The Indie Informer

Well friends, we have another one to watch. Chasing the End is a luminous pixel art adventure about living through the end of the world. Post-apocalyptic is not my typical genre, but the stirring humanity at the heart of what I recently played has me ready for more. My heart strings were just as plucked at a young woman being berated for her inner struggles as when a flash of gunfire changed the course of her life. My demo was short, but if the narrative stays as strong throughout, I’ll be all in.

Through environmental hints and vague references, I figure a few things out pretty quickly. Something catastrophic has happened to the Earth. Brief mentions of an asteroid and only having six months left to live paint a picture of an impending, world-ending collision, rather than zombies — which I was initially worried about. Traveling the streets devastated streets of Seoul, I also come to understand early on that my fellow human beings may prove more of a threat than the rock hurtling towards us.

My journey with Rion, our main character, begins by contemplating the end. The glowing beauty of the sun’s rays illuminate the squalor of her living space. It pierces through cracks in the walls – holes in the ceiling. Rather than brightening the world, the shimmering aesthetic highlights the ugliness of this life. Rion’s choice to leave it all behind and head to the river one last time is as tragic as it is understandable.

Chasing the End is a narrative-driven game, though a lot of its moment-to-moment action steers toward puzzle-platformer territory. To get to my destination, I scramble over barbed fencing, navigate long-abandoned public transit, and shimmy up ladders. It’s not terribly challenging, but neither is it tedious. The puzzle aspect, however, may hit that note later on.

Many of the demo’s puzzles required me to move a distinctive yellow piece of wheeled equipment to help me reach high ledges, keep doors open, or avoid electrified water. The mechanic got more complex the farther into the game I got, but hopefully, the fuller experience changes its environmental challenges up.

But, y’all, can this game deliver an emotional gut punch. Nearing the water’s edge, I find myself surrounded by countless shoes. They come in all sizes, colors, and designs. All untied and left abandoned on the overhang above the water. There is no dialogue and no heavy-handed camerawork, but the message of the shoe’s owners — and the hopelessness of this world — is clear.

Then, a gunshot rings out. Nearby, a wounded soldier kills a hooded figure. What they’d been fighting over is unknown – though the soldier offers his side of the story. And though he walked away from the gunfight, he isn’t long for the world. His last request for Rion gives her hope. It involves a secret project and a possible way to save millions of people. However, he needs Rion to take the contents of his case to a secure location for him. Everything now depends on her.

Of course, things don’t go quite as planned and — while I won’t spoil how the story unfolds from here — I will say she ends up saving someone from almost certain death who ay well be connected to the now-dead hooded figure from the river side.

Chasing the End, now with publisher Neowiz, is aiming for an Early Access release this year. But if you want to check it out before then, the game’s demo is up on Steam right now.