Review: Total Chaos

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Total Chaos started as a fan-made modification, or ‘mod,’ for the classic game DOOM 2 in 2018, created by Trigger Happy Interactive. It became incredibly popular within the modding community and even won a Cacoaward – an annual prize given out by the Doomworld website to recognize outstanding fan-created content for the DOOM franchise. This award demonstrates just how much fans enjoyed the mod.

It’s obvious why this is exciting: the team behind Turbo Overkill is turning the popular mod into a complete game. They’ve even brought in Akira Yamaoka, the famous composer from Silent Hill, to create the soundtrack. With a great base from the original mod and Yamaoka’s involvement, this game is shaping up to be something special, don’t you think?

Total Chaos isn’t a groundbreaking game, but it’s surprisingly good, especially for a survival horror title. The combat and inventory systems work well, and the story has interesting layers. However, a few issues hold it back from being truly great.

This review will explore what makes Total Chaos enjoyable, as well as its shortcomings that hold it back from being truly great. We’ll dive into what the game overdoes and how it impacts the overall experience, so let’s get started.

A Man Descending Into Madness

In Total Chaos, you play as the survivor of a shipwreck, stranded on the eerie island of Fort Oasis. Once a vibrant place, it’s now overrun with dangerous creatures and crumbling ruins. With no clear path to safety, you must follow the guidance of a mysterious voice on the radio, leading you deeper into the island in hopes of escape.

As a player, I’ve found that the more you explore Fort Oasis and the longer you hang around, the more things just fall apart. Seriously, it’s like descending into a nightmare, and you start to question what’s even real. It totally lives up to the game’s name – things become completely chaotic!

While the story of Total Chaos centers around a disastrous island, it’s much more complex than that. The plot is rich with symbolism, and the island, Fort Oasis, actually reflects the inner turmoil of the main characters.

The deeper players go into the game, the more disturbing things become, but these horrors actually represent the main character’s deteriorating mental state. The goal isn’t simply to escape the island, but to prevent him from completely losing his mind.

Total Chaos uses storytelling techniques that remind me of Silent Hill 2. Like how Silent Hill 2 used symbols to represent the protagonist’s inner turmoil and his relationship with his wife, everything in Total Chaos seems to represent what’s happening inside the main character’s head.

As you play Total Chaos and find letters and listen to recordings, you’ll discover the main character is Tyler – a former coastguard battling cancer and PTSD.

Total Chaos feels similar to Silent Hill 2 in how it tells its story, relying on symbolism and deeper meanings to drive the narrative forward.

Once you understand this, the game becomes much more engaging because it handles these sensitive themes well. It creates a stronger sense of urgency – you’re not just battling monsters on an island, but the internal struggles within Tyler’s own mind.

Total Chaos excels at subverting expectations, presenting a seemingly straightforward experience that gradually unfolds into something much larger and more complex. I particularly enjoyed this aspect of the game, as I appreciate titles that explore difficult themes in creative and subtle ways, allowing players to draw their own conclusions. Similar to Silent Hill 2, Total Chaos encourages players to think critically, search for deeper meanings, and piece together the full story themselves.

The game uses its environments and sound to really highlight the hidden themes. Although some levels look quite similar, they consistently create a feeling of dread and sadness, effectively showing what Tyler is going through internally. Combined with excellent sound design and a fantastic, unsettling soundtrack, the game makes you feel constantly vulnerable. This perfectly reflects Tyler’s own unstable state, as he’s clearly struggling with inner turmoil.

Methodical Combat of Give and Take

Total Chaos is a fast-paced action game centered around close-quarters and ranged combat. Skillful dodging is key, and battles involve trading blows with enemies. You can perform regular attacks or charge them up for more damage, but timing is crucial to avoid getting hit. Enemy attacks are powerful and can quickly deplete your health, so careful timing is essential.

Beyond simply dodging attacks, Total Chaos lets you block and parry. These actions use the same button, but whether you block or parry depends on the weapon you’re using. Dodging uses a lot of stamina, so blocking and parrying are vital for escaping difficult situations when you’re cornered. Landing a perfect parry, which stuns your opponent, is incredibly rewarding, and sets up a great opportunity to strike. This engaging and satisfying combat system is central to the Total Chaos experience.

The first three chapters of the game are entirely focused on close-quarters combat, with limited options beyond that. You’ll mainly be fighting up close until you unlock the first proper gun at the end of Chapter Three. This changes the gameplay, allowing you to fight enemies from a distance and play more aggressively. While the shooting mechanics are functional and satisfying, they aren’t groundbreaking – they’re solid, but not exceptional.

It gets the job done and is serviceable, but don’t expect industry-leading gunplay.

Despite some ranged options, you’ll mostly be fighting up close because ammo is scarce. Deciding when to use your limited bullets – against regular enemies or saving them for harder fights – is a key part of the gameplay and requires strategic thinking.

Man, there’s nothing like finally taking down a tough enemy because I was smart enough to conserve my ammo earlier. Seriously, it’s the best feeling – running into a really challenging foe and just blasting them away because I didn’t waste everything beforehand. It’s super satisfying!

Total Chaos delivers fantastic combat that will appeal to fans of both survival horror and fast-paced shooters like DOOM. The mix of close-quarters fighting and shooting large groups of enemies is exciting and creates intense moments. While the game sometimes suffers from noticeable slowdowns on the PlayStation 5 when facing many enemies at once – occasionally causing unfair damage – these issues aren’t severe enough to detract from the enjoyable overall experience.

Resources Can Be Too Hard to Come By

Total Chaos started as a modification for DOOM 2, but it plays very differently. Unlike traditional Doom games where you easily find power-ups and ammo, this game emphasizes surviving by gathering resources. You’ll spend your time searching for things like food, medical supplies, and materials to craft weapons and bandages.

Everything you find is important and can extend your life – which is harder to do than it seems in Total Chaos. Staying alive isn’t tough because of the enemies themselves, but because of the constant negative effects impacting your character.

The game requires players to constantly monitor many different negative effects, like bleeding, hunger, being weighed down, fatigue, and even drowning. Plus, weapons wear down and break, so you need to pay attention to their condition to avoid being caught unprepared in a fight. I’ve lost a few battles because of this, and while I don’t mind weapon durability in general, it’s particularly annoying in Total Chaos mode, sometimes forcing you to go back to an earlier save and try a different strategy.

Total Chaos isn’t just frustrating because of its core gameplay; managing status effects also feels like a tedious task. This is largely due to a scarcity of resources, especially when you first start playing. You’ll often find yourself unable to heal conditions like Bleed – which steadily damages you – simply because you don’t have the necessary items. While you can craft bandages to stop Bleed, the materials needed to make them are hard to come by.

Hunger slows down your stamina recovery, forcing you to regularly eat food. While it makes sense that resources are limited in a survival game, it would have improved the overall experience if it wasn’t so punishing. Be prepared to reload older saves often. If you don’t save frequently, you might struggle to progress, especially if you’re low on health during a boss fight.

Total Chaos is especially difficult because many healing items come with drawbacks. You might find food that restores energy but lowers your health, or a health potion that makes you hungrier. This creates tough choices, and it emphasizes how scarce resources are in the game. You’re often forced to trade one problem for another, constantly needing more items to fix the negative effects of the cures themselves.

Despite its flaws, Total Chaos offers a rewarding survival experience, largely thanks to its detailed inventory system. Successfully managing your items – knowing when to eat, treat injuries, or repair weapons – requires thoughtful strategy, which is common in survival-horror games. The core gameplay is strong, but the game pushes things too far, leading to unnecessary frustration. It would greatly improve the experience if Trigger Happy Interactive included difficulty settings or resource sliders to adjust the challenge.

Closing Thoughts:

Total Chaos is a thrilling survival-horror game where you experience a man’s descent into madness. The story and combat are particularly strong, keeping you hooked and eager to explore the game’s world and uncover the secrets of both the protagonist and the dangerous enemies you face. The game’s main setting, Fort Oasis, has a compelling backstory that cleverly connects to the character’s mental state – it’s reminiscent of Silent Hill 2 and a joy to discover. However, the game’s survival elements can be quite harsh. Limited resources often create frustrating situations, potentially forcing players to reload older saves. While this intense difficulty effectively conveys a sense of hopelessness, it might not appeal to everyone, making it best suited for hardcore survival-horror fans.

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2025-11-26 00:11