The story of Chorus (not Chorvs, despite what the posters may say) revolves on two distinct games. On the one hand, Chorus is an excellent space combat game that will certainly keep you occupied as you tear through other fleets. However, the action-adventure, movie portion is also woven in, and it’s this portion that cuts Chorus’ otherwise lovely wings.
The fight in Chorus is the best part. When you obtain almost anything else in the game, that’s what you’ll be longing to return to. Even though there’s nothing new, it’s always exciting to swerve around opposing ships, trail them, and finally blow them up. Chorus moves quickly and fluidly enough to make it entertaining.
Additionally, the game adds its own unique twists to the space combat paradigm. There are three types of armaments aboard your spacecraft, each with advantages and disadvantages. The traditional high rate-of-fire weaponry, gatling guns are most effective against adversaries that are simple to hit yet cause little damage. The primary purpose of the lasers is to destroy the shields of the opposition, leaving them open to a complete takedown. Moreover, you will have to employ the missile launcher to take down armored targets. Although it’s not the most planned approach, alternating between the three maintains the fight’s energy and diversity.
The main character Nara has special powers known as Rites that provide a great deal of pleasure. Nara attempts to revive a few of her lost powers on her journey. This is initially restricted to the Rite of the Senses, your normal Eagle Vision ability that highlights targets, enemies, treasures, and so forth. However, while the Rites start off mundanely, over time Nara transforms into a terrifying combatant who can fling ships into each other, zip through them, or teleport behind them in the ideal position for a kill.
The epic space wars of Chorvs, er, Chorus, perform a great deal of hard labor. There will often be two or three opposing factions and a variety of enemy kinds in the region, with Nara in charge of the main enemy fleet ship. There are other instances of true Star Wars moments, such as blowing up the ship’s batteries, breaching its defenses, and destroying it from the inside. Here is where Chorus shines: when you combine the special powers and smooth controls with that expansive feeling of scope, the game transforms from a pretty standard space combat title into an intense action encounter. If creating a really dramatic space combat game was the goal of developer Fishlabs and publisher Deep Silver, they were successful.
After a few of dogfights, you’ll be itching for more. However, the game really enjoys keeping you waiting for more. Chorus had the potential to be a lighthearted, thrilling, and visually appealing shooter game interspersed with the odd cinematic for background information. Alternatively, Chorus is a silly action-adventure filler that requires you to take ten-minute pauses from the dog battles in order to play the entertaining ship-shooting game. As absurd as it may seem, whenever I wasn’t filming in Chorus, I couldn’t help but think about the Mean Girls moment in which the schoolgirl declares, “I bought army pants and flip-flops because I saw Cady Heron wearing them once.” In these transitional periods, Chorus conveys the idea that it heard you like popular action-adventure games like Red Dead Redemption or God of War and tried its utmost to incorporate the main elements of those games into a space combat game.
I don’t want to give you too bad of news. In this genre, a compelling story may be presented, of course, and an open universe might be intriguing as well. Sadly, however, they aren’t in Chorus.
A protracted sequence that is packed with background, explanations, and terms that will be unfamiliar to readers who haven’t done their homework opens the tale. It tells the story of Nara’s previous life as a lethal and formidable operative of The Circle, a wicked cult that seeks to establish an enduring peace on Earth under the name Chorus. The introduction doesn’t really do much to grab your attention, even with all the striking visuals and futuristic ideas. The premise is devoid of any mystery, allure, and emotion, and this lack of depth persists throughout.
As an example, consider Nara’s bond with her ship. Forsa, which means Forsaken, is the name of the ship. We learn that Nara has kept him imprisoned for the last seven years and that he is sentient. Early in the game, Nara frees him from captivity, and he is understandably upset over having been abandoned in a shadowy temple until Nara needs him once again. This dispute is swiftly settled when Nara apologizes and receives Forsa’s forgiveness. Issue resolved. They have a little tension, but nothing too intense until another dramatic cutscene in which Forsa becomes enraged with her. Even then, it is swiftly settled and forgotten about. It seems both anti-climactic and climactic at the same time, as if all of the game’s poignant moments materialize out of nowhere and vanish into thin air. The absence of humor along with that odd tone may be very irritating. Though the effect of those difficult moments is diminished when the character’s stress level is always a 10, I’m not expecting Marvel jokes every five minutes.
The open-world hubs suffer from comparable issues that don’t really matter. There are side missions; some are enjoyable, while others are standard delivery or escort tasks. You may raise your stats by using the treasure. Additionally, you may get some of that delicious activity you’ve been longing for via chance meetings. The length of time it may take to go through the open areas and reach the next task, however, is the issue. It’s really just an excuse to bore you with meaningless speech for six minutes when all you do is press the turbo button and watch the kilometers fly by.
Of course, Chorus’ tale isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen in a video game—far from it. But playing it becomes a little tiresome because of how often it breaks up your playtime with unmemorable fluff, especially as Chorus’ fighting is more than enough to keep you interested on its own despite the dull story and lengthy traversal sections.