Neon Chrome is a great little game in the style of Hotline Miami and Monaco. The game starts with you, the protagonist being chased through the megacity Neon Chrome because the almighty overseer can’t trust you anymore and trust is what society is built on. You get caught and wake up in a Total Recall chair, your latest attempt to kill the overseer didn’t go as planned, it is time to try again.
That is the premises of Neon Chrome, you take control over a character with a random weapon, name, and class. Each time you get to pick from three characters, but each time they are different. If you fail then Rutger Turing and Herschel Hyland dies, permanently.
The concept of the game is pretty simple, you live, you die, you repeat. When you die, and when you get to the “real” start of the game you end up in the games hub. There players can buy permanent upgrades, one time use weapons, skills, and upgrades with credits they pick up in the levels. When the player feels ready he gets back into the Total Recall chair to take control of yet another innocent human who is forced to act as a pawn in the player's hands.
When you get into to the levels you’ll quickly notice that the game has more than a few different to choose from so almost every playthrough will be different. At times I encountered the same levels, but most of it was new. Some levels are static, like boss battles and certain information levels but there are so many that you probably wont encounter them in the same order twice.
Gameplay
Neon Chrome sort of a twin stick shooter and an RPG, a cyberpunk mix of Hotline Miami and Monaco. The controls are simple and easy to use, both if you play with a mouse and keyboard or with a controller. If the button layout aren’t to the your liking then they can be changed, which isn't something every game allows.
Neon Chrome paces its gameplay quite well, it is fast enough to be action packed but slow enough for you to see what you did wrong. The music also helps the player to know what’s up, which is really helpful when a surprise patrol shows up or some spider-robot boss shows up out of nowhere.
When you start again you get to pick a new character to control and it will be one of five classes, which will be random each time, as will their powers and weapons be unless you purchase them in the hub.
The different classes are:
- Cyber Psycho: +20% HP, 2 extra slots upgrade, and has extra melee damage and gets to pick from more augments than the other classes
- Techie: +20% energy, -20% HP, has a rechargeable shield.
- Hacker: + 20% energy, +10% speed, can hack stuff and has a drone companion.
- Assassin: +20% crits, +10% speed
- Corporate Soldier: +15% damage, -10% speed, has a riot shield to protect the front from 25% damage.
Graphics
The graphics of Neon Chrome is what sets this game apart from other games in the genre. It is basically your traditional dystopian future with darker colors mixed with the brightness of neon. They aren’t the best, the newest, or the most innovative – but they fit well with the game. It’s not much the developers could have done to improve the graphics, they suit the game. Neon Chrome is not a game about graphics anyhow, it’s a game about getting better and improving yourself. The graphics combined with the music make this game really great, it really fits the cyberpunk theme.
Verdict
Neon Chrome is a game that is easy to pick up, but hard to master. I have personally played it a fair bit, but I still haven’t managed to kill the first boss. Most people will be able to pick the game up and understand the mechanics, though mastering the weapons, as well as learning who is weak to what will take time.
If you lack patience, you might get bored since by not progressing as fast as you would like to.
It does have a grind to it. Collecting credits to be able to buy upgrades and such can also be a bit boring at times, but after a while you'll get the credits you need just by playing like you normally would
This game has really low PC requirements, the minimum is having a OS from Windows XP and above, a processor that can handle 1Ghz, 2048 MB of RAM, and basically any graphics card. If that tech speak is too complicated then let me explain: Basically any computer can run Neon Chrome, a toaster could probably run it as well.
Neon Chrome is a great game with amazing music in the spirit of Hotline Miami and Monaco with solid controls, both with mouse and keyboard or some other kind of controller, though playing with a controller is preferable. If you want a great top down twin stick shooter cyberpunk game then Neon chrome is the game for you.
Neon Chrome releases April 28 on Steam for $15.
