Brutal Chase
Developed/Published by Gamer Bear
Released for Xbox One (12/15/2018)
Brutal Chase was developed by Gamer Bear (the same ones that brought us Coconut Farm 3D) and was released under the Creators Collection program in December 2018. If you've ever played any of the arcade classic Chase HQ games then you'll know what to expect from Brutal Chase. The gameplay involves taking to the streets in a police car and ramming your vehicle into criminals as a means of apprehending them. We haven't had the best experience with these Creators Collection games thus far, but with such a cool premise and cheap price tag, I was more than willing to take a chance on this one. Without further ado, let's get into it and see if this one is worth ninety-nine cents that it cost to play it....
In Brutal Chase you'll smash up the cars of criminals in 9 different locations scattered across the globe. The game starts off in New York, but also features stages in San Francisco, Vancouver, Mexico, Isle of Man, Hamburg, Barcelona and Agra. As you smash up the criminals, you'll accumulate credits which can be spent between missions in order to upgrade your current car or purchase a new vehicle. There are a total of 5 vehicles to purchase, with each featuring more stats to grind your way towards upgrading. While pursuing the criminals you'll also have to watch out for civilian traffic, since colliding with innocent cars will deduct credits from your wallet.
The gameplay in Brutal Chase is about as simple as it gets, with only 2 buttons used: 1 to brake and the other to activate your turbo booster. Your vehicle accelerates by default, so you only need to focus on steering and using your turbo/brakes at the appropriate times. The accidents themselves aren't much of a spectacle in Brutal Chase, so don't go in expecting some Burnout style carnage. It is possible to cause the cars to roll over with a well placed hit, though it's nowhere near as exciting to witness as it might sound. While the accidents aren't all that spectacular, there's still something undeniably fun about flying down the highway at high-speeds smashing into other cars.
Brutal Chase is a solid homage to the Chase HQ titles, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. The visuals are composed of digitized graphics laid onto the polygons, which works with mixed results. The textures used for the sky-boxes were either too low-res or stretched out, resulting in bad pixelization that stands out when compared to the other textures. The streets you drive down are lined with thousands of the exact same tree sprite, which left me pondering why the developer couldn't have thrown in at least a few different sprites in there for some graphical variety?
Another complaint is the fact that there microtransactions available in the form of credits. 1 million credits costs $.99, 5 million for $3.09 and infinite credits for $5.99. This means, of course, that playing the game naturally without spending additional money post-purchase involves a stupid amount of grinding to incentivize you into buying credits to advance faster. This really has no place in a single-player only driving game and will likely be enough to make some give the game a hard pass, which is a shame considering it's actually fun (at least in short bursts). One final complaint is the lack of any personality, for instance it would have been nice to have a dispatch tell me what the suspects are wanted for.
Brutal Chase is an extremely simple driving game, but if you take it for what it is as a Chase HQ throwback, there's some fun to be had here. While the microtransactions seem like a completely unnecessary and a holdover from the mobile version and the visuals aren't exactly pleasing to look at, there's still a fun game beneath all of it and if you enjoy the Chase HQ games I'd say give it a look. Brutal Chase was also released for phones that utilized the Windows 8 Mobile OS, but due to the dated software requirements the Xbox version is going to be the easiest way to play it.
Final Verdict: Brutal Chase is a simple throwback to the Chase HQ arcade games, where you play as a cop who must stop suspects by ramming into their vehicle. While the visuals tend to be unimpressive and there's an annoying microtransaction system in place, it's still easily the most fun I've had with a game from the Creators Collection program.
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