Chronos: Before the Ashes investigates time and the effect that its passing has on a character. The player begins the game as a young hero who must venture into a mysterious labyrinth in an attempt to save his homeland from evil. However, the labyrinth’s entrance opens just once a year, meaning that with every failure, the hero is cast out and must wait a full year to return. Players will watch as their nimble hero ages and must learn to rely less on physical prowess to survive the dungeon.
Gunfire Games’ prequel to the 2019’s Souls-like action RPG Remnant: From the Ashes, Chronos: Before the Ashes is a reworked version of a VR game released over four years ago. The VR elements have been stripped away, but the question remains: Have the developers successfully morphed it into a cohesive experience that stands on its own?
On Metacritic, the game so far has an average critic score of 68. On OpenCritic, its rating is Fair. Meanwhile, on Steam Chronos: Before the Ashes is sitting at a Mixed rating. Here is what some reviewers had to say about the game.
TheGamer (Jamie Latour)
“It's a pretty standard Soulslike that lacks any defining characteristics without the hook of virtual reality, although its use of puzzles to progress through its bizarre worlds does give it a unique feel… The plot is pretty thin, but fans of Remnant: From The Ashes will see plenty of references to that game's story… Combat is almost exactly what you would expect from a Souls title… Using your character's age to determine their upgrades is a neat concept, although I didn't really get to make much use of it. Chronos: Before The Ashes isn't a particularly long game… The switch from being a VR game to a regular third-person game may have been responsible for some of the bad camera angles I encountered… One thing that made Chronos stand out for me was its use of puzzles… Chronos: Before The [Ashes] is a decent game, but feels rather unremarkable.”
Score: 3/5
PlayStation Lifestyle (Blake Grundman)
“Can this dated title seamlessly transition from VR to the TV screen…? Eventually, enemies evolve to become more like the actual main character both in terms of agility and attack speed... [T]his is where the action started to coalesce into something far more challenging and fun… The last key element of Chronos’ re-release is its puzzles… Once again, this isn’t necessarily anything to write home about, but it’s at least worth applauding the effort… Now that the VR aspect of the design has been stripped away, it reveals a mediocre action game with moderate RPG elements. Granted, this isn’t to say that the game is bad. It’s just dwarfed by the competition… It’s stripped-down design, while somewhat rewarding, does tend to leave a bit to be desired in the depth department.”
Score: 5.5/10
Way Too Many Games (Leo Faria)
“Chronos: Before the Ashes feels like the love child between Dark Souls' combat and The Legend of Zelda's puzzle solving and dungeon exploration… The combat part is not very exciting… [T]his is actually one of the slowest and clunkiest Souls-esque games I have ever played... Once you learn how exploitable Chronos: Before the Ashes' combat is, you won’t have a lot of trouble dealing with enemies… Chronos: Before the Ashes doesn’t feature impressive visuals, sound and controls, but there is one thing that makes up for all of its issues: its Zelda-esque elements. Even though its combat mechanics aren’t interesting, its puzzles certainly are… [E]ven though its combat was lame and its visuals underwhelming, it featured enough interesting puzzles and well-designed dungeons to make me want to play it to the very end.”
Score: 7/10
GamingBolt (John Cantees)
“While its DNA of being a smaller VR title does ultimately inhibit Chronos from feeling like the true all-encompassing companion Remnant really deserves, it does more than enough with Remnant’s ideas – and a few of its own – to stand on its own as a fun, well-paced Souls-like adventure… Chronos is competing in a much bigger pond now than it was on VR, and its lack of variety in certain areas is illuminated by that. The RPG mechanics, while simple, are woven into the combat well enough to feel organic and necessary… [Y]ou will quickly notice that the enemy types for each of its main areas are largely reused from Remnant... This leads to some stretches of multiple battles starting to drag… [M]ost of Chronos’ familiar areas are also irrefutably beautiful... Chronos: Before the Ashes does a commendable job with what it is, and Gunfire Games has a lot to be proud of here. It’s a shame that so much of it is either reused from Remnant or held back by its VR roots…”
Score: 7/10
Most of the reviews seem to agree on some key elements. Chronos: Before the Ashes being a retooled VR title hinders it in many ways, primarily in awkward camera controls that can make gameplay difficult.
On the other hand, the game’s puzzles differentiate it from other Souls-like titles and add an entertaining diversion from standard third-person action hacking and slashing. Overall, it seems that Chronos: Before the Ashes, while an enjoyable game, is somewhat middling and doesn’t offer a lot to distinguish it from the mass of adventure games currently on the market.
Chronos: Before the Ashes is currently available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.