Home»Chronos: Before the Ashes Review
Our score: 8/10
Chronos: Before the Ashes is a souls-like game, but with an extremely interesting twist on the formula. Instead of losing currency or unspent experience points when you die, your character will age permanently! Out of many different souls-like games we’ve played, Chronos: Before the Ashes takes a very unique approach on the genre.
Chronos: Before the Ashes is actually a remake of the Chronos video game that was released in 2016 on the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. We’ve never played the original; however, virtual reality games often have a stigma associated with its games such as being called “walking simulators” because they often have long narratives with little gameplay.
When we played through this title however, we wouldn’t have been able to tell it was ever a virtual reality game! It plays completely like a regular action game with a great variety of enemies and bosses scattered throughout. You play from a third-character perspective, the combat is very fast-paced and responsive, and the level design is top notch with many fun puzzles including optional puzzles that will allow you to acquire extra bonuses or lore.
The puzzles are very fun because you find items around the levels, and you can use them on items, as well as combine and sometimes dissemble. So at first you may think it’s completely unrelated to anything, but then you find a place where it makes sense to use it. Combine this with an interconnected level designs and you have great world-building.
Though there is no side content such as side quests or extra objectives, there are a few puzzles you can optionally complete for extra goodies. For example, we found a wind-up key near the beginning of the game, and we could not find anything to use it on for quite a while. We were just stumped on what it would be used for.
Near the ending of the game we found an inactive robot you could use it on, and doing so would let it walk in a straight line to a button, which it would press to open a wall with extra items such as extra weapon upgrade materials.
This game is on the shorter side, with it taking us 5 hours to play through to the end, but at the same time that is this game’s strength because it’s not bloated at all. The graphics are not impressive from technical standards; however, the art design is wonderful and you can see the environments and races you meet have very wonderful designs with distinct styles, such as starting out in a futuristic hospital, then moving to fantasy settings later on in the game.
As well, the lore of the game is rich. Like a Souls-style game, you don’t have lengthy cutscenes or anything or that nature; instead, the story is sprinkled throughout the game and is not fed to you. You can find many notes scattered around the world, as well as a few NPCs that can reveal a lot about the plot.
There isn’t much voice acting, but when there is voice acting it’s well-done and professional. One downside however is that the game could’ve used more NPCs around the world to interact with. The soundtrack is top-notch and reflects the mood of the game.
The difficulty of the game can be chosen, so the game is extremely accessible, even if you’re not familiar with Souls-like games. It’s important to note that this game is actually part of a franchise, and is a prequel to the game Remnant: From the Ashes that had released in 2019.
As someone who has played through Remnant and all of its DLCs, we can say that you will enjoy the references contained in Chronos: Before the Ashes much more if you played Remnant beforehand, but it’s not at all necessary to play to understand the story.
We previously explained that the game is less bloated than a Souls game. There are only two weapons you can choose from when you begin the game, but you can find many different kinds of weapons as you progress through the game. There is no currency in the game, but there are two kinds of weapon upgrade materials you can use to upgrade your weapon of choice.
You can also find dragon hearts across the world, which are basically your health potions. There is no armor you can equip sadly, and no accessories either. You can level up through defeating enemies and bosses, and spend skill points in four easy to understand categories. Because this game has a smaller scope, it’s very accessible and easy to get into. Dying does not make you lose skill points or anything like that.
At the same time, there are warp crystals scattered throughout the world of the game to help you quickly move between areas. Just because you finish one area of the game doesn’t mean you never have to return to it. The puzzles are great in this game, and often you’ll find a critical item that lets you access a new area in a region you had previously visited.
Interestingly, using a warp crystal doesn’t restore spent dragon hearts. Only dying will restore your spent dragon hearts and will respawn all of the enemies in the world. It’s a very interesting decision choice because if you play well, you will never have to worry about having to defeat or run past respawned enemies.
The age mechanic is the most unique feature of the game. Each time you die in the game, your character becomes a year older, starting from age 18. The game developers put a lot of detail in this mechanic and we were amazed when we saw it.
We finished the game at about age 28, and we saw that our character’s body and voice were very different compared to the beginning of the game! As your character ages, level up your Strength of Agility will cost more each time, but other skills such as Wisdom will cost less each time. We purposely died to see what your character would look like at the oldest age, shown below.
Your character’s age will result in a tradeoff when spending skill points, but there’s also unique skills you can choose from as you hit 10 year milestones, starting from age 20, onwards to age 80. It’s actually a safety mechanic, the unique abilities you get at every age interval are only beneficial for you and never a negative.
After completing the game, I died on purpose another 60 or so times to get to age 80, and without spoiling anything, you’ll get a special surprise at age 80! We won’t reveal spoilers, but the game is extremely reasonable and is you won’t get screwed over, even if you make the worst mistakes!
In short, the game is extremely approachable and it’s not easy to mess up! Think about it: if you die too much and become older, you will get extra abilities to help you through the game! “Give the squeaky tire the oil!” as they say, the game developers know what they’re doing, this isn’t a game where you die and get punished. If you’re feeling stressed out at the aging mechanic, don’t be stressed at all, the game is short and simple even for newcomers to these kinds of games.
All in all, it was a very fun game to play through. The gameplay is not hard, and there are many unique enemies and bosses throughout although the game is on the shorter side. The mechanics are simple and the equipment and leveling system are simpler compared to other Souls-like games. The environments are beautifully designed and the lore is plentiful.
There are puzzles throughout and you can pick up and use items, which allows for puzzles to mix up the gameplay a little, such as entering rune symbols into a mirror that lets you teleport, or using a sliding puzzle to make a bridge through the sky.
We’re giving the game an 8/10. Our only criticism is that although we enjoy the art direction, technically the graphics are not the most exhaustive and there weren’t many NPCs in the game. There also aren’t that many levels in the world.
Although we love the simplicity of the game, it does feel like there could’ve been more meat in the game such as more levels. For instance, the game could’ve been longer, at only 5 hours it’s not a stretch for one to beat the game in perhaps two sittings.
As a fan of Remnant series, having the opportunity to play this game was a really wonderful experience and we really enjoyed such a fresh new take on the Souls-like genre. The aging mechanic alone makes it one of the most unique games we’ve played in the last decade.
We really recommend you try giving this game a shot, it starts off slow because there is exposition before you’re able to pick up a sword/axe and defeat enemies, but once you try the combat we guarantee you’ll be hooked until the end!