Chasm: The Rift

***Chasm: The Rift*** (sometimes rendered as ***Chasm - The Rift***, originally called *Tron: The Hammer of War*, and called *Chasm: The Shadow Zone* during some of its development) is the first game developed by Action Forms, and was published by WizardWorks for MS-DOS on September 30, 1997. A Steam version developed by General Arcade and published by SNEG was released on October 10, 2022. Console versions and the first major update to the Steam version were released on May 18, 2023.

## Gameplay

The player takes on the role of an unnamed Marine whose mission is to stop the so-called *Time Strikers*, the Timestrikers are an alien Faction attempting to over take Earth. Using military technology and energy leaks, they can invade different time epochs and must be stopped by the Marine. On his mission, he will visit places ranging from military bases in the present to Pharaonic tombs in ancient Egypt. All of the levels involve navigating through dark corridors, often like that of catacombs and crypts.

A notable features of the game was the ability to dismember limbs from enemies. Although bosses can't be killed by mere firepower but instead have to be brought down using special tactics.

## Plot

The Military had already known about the existence of the Timestrikers, and had been closely monitoring them. However, they then believed that it was the Timestrikers causing massive energy leaks throughout the military bases causing rifts, allowing the Timestrikers to flood into our dimension. First attempting to take out a military installation, the Timestrikers mutated guards and soldiers, and added in their own forces as well. However they were pushed back by an unknown Marine, who then followed them back to Ancient Egypt, where it seemed that they would take over the world from the past. Failing again, they escaped the Medieval era, and after that, left only to come back to the present, again. There, the last of the Timestrikers were defeated, and the world saved.

## Weapons

* Rifle - This Infinate-Ammo weapon is a low damage rifle.
* Super Shotgun - The shell ammunition is common and is dropped by a majority of enemies within the first group of levels. Boxes of shells (coming in sets of 10 or 20) are also very prominent throughout the rest of the game.
* Volcano - A chaingun type weapon with a limited ammo supply.
* Blade Gun - A gun that fires blades.
* Laser Crossbow - A crossbow that shoots out laser fire.
* Grenader - The Grenader is a weapon that shoots out rocket propelled grenades. It is capable of harming the player's character.
* Land Mines - The Land Mines have more power than the Grenader, but the Land Mines can only be placed on the ground. It can harm the player along with the enemies.
* Mega Destroyer - The projectile is shot out like a long-ranged grenade throw. Each ammo pickup for this weapon is worth 2 points of ammo.

## Enemies

* Scorpion - Golden monsters, they are small. At about two feet long, with three stingers.
* Mong - Mongs are mutated soldiers wearing gas masks, and use rifles.
* Stratos - Stratos are flying soldiers which shoot projectiles from the bottom of their legs.
* Faust - Fausts are highly-armored soldiers that are armed with a Rocket Launcher.
* Turret - The Turrets were used by the Platoon, but now they have gone berserk and will shoot anything on sight.
* Gross - Gross' are monstrous-looking cavemen which attack with a spiked club and throw rocks at the Marine.
* Zombie - They are the walking undead, and must be decapitated.
* Punisher - The Punisher is a large beer-bellied and muscled man wearing a red hood over his head.
* Lionman - The Lionman is a humanoid with the body of a warrior and the head of a lion. They run pretty fast and wield a shield and a mace.
* Joker - Jokers are humanoid monsters wearing Jester attire. They attack using their unique Blade Guns.
* Viking - These Vikings are mutants armed with a shield and an axe, and will attack with either, and also with their spiked helmets on top of their heads.
* Werehog - Werehogs are mutated Warthogs that charge towards the player to gore him/her with their tusks.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.ign.com/articles/2002/03/05/vivisector-creatures-of-dr-moreau-interview
2. ↑ https://archive.org/details/ChasmTheRift\_1020
3. ↑ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2061230/Chasm\_The\_Rift/
4. ↑ https://steamcommunity.com/app/2061230/eventcomments/3825289852113299142/

## External links

* Steam page
* Official website (archived)
* ChasmAction (archived)
* ModDB page
* ModdingWiki page, with information on files and file formats
* PCGamingWiki page, with information on performance and stability tweaks
* Transformers Chasm (archived), a webpage for a *Transformers* mod that links to all known official files and some useful tools
* SLADE3, a *Doom* editor with some incidental support for *Chasm*
* Chasm-Reverse, a project to create an open-source implementation of *Chasm*
* DOS Games Archive page
* Kult Game Downloads, collection of different demo versions