Chronos Before The Ashes Review (Steam)

Chronos: Before the Ashes is an atmospheric RPG that chronicles a hero’s lifelong quest to save their homeland from a great evil. Grow wiser, stronger, and more powerful as you explore the depths of the mysterious labyrinth. But beware, the labyrinth takes a heavy toll – each time your hero dies, they lose a year of their life!

Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• 7445MB download size.
• Steam achievements.
• Controller support.
• Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, v-sync, rendering quality, and resolution quality.
• Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
• Three save slots.
• Character creator–male/female, ax (blocking and attacking) or sword (fast strikes and dodging) and difficulty.
• 3 difficulties-casual, adventure, and Heroic.
• Can skip cutscenes.
• Tutorial pop-ups. (can disable)
• Third person action adventure gameplay.
• Dark Souls-like combat, all about dodging, blocking, and countering.
• Earn EXP and level up to get attribute points. (strength/agility/arcane/vitality)
• Unlock shortcuts.
• Big open areas with multiple routes, areas, and secrets along with the aforementioned shortcuts.
• World stones-used as respawn points and fast travel points.
• Stamina system used for dodging, running, blocking, and attacking.
• Dragon stones-charge with every hit to an enemy and once fully charged can unleash a special unique effect.
• Excellent voice work.
• Death-everytime you die you age one year.
• Age-this effects what you can upgrade attributes wise until the whole selection is gone.
• Shimmering stone splinters–a random drop from enemies and are used to upgrade your weapon.
• Crystal heart-what you use to heal and collect them to have more.
• Can combine items within your inventory.
• Traits-every ten years after you are 20, you get traits, and these change as you age.
• Puzzle elements sprinkled without.
• Enemies respawn after your death.
• Brilliant little set pieces. Story related so can’t go into detail but it’s a clever impactful set of moments and scenarios.
• Big boss fights.

Cons:

• The mouse cursor will pop up and stay on screen during interactions when using the controller.
• Little in the way of help when it comes to traveling around.
• Minimal graphic settings.
• Slow animation of putting your weapons away. This happens whenever you heal, open a door, interact with something, climb a ladder, and so on. It gets really quite grating.
• Slow starter.
• A lot of the scenery you cannot smash like vases and boxes that are everywhere.
• The camera can get janky especially in combat or leaving a ladder.
• No online or multiplayer.