Chasing Static (Another Retro Horror Romp with Unlocks)
Survival horror yay! Not always yay, actually, often smellay. This one isn’t at that level, though, so don’t worry, I just felt like a rhyme. For anyone new, let me give my usual explanation of what makes this game type work. It’s like playing through a finely crafted novel; it needs one, a good story, two, good incentive for you to move through the story, and three, some additional elements for replay. Most survival horror gets the first two right, rarely the third. Chasing Static has almost got that down, but it fares much better than most so again, don’t worry, just a little rhyming up there.
Taking place in rural Wells, Chasing Static puts you in control of Chris Selwood, who finds himself in a sci-fi PS1 hell that somehow relates to his own life. Finding various clues to solve the mystery of an abandoned town and strange facility connected to it, the expected object hunt begins. One of the central features of the game is a receiver device that can access frozen moments in time, which fleshes out the story. The voice acting is quite excellent, and the graphical style fits the old Silent Hill trope familiar to fans of survival horror. Slowly piecing together details is well-driven, but as you’ll find with many games of this type Chasing Static has very little replay value other than a few secret unlocks. At least one of these, however, is quite difficult to achieve and requires nearly a full run through the game for it to happen. Is it worth going through the same story? Probably not.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Chasing Static
Headware Games (developer), Ratalaika Games S.L. (publisher)
4.1 / 5
