Miasma Chronicles Review: Tiger Tough! (PS5)

A game that’s always been on my backlog was 2018’s Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden. It’s a unique mix of XCOM-style tactical shootouts with stealth-based exploration in a post-apocalyptic world, complete with a cast of wacky characters. So when I found out that Miasma Chronicles was another game with that exact same set of traits, from the same developer, I had to take a look at it. From developer The Bearded Ladies comes a gripping adventure through the post-apocalyptic United States. 

Miasma Chronicles is available now for Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S for $49.99.

Story: Tear Down the Wall!

Miasma Chronicles is the chronicle of, well, the miasma. The miasma is mean and nasty, and it’s wreaked havoc on the world, poisoning the land everywhere it goes. It’s put chemicals in the water that’s turned the freakin’ frogs gay. Gay, mean, really big, and they are made to fulfill the miasma’s wish to destroy humanity. Where did it come from, and what does it want? Nobody knows, except for Elvis and Diggs, a young man and his sassy robot partner, trying to solve the mystery of the miasma. They have to travel across the country to reach Elvis’ mother, for only she possesses the answers Elvis seeks about the miasma and the true nature of Elvis himself, fighting mutants, bandits, and the robotic goons of the America-conquering First Family along the way.

The game’s narrative is very compelling. Elvis is a perfectly likable protagonist, and sassy robot companions are always a nice thing to have. Diggs is really the only character I enjoyed, him providing a much-needed sense of levity to this world. Him and the mayor, who is literally just a disembodied floating head. I think the game’s narrative would be served well by leaning into the silliness of its setting more. Mutant Year Zero struck me as a fairly silly game, especially due to the character designs. Miasma Chronicles can still be serious, but just embracing an off-the-wall tone would help it stand out more.

Wouldn’t you trust a mayor that was just a floating head in a jar?

This is a very minor spoiler, but one later text log reveals that the First Family fought an army of mechwarriors and biker wizards in the past, and I immediately wished I was playing that game instead. That sounds way more fun than gunning down a bunch of frogs. Assuming that it’s not a DLC tease, because I’d also be cool with that.

Gameplay: Tactical Stealth Action

Miasma Chronicles‘ best moments come in the thick of combat when you have a fully leveled-up squad and are tearing your enemies apart with incredible precision. The game’s combat is well-balanced, and every decision you make is meaningful. The game excels when it comes to building engaging combat scenarios with its vast cast of enemies. All of your playable characters have unique and varied abilities, particularly when it comes to Elvis and his glove powers, letting him mind-control enemies or cast elemental magic. Diggs is a big tank whose incredible momentum and enemy-stunning tackle abilities are lifesavers in the early game. Jade is a nasty sniper who excels when it comes to operating a sniper rifle.

Miasma Chronicles is structured more like a traditional RPG than most games with its combat style. In between battles, you explore the world, scavenge resources, and solve simple puzzles. One mechanic that I thought would get more use is character-specific navigation abilities. Diggs can smash through weak barricades, Jade can hack computers, and Elvis can activate old androids. These abilities don’t really get developed beyond that, and have no utility in combat when I think they’d help greatly enhance the ambushes. You could have Elvis command those androids to attack, make Diggs destroy enemy cover, and have Jade hack into electronic devices to confuse and or destroy your enemies. 

Not that the androids aren’t interesting to speak to, because they have a lot to say about how the world fell apart.

Stealthy Solutions

Stealth plays a massive role in the game’s combat encounters, especially on higher difficulties. You’re able to sneak around the battlefield before entering battle, and you can stealthily assassinate certain enemies, preventing them from being an issue when combat begins. It’s not that the stealth is bad, but there are a lot of annoyances when it comes to planning out an attack route. The main one is that there’s no line of sight indicator while you’re moving around in the overworld. Jade’s starting weapon, despite being a sniper rifle, has pathetic range, so every combat encounter will have you endlessly shuffle her around the battlefield searching for the one tile from which she can engage the enemy.

Another annoyance has to deal with how Overwatch works when setting up ambushes. Unlike in XCOM, Overwatch in Miasma Chronicles has a three-turn cooldown after use. When setting up an ambush, if you use Overwatch, but decide to exit out of the combat menu and reposition your units, Overwatch will be on cooldown even though the ability never did anything. Overwatch is an incredibly powerful ability in this game, and losing it for no reason is annoying. I’d like to see the game patched to reset Overwatch’s cooldown in this scenario.

However annoying stealth may be, there are some battles you simply cannot win without it.

Some Minor Complaints

Another aspect of the game that falls flat is the side quests. They always fall into one of two categories. Either it’s a fight with a miniboss (who is just a normal enemy with higher stats), or a “find these five things scattered across the overworld”. The world is legitimately interesting, so I would prefer if there was some more variety.

Resource management is something I generally enjoy. You are constantly starving for resources, and are forced to make big decisions when it comes to your limited supply of items. I like how it forces you to really think about whether you need to use a grenade or some other consumable. Items are very expensive and aren’t found often in the overworld. There are no sources of free healing, at least not on the higher difficulties, which are what I played on. Every hit taken is impactful as healing items are rarely found and each one eats significantly into the funds needed for upgrade items. On the other hand, ability cooldowns persist between fights. If you used Overwatch at the end of one battle, it won’t be ready at the start of the next, something that I just feel is really dumb.

Every consumable item is worth its weight in gold. They must be used sparingly.

Graphics and Sound: The Color of Taint

The visuals of Miasma Chronicles are something that I enjoy. The aesthetic is great, particularly when it comes to the Miasma itself. Miasma manifests in the overworld as ominous black shadows streaking through the air, and the Miasma leaves behind these gnarled, impossible structures wherever it goes. It helps really sell that the Miasma is this mysterious, unknowable, horrible thing that must be stopped. The actual visual fidelity can get a little spotty at times, especially when it zooms in for cutscenes. But in general gameplay, I think the game still looks solid.

The character designs are also very solid. The twisted natural designs of the Miasma monsters contrast well with the First Family’s robotic collector drones. Humans also have some strong designs. In particular, Jade being visibly twisted by the Miasma is a nice touch. I do wish there were some more oddball designs though. Mayor Mason being a giant disembodied head, as well as one of the first major NPCs you meet, led me to believe there would be more bizarre-looking allies throughout the game.

You have few friends and many, many enemies.

Outside of the occasional crash, most of the game’s bugs have to deal with the UI. There is the aforementioned line of sight problems in ambushes, which I feel might be a bug, as line of sight indicators work perfectly fine when you’re actually in combat. The game will also erroneously tell you that there are no targets available even when there are visible enemies. The strangest of all was that the game didn’t seem to track playtime correctly. After roughly 15 hours of playtime, my save file insisted that I had played for over 200 hours, which is just weird.

Miasma Chronicles was reviewed for PlayStation 5, key provided by The Bearded Ladies.