Chaser

Chaser is a 2003 sci-fi First-Person Shooter for the PC developed by Cauldron, an Eastern European developer known for making "budget" first-person shooters such as Soldier of Fortune: Payback, The History Channel: A Nation Divided and Battle in the Pacific, and Jurassic The Hunted.

The game takes place in the year 2044, and follows the adventures of John Chaser, an amnesiac soldier with a price on his head who stumbles from one location to another on dystopian Earth as he gets drawn into the conflict between the tyrannical Marscorp Mega Corp and the martian resistance. The game's plot is transparently a Whole-Plot Reference to Total Recall.

The game's most notable features are its rendering of a few dozen different real-world firearms (with a surprising absence of any sci-fi "space guns" despite the sci-fi setting), its huge levels, and a Bullet Time mechanic known as adrenaline mode (although it's much less of a core gameplay element than in F.E.A.R. or Max Payne).

Chaser is now available on Steam for $4.99.


 * AKA-47: Averted. All weapons are listed by their real names. And there are a lot of them.
 * Artificial Stupidity: The enemy A.I. is very simple, especially compared to modern shooters. Enemies mostly just run towards your location, then stand still and fire at you once they enter your line-of-sight (although they do occasionally run behind cover for a couple seconds).
 * Blind Idiot Translation: Mostly averted; the dialogue is pretty decent, but it does have an overall "weird" vibe from odd word usage and sentence structure which makes it clear the original script was not in English.
 * Body Armor as Hit Points: Averted. Body armor semi-realistically absorbs a percentage of damage based on its condition. At full armor, your armor absorbs all of a bullet's damage, while at partial armor it will only absorb a percentage of the damage (with the rest directly damaging your health).
 * Bullet Time: The game has Adrenaline Mode, which slows down time giving you more time to react. Unlike most other Bullet Time mechanics in other games, it does not increase your movement or shooting speed, leaving you just as vulnerable to damage. It also regenerates extremely slowly, so you can't rely on it for every firefight. On the plus side, you have a lot of it (a full meter lasts almost 30 continuous seconds, but it takes several minutes to regenerate).
 * Cyberpunk Is Techno: The (surprisingly good) soundtrack for the game is very techno.
 * The Dragon: Frequent references are made throughout the game to Scott Stone, Marcorps' deadliest warrior and The Dragon to Big Bad Samuel Longwood, who was apparently the one responsible for initially capturing and gravely wounding Chaser before the start of the game, resulting in his amnesia. There's something of a buildup to a big final showdown between Chaser and Stone.
 * Downer Ending: Seemingly pretty standard for an Eastern European developed game (although, given their history, it's kinda understandable).
 * Elite Mooks: In the last few levels you primarily fight Marscorps heavy soldiers wearing Powered Armor that can soak almost a full mag of gunfire, and equipped with OCIWs, the best assault rifles in the game (which are also equipped with undermounted rocket launchers).
 * Giant Mook: The last few levels have several enemy exoskeletons which are basically the power loader from Aliens strapped with armor plating, a minigun, and a rocket launcher.
 * Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Despite mankind having developed commercial space flight, terraforming, holograms, force-fields, and other sci-fi staples, it seems weapons technology hasn't progressed beyond what we have in the modern age, given that the only firearms in the game are all modern guns. The only concession to the "futuristic" setting is the presence of currently undeveloped prototype weapons such as the H&K G11 or OICW. Although the last couple of levels does have a minigun that fires grenades.
 * The Mole:
 * Mooks but No Bosses: The game actually has a handful of proper boss fights in the first two-thirds of the game, but there are absolutely no bosses in the final 3rd of the game once you get to Mars.
 * Nintendo Hard: Extremely. This is an old-school, hardcore PC shooter. No regenerating health. Health and armor pickups are relatively uncommon. Enemies can kill you in just four or five assault rifle shots (seven or eight shots if you're fully armored). Snipers can kill you in one or two shots. Adrenaline Mode gives you a slight edge, but doesn't make you a God Among Men like in most other shooters that feature it.
 * Tomato in the Mirror:
 * Too Awesome to Use: Bullet Time can be like this, given how incredibly slowly it regenerates after being used.
 * Whole-Plot Reference: The entire game is essentially an Expy of Total Recall, right down to The Reveal at the end.