Chorus

The spaceship action of this adventure game is an absolute thrill. Chorus eases players into combat with its slick controls, cool weapons, and magical abilities thanks to a wonderful sense of pacing from beginning to end. Dogfights evolve in complexity with dozens of hostile spacecraft, ranging from small, fast ships that chase players to slow, huge battleships with multiple defenses and turrets that must be strategically dismantled from the outside and inside. Players will feel like the legendary star pilot, Anakin Skywalker, as they weave and drift around in zero gravity testing their reflexes and spatial awareness. While some stretches of environments can feel barren, most of the level design is well crafted and perfect for turning environments into fun obstacle courses to navigate through—not to mention awe-inducing visuals like an asteroid field set against the backdrop of a giant planet, or a sprawling maze of skyscraper-sized ice shards.

But what surprises most is the shockingly ambitious story that gives some personal weight to every mission, even during periods of downtime while simply traveling around with enjoyable banter between dozens of characters. Nara herself is a troubled soul who wants to do the right thing, and she's intricately fleshed out through dialogue and her inner thoughts, which are conveyed between spoken dialogue as whispered voice lines. Through her tale of self-acceptance, she goes through an elaborate processing of her trauma, beliefs, and doubts with several characters, eventually leading to a hard fought and hopeful resolution that allows her to not only heal from her wounds, but also give others the strength and courage to do the same. While the story can feel a little heavy-handed with the length of cutscenes, and some of the writing is a bit cheesy, Chorus is nevertheless just as characterized by its heart and emotional depth as it is with its gameplay. All together, Chorus carves out its place among flight-based games with "easy to learn, hard to master" gameplay that will leave players cheering in delight. That alone makes it shine, but with the addition of a diverse cast and thought-provoking story, players will be left with a memorable experience in more ways than one as they soar and shoot in style among the stars.