I know that this game has been out for a few years. Chroma Squad is one of those games that I have been waiting to play and when I had the chance I forgot it in my Steam library. So now after some time I will finally review this tactical RPG.
Story
Chroma Squad starts off as you and the rest of the gang become fed up with your positions. Being just the stunt people who never get the attention forced everyone to leave and start up their own studio. Things seem to be going pretty great until reality and TV end up blending together. I know the game has been out but people may not have had the chance to play this game yet. So, I wont go into every detail on how the squad deals with the new fame and constant threat of monsters trying to destroy the planet. I will say that Villain X is behind all the trouble, although you wont see him until later on in the game. I had a fun time with the game even though I got bored with the story near the end. The story was a great idea giving so much love to the Power Rangers and other properties like it.
Audio
For me the music and sounds that come with a game are an incredibly important part of the experience. If you find a game that has bad music then that whole time your playing will suffer. After the first few episodes I got to the point of turning off that Spy Hunter/Sonic music. The game suffered in that area for me. I didn’t want to hear music along with the constant beeping of text or fight sounds. I found a mix of music on Spotify that helped me enjoy the game more than with the original music. Since this game doesn’t have any voice acting I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. If a second game is made hopefully some different music can be added to it.
Graphics
Chroma Squad is not the kind of game that looks amazing. Some players may see the fantastic Power Ranger like characters and be thrown off. The pixel look may seem like it would not allow for some enjoyable creative moments. That’s not the case here, as Behold Studios did a great job with the monsters. The best looking ones are those that make you think of the Teenage Ninja Turtles and that damn thing that moves with air that’s always in parking lots for an auto dealer. Seeing the same minions over and over again did get a little taxing after a while. With the amount of time that the game has been out it would if the developers could have added some more to the game.
Not every game has to have AAA graphics to look good. Chroma Squad does it with style through the whole game.
Gameplay
In this game you will be forced to defend the planet against all types of bad minions. Luckily the game gives you plenty of skills to pick from that will help you on your journey. I enjoyed the idea of being able to craft what I wanted to create armor and weapons. Even being able to upgrade the mech was fun. I just didn’t need to go out and grind for materials the whole time. I used a ton of money to buy what I needed instead, that mostly being weapons or materials to upgrade my mech.
The game is a tactical RPG that does allow you to have some room for error when you’re attacking. Just be prepared to get a little bored unless your into turn based combat. The combat is split up into two parts. The first is against the minions and bosses on a grid; once that is finished it’s time to battle in the mech. The bosses become bigger than a building and the combat actually gets easier to control. It was just clicking on the mouse over and over, nothing that serious.
Even though the combat did suffer a little I had more fun making sure I was gaining an audience and making money. Adding these aspects saved the game in my eyes. Without them I don’t think I would have been able to finish the game. When this game came out in 2015 it didn’t have an episode created. That was just added to the game. I spent a little time with this new feature and enjoyed how much you can control when you make your own episode. It really bumped up the value of this game for me. Even though I wish I had the chance to play this as a hack n slash style game, I still found that it did include some depth during combat.
Verdict
Most players who got excited years ago have played this game. Or maybe when it was released on consoles ignored it. I’m happy I had the chance to finish this game finally. I could see this making its way to the Switch and/or a sequel being made. For the price and amount of content I don’t see a reason why any RPG fan shouldn’t really just spend some time with this game. You just don’t have to listen to the music the whole time while you play.
*Screen shots are taken from my Steam library. Game was given to the reviewer.
