Chronovolt Review

Game: Chronovolt
System: PS Vita
Genre: Platform/Puzzle
Developer: Playerthree
Release date: December 31, 2012


Pros: Interesting and challenging puzzles
Cons: Intrusive story, buggy, too short, broken camera


It probably won't come as a surprise to you that cameras are kind of important in 3D platform games. Maneuvering across chasms, around pillars, and away from enemies is difficult to do in three dimensions without a camera that moves, either automatically or by player manipulation, to determine distance and depth. So it also probably won't come as a surprise that in a game where players are asked to move a giant ball across narrow, crumbling, and otherwise unstable platforms a broken camera will turn even the most steady player into a frothing and raving madman. Such is the folly of Chronovolt, an interesting puzzle-platform game damaged by an unneeded and intrusive story, buggy gameplay, and, worst of all, a laughably broken camera.

Jessica rolls through ancient Maya.

In Chronovolt, players assume to role of Jessica Chase, a young, fiery woman sent back in time to stop a mad scientist. She rolls around in a "Chronosphere" collecting "Chronovolts," which are time-manipulating tokens. The characters are all uninspired. Jessica's uncle, the discoverer of Chronovolts, is the traditional absent-minded professor, forgetful but fatherly. The antagonist seems to channel Snidley Whiplash at every turn -- one is surprised he never traveled to the golden age of American railroads in an attempt to tie Jessica to the tracks. In the end, the story is unnecessary and obtrusive. It pushes itself on the game instead of evolving organically from it.

In terms of gameplay, Chronovolt plays much like Marble Madness of Super Monkey Ball. Players guide Jessica, inside her chrome time-traveling ball, through ancient civilizations, around obstacles, over bottomless pits, and against the minions of her target. Players can manipulate the Chronosphere either by analog stick or by using the Vita's tilt-sensitive motion controls. With enough Chronovolt energy, players can zap away enemy Chronospheres, freeze platforms, and even rewind time to erase mistakes.

Players can "freeze" platforms using Chronovolt energy.

The puzzles and platform challenges are not bad at all, but they are often spoiled by bugs, by frame-rate slow-down, and by that pesky camera. The camera is especially bad. It's twitchy, it's unpredictable, and it's frequently lodged behind some piece of the environment. It's a mess.

In the end, there are some nice and clever puzzles and mechanics at work in Chronovolt, but not enough to obscure the technical limitations of the game. The camera is broken, the bugs are plentiful, and the frame rate drops to a crawl, especially during the final level. The entire game just feels unfinished.