Chasm

Chasm is a Metroidvania-style action platformer set in a mysterious fantasy world where players explore procedurally generated dungeons, battling enemies and uncovering secrets. Blending RPG elements with roguelike mechanics, the game challenges adventurers to navigate side-scrolling environments while rescuing characters and upgrading abilities. Released in 2018 across multiple platforms, it features intense combat, skill-based progression, and a mining town plagued by supernatural forces beneath its chasms.

Chasm: Review

In the pantheon of Metroidvania games, Chasm stands as a testament to the enduring appeal of classic 2D exploration and combat. Developed by Bit Kid, Inc., this game is a labor of love that pays homage to the genre’s roots while attempting to carve out its own niche. Released in July 2018, Chasm has since garnered a mixed reception, praised for its atmospheric world-building and tight controls, but criticized for its procedural generation and repetitive design. This review will delve into the game’s development history, narrative themes, gameplay mechanics, world-building, and critical reception to provide a comprehensive analysis of Chasm‘s place in video game history.

Development History & Context

Chasm was conceived in 2012 by James Petruzzi, the founder of Bit Kid, Inc. (then operating as Discord Games). The game’s development began with a prototype featuring basic combat and jumping mechanics for the protagonist, a young knight exploring procedurally generated dungeons in a remote mining town. The initial vision was to create an old-fashioned game that would appeal to both nostalgia-driven gamers and newcomers to the Metroidvania genre.

The development team hoped to secure funding from publishers at the Game Developers Conference in 2013 but failed to attract any interest. Undeterred, they turned to Kickstarter, launching a successful campaign in April 2013 that raised over $191,000 from nearly 7,000 backers. This funding allowed the team to hire additional developers and cover production costs, marking the beginning of a six-year development journey.

The gaming landscape in 2018 was dominated by a resurgence of interest in Metroidvania titles, with games like Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge gaining critical acclaim. Chasm aimed to capitalize on this trend by offering a unique blend of procedural generation and hand-crafted levels, a combination that would later become both its strength and its weakness.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Chasm tells the story of an aspiring knight sent to investigate the mysterious disappearance of residents in the mining town of Karthas. The protagonist’s journey takes them through a series of procedurally generated areas, each filled with environmental hazards, traps, and enemies. The narrative is linear, with the protagonist’s quest to uncover the truth about Karthas serving as the driving force behind the gameplay.

The game’s themes revolve around heroism, discovery, and the horrors lurking beneath the surface. The protagonist’s quest to prove their worth is a classic hero’s journey, complete with trials and tribulations that test their mettle. The discovery of ancient artifacts and the unveiling of long-buried secrets add layers of intrigue to the story, while the ever-present threat of supernatural creatures provides a sense of foreboding.

The dialogue and character interactions are minimal, with most of the story conveyed through environmental storytelling and item descriptions. This approach allows players to immerse themselves in the game’s world and draw their own conclusions about the events unfolding around them.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Chasm is a side-scrolling action-adventure game that combines elements of Metroidvania exploration with hack-and-slash combat. The core gameplay loop revolves around exploring procedurally generated levels, battling enemies, and acquiring new abilities and equipment.

Combat in Chasm is fast-paced and challenging, requiring precise timing and strategic use of weapons and sub-weapons. The game features a melee-focused combat system, with players able to switch between different weapons and spells to adapt to various situations. Enemies telegraph their attacks, allowing players to dodge or counter effectively. Boss fights, in particular, demand pattern recognition and quick reflexes, rewarding players with unique items for flawless victories.

Character progression is handled through an experience point system, with players leveling up automatically as they defeat enemies. This system increases the protagonist’s health and mana pools without requiring manual stat allocation, streamlining the progression process. Equipment upgrades, obtained from loot drops or purchased from NPCs, enhance the protagonist’s attack power and other attributes, providing a sense of growth and customization.

The user interface in Chasm is clean and intuitive, with a map that dynamically fills in as rooms are visited. This map allows players to mark notable locations and fast travel to previously discovered save points, reducing traversal time during extended sessions. The game also features a variety of modes, including Normal, Arena, Time Trial, and Hardcore, catering to different playstyles and skill levels.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Chasm is set in the fictional Guildean Kingdom, a realm that includes the remote mining town of Karthas. The game’s world extends into vast underground chasms, ancient catacombs, and forgotten ruins, each populated by supernatural monsters and remnants of a bygone era. The visual direction is heavily inspired by 16-bit era games, with detailed, hand-drawn sprites and backgrounds rendered at a native resolution of 384×216.

The art style contributes to a dark, gothic tone, with shadowy palettes, intricate environmental details, and a sense of foreboding that heightens the tension in the underground settings. The sound design complements the visuals, with a haunting soundtrack that evokes a sense of mystery and danger. The game’s audio track for the event struck me immediately as something from a Quentin Tarantino movie. It’s like when they pause the move to introduce some villain, except in this case, you’re being introduced to one of your newest items.

Reception & Legacy

Chasm received mixed to positive reviews upon its release, with critics praising its atmospheric pixel art and engaging combat while criticizing the procedural generation for leading to repetitive and unbalanced maps. The PC version holds a Metacritic score of 72/100 based on 29 critic reviews, while console ports earned similar mixed scores.

Reviewers frequently highlighted the game’s strengths in core Metroidvania elements, such as its boss designs reminiscent of classics like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which featured varied patterns and rewarding no-damage bonuses. The combat system was lauded for its depth, blending tight platforming with RPG-like loot and upgrades that encouraged strategic enemy engagements, making fights feel dynamic and satisfying.

However, the procedural generation drew significant criticism for producing maps that often felt repetitive, unbalanced, and lacking the handcrafted variety of traditional Metroidvanias, sometimes resulting in frustrating dead ends or uneven pacing during exploration. Launch technical issues, including bugs and crashes, further hampered the experience, particularly on PC where some players reported progression-blocking glitches.

Despite its flaws, Chasm has left a lasting impact on the Metroidvania genre, contributing to the experimentation with procedural generation in hybrid designs. The game’s legacy lies in its ability to inspire subsequent indie titles seeking replayability without full roguelike restarts, even if its own execution was not without its shortcomings.

Conclusion

Chasm is a game that embodies the spirit of the Metroidvania genre while attempting to innovate with procedural generation. Its strengths lie in its atmospheric world-building, tight combat mechanics, and engaging exploration. However, its reliance on procedural generation often leads to repetitive and unbalanced maps, detracting from the overall experience.

In conclusion, Chasm is a worthy addition to the Metroidvania canon, offering a unique blend of old and new elements that will appeal to fans of the genre. While it may not reach the heights of classics like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Hollow Knight, it stands as a testament to the enduring appeal of 2D exploration and combat. Chasm deserves a place in the library of any Metroidvania enthusiast, but it is not without its flaws. Its legacy will be remembered for its contributions to the genre’s evolution, even if it did not achieve the greatness it aspired to.