Chorus

Chorus is a veritable smorgasbord of action, exploration, and captivating story. One that I’ll enjoy for many moons to come.

Chorus is a fantastic return to space combat games and one I’m sure that both newcomers and veterans will enjoy.

With a solid gameplay loop, a variety of side missions, and an engaging, original story that doesn't overstay its welcome, Chorus delivers one of the best sci-fi experiences of the year.

Chorus misses out on the opportunity to let the player decide who the protagonist is, choosing instead to force a dramatic end-of-the-world scenario on the player that cheapens the ability to explore and take on side-missions. Read our review.

There aren't as many space combat games as there used to be but Chorus is here to prove that the genre is relevant so let's take off.

While the story is nonsense and some of the elements don't feel that great, Chorus' high-intensisty space combat is so good it leaves me wanting more every time.

The mission design, whilst I applaud the attempts at variety, does start to get a bit samey – though less so if you perhaps just mainline the game and not engage in the optional side content. Medium difficulty provides a nice challenge, but players new to the genre may want to start on easy to get a feel for things before upping the ante – there’s a good 15 hours + of gameplay content here, so no need to rush.

While I never felt like I was experiencing anything truly special, I appreciated the effort put into the narrative side of Chorus. It helped to keep my interest piqued while I went about some of the space busy work I associate with the genre. Where a game such as Everspace may be more about the process itself, Chorus never loses sight of its focus, the bond between Nara and Forsaken. It doesn’t break new ground in the genre and, apart from a nifty battle with a monster space eel, lacks many standout moments. That said, space action junkies will eat this one up and those with next-gen consoles ...

With a patch or two, Chorus could easily be turned around. When you’re engaging your enemies in the middle of deep space, boosting then drifting to rotate your ship around and snipe three or more enemies with your laser rifle before warping behind another and switching to your missiles to unleash a mighty payload, there’s nothing else quite like it. It’s just a shame that there are moments in between where you might consider just giving up your adventure, either thanks to a bug or a poorly-designed section that causes undue frustration.

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“Chorus' stellar space combat is brought down by a myriad of design choices that range from frustrating to outright annoying.”

Chorus simplifies the standard flight controls of other air and space shooters to slap on fun new attack and mobility options. It makes up for its stale characters with a cool setting and inventive ways to make use of your kit throughout the roughly 12-hour adventure. If a couple bugs can get ironed out, I have no doubt players will be singing its praises. The game is out December 3 for $39.99 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, and Google Stadia.