xbox live indie game reviews

Chalked takes place in a black and white world filled with malevolent saboteurs (guys with backpacks) and a frantic public trying to catch them. No backstory is given, meaning we're free to invent whichever we like to suit which side we feel like playing. Take on the role of the crowd, and you're battling terrorists. Take on the role of saboteur, and clearly you're a freedom fighter. Though very blocky, the city looks great and all the animations are fun. The menus are some of the best I've seen (seriously... they're awesome) and the soundtrack is both hilarious and perfectly suited for tromping around the chalky city.

The problem with everything looking so polished is that you expect the gameplay to be equally polished... it's not. As a citizen, your job is to hunt down the saboteurs. You can rally your fellow citizens by bringing up a map view and setting waypoints for them, or just let them wander around. The first time I played, I never even saw a saboteur--the NPCs caught all of them while I ran around doing nothing. The fact that you can "win" with so little agency makes victory pretty hollow--and on gameplays where I actually caught some of the saboteurs my times weren't as good as my "accidental" victory. If better times are the only goal to sustain replay, getting a better time has to be tied in some way to user actions.

The game is a lot more fun as a saboteur, but ultimately the camera is a little too clunky. While running around in the open, you can either watch behind you to see what's chasing you or watch in front of you to see where you're going.  The former causes you to run into things and get caught, while the latter makes it so you have no idea when you're in danger.  Citizens can only be avoided by ducking into buildings. Once inside, you press a button sequence in the proper order to set a bomb.

While inside the building, you're given a top-down view of the location and can see citizens swarming around outside. Based on where the citizens are, you can choose the exit most suited for a quick getaway. There's a hiccup, though--either the FOV of the top-down camera is too low or the buildings have an overhang on them. It's incredibly easy for citizens to "hide" right next to the buildings so that they don't appear on the warning camera at all. Thinking you're safe, you pop out on that side of the building and straight into the arms of a waiting citizen.

There are some great ideas behind Chalked, but ultimately the gameplay isn't very rewarding. It was interesting for the first few minutes, but after a half an hour or so I was just bored silly. I'd give it a trial download just to check out the style (and there is a lot of it!), but for me it wasn't worth the points.