Total Chaos is not the follow-up to five-star retro shooter Turbo Overkill I expected

Turbo Overkill, the earlier recreation from one-person studio Set off Comfortable, was a gloriously unsubtle shooter blaring with defiance and power. However the observe up, Whole Chaos, appears to be a really completely different beast. It is a psychological horror that includes creeping round corridors to seek out keys to unlock doorways, whereas panicking internally about what’s about to leap out at you subsequent. It has survival gauges to control, and there is a crafting system that allows you to choose up wood sticks and glue hammer heads to them, or make bandages from alcohol and tape you discover. It is a recreation about surviving in an oppressive place, a recreation of ambiance and strangeness. On the floor, the 2 video games appear nothing alike.

Whole Chaos

Developer: Set off Comfortable Interactive
Writer: Apogee Leisure
Availability: 2025
Obtain the demo on: Steam

But beneath that you would be able to completely really feel the similarities. It is a first-person recreation and there is a tempo to its motion that feels quietly blistering, whilst you are edging round corridors. You surge forwards with a press of the Sprint key, and there is a snap to thumping issues with hammers, or stabbing them frantically with scissors (it is an eclectic arsenal) that feels exhilarating. There’s additionally the suggestion of weapons later within the demo, and if Turbo Overkill proved something, it is that developer Set off Comfortable Interactive is aware of find out how to make weapons. Plus, there is a little bit of insanity to it – and it is within the insanity the place Whole Chaos actually begins to face out.

The set-up right here is you are an individual with a ship who sailed right into a storm to heed a misery name, solely to expertise one thing odd at sea and get up an period of time later in a shadowy place known as Fort Oasis, a crumbling compound the place one thing untoward appears to have gone on. Heavy metal doorways and barred rooms disguise letters and journals, which in flip trace in the direction of human experimentation. Clearly nothing good occurred right here. And then you definitely begin to see issues.

It is eerie – a recreation the place the expectation of dangerous issues taking place is usually extra pronounced than the dangerous issues themselves, which I respect, although there are fights available as nicely. From what I’ve seen, it is a combination of combating and working away, and there is good creativeness in how the sport tries to scare you – it is by no means only one factor time and again. There’s area in between heart-thumping moments for environmental puzzles and story, too, as you flick by means of journals or hearken to a BioShock-like voice on the opposite finish of a walkie-talkie.

When you play, you stability a handful of survival gauges – Well being, Stamina, Bleeding, Starvation and Insanity – and gather issues from the setting that have an effect on them, positively or negatively or each. A tin of beans would possibly assist your Starvation and Well being, for instance, whereas a syringe will assist Well being however hurt Starvation. There’s rotten meat, cigarettes, power drinks… Understanding what to ingest whereas within the warmth of battle is a layer of technique in itself.

Essentially the most fascinating one is the treatment you gather, which provides to your Insanity bar – one thing that appears not so good at first look, till you uncover that Insanity has advantages of its personal. Push your Insanity gauge up and you may start to see issues that weren’t there earlier than, resembling alternate pathways by means of ranges that are actually traversable. I solely glimpsed these twisted and otherworldly tunnels within the demo, but it surely’s clear that discovering and strolling them will likely be a serious a part of the sport afterward. What the drawbacks are to embracing this Insanity, although, I do not actually know. I can not think about they’re something good.

I’m intrigued. Whole Chaos feels sharp to play and oozes ambiance, and its mix of crafting and survival mechanics make me assume nostalgically of video games like Stalker or DayZ. What form the ultimate recreation will take – will it lean extra in the direction of being a shooter? – I can not inform, however I am keen to seek out out.