Summary:
Dichotomy best describes Blast Chamber.It's both an one-player puzzle game and a multi-player competitive action game. It has decent polygon levels, but horrible, sprite-based characters. It is original yet not very fun.
The Review:
Although Blast Chamber is published by Activision, the creative minds behind it are the members of the British software house Attention To Detail. ATD first worked on projects for the ill-fated Konix system (remember that system which was never released here?), then became a key developer for the doomed Atari Jaguar (with titles like Cybermorph and Battlemorph). Now, they're developing for the Playstation. While they may have finally chosen the right system, they still haven't mastered the art of software development, as demonstrated in Blast Chamber.
The story behind this title is actually like Schwartzenegger's dull movie The Running Man. I'll spare you the boring details but all you need to know is that it takes place in the future (the year 2096), the Game (aka Blast Chamber) is the world's best source of entertainment and you're one of contenders in this deadly game where your life is on the line.
This game is a series of stationary levels and while they (all the levels I have seen so far) don't move or scroll left, right, down or up, they do rotate. And this is the whole point of the game. All the levels, which are cubic rooms, rotate because walls and ceilings can become floors you can walk on. There are many modes of play, but it all comes down to two. The solo option is, in fact, a puzzle game where you attempt to get the crystal of each level and reach the exit before a certain amount of time. The multi-player option pits you against computer-controlled or human opponents in a battle of survival.
Every level is made out of polygons and since they are small and not very intricate,the end result is decent-looking but completely unambitious. What's worse is the characters. They are actually tiny, little sprites that not only look out of place, but are badly animated as well. "Don't underestimate the power of the Playstation", Sony claims but if I didn't know any better, Blast Chamber would lead me to believe the opposite.
But of course, gameplay should be more important than graphics alone. This is exactly where Blast Chamber really fails. The solo option kept me playing for a while, not because of addiction, but rather out of curiosity, to see how the game would evolve with later levels. Well, it didn't. The multi-player option is actually the worst aspect of the game. It's all jerky, confusing, mostly shallow and doesn't play too well.
So yes, Blast Chamber is not very good but at least, it's not the worst Playstation game out there. Basically, try to avoid this title.
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