I got an opportunity to play through the free demo of this indie game today and I immediately ran to their Kickstarter and pledged some dosh for their development. You can get a chance to play it too here, as well as pledge to fund them. There is also a link for their Steam Greenlight page there too, or here for the lazy. Now that I've done my due diligence and mentioned that, let's talk about the game itself.
Chasm is a 2D RPG that plays very similarly to the old Metroid and Castlevania titles that I got to enjoy on the Super Nintendo and SEGA Genesis. It is a procedurally generated game, meaning the dungeons are generated by algorithm (on the fly) instead of manually before release. This means that my dungeon that I play through may not necessarily be the same as yours. All of the things will be there, but the placement will be random according to how the algorithm dictates.
Graphically, it is similar to the classic games filled with sprites and pixelated landscapes. Moving through the dungeons and hitting the end of the side-scrolling area will move you into a new area. The maps seem modular because of this, allowing for simple and straightforward navigation of the underground mineshafts that I experienced in the demo. Enemies are not difficult to pick from the background and have unique models based on how they move or attack. Overall, it is exactly what I pictured and hoped it'd be.
Gameplay is simple. Two buttons are designated for attacks, one for jumping and one for world interaction. Movement is as simple as a D-Pad or arrows and is extremely reactive (think of changing direction midair in the old Mario games). The buttons do not have multiple roles so you wont be stuck switching a weapon or picking up an item when you really want to be reloading or ducking. If you want to change your equipment, weapon, or spells... just pause and take care of it! No need to worry about getting attacked by whatever fresh hell you left alive in the vicinity while rushing for that new sword.
The music for the areas I got to play through were excellent. They were long enough to not repeat a billion times and get annoying as you moved through the dungeon. I also found them true to their roots an styled very much like the old Castlevania and Zelda games. Additionally, they are separate audio files you can access when you unzip the demo download so if you really like them, they're super easy to get out of the game.
Overall, I've REALLY looking forward to this game coming out. It was challenging enough that I had to pay attention to what I was doing, but easy enough that I could put it down and pick it up whenever I had time without much (if any) dip in skill level. This makes it appealing because I have a nasty habit of doing that when I have too many games on my plate. I was honestly a little disappointed when I got to the end of the demo and I had to stop playing. I'm already planning on going back and play through on Hardcore or speed run it in the built in Time Trial mode.
Do I think you should buy it? If you enjoy the gamestyle I described or show in my video then it is a simple answer... absolutely. You get a DRM-free copy for any operating system you use. There is nothing I can say bad about it from the short time I got to play it.
