Chasm (2018)

This title is a retro-styled Metroidvania that aims to blend procedural generation with classic side-scrolling exploration. Its presentation is immediately appealing, the pixel art is detailed and expressive, giving each environment a warm, handcrafted look despite the fact that the rooms are assembled procedurally. At first I was concerned regarding the game's quality, because using random content generation approaches never usually deliver a good experience. Most titles lack the quality level of hand-crafted environments. But I can safely say this is not the case, every biome feels unique, exploration feels organic, at least to a certain degree. Animations are smooth, the color palette is vibrant without feeling overwhelming, and the game succeeds in evoking the feel of 16-bit era adventures.

The soundtrack reinforces this mood, offering calm, melodic tracks that support exploration without distracting from it. Though it is not as fantastic as other titles of the same genre, this one only tries to fill the silence instead of enforcing a musical identity. As a Metroidvania, it delivers the expected staples, you’ll traverse interconnected regions, defeat enemies, collect upgrades, and return to previously inaccessible areas as your abilities expand. The controls are responsive, and platforming feels comfortable, even if it doesn’t demand high precision. The town-rescue element, where you free villagers who then return to the hub area, adds a sense of progression outside raw exploration. This is clearly inspired by games like Order of Ecclesia and Soul Blazer, and I highly recommend trying to do all the side-quests, it'll greatly help you with progression.

There’s also a decent variety of weapons and equipment, giving you room to adapt combat to their preferences, whether focusing on faster attacks, heavy hits, or defensive boosts. Particularly I decided to stick to the basics, so I learned how to use the basic starting sword, and tried to use weapons similar to it, from start to finish. However, the game’s reliance on procedural generation is both a distinguishing feature and a limitation. While the curated room templates maintain a baseline level of quality, the way these pieces are stitched together can make the world feel loosely assembled rather than intentionally crafted. This reduces the sense of memorable landmarks or intricate pathways that often define the best Metroidvanias. The result is a map that is fun to uncover but rarely surprising or tightly structured.

Combat is straightforward and initially enjoyable, but it doesn’t evolve much over time. Enemy patterns are simple, and encounters tend to repeat across areas, which can flatten the challenge curve. Boss battles provide some variety and spectacle, yet they are not numerous enough to compensate for the general repetitiveness of regular fights. The pacing also leans toward the slow and methodical, people seeking intense combat or rapid progression might find the adventure somewhat subdued. You can enhance the combat by upgrading your gear and abilities, but unfortunately this only starts to feel good by the late-game, which makes it sound like you should go for a NG+ mode.

And while a new game plus mode doesn't exist on this game, I believe trying to 100% it, like I did, is good enough for it's small indie scope. Despite these shortcomings, this game remains an appealing experience for those who value atmosphere and exploration over mechanical depth. Its charm lies in its classic feel, gentle progression, and cozy presentation. The game doesn’t attempt to redefine the genre, but it delivers a steady, pleasant adventure that’s easy to settle into. For those willing to accept its modest ambitions, this title offers a satisfying journey that echoes the spirit of older Metroidvania titles, even if it never quite reaches the heights of its inspirations.

Chasm is a bit of a plain metroidvania game with some nice looking pixel art. There’s also some wasted potential and questionable design choices - in what could have been a really good game.

The story is simple - you’re in training for a knight when a distant village dispatches for help as villagers turn up missing in the local mine. As the garrison is short staffed you get chosen to go and investigate. Once you arrive - the only person left - mayor tells you that the villagers went missing in the mines. This is where you come in.

On your quest to find the evil lurking beneath the village you’ll get to explore 4 or 5 different underground areas - each a little different than the other but all with a familiar design of caves, catacombs or what you’d expect from a fantasy game. During your exploration you will find and rescue villagers, acquire new skills, and destroy monsters and evil living there - pretty standard setup.

Visually it’s really nice looking although the area designs are a little bit plain. Audio wise - the soundtrack is not annoying if not memorable - other sound effects are what you’d expect.

Gameplay wise it’s not bad. Not stunning but well done. The platforming is fine although until you get double jump and wall grab feels a bit basic. Combat reminds a little bit of hollow knight but is just not as good.

Game levels are randomly generated on each playthrough - so starting up a new game you get semi random dungeon design. Sounds cool - but doesn’t work. It’s not that the generator is bad - but rather the hand crafted design had potential of being much better and I really don’t see any replay value. You’ll get roughly the same items and abilities along the way and will fight same bosses - so the only difference will be how you’ll get there. And it’s just not enough to get me excited for another playthrough.

The game has some RPG elements which unfortunately are pretty useless as in my playthrough I found out that only strength and HP matter. The villagers rescued from the mines add the ability to buy weapons, craft new ones, and buy magic spells - however - the weapons crafted or bought were always weaker from what I had and magic spells felt completely useless. Even more - the game offers some weapon types - however I could not make myself use anything other than the sword as it was the most powerful weapon type in the game.

Overall I enjoyed Chasm - my enjoyment grew the deeper I got into the game. Got stuck once or twice but it was pretty minor and not complain-worthy. However near the end I kind of broke the game - sooner or later you’ll find potion selling lady where you’ll be able to buy health potions. Since in order to take them you essentially pause the game - and selling some more powerful items gives you plenty of cash you can stock up on quite a lot of them. This meant that the final boss went in first try just by consuming 20ish healing potions - I didn’t mind it much but it did take a bit of the challenge.

Worth a playthrough but nothing extraordinary to be found there.