ChainStaff Review (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, & PC)

Out of all superhero movies I’ve watched, Venom comes pretty close to being my best of all time. Yup. Just the whole idea behind a symbiotic relationship, forced to work together to save the world, had me in a chokehold for the entirety of the trilogy. And now, there just might be an action platformer that behaves in a similar vein? Yes, absolutely sign me up.

ChainStaff, just by its name, might be tough to predict what it’s all about. And once you step into its universe, a sudden rush of excitement washes over you because of how distinct it all is. Think bugs, in all their disjointed and exaggerated features’ glory. Then toss them in a colorful old school world design that looks somewhat familiar, and yet too alien, figuratively and literally. 

It’s awesome to see Mommy’s Best Games continue their streak of designing ‘out there’ games. And this is just another one of theirs that is a must-play for anyone with even the least remote interest in action platforming. Cue ChainStaff review. 

Battle Wounds

The story in ChainStaff isn’t anything that will blow your mind. And yet, the way that it’s told still has you feeling all kinds of elated. It tells of an alien invasion on Earth, and the protagonist, Sergeant Varlette, is among those on the frontlines. 

It’s brutal, and it looks like the aliens are winning. Varlette himself is left badly wounded and nearly dies. But a parasitic creature looking for a symbiote saves his life. The thing just attaches itself to Varlette’s head, consequently reviving his life.

Varlette and the creature are on opposite ends of the war. And yet, must work together to survive. And thus begins an engrossing ‘frenemy’ relationship that surprisingly leads you down multiple paths towards different endings. 

I’m not mad at it. It’s a serviceable story that does a great job of laying the groundwork for what to expect.

Star of the Show

Props to the designer because ChainStaff’s world and visuals are the center of attraction. The first thing that catches your eye and grabs your attention through to the end. It’s always exciting to unlock new locations because you’re often caught off guard by the cross between the familiar and alien. 

Bugs, enhanced with color and majestic sizes, behave in ways that make your stomach turn. Their spitting and exploding of guts remind you that this is, indeed, a foreign world. It’s colorful but still foreboding, and very much a delight to discover every inch. 

Even the in-between mission cutscenes look painterly. All hand-crafted with keenness and an obvious passion for creating something unique. And the rock metal music might not be for everyone, but it certainly brings back fond memories of old school jams.

The ChainStaff

It’s a chain, but it’s also a staff, among many more things. This is the main tool that you use for practically everything. It’s your shotgun that you use to spray bullets at faraway enemies. But it can also be a javelin spear that you throw at enemies for a quick one-hit kill. 

The ChainStaff is your line of defense when you implant it on the ground, and it puts a shield before you, protecting you from incoming projectiles. 

Still, the ChainStaff is your means of traversal. You can use it as a launch pad to reach higher platforms. Mind you, the same ability can be used to swing yourself onto an enemy’s back. But the ChainStaff can curve as well, latching its end onto any object and using it as a grappling hook to navigate the levels. 

So, even though you only have one weapon, it’s a special living alien weapon that can transform into performing versatile traversal and combat moves. And that’s really where ChainStaff’s secret power lies, where it sticks to the basics and builds on them to create surprisingly deep mechanics. 

All It Takes

Enemies will be coming at you from everywhere, and you’ll often be shooting at them, and trying to get away. You’re in constant motion, facing mutated creatures whose diverse attacks will certainly graze you. All it takes is three hits, and it’s game over. But the checkpoints are generous, and you can lower the difficulty, too. It’s not too challenging, but it’ll also be a tense run to the next checkpoint.

Grenades and missiles will therefore come in handy, boosting your offense. And you can always upgrade them. There are also fragments you can pick up along the way to lengthen your ChainStaff, strengthen it, or add more combat, grappling, and navigation functionality.

But it’s the wounded soldiers that you come across during your runs that add more to ChainStaff. You can save them, sending them flying to safety, presumably. And that’ll boost your shield. But you can eat their heart and brains out, still gain attack power and health boosts, but at the cost of impacting your character’s personality.

Just interesting paths and decision-making routes and paths that have you discovering secrets and additional layers to what’s already an incredible sidescrolling spree thus far.

Boss Up

The boss fights are their own special breed of delightful tests and conquests. They vary so much, with no bosses ever looking the same. As do their surprising attacks and movements that keep you on your toes.

It’s frantic, I tell you, figuring out the puzzle that each boss uses to unleash its attacks. It’s not just pinpointing a weak spot and firing accurately and consistently at it. They require unique strategies that aren’t always conventional.

It also doesn’t just take shooting them down, but also maneuvering around the stage, which is pretty tense considering that most boss fights are large-scale, screen-covering affairs. You might have to swing behind a towering boss using your ChainStaff grappling hook, and force the boss into mountains to take them down because your bullets just won’t be enough. 

Some boss fights will have you discover that the grappling hook can actually be a weapon as well, exposing the guts of a boss to deal damage to its internal organs. Or that the spear can actually kill multiple enemies at once when you align them perfectly.

These strategies might make some enemies and bosses feel like bullet sponges. But often it’s because it takes out-of-the-box strategies to defeat them. And once you figure it out, you’ll realize that it was, after all, very much a fair game.

The Switch Up

In the end, you’ll realize that there just isn’t any way around it. You have to utilize the ChainStaff’s versatility, and in quick succession. This is an incredibly fast-paced game that will have you throwing the staff as a spear, immediately retrieving it to continue your flurry of attacks, hooking it to a platform above you to evade danger, or planting it into the ground to use as a shield. 

The key is to avoid taking damage by patiently learning an enemy’s or boss’s moves. And then enjoy the dancefest of stringing together versatile combat and traversal moves, practically giving enemies the runaround before raining hellfire on their weak points.

Verdict

All it takes is three hits to die in ChainStaff. So, brute force and firing nonstop at enemies just won’t cut it, especially given how the boss fights are deeply strategic. You might actually want to take a step back and learn a boss’s attack patterns and movement. And keep in mind that each boss is vastly different from the other, whether in combat or design.

Besides the expertly designed bosses, you’ll enjoy the overall environments and visuals. It’s old school sci-fi, featuring disgusting mutated creatures, as well as a touch of humor. The story has a surprising charm, thanks largely to hand-crafted, eclectic animations and world design. 

And the gameplay itself isn’t left behind either, starting with simple basics and building on the mechanics to a challenging level of depth and complexity. You’re given versatile combat and traversal moves to switch up on the fly. And utilize the level design to your advantage in trying to survive a constant stream of projectiles and attacks.

It’s juggling multiple mechanics, all at once. All of it syncs together so smoothly and almost perfectly that you can’t help but push further and further through the levels. At $14.99, and a launch 10% discount that puts it at $13.99, you’ll surely get your money’s worth. Even when not on the level of Hollow Knight, ChainStaff does well to create its own strong sense of identity and style.