Chaos Domain Demo

Video games used to show no mercy to the players and punish every mistake with a game over screen. It may seem unfathomable nowadays in the age of auto-save and regular checkpoints, but games like Contra forced you to carefully manage only a handful of lives, not to mention the fact that a single bullet or enemy contact sent you to the grave.

Chaos Domain is a platformer that aims to bring back a few of the old-school hardcore rules from the Sega and NES days. However, everything else about it is as modern as possible, especially when you consider the fact that it runs on Unreal Engine 3. Not only that, but the physics engine is decent as well, while the level design is interesting, albeit not very inspired.

There is not much of a story going in the game, so your purpose is just to get from one end of the level to the other, while trying not to die too much along the way. Enemies wait for you every couple of steps, all of which shoot at first sight. Speaking of which, the actual shooting mechanics are horrible, because you are only allowed to shoot forward, upward, and diagonally at an angle of exactly 45 degrees. Anything in between that and you won’t be able to hit it, which is definitely a major nuisance.

The controls are also a bit too inaccurate for the genre, which yet again increases your frustration level over the course of the gameplay. The character can clip through floors and drop down below, which although can be useful in some cases, you do not always know when it’s possible to do so. Hence, you’ll often fall in front of an enemy by mistake while trying to shoot and crouch at the same time.

As mentioned before, the game uses the legendary Unreal Engine III for its graphic needs, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. In fact, it’s pretty far from it. While the actual models and textures look smooth thanks to Epic’s product, the level design leaves a lot to be desired, and repetition quickly becomes a problem. Not only that, but there is no dynamic soundtrack to keep you company, which makes boredom that much more likely to be an issue.

All things being equal, nobody would have minded a Contra clone this day and age, especially if it featured all the right elements. However, Chaos Domain is difficult and frustrating due to the awful controls and the unrefined gameplay, so you do not feel any kind of accomplishment for passing the levels, only relief.