Total Chaos is a total conversion mod for Doom 2 that runs on the GZDoom source port. The mod is a survival horror set on a remote island known as Fort Oasis. The island was once run by a community of coal miners which one day suddenly disappeared, leaving behind the abandoned concrete jungle to waste away. Something, clearly, has gone very wrong with this place. Upon your arrival at Fort Oasis, you receive a strange radio transmission. Someone wants to be found.
I respect the effort, but I'd rather play Amnesia which I feel this game borrowed a lot from. Too many small glitches in the first 30 minutes kept me from caring too much to continue. Mind you, my time is limited, so you have to impress me early on with something cool, interesting, or new or a combo of all three.
I really wanted to like Total Chaos, considering the glowing reviews from ModDB users and the extensive press coverage. Let's start with the positive things. The game is beautiful. Wadaholic did an incredible job setting the tone, and from a graphical standpoint, it's really impressive what they could do on the antiquated iD Tech 1 technology. Granted, they also worked with GZDOOM, but it's great nonetheless. However, that also leads into my first issue. The mod is poorly optimized. Everytime a new object was loaded into the game, it would stutter for a second. It feels like iD Tech 1 is screaming with agony while rendering this mod. My second complaint is that the game, being a survival horror/first-person shooter hybrid, you'd expect it to be scary. However, it isn't in the slightest. Now I understand that what scares you is subjective, but the setup is terrible. Oh, spooky zombie chases me through a corridor while I flip a bunch of switches. Not fun. Not to mention, the monster design is very uninspired and lazy. I'm not expecting AAA level stuff from an indie developer, but Total Chaos really disappointed me. I would not recommend it to DOOM fans or fans of horror in general.