Chasm: The Rift

Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.

Chasm: The Rift is an old-school FPS that didn’t set the world on fire at the time and is quite far behind some of its contemporaries. Yet, a rather original level design style, good action, and a cool gibbing mechanic make it a worthy playthrough for hardcore “boomer shooter” fans, while casual fans should probably find one of the many, more iconic alternatives from the era.

Chasm: The Rift didn't impress the audience 25 years ago, and it probably won't now. The game offers fun action gameplay from the 90s, but there are many better and cheaper games on the market. The fact that the game is very short doesn't help either.

I’m happy I got to play Chasm: The Rift. The fact this version is playable out of the box, includes all the content, and even comes with a DOSBOX version of the game, does help you get all the bang out of your buck for this one. As I mentioned it’s certainly a curious title, and you can see very early on why it was called a “Poor Mans Quake”, but the charm of the different levels and the character models do a lot to help carry it further than just being distinctly average. I wouldn’t recommend you jump onto Chasm: The Rift like it’s an essential purchase. It's something to soak up a few hours, without expecting something completely revolutionary. It's more of an rather irritating, yet charming title, with a little splash of something extra at times. Rifts may be a side effect of Quakes, but this one doesn’t leave any lasting damage.

Chasm: The Rift has quickly became one of my favorite shooters of all-time with fun weapons, great enemy design, and solid puzzles. It’s a standout game, and now saved through video game preservation. I’ll admit that the game is a bit high-priced, but there’s value here thanks to the remastered visuals and the DOSBox emulation. You’ll get two similar, but different looking experiences from them. Chasm: The Rift is short enough to play in a single sitting, but long enough that you’ll always remember.

Chasm: The Rift is a brutal challenge that is a perfect throwback to 90s First-Person Shooters. While ahead of some of its predecessors with its mechanics and gameplay approach, control frustration, AI difficulty, and map confusion make this a hard one to love and a tough sell for a modern generation.