First hand look at 'Chasm' at Pax East

Photo courtesy of Bit Kid, Inc., used with permission.

We caught up with Bit Kid, Inc. at Pax East 2016 for a first hand look at their upcoming indie game Chasm. This 2D Metroidvania is reminiscent of Castlevania, and holds no bars back when it comes to increasingly ramping up in difficulty.

"In Chasm, players take up the role of Daltyn, a soldier passing through a remote mining town on their journey home from a long war. Upon arriving in the remote mountain town of Karthas, he discovers that paranormal forces have sealed the town off from the outside world. Now trapped, he's left with no option but to explore below the town and uncover the source of the disturbances."

Good platforming skills are critical in this dungeon crawler, and in Chasm there are a plethora of different items to collect and enemies to kill. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Chasm is that the game uses procedurally generated world maps. As you play through Chasm and unlock new items and skills the game will automatically adjust the difficulty. New rooms and enemies unlock as you upgrade your character.

The rooms themselves though have been hand-designed. It's the location of each room and hallway that has been randomly situated in the world map, making it so no two games will play out exactly the same as before. On top of that, only about 70 percent of the rooms are ever present in a play through, allowing players to keep experiencing new content as they replay the game multiple times.

You can't help but be taken in by the retro pixel art style. Although our time with Chasm was short, we were already addicted to the familiar game-play. We're looking forward to seeing the final game. Chasm is slated to release on Steam for PC and Mac and Playstation 4 later this year. There's no official word on Xbox One yet.

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