Space shooter Chorus received its first gameplay trailer at Gamescom today. The game was first announced in May during an Xbox Series X showcase event; developer Johannes Kuhlmann even went so far as to claim that the Series X is the easiest console to develop games for. Nonetheless, Chorus will be available for PC and PlayStation systems as well when it launches next year.
Chorus is a grim game that puts players in control of a space pilot named Nara and Forsaken, her sentient spaceship. The duo embarks on a quest to bring down the Circle, the sinister cult that made Nara the dangerous warrior that she is. It's being developed by Fishlabs and published by Deep Silver. When it was revealed in May no gameplay was shown; an unfortunate trend for the whole event that earned it quite a bit of criticism when it aired.
But Chorus came screaming out of the gate with a brand new gameplay trailer today at Gamescom. The inimitable Geoff Keighley introduced it to viewers, boasting ray-traced 4K graphics at 60 FPS. And the trailer certainly did impress. The game's open space environments look gorgeous, and the combat looks truly thrilling. Chorus will have players dashing past tremendous capital ships at extreme speeds and utilizing reality-warping powers to dodge projectiles and dance acrobatically around their opponents. Forsaken looks capable of Star Fox-esque barrel rolls, as well as more arcane powers like teleportation. Check out the trailer below:
The space shooter genre is one of the oldest genres in gaming, owing to its roots in Asteroids, one of the first major arcade games. In recent years the venerable space shooter genre has gone by the wayside. Star Fox, one of the biggest franchises in the genre, has gone dark for a long time now following the lukewarm response to Star Fox Zero in 2016. The title character appeared in another space shooter, Starlink, but that game relied on physical toys that were discontinued last year. Until recently, no major space shooters have existed to fill the void. Now, not only do fans have Chorus to look forward to, as well as Star Wars: Squadrons, which comes out in a few months.
If these two games do well perhaps they will lead to a true resurgence of the ancestral video game genre. The fantasy of climbing behind the wheel of a powerful flying machine and blasting enemies out of the air with spectacular explosions is a pretty powerful one, and it's one that past space shooters have delivered with aplomb. Based on today's gameplay preview, Chorus is likely to deliver a fast-paced, thrilling, and truly memorable space shooter experience when it blasts off next year.
Source: Deep Silver/YouTube