Dropped in chapter 3, absolutely hate hide-and-seek elements - the more I fail the more frustrated and impatient I get, causing more and more failures. Gave it a good 10-15 tries, and just can’t get through it. The setting and graphics are nice, and the game is interesting, but this section ruined it for me.

So I've never had the distinct pleasure of playing a good horror game, at least of this scope. I've only ever been an onlooker, looking in. So I missed out on plenty of memorable games that are now essentially contemporary relics. The same very much applied to the original Total Chaos, only ever enjoying it loosely because of everyone's resident slop-man who's in the end credits by the way . So when my personal circumstances aligned with the fully, from-the-ground-up remake, I wanted to finally experience an actual horror game, and boy, I am not disappointed.

Gameplay important, and gameplay is good . It's like a mix of Condemned: Criminal Origin's scrappy combat and Silent Hill 2's grunge and feel. Melee is your main asset in surviving Fort Oasis, and it's been heavily expanded upon. While things like throwables and dodging return, newer mechanics like parrying and weapon upgrading bring a nice flavour to Total Chaos. Best thing about it is that they're all integral to the gameplay loop. With things like item degradation and group fights, the game isn't just about dashing away from hits, charging up attacks and repeating. Throwables like rocks, alcohol and bricks help in stunning enemies (or lighting them on fire for alcohol), giving space to deal with incoming threats or to follow up with a kill. Throwing weapons is even useful, from the unique interaction of small-handed weapons with the Headless Maw monsters, or using the Ragged Scrap Spear as a portable lighter when no fire's in sight. Upgrading weaponry with tape to extend durability and barbed wire to increase damage gives players a nice choice between what weapons they feel are worth investing into more, or to use them in seperate crafting recipies. Parrying may seem like a useless mechanic when Total Chaos hinges on resource management, but monster hordes are also a resource to be managed, and the increased damage from perfect parries can help thin out hordes quicker and safer while feeling great to do. There are guns in this game, but don't expect anything in-depth, they shoot and that's it. Most of the satisfaction comes with parrying a Brute with your fully-upgraded Rebar Scrap Axe and obliterating their forehead from existence, or throwing a rock with nails to stagger an enemy before the KO hits like a train. It's these moments that make the gameplay loop satisfying, and the returning crafting system that's been expanded since helps a lot with finding something new to make and help you.

There was some witchcraft that came with this game for sure, because this game looks seriously great. And it runs extremely well because of it's generally simple, but effective graphics. Didn't have any issues with my normal playthrough, but I did face a slight hiccup for my Survivalist playthrough where alt-tabbing would cause the game to lag the hell out. Other than that, the game runs and looks beautiful. Helps that the environments are so well crafted. Fort Oasis definitely got a significant face-lift, and everywhere you tread always conveys the idea of a mining colony in the midst of rotting away, forgotten. The chapters 'Storm', 'Regression' and 'Chaos' have to be some of my favourite chapters for aesthetic, from the now-dirty residential sectors to the dense forests of Fort Oasis, it's definitely a step-up from the original when chapters like 'Madness' and 'Resolve' bring something new despite the general framework already being laid out. The monsters look great as well, some got upgraded looks while others had theirs revised. The new look for the Leda-Cora monster I definitely prefer, the new light-allergic roof-bound monsters make my ass clench every time I meet them, and the new tree monster looks awesome . Sometimes some of the environments, especially in 'Crossroads' have their bloom ramped up to max and it feels like the Sun's going to fall on Fort Oasis, but it's a nitpick and probably the protagonist tweaking out as usual.

If you've played the original Doom 2 mod, the story hasn't really changed all that much, but the remake does lose its subtlety slightly. The reveal that you're playing as Tyler and the voice on the radio is your suicidal consciousness is hinted at a lot earlier and straight-out revealed in one of the later chapters compared to the epilogue in the original. , but I mostly see this as trying not to drag out the same plot points for what're likely the target audience: returning players. But for newer players, the general polish the story's been sheened with, from some of the journal entries being voiced, the voice on the radio sounding like a normal person and not his purposely edgy, Darth Vader impression and newer additions that add some history to the protagonist's troubled history make the story of Total Chaos pretty great and interesting. It's not Silent Hill 2 or SOMA levels of introspection, but it's a nice, simply dark storyline that definitely hits when it's given the chance.

The normal difficulty definitely feels way too easy. You can generally play it the same way you would in the original of just dodging and hitting, while being stuffed with the gills with so many items you're playing STALKER in an American mining colony. Survivalist changes that a ton. With resources being more scarce you're forced to be much more conservative and thus, interact more with the game's mechanics. Chapters 1 and halfway through 2 is like a initiation ceremony. If you can't survive them with the new record saving system, you're just not ready. Early-game is definitely much more tense, managing your hunger while actually using throwing and parrying to manage crowds and get through encounters unscathed. There are neat little tricks that really rise to prominence throwing throwables whilst charging is a life saver and changes to what you usually expect that'll challenge you aplenty the shotgun in the Miller's Room comes without its pump and you'll need to find it a chapter later, making the graveyard encounter even more tense . Though the difficulty wanes late mid-game and endgame where you'll generally have saved enough resources to survive encounters with some risk involved, it's a point of applause that Total Chaos teaches you to be careful and fully rewards you for it by the end when through your own efforts, you're stuffed to the gills with everything you need.

There's so much else I could talk about, the music (and holy crap is that Akira Yamaoka? This really is Silent Hill 2: Electric Boogaloo) or the QoL the developers have been adding in such as being able to make items without their recipes or chapter select for getting certain achievements, but seriously, what a great game. For such a decent price as well, it's a no-brainer to get this game. For those returning from the mod, the remake offers plenty of new while respecting the old, and for newer players, you're jumping into an experience that may not be graphically ground-breaking or a mind-blowing example of gameplay, but it's another indie treasure that deserves only the best, and you'll fall in love with the chaos, of Total Chaos .

tl;dr i'm ready to get my cheeks gaped by the hunter on march 2nd

Very, very good remake of the original GZDoom version that complements it very well. I think the gameplay here is improved over the original, I liked the additions to the story, not huge on a few monster design changes visually, the redone levels were great, i don't think the ending section from the Mines onward is nearly as impactful as the original one, and the boss at the end isn't amazing. Overall though, very very strong version of the original game, I will be 100%'ing it just like I did the original. Definitely worth picking up, even without having the original experience.

I had some minor performance issues (this is Unity actually, apparently, was under the impression it was UE5, and it was UE5 early on in development), mostly after an hour or so of playtime, I suspect there's probably a memory leak issue going on. For reference, I am playing the game on Arch Linux through Proton Experimental (works really well for the most part), perhaps the issue lies there, it wasn't enough to bother me much, just a quick restart of the game and it's performing pretty well again.