With thanks to the folks at Headware Games and Ratalaika Games, I’ve spent some time looking through their title, Chasing Static. While the PC version released a little while ago, we’ve been working through the title on console to bring you our review of Chasing Static on Xbox Series X|S. As usual you can find our full video review just here, or keep reading for our extended written review and common-sense parent’s guide.
The Basics – What is Chasing Static About?
Chasing Static is an homage to the days of 80s sci-fi horror and low-poly, low-res PS1 classics, based in the depths of (allegedly) rural Wales. The title provides an intriguing non-linear – if relatively short – journey to discover the secrets of the village of Hearth.
You play as Chris, who’s travelling through the country following the death of his father. Stopping at a rather American diner you’re soon drawn into a psychological horror based in the nearby woods and secretive facilities. Armed with a Frequency Displacement monitor, you’ll travel the various areas seeking out echoes and trying to put experimental technologies back in working order.
As a Welshman I was quite excited to see a video game set amidst the green, green grass of home. Unfortunately, it seems that saying “it’s in Wales” is pretty much all of the thought which has gone into the title. Other than one road sign and a name there’s very little within Chasing Static which actually speaks to being set within our little slice of heaven.
Even ambulances present in the title are marked as “East of England” which is about as far away from Wales as you can get without getting your feet wet. Sadly, the most Welsh thing about this one is that it rains pretty consistently.
Is Chasing Static Safe for Children?
Rating: 2 / 5: Caution Advised. Chasing Static brings some decent oppressive atmospheres and can be a little unnerving at times. In addition to some language, you’ll find distressing themes, violence and distressing notes around the place as well. While the low-poly visuals don’t portray realism, it’s still not something which I’d be happy to play around our Micro-bandits.
Is Chasing Static Accessible?
Rating: 4 / 5: Low Barrier. The mechanics in the title are fairly simple and you’ll spend most of the time pointing your device around the place and following it. Controls are relatively simple and there’s not a point at which we’ve felt pressured, making it pretty good to take your time with.
The Run Down – Our Five-Point Rating for Chasing Static
Gameplay – 2/5: The main gameplay of Chasing Static is a relatively short walking simulation with object collection from various areas. Sadly, we’ve been beset by glitches and even within one play through of this relatively short two-hour title we suffered from over 15 crashes. Every loading screen has the potential to freeze, and quitting to dashboard has meant that we’ve lost a lot of progress along the way.
Visuals – 2/5: From the outset the visuals are very much in the spirit of the “low-fi” PS1, and this is a purposeful homage. However sadly there are plenty of bugs and glitches here on xbox as well, with disappearing trees, random floating boxes and poorly-implemented lighting
Audio – 2/5: Strangely, each line of script is actually well acted, however the pacing of narration and conversations is incredibly off. Each line is followed by an unnatural pause and this has really hampered immersion and the story. Sound effects are nice, but issues with conversation really overshadow the bits the audio does well.
Narrative – 5/5: If you can get through the strange voice acting quirks there’s actually a nice little story here behind everything. The sad thing is that this is overshadowed by the struggle to get through the title thanks to bugs, glitches and poor pacing.
Replay – 3/5: There are only about two hours of gameplay in the title, but there are multiple endings and lots of back story notes to find about the place. Unfortunately, bugs, glitches and crashes again make it a chore to go back and grab things you missed before.
The Verdict – Is Chasing Static Worth It?
Overall, the Pixel Bandits Low-pixel Level for Chasing Static on Xbox is a Lacking 4/10, or pedwar o bob deg. Unfortunately while it has some great ideas, there are a number of areas where this one falls down for us. We absolutely respect the aim for low-poly and low-res visuals, but this shouldn’t come with glitches, disappearing elements of the environment and wobbly lighting. In addition, while the accents and per-line voice acting are good, the unnatural pacing of conversations and gameplay has been quite frustrating. These areas have sadly really hampered our immersion into the title, and made what could be an oppressive atmosphere fall flat on its face.
Added to this, we’ve been really quite confused by the apparent Welsh setting, which has been backed by poor research and easily-fixed elements within the visual design. Sadly, the worst culprit is of course gameplay crashes. We don’t expect any title (regardless of developer) to work without any crashes, but over fifteen in one night has meant that getting through Chasing Static was more of a chore than a pleasure. There are great ideas here, but poorly executed and Chasing Static is sadly not one we’re recommending.
As ever, to provide this review and common-sense parent’s guide, we received one free copy of Chasing Static for each platform, from the folks at Ratalaika Games.