Not Quite Above Average, but Certainly Entertaining.

User Rating: 7 | Chaos Field GC
I'm still not quite sold on the Bullet Hell sub-genre; it's bad enough there's so few of them that actually saw home console releases, but it's worse knowing just how empty the whole sub-genre is. I still hold up DoDonPachi as one of the more vacuous Bullet Hell titles out there seeing how its progression and gameplay focuses entirely on unspoken player performance prerequisites and it was impossible to immerse myself in a game where 90% of the screens were filled with nothing but bullets. Chaos Field is one of the only two Shmups on the Game Cube and one of only six Bullet Hell games I've played so far and I still don't quite know what I think of it. Though I should say, of the six Bullet Hell Shmups I've played, only three of which I've really liked... and this is one of them.

Chaos Field takes place in a future date of Earth where advanced space technology turns to trans-dimensional research where upon Earth researchers uncover a different plane of reality called the Chaos Field. Dominating this plane on a Pohjola-like planet are the Abo an unseen race of aliens who are probably related to the Barrax and Iridion Empires as their first gut reaction to encountering Earthlings is to kill them and kill them dead. This prompts the creation of three trans-dimensional fighter ships piloted only by the best pilots around for them to go on a mission to destroy the Abo's own atom smasher on their own home world.
As clever as the dimensional plane plot is, it obviously never goes anywhere and never tries to make itself any more original. Two of the three pilots selected to save the world - a wiry little 15 year old boy and a 30 year old long haired freak, each with the personality of tar - feel completely incredulous and even kept me from choosing their ships. The fact that each ship has its own pilot is pointless to animate seeing how none of the characters contribute anything to the plot or endings and, unlike SoukyouGurentai, the three pilots don't even have much back-story. Also, the names for each of the ships don't make any sense: The Mixed Blue? The Fake Yellow?? The Flawed Red!? Who was in charge of naming these ships?!? They're supposed to save the world and our creators are all ready dissing them??

The only reason the story exists is for the game's innovation of being able to switch between two planes of reality during combat which I guess would be an active Dual World Gameplay gimmick. Switching between the two planes of reality is actually one of the game's best aspects because switching from the Order Field to the Chaos Field empowers both the player and the enemies on-screen, adding an extra level of challenge. Of course, there's always the perplexing fact that sometimes a boss fight is actually easier in the Chaos Field than it is in the Order Field, which leads you into the common Shmup formula of memorizing when to do what, in this case jumping dimensions. Much like Bullet Hell Shmups though, whenever there's a gimmick to the gameplay, player success is practically dependent on that gimmick, meaning that most of the game is at its fairest once entering the Chaos Field.

It's occasionally occurred to Bullet Hell developers that players want something to fight the bullet waves back with, say having a health bar or having a special weapon that deflects bullets and Chaos Field offers both. Each ship has its own health bar which gives you a fighting chance and each ship is equipped with a pair of laser swords that can absorb 90% of the bullets on screen. The buzzkill for this though is that the swords are only useful if you mash the A button so the ship performs a combo. Then there's the fact the swords are some of the strongest weapons in the game and once I found that out I just flew into all the boss' faces and slashed them to death which cut out an extra minute of combat.

Most of the extra weapons feel like side weapons and vary in usefulness depending on the ship. The Mixed Blue has great standard shot range, a nice wide Layer Section homing laser attack and a bullet shield reminiscent of the Fock-Wulf's charge attack from Strikers 1945 II. The Flawed Red has a nice Omni-Tazer-esque weapon multiplied by six and a fairly weak homing laser, but an invaluable bullet shield that rotates around the ship. Then there's the Fake Yellow which sloth-speed fires explosive shots, a decent homing laser weapon and an almost pointless spread-out bullet shield attack, but all of these are only useful in the Chaos Field.

I appreciate the scoring system as every mini-boss and boss is timed and the timer only contributes to your score; you're not graded on how fast you destroy it, though it's strange playing the game's Arcade mode is jam-packed with mini-bosses and level bosses. It was strange having to play the extended Original Mode just to encounter a few normal enemies, but even then they were in small numbers. The ability to attract all pick-up icons your way is an excellent concept, but applying it to the same button you use to swipe bullets away tends to cause some stalling. It could just be me and my unusual ability to grapple large X-Box controllers, but I encountered a few response delays in using multiple weapons on the fly; I couldn't just swipe bullets and simultaneously Layer Section enemies, I had to wait half a second between each attack.

Technically speaking though, the game is pretty solid: the game play is good even with the preset button arrangement, the graphics aren't too crisp with a smooth transition and speed and the sound department is pretty accomplished. The constant thumping Techno soundtrack gives the game its own personality and certainly adds to the action of the Shmup experience. Original Mode actually features a remix of the Arcade original, though the remixes often slow some of the Arcade version's pace like in level five. However, it wasn't a good idea to have the bosses only have one theme song because it gets a little tiring and the sound department is nice and detailed, but it's hard to hear over the booming music.

The best part about the graphics probably comes, once again, from the Chaos Field: The scenery in the Order Field is very intricate and pretty, but with the push of a button, you switch into the Hellish post-apocalyptic version of it, making the blue Earth red and large buildings destroyed. With that out of the way, I have to say that the aesthetic is a bit lacking. The three player ships looking totally awesome, but all the bosses are mostly unremarkable space-battle ships. I've seen 2D shooters from UPL with cooler looking bosses and enemies where all of them were either robots or human ships and a 3D game featuring nothing but alien ships actually did the design of each one worse.

Overall, the game is satisfying, but it's easy to feel a sense of emptiness in it; it's sort of like the Bullet Hell version of Curse in that as good and hearty as the action is and as metal as it all looks, the game is over too soon or was lacking the full polish necessary to make the game as stellar as it should've been. I should say though, in Chaos Field's favor, that beating Original Mode gives us one of the best, subtly strange and sombre Shmup endings I've seen as of late (something most Bullet Hell games are in dire need of). Chaos Field isn't quite above average, but it's average enough to keep you entertained and it has its own personality among the many irritating Bullet Hell Shmups out there to make it feel more interesting.