Miasma Chronicles PS5 Review – Miasma Chronicles is the latest title from the makers of Mutant Year Zero. Taking the form of a tactical RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world, it’s clear after playing Miasma Chronicles that developer The Bearded Ladies knows how to craft a compelling world with interesting characters but, more importantly, develop what may be the most accessible tactics title I’ve played in years.
Miasma Chronicles Review (PS5)
A Story That Tries Too Hard And Gets Too Wonky To Appreciate
Miasma Chronicles tells the story of Elvis and his best friend, Diggs, a robot with a sassy attitude. Elvis and Diggs are on a quest to figure out how to remove a wall of Miasma: a mysterious substance that has devastated the world and left everything in ruin.
Elvis is armed with a mechanical glove that his mother left him after disappearing that can absorb the control of the Miasma. Elvis looks to master the glove’s power, open a path, and find his mother.
Though the story takes some big twists and turns, its central narrative also holds it back. While I enjoyed how the story began, it slowly began to develop into something completely over the top involving a war with immortal families and a secret group of people called the Editores that can control and utilize the Miasma as weapons.
It’s not what I expected or hoped the story would go, but it provides a decent narrative for what it’s worth. My biggest gripe is that much of the story is also left unexplained and talked about in documents and codexes you find throughout the game.
Great Characters Are Held Down By Bland Voice Work
The game writing, though competent, suffers from the delivery. The voice work, for the most part, isn’t that great. Sometimes, Elvis sounds like he’s completely stoned out of his mind. Diggs is the highlight, who comes off as a smartass robot with enough compassion or care for the entire party.
Diggs is the only one who isn’t written as a selfish protagonist, while everyone only thinks about themselves and what the rest of the party can do for them. Outside the main cast, the world seems to have too much to tell, from the survivors to the enemies, but none of them get a chance to shine.
One quest had Elvis and his friends go and stop the Grabbers: Frog species that have evolved to take and use weapons to invade and destroy his town. We learn the Grabbers have been evolved or created by the Miasma, but we never know how that happens. What does the Miasma do to species to change it?
The rest of the towns folk have plenty to say during conversations, and Elvis has a relationship with many of them, but none of it is explored, which left me just wanting to know more about the people who live in this world. It gets even worse later on when you come to a town run by robots, and humans are the servants. While we learn there is a civil war between the robots and humans in the town, we don’t know what led to this conflict and situation.
Accessible Tactical Combat
Miasma Chronicles is a tactical RPG that doesn’t try to innovate the genre or go out of its way to challenge the top of the food chain. This is welcoming to me as it’s pretty accessible. The various difficulty options the game provides allow everyone to enjoy the title.
The combat sees you moving around a tactical grid to get your party in the best positions to get the advantage during skirmishes. You can sneak around the environment and take enemies out silently as long as you have a silenced weapon not to alert anyone else.
When combat does begin, each of your party members have the traditional actions at their disposal: taking two turns from moving, shooting, reloading their weapon, using an item, or any abilities and skills they have.
Deciding what to do and what skills to save or use become pivotal to the game. Some characters have passive abilities that give them advantages. For example, Jade, who joins your party as a sniper, has passive skills that give her an advantage from high altitude areas and increased critical rate and damage.
Moving around and finding the best position to take a defensive or offensive stance is critical to survival. Enemies take cover, which cuts down your chance of inflicting damage. Flanking enemies becomes important but can leave you open to attack.
Plenty Of Options To Take On Your Foes
Various weapons can be used, from assault rifles to shotguns. Shotguns became my favorite because they can damage multiple enemies at once and can even destroy small covers, leaving enemies exposed.
Elvis can use his glove in combat to manipulate Miasma. This unique ability sees Elvis fire electricity that bounces around enemies. Another command allows him to summon and control a Grabber to help in battle.
As much as the game tells you the Miasma powers are necessary, I never found a great time to use them because most of the enemies are immune to the power of Miasma, so the reward of using it against them is minimal.
A Visually Pleasing Apocalypse
Visually, world is uniquely satisfying in its grim depiction. However, it can look glossy due to the constant rain and mud in plenty of the game’s environments. The character models look pretty solid, and the animation work is great during gameplay but suffers during cutscenes.
The character’s facial animations take a big hit, and some of the action animations are bland and feel delayed in connection to the dialogue. There are times when you’ll explore old-world buildings like hospitals and airports. These locations are my favorite as you see how the Miasma has affected these locations.
Miasma Chronicles is an excellent example of a developer going out of their way to make their game fun for everyone. After all, Tactical RPGs have notoriously been known for their difficulty and strategy required to be successful.
Miasma Chronicles gives everyone the chance to experience and enjoy the game. It’s a simple yet fun title that hits all the right notes but, unfortunately, never reaches the finish line. It has many great ideas with its story and world but falls short of achieving greatness.
Miasma Chronicles Is now available on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.