3RRDC Chaos Field

All right here we have the latest Dreamcast release to hit Japan and
the results are truly wonderful! It seems that every few months a new
2D based shooter will come out and bring new life to the system
everyone thought died a few years back. And so the Dreamcast has
become to shooting fans what the Neo Geo was to fighting game (ok
and shooting) fans. Long after the supposed death of the console
companies continue to bring out more titles if the money is still good.
So then, without further ado, let's dive into the cockpit of this new DC
shooter!

First things first, this game is all about gameplay, so things like story
and extras don't get the same attention. There are no cutscenes in the
game to advance the story and there are no character-specific
endings. All in all the only time you actually see your character is on
the character select screen. From what I gather there are three
special pilots of these strange ships that can go from the ordinary and
the chaos fields. All of this will lead them on a journey across the world
and into space until finally they can reach some magical temple to
stop the chaos. That's my take on the story at least. It doesn't really
play a role in the game at all; I mean there is a prologue page in the
manual but good luck with that.

So you have three characters and each one of them has their own
ship. Each ship controls differently as they all have different types of
attacks. You've got your standard normal blast ship, a lock-on laser
ship, and the close-range exploding orb ship. Their other attacks like
the wing layer are done differently as well, but that's for later. As for
the different game modes, they are pretty dry bones. From the menu
we get (all in English too) "game start", "config", "memory card", and
"exit". Additionally, the game also keeps track of how many hours you
have played the game. No one is really sure what the purpose of this is,
that is, if something is time unlocked or not (but I doubt it). I think it's
just to see how much you play the game.

In config you can change the layout of the controls to suit your liking,
change the number of hits you have, and the difficulty level among
other things. One thing of note is that the more you play the more
credits you seem to unlock-up to 9 total. It only takes about 2 hours of
playing to get these and maybe there is an infinite credits later.

Each ship has a normal attack, a homing attack similar to the one
found in Bangai-O, a wing layer, the sword, and the ability to go in and
out of chaos field. First let's explain the fields. In ordinary field the
game plays out normally, but when you go into chaos field, the
enemies shoot many more missiles and the game becomes way harder.
But you also shoot more and your homing laser attack does way more
in the chaos field, shooting upwards of 400 missiles. For beginners, you
might want to stick in the ordinary field, but once you get better chaos
field provides some good crazy fun.

The sword is similar to the one in Radiant Silvergun (many people say
this game is a homage to the developers' favorite shooters of
yesteryear, and heck maybe it is). The sword is a good close combat
attack that can also destroy incoming enemy bullets. It attacks in a
three hit combo and it will be key to winning in this game. Finally, there
is the wing layer. this is a special shield like thing that protects you
from enemy bullets. If you bring out the wing layer enemy bullets will
hit it and disappear. All the wing layers are different for each character
but I like the red ship's wing layer the best; it circles around your
character blocking bullets from all sides.

To power up all of these attacks you will need meta energy crystals.
These drop from the bosses when parts of their ship are destroyed.
There is a meter on the left side of the screen that shows how much
meta energy you have. Each wing layer, going in and out of chaos field,
and homing attack all cost one bar of meta energy. At first in the game
it is really easy to charge up and get crystals, but later on I found
myself not having as much energy because you have to use the wing
layer constantly.

The game takes place over five different phases. And here's the
clincher, there are only boss fights in this game! There are no normal
swarms of enemy drone ships, just boss fight after boss fight. Each
level has about three bosses, two mini-bosses and one main boss. It
takes about a half hour to beat the game. With only boss fights, many
people were worried that the game would not be fun, but the game is
really good and original in this fashion. The bosses are all huge and
they have many different points on their ships in which you can attack.
If you are looking for a different kind of shooter, then this is the one for
you. Playing this game was refreshing---a break from your typical
shooter-and you will soon love the fact that it is a boss fest.

The graphics are all in 3D, but played out in a 2D top down shooter
form. The three ships all look cool and are easy to distinguish because
there is a red one, a blue one, and a yellow one. The enemy bosses are
all pretty cool and most of the time they are huge, but some are small
yet deadly as well. The levels themselves start off nice. The first level
is in a town at nighttime, and the second level rocks: you fight in the
air around a rotating sphere, which makes the game look very cool.
The third level takes you up to space, which is also where the fourth
level is. The fifth level brings you back to Earth and finally to the
mysterious temple of chaos. The only gripe is that levels 3 and 4 look
way too similar. But other then that everything else about this game
looks great. Sure the character designs are a bit ugly, but you only see
them on the character select screen.

And oh man do we have a great sound track here. This is pure techno
trance and the results are truly amazing. From the hot beats of the
second level, to the more ambient sounds of the third level, everything
here is great. The ending theme for the credits is another stand out
and overall I found that the music was excellent all the way through.
Throw in the sound of lasers and bullets flying everywhere and you
have a sound track of pure chaos.

With 5 levels and 3 ships you would think the game would not last too
long, but the replay comes in the fact that the game is quite hard. It
took me a few days to get a hang of the game play and finally beat the
game on easy with the maximum amount of credits and shields. And
even this was super hard. I wish there were more levels and ships, but
we have what we have. Still the game play is so awesome that shooter
fans will be happy here.

Import warning: For those of you uncertain if this game will be import
friendly, fear not. The menus are all in English and there are no story
scenes to read. This is pure action with everything in English. So now
that you know there are no fears of not understanding, go out and get
this game now!

So the Dreamcast closes out the year 2004 with a smash. Hopefully
this game sells well enough to warrant more future releases for the
system, both shooting games and other titles. And, to keep you
optimistic, the DC is still showing life in 2005 with a few games
scheduled for release in January and February (but no shooting titles).
Let's hope that 2005 will bring just as many great games as 2004 did
to the Dreamcast. So I urge everyone to import Chaos Field and show
your support. Companies will continue to release games on this system
as long as there is still a market. Do your part and if you want to see
more DC games then buy the new ones. If you don't, please don't come
crying back to me that the DC died. Get Chaos Field now.

Review by: Orochi Sonic