Company Gunfire Games decided to return to the familiar universe and released a prequel to her successful last year project Remnant: From the Ashes… A novelty named Chronos: Before the ashes, tells about the journey of a hero or heroine in a post-apocalyptic world that exists in several dimensions. Science stations with computers are easily replaced by medieval fantasy, where bizarre creatures like lords and goblins fight you back, and stone golems and strange creatures guard the peace of the mighty dragon. Your task is to penetrate into the deepest levels of the maze, destroy three guards and kill the dragon. Remnant: From the Ashes copied many of the ideas of Souls games, while Chronos: Before the Ashes moves towards adventure.
Yes, you fight using melee weapons, dodge, block attacks and defeat opponents, but the combat system itself has become much simpler. Attacks do not consume stamina, so you can trap the enemy in a corner and inflict a series of deadly combinations on him until complete victory. During blocking with a shield and running, stamina is spent, but replenishes quickly enough. In addition, you can install one of the dragon stones found in the stages, which is charged during battles and allows you to strengthen your attack with elemental magic – from fire to lightning and solar energy.
Separately, there is a system for pumping weapons, which requires you to collect silver chests or search defeated opponents in search of dragon crystals that enhance weapons. The weapons themselves range from sword to spear to hammer. The latter is perhaps the most successful assassin in the game at max leveling. However, in your case it may be different – strength in battle also depends on the characteristics of the hero, which you can develop in several directions, including endurance, agility and magic.
As you clear the dungeons, you will constantly receive new levels that fully restore health. On your way, you will also encounter dragon hearts, acting as a replacement for flasks – in a critical situation they can correct the state of the character. If you die, you are reborn next to the nearest crystal with a full supply of hearts and being one year old. It is assumed that this unique mechanic should push the player to choose the optimal age, since in his youth the hero is more agile and strong, and with age he becomes slower, but at the same time more capable in terms of magic. Personally, I finished the game at the age of 28 at the 46th level of pumping, and I never felt the benefits of a special method of obtaining perks from my own experience.
As I noted above, Chronos: Before the Ashes is less Souls clone and more adventure. In addition to battles, you must constantly solve numerous puzzles, ranging from variations of tags and ending with finding keys, levers, crystals and other objects important for the passage of history. Moreover, the game is made in such a way that the bag of grain found on the second level can come in handy at the very end of the game, and if you missed it, you will have to go back. Fortunately, you can quickly and easily move between crystals activated earlier. Other tasks often require pixel hunting or strong logical effort from you, which is not so bad.
But overall, Chronos: Before the Ashes is budget-friendly. Enemies are not very well animated, the main character moves too slowly and looks like a wooden doll, and the fights are executed according to the formula hit, block, roll. In addition, the long sections at the beginning of the game with lifts, climbs and terminal activations are incredibly annoying, and the same segment from the final part of the adventure with laying routes on the board in the form of tags and finding the keys to the maze.
The graphic component is average. The game has gray labyrinths of the same type and, on the other hand, very beautifully drawn statues and separate locations. Jumping along portals with an increase in the environment and living pictures can be considered successful finds. On PS5 the game flew to the menu only once and added 10 gigabytes to the “Other” section. At the same time, loading levels take about 25-30 seconds, which is quite long. I don’t know what downloads are on regular PS4but it is clearly even worse there.
