Chameleon
Publisher:
Take 2, Cenega Czech
Platform:
Windows
Release:
May 19, 2005 Czech republic
Genre:
Stealth, Third-Person Shooter
Modes:
Single-Player
Available:
Rare. Not in any English stores.
Disclaimer:
-I love stealth games
-I play on the highest
difficulty
-I try to be as quiet
as possible, but I knock out all enemies I can.
-I'm harsh and picky.
-I'm not a professional
journalist.
-Most of my reviews are
usually the PC version. I am the PC master race.
-I try to 100% games
unless it's pointless or tediously stupid.
-No bribes were taken.
-No bribes were
offered.
-I'm a ghost
who hides in the shadows.
-Played with
English patch that was made for the Russian version.
-Game uses Starforce DRM
-Game uses Starforce DRM
Story:
The plot is
about a man who lost his parents to a sniper 15 years ago., in 1975.
Not being able to get over it, he gets fired from the CIA and decides
to set out on his own to find the killer. The story of Chameleon is
very bare-bones that lousily connects each mission to the overall
plot. Mission briefings are sparse that can be summed up as this
person is a lead, go here. It's a shame as the story is really what
this game has going for it and even the revelation is lackluster. It
feels like the developers had no idea what to do for the plot so they
just made everything up as they went along.
Graphics:
Levels like this have nothing to explore. |
Technology
wise, the graphics are quiet mediocre and outdated for 2005. The game
engine is the same as Mafia: The city of Lost Heaven, there doesn't
seam to be any improvements. Plenty of blurry textures and non
visually distinct shadows. It's hard to visually gauge how well the
shadows will hide you and it's not always visually accurate to the
game mechanics. If you compare it to a game like Thief 1 and 2, the
shadows look like slightly darker textures then true shadows. The art
style is a low-res modern look. The missions look like real world
places that would be inhabited by real people.
Game-play:
Chameleon
is a third person, stealth-action game made Silver Wish games, which
was a division in Illusion Softworks, who made Mafia: The City of
Lost Heaven. It is a shadow and sound based stealth game-play. The
shadows affect the distance which enemies can see you on the map, up
to 50 meters away, which tends to be bigger then most rooms or area's
in the game. The problems with the shadow system is the levels are
often too small, linear and cramped at times to use it effectively as
most of the time.. Enemies will still be able to see you 5-10 feet
away in the second and third darkest shadows. These shadows are the
most common ones you will find even in the cramped area's, which
prevents you from sneaking past enemies. You're forced to take care
of them before moving on which is low quality that you expect from
games that force stealth sequences. Rarely are there level's open
enough to support this type of shadow system.
If you get
into trouble, there are a small variety of guns to use although all
of them are quite inaccurate. You can have the cursor be at it's
smallest and you can still miss by a noticeable margin. The guns do
about the same amount of damage regardless of caliber or type of
firearm. So gun play is not fun and it isn't useful ether, but you
will be forced to take the action approach at times.
Your
footsteps are binary when it comes to sneaking. It doesn't matter
what kind of surface you are moving on, only your speed and the
distance from the enemy. Combined with the A.I.'s binary alert
system, It feels very mechanical and repetitious rather then
thoughtful and strategic. The A.I. has only three stages; normal,
search mode, and alert. There is no in-between states or a gradual
switch between states. This means that one wrong move will instantly
trigger an alert state that forces you to run and gun, or reload your
save. The game has two difficulty modes that don't have any
noticeable difference at all in game-play.
Audio:
From the grey boulders is how far enemies can see you in no shadows. |
This review
is based on the Czech version that has English audio so I can't tell
you how the Russian acting is. For the main characters, the English
voice acting is solid quality. There is nothing bad about their
acting. Every other character on the other hand, is low quality,
hammy acting. The soundtrack is forgettable, subdued tunes that gets
easily covered up by the heartbeat radar. While the heartbeat
mechanic is helpful, it overpowers the majority of the audio. Even
footsteps get covered up by it so you can't here where enemies are
coming from unless you turn up the volume. Guns of each class, sound
very similar to each other
Thoughts:
I can't
recommend this game to anyone. Chameleon is a dull game that doesn't
succeed in doing anything. It's a mediocre stealth game that has the
potential mechanics, but fails to utilize them in meaningful ways.
You can tell that the developers were trying, but ultimately didn't
know what they wanted. If they had spent more time on this game, it
could have been great. If you are still interested, go watch a
play-through of it only as it's not worth the hassle of getting.
Notes:
-Has
Starforce DRM
-English patch:
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