Ever since the day I walked into GAME and bought Savage simply because the packaging caught my eye I have been under the impression that Digital Jesters are the champion purveyors of unique, original and downright fun games, which would otherwise never see the light of day.
In some respects I still believe myself to be correct, although the odd game released by Digital Jesters may not be original and groundbreaking they never fail to be very fine examples of their genre. Beyond Divinity, for example, the fantastic Diablo style RPG which holds true to the good old days of RPG gaming when graphics were not thrown at the user to disguise poor gameplay and the recently previewed Medieval Lords is set to become another pillar of the ever growing and diversifying city building genre.
Chaos League is another example of the heavy thinking outside of the box that the publishers Digital Jesters choose to publish seem to be very good at doing. It is, for all intents and purposes, a sports game but it steps, or leaps, into a rather under-represented subsection of sports games and gives the gamer a whole lot more to think about. Chaos League takes your basic game of Warhammer 40k, adds a big helping of Unreal Tournament and mixes thoroughly, it then seasons heavily with humour and the resulting dish is ready to serve. All this gaming splendour is represented in gorgeous 3D graphics and can be played in your choice of Real-Time Action or Turn Based Strategy depending on weather you want to kick sizable portions of Ork arse or ponder and plan every single move with the care of a seasoned turn based strategy player.
Chaos League is a sport akin to the Englishman’s game of Rugby and also not unlike American Football. I will readily admit to not having the slightest clue what either of these sports entails but, suffice to say, Chaos League involves a pitch with a goal line at either end - the object of the game being to get the ball over your opponents goal line at any cost, and then to do it again, and again, until you ultimately win the match.
The game offers many options for the strategist in you, including a total of 10 fantasy races and many different team types composed of different blends of race and ability. You can choose an Orcish powerhouse and smash your way through enemy lines to deliver the ball to victory, or you can go for a speedy team of Elves and simply leg it through a gap in the enemies defence and blast them with powerful magic. A "Mercenaries" race also allows you to choose linemen from all the other races, but only linemen; this can result in a mixed team, which relies on the skills of each race for key play positions and roles.
The game boasts 4 different play modes and a tutorial. You can choose from a quick Match, a Championship a Scenario or challenge your friends in Multiplayer. The key play mode is the Championship which sees you creating your own team and winning your way through championship matches so you can earn experience and develop your team to ultimately beat better opponents, and so on and so forth. Each mode allows you to choose between real-time, active pause and turn based play as mentioned. Whilst the turn based and active paused modes give you time to think about your movement the turn based mode is not entirely akin to any other turn based game I have seen - it opts for pausing the game every turn to allow you to plan your next move, whilst this affords you time to think it can be an extremely irritating way to play. Active pause mode allows you to pause the game at any time and plan your moves, this makes for a much more bearable version of the turn based play letting you almost switch between real-time and turn based on the fly by pausing the game when you need to think and still be able to issue orders to your units.
Chaos League offers only four pitches to play on, whilst this may seem like very few you must keep in mind that each pitch is nothing more than a change in scenery and does not affect game play. As you will be concentrating on the pitch itself you will not have much time to enjoy the change of scenery around it so these four highly detailed pitches are more than enough.
The focus of Chaos League single player is in the Championship mode where all the real gaming happens. When you start a championship you must name your team, choose a team logo and select the players you wish to use. You then begin to play Chaos League matches to both gain experience and win through to the next round. Gaining experience gives you the opportunity to further develop your team, you can also swap out players you find are not performing well and hone your team into a fine scoring machine.
The basic “running with the ball, getting past enemy defenders, and scoring a touchdown” play of Chaos League is supplemented heavily with lots of additional skills, spells and features. If your tactics involve trampling other players a simple referee bribe will send him on his merry way so you can continue playing dirty. Smoke screens hide your strategy from your opponent, skills allow you to run and heal, and spells offer some serious artillery, which can end up saving your neck when an opponent is only inches from the score line. With so many additions the strategies available in Chaos League go far beyond those in any similar sport, making it quite a taxing game. Brute force is usually my forte, and even that works sometimes.
Sound wise Chaos League is all there; it is hard to determine the authenticity of the sound of an Orks skull crunching, what with there being no Orks in existence (to my knowledge anyway). The commentary adds a touch of humour to the game, with commentators complaining about dirty tactics and making comments about the cheerleaders.
Overall Chaos League is a very good and polished game, however it is not necessarily a greatly enjoyable one. Whilst this game might not be entirely aimed at sports fans – more the strategist who likes a bit of fun and a laugh – the fact that I am not a sports fan did tend to get between Chaos League and me. I certainly enjoyed playing the game, when I was winning anyway, and there is plenty to do – however it did not remain fun for long. If you have the friends to play with in multiplayer or are willing to lay down a good deal of time to play through the Championship mode then, by all means, grab a copy of Chaos League and get playing.
Philip Howard
