Chaos Reborn (PC) – strategy wizard

The creator of XCOM has remade his 8-bit strategy classic Chaos for the modern age, but will anyone but retro fans care?

We don’t generally approve of Early Access. The idea of getting to play a game before it’s finished, and to influence its development, sounds great in theory but it’s all dependent on the honesty of the developer. Having to pay for an unfinished game is risky enough, but we worry more about the wider influence of the concept. It has surely only encouraged the current fad for releasing unfinished triple-A games, with larger publishers only too happy to dispel the idea that a game has to be finished before you pay for it.



So we wouldn’t expect too many Early Access reviews (or maybe this should only count as a preview? A pre-review?) from us in the future, but we are willing to make a few exceptions. Especially for Chaos Reborn, since the basic gameplay has already had nearly 30 years to prove itself.

Chaos Reborn is an update of ZX Spectrum classic Chaos, by the original creator Julian Gollop. Gollop and his brother were also responsible for classics such as Laser Squad and X-COM, so in terms of strategy pedigree they don’t come much stronger than this.


We interviewed Gollop about Chaos Reborn back when it was only a Kickstarter project, so you can read about the history of Chaos here. But don’t worry at all if you’ve never heard of the game, as there’s no back story to catch up on and naturally this looks very different from the 8-bit original.

In fact we were surprised just how attractive-looking a game this has turned out to be. The initial artwork for this remake used a much more abstract style, more reminiscent of the simple one-colour sprites from the original. The Early Access version is a lot more detailed and surprisingly well animated, giving a great deal of personality to the various wizards and fantasy creatures.

Since this is all based on a Spectrum game the basics of gameplay remain very simple, and yet the set-up still feels unique after all these years. You start each game with a blank screen, except for between two to eight rival wizards – one of which is you. Each wizard is given a random selection of spell cards and takes turns casting them, moving, and attacking. (This used to be done in regimented order but Chaos Reborn takes a more modern and flexible approach.)

In a nutshell that’s all there is to the game, and yet the amount of depth and variety that results from all the various permutations and strategies is astounding. Many of the spells will summon creatures to fight on your behalf, with wizard-on-wizard battles proving relatively rare. Other spells conjure up new magical armour or weapons, while others create traps to place on the map.

In terms of the more straightforward physical battles you can definitely see something of Laser Squad and X-COM’s tactical action in the game, but Chaos came before either of them and it’s really a very different game. In particular there’s the question of whether the game map itself is aligned to Law, Neutral, or Chaos magic.



Casting any spell has only a percentage likelihood of success, but that percentage is increased if it’s a spell of the same type as the current map. And yet by casting other magic types you can push the map towards that type, changing its nature to suit you and disadvantage your rivals.

All of this remains true for Chaos Reborn, but with a new twist thanks to the introduction of mana. This is used to power spells and you can increase your stock of it by missing a turn, collecting a magical shard, or burning a spell card. And if you have enough mana stored up you can defy the current alignment of the map and cast a more powerful spell no matter what type it is.

Chaos Reborn (PC) – note the percentage likelihood of the spell working

This prevents games entering a no-win situation for players of the wrong alignment, and also means you can use more powerful, and interesting, spells much earlier in a match. It also reduces the emphasis on creating fake creatures, that have to be dispelled with your infinite ammo Disbelieve spell, which could often bog down the original game.

As you might gather, in terms of the actual gameplay and presentation Chaos Reborn already feels remarkably complete and polished. No doubt there’ll be an awful lot of tweaking and refining between now and the official release date next summer, but for now the major limitation is simply the game modes.

If you read our interview you’ll see Gollop has grand plans for an all-encompasing meta game, that allows players to grow in experience and earn influence across the whole of the online game world. At the moment though all you can do is play online multiplayer, and although there are a number of options within that – including team battles – there’s no offline mode at all yet.


And yet since the most important part of the game is already up and running the current Early Access version is far more than just a proof of concept. We’re not sure how well remembered the original Chaos really is, and certainly we assume nobody in America has ever heard of it. But don’t let the fact that this is a retro remake put you off: it feels more innovative and exciting than most other modern games we’ve played this year.

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