Chorus review: A world of cults, rites, repentance and resilience

Chorus is a motley game of combat and space exploration with a captivating storyline. You will certainly be awestruck at how magnificent the game looks, with its fast-paced action and novel settings. Developed by Fishlabs and published by Deep Silver, Chorus is an excellent adventure into the space combat genre.

The game follows protagonist Nara, who, after defecting from a murderous cult, is trying to survive as a scavenger after cutting ties with her past. However, as in many such stories, the past slowly catches up with her. She is forced to retrieve her powers and wage one last war against the very forces she once led.

---

Chorus - Dogfighting in space has never looked so good

Chorus begins with a cut-scene explaining what led to Nara's defection. She was part of the Circle - a cult led by the Great Prophet who earlier preached peace and harmony. Nara considered him a true guide and a father figure she never had.

But as with every totalitarian figure, even though the Prophet began with messages of unification or "in chorus," he sought to quash rebellion and resistance through annihilation. Nara and the Circle were ordered to kill billions on a planet that refused "the harmonious doctrine of Chorus." Nara did not refuse, and her actions led to the destruction of the planet and everyone on it.

The Great Prophet (Image via Chorus)

Distraught by the violence and consequences of her actions, she left the cult. Chorus brings players to the wreck of the Artok. This acts as an introductory lesson to the spaceflight mechanism, general combat, exploration and politics of the world around Nara.

---

The world of Chorus

Space in Chorus has been designed meticulously and is gorgeous to fly around. The semi-open world of the game provides a distinct flavor to each new area you unlock, whether it's Stega Central early in the game, the shrouded-in-darkness Stega Rim or the abandoned facility of Tarris Lab.

Players find themselves at the Enclave in Stega Central after finishing a scavenging run in the wreck of Artok. At the hangar, they will have the option to buy new weapons, ship upgrades or modifications. The game is also populated with a number of factions other than the Circle.

The Enclave (Image via Chorus)

The armed civilians located in Stega Central and Stega Rim are the Free Militia. A proper military alliance is the Resistance in the Amarok system, led by Admiral Kardoh. Then there are the Pirates.

They despise the Circle but due to their penchant for crime and deceit, they are loathed by both the Enclave and the Resistance.

The Dawn is a faction that has parted ways with the Circle. They still believe in the message of Chorus but are against the Prophet's atrocities and prefer peace through unity instead.

---

The flight and rites of Chorus

The beauty of Chorus lies in its exploration and combat. The fighting is fluid and fast-paced with swerves and rolls that serve as both evasive maneuvers and as an attacking measure.

The developers have made an effort to cut down on the usual endless cycles of dogfighting prevalent in such games by introducing the concept of Rites.

Approaching the wreck (Image via Chorus)

Players are presented with the concept of Rites during the visit to the wreck of Artok, as Nara uses her senses to scan her surroundings for potential objects of interest. When the attack on the Enclave is over, Nara returns to the place where she had hidden her sentient ship Forsaken, aka Forsa.

She tells Forsa that she had purged her Rites after exiling herself. But now, having decided to go on the offensive, she has to retrieve them in order to attack the Circle and destroy the Prophet. The first Rite she gets back is the ability to drift trance. This makes flying more intuitive and the combat that much more fun to engage in.

This Rite can be used to execute drifts at insane speeds and turning radii to obliterate enemies, evade objects and complete puzzles.

Another that stands out is the Rite of the Hunt. Using this, Nara can focus on a spaceship and choose to teleport right behind it, firing away in the brief window before its shields go up.

If it seems like these Rites make combat extremely easy, it does not feel so when you encounter larger ships with unique capabilities. Shade-class ships cannot be brought down by simply shooting at them. One has to first take out their exposed glowing vulnerabilities before attacking the core.

---

Performance and graphics

Chorus was played on PC having the following system specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core i5-9400F
• RAM: 16 GB DDR4
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce 1060 OC 6GB
• Hard Drive Space: 1 TB + 240 GB SSD

Chorus' system specifications allow it to run at an acceptable framerate in most contemporary gaming setups. The game world is beautifully realized. The sheer beauty of the Enclave at the beginning of the game and how it felt to fight around it against the Circle's attacks really stood out for me.

---

Opinion

Chorus does a marvelous job of creating an intricate space-combat experience in a well-realized world. The main story is replete with philosophical ideology and religious zeal as Nara initially tries to purge the darkness within her. But later, she acknowledges and embraces it to root out the Prophet she earlier believed in.

Fighting against one's self (Image via Chorus)

Nara and Forsa are the only two characters that players spend any meaningful time with. Their conversations make up for the lack of exposition without ever feeling tiring or slow. The well-placed inner monologs offer players a peek at Nara's deeper feelings, and fears.

The world of Chorus is populated with random organic quests and branching side quests. I often got distracted during my flights with random calls for help and points of interest that I wanted to check out. The music in the game appropriately compliments the epic narrative and the violence that we are expected to mete out as Nara.

In Chorus, players will love flying around at breakneck speeds and abruptly drift trance to surprise the enemy. Whether I'm deftly rolling away from an oncoming laser strike, simply nosediving toward a ship or even making an agile leap to get behind the enemy, it rarely got stale. I found myself coming back to the game again and again just to engage in these fights.

That said, there could be more classes or variants of ships and even more weapons and modifications for Forsa. And the dialog felt a tad off at times, or forced even. The game could also have done with more interesting characters for us to meet during cut-scenes.

But the finale, the fight with the Prophet and the realization of the truth about Forsa more than made up for it.

When I started with Chorus, I did not get hooked to it at once. Much like Nara, it was only with Forsa that I truly realized the possibilities and beauty of flying in the game. Art direction, visual spectacles, explosions and weapon effects are an absolute treat for the players.

Rating (Image via Sportskeeda)

The developers have done a mighty job of reinvigorating and reimaging space combat. They have created a properly fleshed-out world of ethos, pathos, doubt, loss and redemption.

---

CHORUS

Reviewed on: PC (Review Code provided by Koch Media)

Platform(s): Windows, Xbox One & Series X|S, PlayStation 4 & 5

Developer(s): Fishlabs

Publisher(s): Deep Silver

Release Date: December 3, 2021