This year was supposed to be filled with sci-fi-themed first-person shooters. But now that titles like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 have slipped to 2004, similarly themed shooters with less name recognition now have a better chance to gain an audience. Chrome is such a game, and it comes as something of a surprise from publisher Strategy First, a company that you wouldn't expect to release this style of game. All that aside, Chrome could have been an excellent shooter if it wasn't held back by some noticeable problems. It has an interesting premise, even if it isn't entirely original, and most of the game can be fun to play. Unfortunately, it won't pose much of a challenge due to deficiencies in the artificial intelligence, and there isn't too much replay value to be found in the game either.

Bolt Logan finds himself in the middle of a struggle he really doesn't belong in.

Chrome takes place in the 22nd century. You play as Bolt Logan, a mercenary in an outer space dominated by a few large corporations looking to mine "chrome." You never really find out what chrome is, what it's used for, and why it's so valuable. You never even really find out anything about the world you live in, either. Who governs the system? Where are these corporations based? You only get a little background about Logan in the manual. Still, you can easily follow the game's story because none of these questions are terribly important, and the plot of the game is actually quite good. The game begins with Logan and his partner, who are on a mission. Logan is promptly betrayed and framed by his fellow mercenary, thus setting the stage for a perfect revenge story. Or so you would think. Logan isn't a superhero or someone who has a lot of connections. He's an average joe and does the most sensible thing when caught in a life-threatening situation: he flees. This is what truly sets the stage. Chrome is a game with somewhat believable characters and environments.

Logan begins a new partnership with a woman named Carrie, whom he meets in the first mission, and begins accepting new missions from a small mining company called SPACON. Your first few missions will have you performing simple tasks, like recovering stolen equipment and rescuing hostages. Logan is a businessman who accepts missions after payment is discussed and never lets emotions get in his way. After you save a colony from bandits, things get messy for Logan, however. The two major corporations, CoreTech and Zetrox, will throw Logan into several plot twists before the game's ending. Your character changes disposition, as well, when he crosses paths with his former colleague and lets revenge cloud his judgment.

The story is pretty good, though you may be able to see some of the plot twists coming. Cutscenes progress the story before and after each mission, and the voice work is done quite well. You don't have control of which missions you pick or how your character develops, but, rest assured, the game doesn't make you go from being a mercenary to a goody-two-shoes savior. Ultimately, you get to make such a choice.

However, in Chrome you aren't going to get anywhere with just words, and what kind of mercenary wouldn't be adept at using weapons? Chrome has a fair selection of weapons to choose from. There are pistols, submachine guns, heavy rifles, and even a rocket launcher. As mentioned, Logan isn't a superhero, so he can only carry a limited number of weapons, dictated by his inventory space. You can carry a pistol, a shotgun, and a submachine gun quite easily, but there's no way you'll be able to take more than a pistol and rocket launcher. That's because your accessories take up inventory space, too, so you'll be limited in the amount of ammo, the number of health kits, and the number of various other items you can carry.

There are certain situations where you'll need to use something specific, like the rocket launcher, but you can use any of the weapons you prefer throughout the rest of the game. You can fire a weapon normally, or you can press the right mouse button to look down the weapon's sights and fire more accurately (or you can use the scope with sniper rifles). You choose your weapon loadout prior to each mission, with the heavier weapons becoming unlocked as the game progresses. You may just find yourself only equipping the pistol and sniper rifle, though. Most of the weapons are inaccurate at long ranges, so you'll just sit there firing until a few lucky shots drop the enemy. Wouldn't it be easier just to use a sniper rifle and make a quick headshot? If you're worried about enemies getting close, you can just use the pistol at shorter ranges. It may not have high stopping power, but it has a fast rate of fire and is an accurate weapon. However, you won't be limited by your choice during a mission because you can scavenge enemy bodies for weapons, ammo, and health kits.

You can scavenge bodies and cabinets for weapons and ammo.

Part of what makes the game relatively easy is the fact that enemies carry so much stuff. You hardly ever have to worry about ammo supplies because you can pick up more from enemies you've killed. You especially never have to worry about running out of health kits because you'll find a lot of them. The health kits work slowly by replenishing your health instead of giving you an instant boost. The health increase occurs for quite a while, allowing you to continue healing damage should you get hurt again after your health has reached maximum capacity. You can also use a few health packs at once because the healing rate increases with multiple health packs. So a viable strategy is to use a couple of health packs before a fight and engage multiple enemies at point-blank range, if you know there are more health packs nearby.

The enemies aren't too challenging, either. They respond to sights and sounds just fine. In fact, sneaking up behind some guards and capping them in the back of the head is quite fun. The problem is that the enemies aren't too smart. If you shoot an enemy who's standing yards away from another enemy, most of the time the other guy won't even notice that his friend dropped to the ground. Enemies who take it upon themselves to attack you will most often run straight toward you without team coordination, or they will even stand out in the open. A select few will dodge your fire and seek cover, which is better, but, in a sense, it's unfortunate and frustrating since, clearly, the AI could have been better overall. Perhaps if more enemies were smarter about attacking you, there would have been a greater need to use a variety of weapons instead of relying on the sniper rifle to plug enemies out in the open.