Chasmal Fear Review (PC)
Summary: Overall I enjoyed my time with Chasmal Fear, and whilst I probably won’t return to it in the near future I think it’s good ol’ fashioned video game in how it leans into what it does well without trying to be precious about where it is influenced.
3.5
Fun
Chasmal Fear is a fun and spooky romp which I enjoyed equally for the nostalgia and the gameplay. It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, and I don’t think I’ll be thinking much about it this time next year. I found it did just enough, well enough, that it’s worth spending some few hours having fun, especially with a friend. All screenshots and content covered below will be limited to the first hour or two of the game, no significant spoilers.
I’ll cover the basics – Chasmal Fear is a first-person shooter X survival horror, with a unique hook being your play from the perspective of the characters body camera. The Steam store summary implies there is tension resulting from ammo scarcity and the need to use stealth, however I never found myself stretched for ammunition across multiple weapons until late game. A less generous reading of the horror aspect is that Chasmal Fear relies on jump-scares, with enemies commonly spawning so close (or behind) your character that you are usually reacting on a hair trigger. The description of the game references random environmental events as well, although I did not notice a significant impact on my playthrough from these – I could be biased though, because I struggled to get over losing half my progress because I hadn’t saved at a ‘datamine’ when I thought I had. I experienced most tension related to losing progress.
The story feels routine for a survival horror, with elements of sci-fi and existential horror. I wasn’t significantly impacted by my experience of the story, but I did enjoy the exposition in video and audio logs (again, similar to Dead Space) and because I usually enjoy this genre I enjoyed the story enough that I was interested to see where it went. It did not compel me to play further or longer, but it was a nice side benefit.
I personally vibed quite well with the combination of the bodycam footage, the unsettling sound design that the art and level design seems to lean quite heavily on, and the relatively unique mutation system that requires you to ensure monsters you kill stay dead, before they mutate to stronger versions. I never felt particularly challenged, but I certainly couldn’t listen to a podcast for the first few hours as I became familiar with the games mechanics. The shooting doesn’t feel particularly great, it seems to lack impact, both in weapon feel but also the enemies’ reactions. I found it challenging that sometimes I wasn’t sure if I had landed a shot on an enemy or not, even at close range.
I played on PC with keyboard and mouse – I tried to use controller, but at the time I played the camera sensitivity and overall feel was very clearly not optimised and it was borderline unplayable. I can see from the community discussions that this is an issue that is still being worked on, and seems much improved already compared to earlier iterations. The sound design really stood out to me. I experienced some friction to immersion from the differing levels, but overall the sound of the environment and the enemies really sold the setting and experience to me, much more than the art. I need to distinguish between sound – which was solid – and voice acting, which was passable at best.
There are still occasional bugs, some of which seem to be game breaking for those trying co-op if the discussion board is to be believed. Most of my experience involved minor bugs – enemies that clipped through walls, textures for internal surfaces that never loaded, inability to interact with objects – and all of them manageable, some of them solvable in-game, and all resolved with reloading.
I’m not sure how much of my enjoyment playing Chasmal Fear was because it seems to borrow heavily from so many familiar influences. When I see a red and white logo, I think ‘Umbrella’ and I am transported to my first Resident Evil experiences. A horrendously mutated enemy leaps from a wall alcove, or spooky whispering competes for me attention – I am back on the Ishimura, and reminiscing on how wonderful my first Dead Space experience was. Running through corridors with a shotgun, trying to balance danger with ammo conservation – I’m reminded of F.E.A.R . and Quake or early Doom. Even the opening cinematic, an arrival at an ocean floor research facility that is city-like in scale, reminded me of Bioshock.
Chasmal Fear seems to be influenced from so many significant games, but it has just enough of its identity that somehow when I was reminded of other games – that for me are far stronger in identity and gameplay – the nostalgia was a net positive. Maybe this is because of the pacing, or because of the deliberately smaller scale compared to games I am reminded of. I think for a lot of people this will come down to personal taste and tolerance, your expectations going into this experience, and how much the novelty of the body camera mechanic grows on you or wears thin. I felt that Chasmal Fear manages to both borrow enough from other great games, and have enough of its own small instances of unique features (the hacking game, the body camera, the animation to check ammunition, the mutation mechanic, etc) that overall it feels influenced rather than derivative.
Overall I enjoyed my time with Chasmal Fear, and whilst I probably won’t return to it in the near future I think it’s good ol’ fashioned video game in how it leans into what it does well without trying to be precious about where it is influenced. 3.5 stars out of 5 – I recommend giving it a go for a breath of fresh air between the usual massive open world fare we are indulged with currently.
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