The first time I hucked the titular ChainStaff at an alien mouth and watched the weapon spear through its pink carapace, exploding out the other side and making the creature pop like a blood-filled balloon, I knew this game was something special. ChainStaff is one of those games that’s built entirely around one super satisfying mechanic, in this case, a giant spear you charge up and hurl at anything that moves. The result of a well-aimed throw is always incredibly satisfying, so much so that it’s easy to forget you’ve got a perfectly lethal machine gun at your disposal too.
ChainStaff’s solo developer Nathan Fouts (aka Mommy’s Best Games, a top-tier studio name) has a lot of experience designing interesting weapons. His resume includes deranged 2D shooter Serious Sam Double D XXL, Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, and, perhaps most applicable, Resistance: Fall of Man, where he served as a weapon designer. Fouts brought decades of expertise and passion for retro shoot ‘em ups to ChainStaff, and the result is something that feels authentically retro and surprisingly genre-pushing.
It only takes a few minutes of playing to pick up on the tone; a campy, over-the-top send-up of brutal side scrollers like Contra and Metal Slug, as well as sci-fi satire Starship Troopers. Amidst an alien invasion on Earth from a race of uber-bug aliens called Star Spores, you play a soldier with a parasitic alien attached to his head. Now you’re waging a one-man/alien war against the invaders, armed with the strength and abilities given to you by the parasite - ChainStaff included.
While the ChainStaff is primarily a spear, that’s far from its only use. You can also shoot the end off and grapple onto any surface, which is useful for traversing, dodging projectiles, and flanking enemies. If the spear hits something other than an enemy it becomes a rigid pole, which you can use to shield yourself from incoming damage. You can also climb the pole like a ladder to reach higher ground or put yourself in the perfect position to shoot an enemy’s weak spot. If you throw the staff into a crushing hazard, like a monster’s open mouth or the gap beneath a creature’s foot, it becomes a jack that holds the hazard up. I only played for a half hour, so there’s no telling what else the ChainStaff is capable of.
The Swiss Army knife-like utility of the weapon adds so much depth and problem-solving to the combat. During a boss fight against a skeletal, dragon-like creature, I threw the staff into the monster’s mouth to break his teeth and attack the dangly ball of flesh in his throat. But his head was so big that I couldn’t get a clear shot at his throat from the outside, so after breaking some teeth I climbed into his open mouth and used the staff as a jack to keep it propped open while I unloaded bullets into whatever the alien equivalent of a uvula is. It’s one of the game’s earliest boss fights and seems perfectly designed to show off what a cool and multifaceted weapon the ChainStaff is.
Like the games that inspired it, ChainStaff can be brutally difficult. With just a one-hit shield to protect you I died often as I was learning the ropes (or chains, if you like). But the game is more than just an homage. It includes a number of branching paths in what Fouts describes as a Metroidvania-like way, as well as a Bioshock-esque morality system that determines what abilities and playstyle you have access to, as well as having an impact on the story. Throughout the game you encounter stranded soldiers and have the option to rescue them or give into the alien’s desires and consume them, giving you new alien abilities and changing your fate. It sounds a lot like Prey, which is about the best endorsement I can give any game.
For a side-scrolling shoot ‘em up, ChainStaff is an impressively big adventure. The variety and scale of the enemies I saw in just a half hour gave the impression that this is a game that will keep things fresh and surprising. One of my favorite moments was when I came across a giant sleeping beast blocking my path. Suddenly its eye opened, and I thought I was in for a vicious fight. Just as it seemed like the monster was about to lift itself off the ground, the eyeball itself shifted away from the thing, revealing the entire body was just background and my real enemy was just a flying eyeball. I dispatched it with one well-aimed toss of the ChainStaff, laughed, and kept it moving to the next silly, surprising, and hair-raising moment. And the next, and the next, and the next.
