death is interesting …
- A good story, original and intriguing.
- … but the game does not take out its full potential
- The combat system is too crude for its proposed dodge and block rewards
- The final bosses are far from other titles of the genre
