The year is wrapping up, and with the end of the year comes the usual onslaught of the biggest video games on the market. All of the usual suspects are present, as well as some brand new triple-A titles entering the fray. Call of Duty: Vanguard is the latest in the annual first-person shooter franchise. Far Cry 6 has been well received as another solid entry in Ubisoft's open-world franchise, while other shooters like Halo: Infinite and Battlefield 2042 are sure to also gain a good amount of time in the spotlight. With all this competition, it may be difficult for some outside the norm titles like Chorus to stand out on their own.
Deep Silver, the publisher behind other popular franchises like Saints Row, first announced Chorus during an Xbox showcase last May. The game is essentially a third-person space combat title featuring blistering action and slick sci-fi visuals. Gameplay footage and teaser trailers for the game so far have shown off the fast-paced combat and a surprisingly dramatic narrative to go alongside it. Unfortunately, despite an otherwise solid presentation to the media, Chorus seems to be flying a bit under the radar when compared to other games this year. With a release scheduled for early next month, this is one to watch for fans of space-combat simulators.
The Flight Combat Genre
Genres in gaming all have time to shine. Platformers were all the rage during the '90s, while first-person shooters took the industry by storm by the mid-2000s with franchises like Call of Duty and Halo. When gaming was slowly making the transition from 2D to 3D, no other genre was perhaps as well suited to this new dimension of freedom as flight simulators. Allowing players to take the skies (or stars in this case) was a hugely compelling concept at the time, bringing a sense of freedom not seen in games prior to that point.
Ushering in that era were games based on established franchises, as well as brand new IPs created to take advantage of the hype. The original SNES Star Fox game was a stunning display of 3D technology at the time, while Star Wars: TIE Fighter translated the epic dog fights of the film franchise into an accurate video game form. The popularity of this genre continued into the 2000s, with continued support from a galaxy far, far away in games like Star Wars: Rogue Squadron as well as the Ace Combat franchise.
Everything has its time and place, however, and as 3D gaming continued to grow and evolve over the years, the novelty of the genre seemed to wear off a little. The Star Fox series has been mostly dormant in recent years, while last year's Star Wars: Squadrons was the franchise's first foray back into the genre in quite some time. The safe bet nowadays for studios are first-person shooters and battle royale experiences, which is why Chorus is such a surprise offering from Deep Silver. Despite this promising new entry into the flight sim genre, making spectacular use of building on established ideas, the title still seems to be lacking the attention it deserves.
Star Wars: Squadrons Meets Star Fox
Based on the gameplay for Chorus shown off so far, it looks to be a cross between the aforementioned Star Wars: Squadrons and Star Fox franchises in terms of the overall style and feel. This means that the game looks to have the same all chaos seen in the "all-range mode" sequences from Star Fox, mixed with the tight, customizable functionality in Star Wars: Squadrons.
Players take control of a starship called the Forsaken, which can be modified to use different weapon load-outs, bringing a layer of strategy and choice to each mission. Once in flight, space combat looks to be just as relentless as the two other games mentioned above, with a variety of goals to complete, enemies to fight, and a stunning display of on-screen destruction. As an added bonus, Chorus will be open world, allowing players to freely explore vast reaches of space for side missions and other unlockable goodies. It seems to be a molding of the best of both worlds, so for fans of either space combat series, Chorus is more than worth a look when it flies onto the scene.
Chorus is slated to launch on December 3, 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
