Chasing Static Reviews

Chasing Static is a short horror story with an early 2000s low-budget movie feel. Taking place in the rural parts of Wales, you play as a man named Chris Selwood who, during his travels, discovers a small town with big secrets.Read More

This just wasn’t the horror experience I was looking for…

Chasing Static explore the effects of a strange anomaly on a small Welsh Town, with an effective PS1 visual style and fantastic sound design. With a compelling mystery at its core, Chasing Static stands out amongst the genre of retro walking simulators. It’s not perfect, but it’s worth the 3 hours it takes to play.

Chasing Static creates a strong sense of nostalgia as the appreciation of late 90's era horror games shines through. The game works well as a throwback, but it doesn't work as well as a horror game in its own right. More than that however it is ultimately let down by an abundance of overly familiar narrative choices. Minding that, fans of PlayStation 1 style horror should still find something to love.

At least that’s what I’ve been told it is because the Xbox version is completely busted.  Attempting to play this title on a Series X gave me an endless loading screen after only a few minutes of cutscenes.  A quick look at the reviews on the store showed that this is happening to multiple people.

While I was let down by what felt like a hasty search for a heart, I definitely had fun exploring as the game led me along, and the tools you use to follow the escaped signals make for some great retro ghostbusting tension, heightened by a keyboard synth-heavy score that paces and stretches itself according to the suspense. While visually excellent and fun to explore, Chasing Static is a game that I wished had leaned into something full throttle, gone for something gonzo and truly experimental, (the ancient folk horror traditions of the UK are right there). Instead, it mainly sticks to recycling an accumulated knowledge of ghosts, Doctor Who plots and watered down psychological horror.

Chasing Static is let down some by overused narrative tropes and a short length, but strong world design and enjoyable pacing help make it worth a playthrough.