A fun Singleplayer romp filled with an intriguing story along with decent gunplay makes for a surprisingly good shooter.
Gameplay wise, Chaser can be compared to old-school classics like Doom or Quake, while maintaining the feel of Half-Life with its modern weapons and Cyberpunk/Sci-Fi story (Minus Aliens invading from another dimension though). Players go through different levels ranging from different environments such as hotels, spaceships, and sewers. Players will usually be given some sort of starting weapon (Or in the case of level one, no weapon at all, like Half-Life again), and then proceed to find there way through the level, gunning down enemy soldiers and city thugs, picking up weapons, health, and ammo along the way. For all of you guys playing games like Black Ops, Modern Warfare II, or one of many modern day shooters, you may all be used to things like regenerating health. Chaser, being from 2003, doesn't have such a mechanic, which is actually quite refreshing. Armor can also be obtained to protect yourself from enemy fire. Again, it's a lot like Doom in a sense.
Audio now, the game hits and misses. Music and sound effects are great, and add a great deal of immersion. Bullet ricochets, screaming bad guys, shattering glass; it all adds to an immersive game experience. The music goes with the onscreen action, and guns sound powerful and convincing. Ambient noises are plentiful too, adding a sense of depth to different levels. But now as said, the audio at times misses, badly, mostly in part to the games clunky dialogue and rather bad voice acting. Now, not everyone sounds bad, such as Chaser's friend (Mind you, the game's name is there for the main character's name). But then again, even each individual VA is hit and miss. Chaser's bud has a habit of saying 'Chico' a lot. He also looks Hispanic. But the VA doesn't sound Hispanic, and doesn't put much effort into a good accent. Yet, whenever he doesn't say Chico, he sounds just fine. Chaser's VA though is downright awful. Not bad awful awful, but not good awful either. His lines seem misplaced as well sometimes, and his voice really kills the moment in some scenes. His VA is laughably bad.
Now, graphically, for the time, the game I'm sure looked rather good. When it comes to today, well, they're not so great. First person guns though do look very good, model wise and textures, and in fact, textures look great all around, even today. First Person animations also look nice. But animations for the characters, when not in a cut-scene, look rather bad and a bit stiff. Cut-Scenes seem to be rendered in game, and don't look bad that much, except when it comes to faces. The absolute worst part about the game's models are the facial animations. Emotions aren't portrayed, making it hard to get into a scene, even when the dialogue is interesting and makes compelling story material. In fact, Chaser's VA and his face animation really goof up any scene those things are in. Really sucks. Now, the game does have some other good moments in the graphics department. While shaders seem to be overused, they still look nice, and are pleasing to see with the eye. Lighting also isn't half bad, and particle effects are great. On the second level, just watch the sky and its magnificent skyscrapers, and watch the burning debris come down, set aflame by an explosion in the first level. It looks very nice.
Now for the story, I don't want to say too much other than it's a bit of Cyberpunk story and is interesting enough to go through the whole game. Levels are crafted around the story, and overall all look very nice. However, some of the larger levels can get really repetitive in their layout, but once you get through them, the breath of a new environment in the next level will keep you going.
I haven't played around much with the MP aspect of the game yet, but that's because I haven't gotten around to hosting my lunch time LAN servers yet, and because there is virtually no one online anymore, probably all busy playing other games, like the new ones. Or f they are playing classics, they're probably going Skulltag or Quake. However, note that there are two dedicated Deathmatch servers still running. Also note that there are also Team DM, CTF, and some sort of Counter Strike modes as well. I suggest Chaser if you have the time and money, and if you are looking for a new game to play. You can find Chaser cheap on GOG if you want it. Remember those servers though. I would love to find someone to play against.