For years, the headlines for Total Chaos as a public-facing project have focused on it being a total conversion mod to Doom II. After a dozen or so hours spent with it, this is the least compelling aspect of this game. Total Chaos tells the story of one man’s escape from an isolated and abandoned coastal mining town, overrun by a rotting disease that has infected both his mind and the town itself. Her story is hidden and mysterious, but clearly revealed in metaphors as a battle with cancer, leaving a particularly personal mark on me as someone who lost family to this terrible plague. While the voice acting at times fails to match the momentum of the narrative, the combat, with its bulky emphasis on crafting makeshift weapons, remains an experimental blast to the end, especially for those who miss the fun gameplay atmosphere of Doom II. Much like blood and guts combining to create unholy monsters that populate action-packed moments, this story and combat combine to provide a catharsis of destruction that I had the pleasure of being a part of.
Fort Oasis, the mining town mentioned earlier, was once a bustling industrial center, with hotel balconies overlooking the sea, shopping malls where you could spend your hard-earned money, and all the perks you could call home. But when the rot sets in, what was once home becomes a prison of torment for protagonist Tyler. I liked the mystery surrounding Tyler’s fate in the various locations and his attempts to deal with what went wrong, and while it’s straightforward to miss, the writing on the wall and the metaphorical events speak to something obscure festering deep in the mines of Fort Oasis. This thing – cancer – spoke to me, forcing me to analyze why Total Chaos is so adamant about its grueling, torturous carnage. Yes, Tyler is working his way through the insidious rot in Fort Oasis; but it also gets through cancer cells that threaten its existence.
The carnage cannot stop.
There are shotguns, pistols, a submachine gun, and even a harpoon gun, but ammo is so confined that you’ll never feel very comfortable using it, and this makes for a clever way to highlight the melee weapons created by Total Chaos. As you explore abandoned and destroyed prisons, plazas, apartment buildings, cemeteries and more, you’ll collect nails, hammer heads, pickaxes, wooden poles and handles, lead pipes, keys, rebar, bottles, rags and more, including various types of food and drinks. All of these additions can be mixed and matched, and over 30 recipes offer deadly melee combos and beneficial chemicals that heal, stop bleeding, and more. The essence of the game is the crafting system, which provides the greatest variety of gameplay.
However, the bones that Total Chaos is built on sometimes crack, leading to moments of frustration. Lacking automatic saves like the survival horror games it’s so clearly inspired by, you can only save to vinyl record players, which always seem to be placed just a little too far from places where your progress might be halted by an untimely death. I lost several hours due to this save system, thanks to the instant death segments that are impossible to catch on the first try. While these moments seem low-key, other moments, such as the haunted house of hanging bat-like creatures that can only be stopped by the flicker of a lighter flame, make you forget these problems exist.
In between these ups and downs are the typical gameplay elements of the genre, including bog-standard puzzles and predictable exploration twists, which round out an otherwise fantastic experience with moments that are just as good, nothing more and nothing less. Regardless, dealing with Tyler’s various health symptoms adds tension to Total Chaos’ best and worst moments. Managing health, bleeding, hunger, energy and stamina in the silent moments was a reminder that this was not an oasis for Tyler, despite what his home was called; instead, it is a torture chamber that he must survive. In louder moments, these symptoms used the gameplay to further intensify the cacophony of stress that Total Chaos spews at Tyler. Another symptom he deals with, called insanity, is rarely used, but it changes the timing drastically, greatly imposing on the player the self-doubt and paranoia that Tyler constantly feels.
Total Chaos is disgusting, bloody and incriminating, but it is also lovable and cathartic. And despite its concerns and flaws, it’s great fun, combining terrifying perversions with tense gameplay in the way any great survival horror game should be. Poor voice acting and repetitive gameplay/monster design dampen what makes Total Chaos great. However, the inventive combat, craft-focused, and moving story cement Trigger Happy Interactive’s second installment as one that will surely haunt me long after this game.
