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I’ve been on a twin-stick shooter kick as of late and Neon Chrome is a game I’ve been meaning to play for a while. It’s from the same developer that made Crimsonland, Jydge, Tesla vs Lovecraft and some other fun shooters. Just based on the games of theirs that I have played, I feel they know how to make fun simple-to-understand top down shooters. Developed and published by 10Tons, Neon Chrome was released for PC, PlayStation 4, Vita, and Xbox One in 2016, and Android and Switch in 2017. For this review, I played the PC version. One thing that makes Neon Chrome stand out among some of the other shooters the developers have released is mod support. The Steam version comes with Steam Workshop support and there are numerous player-created mods out there.
Neon Chrome’s plot is pretty straightforward. The protagonist must ascend to the top floor of the company building to eliminate the Overseer and stop their oppressive regime on society. Story beats are mostly conveyed through dialogue when you reach certain floors. While the story is far from the highlight, it is a fine set up for the gameplay. Neon Chrome is described as a twin-stick shooter. You go from level to level blowing away foes. The game plays out in chapters consisting of multiple levels and standard level layouts are randomly generated and the final level of a chapter is a boss. Defeat the boss to move onto the next chapter and rinse and repeat until you complete the story.
Neon Chrome comes with multiple game modes; Solo, Co-op, and if you own the DLC, Arena. I didn’t get the chance to try Co-op but solo is the main game where you ascend the levels with the goal of eliminating the Overseer. Arena is a score attack survival mode and unlocks from the main game do carry over. Solo is where you should start and is where the real meat is. Before beginning the ascent, you can navigate the Home area. From here you can choose your character or asset for the next run, spend credits on permanent upgrades and/or weapons, enhancements, and abilities to start with, and after you’ve beaten the game, you can access Hacks which let you change the Overseer version. Higher versions make the gameplay more challenging. Once your asset is selected, you can start at the beginning of any unlocked chapter for that Overseer version.
Assets or characters come in different let’s call them classes that come with their own weapon, ability, slots for cyberwares or cybernetic enhancements, and unique bonuses. Your weapon has infinite ammo but your ability consumes energy when fired. As you progress through the levels, you can loot boxes for credits and energy and these resources are also dropped by defeated enemies. You will come across different what I’ll call stations that unlock new stuff and allow you to improve your character in some way. The stations enable you to upgrade your weapons for the current run, replace your current weapon, unlock a new weapon, ability, or cybernetic enhancement, and install enhancements. When you first start playing, you don’t have access to much so you’ll see many of the same weapons, abilities, and enhancements. As you progress, you’ll unlock more and each chapter offers their own weapons, abilities, and enhancements to unlock.
When it comes to the core gameplay, I can’t say Neon Chrome does a lot that we haven’t seen before and what it does do doesn’t go too far above and beyond. That said, it’s still good fun. The gunplay and action are satisfying thanks mainly to good visual and gore effects. There’s all kinds of weapons to unlock and use including traditional firepower along with ion, plasma, and laser variants. Weapons fire sounds pretty good, muzzle flashes look cool, enemies can be turned to gibs, and blood will splatter all over the environments. Furthermore, you can melee or shoot your way through walls and blow shit up. The environments are somewhat destructible which is cool. I would say that and the cybernetic enhancements are the standout features here. But it’s the enhancements that really add some layers or depth to the experience, especially on higher Overseer versions.
Enhancements can be installed into one of your character’s slots and their is a limit to how many can be installed. Enhancements are basically bonuses or perks and there’s a lot of them. These along with your character’s unique bonuses allow for different playstyles and/or strategies. I even saw a guide on Steam that covers different “builds”. Until I saw that, I never thought of the game in terms of character building but, yeah, it’s possible to create different “builds” (if you want to call them that) by installing specific enhancements. Neon Chrome is pretty accessible. I certainly died numerous times before beating the story the first time but I can’t say it was a super challenging or frustrating experience. I installed any enhancements I felt would be beneficial and eventually got through it and I think it took me less than fifteen attempts. But this is a game designed to be replayed. Unlocking more stuff means more tools to play with and when you spend credits on permanent upgrades, things become easier. But that’s what the Hacks or Overseer versions are for, to give you more of a challenge. Basically, once you beat the story, you can attempt it again on a higher difficulty with all your upgrades and unlocks.
The levels themselves are often filled with multiple rooms and some require keys to access. The goal is to reach the exit elevator so you can progress to the next level. Some levels feature exits to special levels which typically house unlocks and stations to install enhancements. As indicated earlier, standard levels feature randomized layouts. Enemies can be found standing or patrolling around and come in different types. Some levels even feature reinforcements. You will have to be mindful of hazards like lasers, mines, and turrets, and you’ll always be outnumbered. You don’t always have to take the set paths or routes to get to a specific destination. You can always blast or smash your way through walls. Not everything in the environments is destructible but making your own path through a level is certainly fun.
Neon Chrome showcases a colorful visual presentation. Living up to it’s namesake, it’s full of bright neon colors, conveying a neat cyberpunk aesthetic. The action and zoomed out top down perspective kind of hides the fact that the character models aren’t anything spectacular but the visual and gore effects accompanying the action look good and help make the combat feel exciting and satisfying. The levels are split up into different floor types or locations including labs, offices, warehouses, residential, and medical and make for decent visual variety. The action is accompanied by solid audio work and tunes that are a nice fit for the theme. On the technical side, the game ran smooth and I encountered no major issues.
I enjoyed my time with Neon Chrome. It’s a good twin-stick shooter with addictive qualities. I can’t say it’s up there with the best the genre has to offer, at least in terms of modern titles, but it is fun and worth playing if you’re a fan of these types of games. It’s easy to pick up and play, the action is fun and satisfying, and it does come with a good amount of replay value. The cybernetic enhancements and destructible environments are the standout features. Without them, Neon Chrome would probably be very generic. The enhancements allow for different strategies, tactics, and approaches and it’s fun trying different combinations. The destructible environments simply enhance the action. It’s fun to blow and smash your way through levels or even just watch the environment around you change as a result of projectiles and explosions. That kind of stuff is awesome. Also awesome is that the game allows for mods so there’s plenty here to keep players coming back whether it’s the base game or a mod to mix things up.
I do recommend Neon Chrome. Considering there are better twin-stick shooters out there, you might want to wait for a sale but that’s not to say it’s a bad game. It’s just a game that’s only elevated thanks mainly to a couple of features. At least in my opinion. But it is fun, accessible, and can be enjoyed with buddies. With the amount of replay value on offer and mod support, there’s no doubt Neon Chrome is a game that should keep you entertained for a while. Check it out if you’re interested.