Publisher Ratalaika Games and developer Headware Games bring us Chasing Static, a horror adventure reminiscent of the PS1 and Nintendo 64 classics, with all that that entails.
Horror is a genre that seems to never go out of style. And it is that we do not stop receiving titles of this genre such as Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol and Amnesia. Now it’s the turn of Chasing Static, a short horror adventure published by Ratalaika Games and developed by Headware Games. If this game catches your attention, in this analysis you will be able to know everything you need to get into it.
On a trip to your worst nightmare
The title begins with our protagonist Chris Selwood driving on a North Wales road when suddenly a huge storm rolls over.. Due to these events, our protagonist decides to take refuge in a roadside cafe, where he only meets the waitress of the place. After this encounter, the coffee light goes out, and when Chris decides to fix it, he finds the waitress on the roof being attacked by a strange being. Because of this Chris faints, and when he wakes up, everything has changed, the cafe seems abandoned, and he can’t escape the place, neither by car nor on foot. Therefore, Chris must find out what is happening, and above all, he must manage to escape with his life.
With this very interesting premise, this brief psychological horror adventure will begin. And the truth is that heThe story is quite well written, with moments that will make our hair stand on end, and which will be followed with great interest. It may be a bit predictable and play it safe, but the truth is that it works, and it will keep us glued to the title. the 3-4 hours it lasts. It should also be said that the adventure has many drawbacks in terms of rhythm, since many times the game forces us to take long walks in which nothing usually happens. It is true that fast travel exists, but it only takes you to 4 locations, where you will surely still have to take a long walk. A positive part is that there are numerous endings depending on our decisions, and that it makes the title something replayable..
Much to observe and little to do
If we talk about the gameplay of the game or its mechanics, we find ourselves rather with a Walking Simulator of psychological terror. In Chasing Static, practically throughout the adventure we will have to go from one place to another, while they tell us the story through scenes and we use different objects from our inventory in the environment to advance. There are some confrontations with enemies, but these are not very numerous and are rather anecdotal to nurture the title with a greater variety of situations. It should be noted that during our trip we will get numerous objects with different uses, which is good, although many of these will only be useful in specific situations, not using them again, unnecessarily occupying our inventory.
The inventory is a copy of those that existed in horror titles from the PS1 decade such as Silent Hill, for better and for worse, since it is true that it gives that feeling of nostalgia, but its use is also quite cumbersome, and more when it fills up with objects that are no longer useful. The game also has a manual save system very similar to that of the Resident Evil franchise, although the game also has autosave, this works in a very erratic way, since you can advance an hour in the story and the game has not still saved. I myself lost over an hour of gameplay because of this autosave.
wow sawtooth
On the technological side, Chasing Static wants to pay homage to the PS1 titles and has a graphic and sound aspect that imitates these times. The truth is that the graphic aspect is quite good, although the game wants to look like a title from 4 generations ago, the truth is that it looks quite good, and has a certain charm. But wanting to look like a PS1 game does not mean that the title should have graphical problems. And it is that the game has a very notorious popping, with elements that appear under our noses or some loading times that take too long. The developer studio has already indicated that these errors will be fixed in a patch, but today they are present.
The voices and sound effects also want to imitate past games, although in this aspect it is more difficult to understand this decision. Let me explain, in a horror game sound is very important, to generate anguish and fear in the player. Therefore, if there is practically no background music that causes you fear, or the voices and sounds are not clear or cannot be heard correctly, the game loses its atmosphere, it does not give that feeling of anguish.
Conclusiones de Chasing Static
Chasing Static has a good story, although for a short period of time, it will keep you glued to the television to see how Chris’s story ends.. Its graphics that want to pay homage to classics of the genre have their charm and look more than good, although this tribute doesn’t turn out so well in aspects such as sound. The title is also weighed down by some errors that, although they are not very serious, are very annoying. The game is translated into Spanish, with voices in English, well interpreted, although there are numerous translation errors. In short, we find ourselves with an acceptable psychological horror game, which could have gone further if it weren’t for its failures, its short duration and the little variety of situations.
Chasing Static
14.99€
Pros
- His story is carefully followed and well written.
- Its graphics have a special charm
- The different endings that the title has
Cons
- The sound does not make you feel fear or anguish
- Too short for its price
- translation failures
- accentuated popping
- The autosave system does not work correctly