From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


You probably don't remember "Total Chaos", but I do. I wrote about it
back in 2016, when I first placed it. It was a 'total conversion' mod
that used the Doom engine (well, GZDoom) but transformed the game into
a slow-paced horror-survival game; it was equal parts "Silent Hill"
and "STALKER".

[It's still available for free here:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/total-chaos ]

It was an interesting game, albeit a bit heavy in the monotonous grays
and overbearing darkness. I have to admit that the thing I found most interesting about it, though, was how radically it changed and updated
the idTech 1 engine. EVERYTHING about the game beyond its first-person perspective was transformed, and while even when I first played it (in
2016) you'd never confuse it for a modern game, still it looked fairly impressive. It was definitely up amongst my list of 'best Doom TCs',
perhaps even overshadowing stuff like "Myhouse.wad" or "Shadows of
Destiny" because of how far it took things.

Anyway, "Total Chaos" got a stand-alone release now. It's not clear if
it still uses the idTech1 engine, although given the apparent
complexity of the new levels, I doubt it. The 2016 mod did some
amazing things, but the levels were still very much rectilinear in
their room design (even if the developer did everything he could to
disguise that). The newer version has a much more organic look to its
maps.

Is the game any good? Well, I haven't played it yet so I can't say,
but reviews indicate its fairly similar in pacing and mechanics to the
mod. Which is both a good thing and a bad. Myself, I didn't much care
for the grindy resource collection and limited inventory space, but
that's part and parcel of the survival/horror genre. If you're a fan
of games like "Silent Hill" or "Resident Evil" you probably won't mind
as much. Certainly the color-scape of the new game is much improved
over the original. I still don't think its worth the $25USD. Maybe
when it drops in price I'll give it a try.

In a meantime, I still have the original MOD installed on my hard-disk
(in my 'tiny games' folder... even though it requires 1.5GB. Such is
the state of modern gaming that I consider that footprint 'tiny' ;-).
I revisit its haunted environs every now and again. I recommend you
give it a try to, and --if you like it-- maybe seek out its retail
version.


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