Enter the Chronosphere is a bullet hell schmup that actually gives you time to think
I like videogame worlds that are somehow vast and busy, yet pleasantly small and legible - Polly Pocket creations that have a lot of flex and bustle, when you look closely. Enter the Chronosphere feels like one of those games. Devised by Melbourne, Australia-based Effort Star, it sees you assembling a crew of alien roughnecks to breach and despoil astral "gigastructures" in top-down view. These gigastructures consist of tightly-packed disc-shaped labyrinths with distinct colour schemes, vegetation and screwy spacetime dynamics.
One of the PR bulletpoints calls on you to "choose between stabilizing your wounds, or reality itself." You'll also get to "plunder paradoxes" and kill people with wasps. Quite the spread! Let's have a look at the trailer.
Enter the Chronosphere has a stop-start "turn-based action game" (my phrase) style where enemies and projectiles move when you do. The more familiar, recent comparison is probably Superhot, but I'm also reminded of ancient tile-based dungeon crawlers like Azure Dreams. Care of this hybrid approach, you can play it like a bullet hell shooter that actually favours tactical improvisation over reflexes and pattern memorisation - weaving through bullets, lining up ranged attacks of your own to anticipate enemy movements, that sort of thing.
There are hundreds of weapons, items and abilities, from spears to radguns. The art direction is a warm Moebius confection with rich shadows and splashy comicbook SFX, and the soundtrack is a charming burble of yelps and popguns. Yeah, I quite like this one. Here's the Steam page with more - fingers crossed for a release date soon-ish.
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