It did not age that well. And I am not talking about graphics: the animations are bad, yes, but otherwise it's fine. Besides, graphics are not the only thing that makes the game, and when I played Pscyhonauts, for example, I did not care for graphics at all, because it still has some charm in it. Chaser does not have that, but you would not expect it from a sci-fi shooter anyway, I guess. The problem is... It's just not that good of a game.
Level design is bad quite often. I am not concerned that much about there not being diverse enough environments (that makes sense from narrative perspective), but when you are inside those environments - it's easy to get lost because everything looks very similar and sometimes even identical. It does give a feeling of scale, but there is no real benefit from that. Little Tokyo underground is a separate topic: I was constantly getting stuck in rocks there for no reason.
Then there is an issue with interactive objects... There is just no consistency with those. Best example is Nippon Hotel is best example. It's not obvious that you can (and need) to interact with sliding doors early in the area. Soon after you realize that you can do that, you will find a door that you can't interact with, because it's just for decoration. Then you move to next zone and the same sliding doors (but different color, since different color is used in interior design) open automatically. Until you find some door, that does not. This is true for non-sliding doors from that point onward as well: some open up, some don't, some get a prompt, some don't, some open up when you get a prompt, some don't, some do make a sound, when they do not open, some don't... And then in the lighthouse you need to use a lever to activate an elevator, but... Nothing tells you that you need to do that, and the lever is not obvious at all. So not obvious, that I thought I was bugging out.
But, ok, some may say that I just got spoiled with modern games guiding you by the hand. I will skip the point that Chaser does not introduce Adrenaline mode even, so one seems to be able to learn about it only going through controls, which would be a good design in general. It is fine for some games to not tell you things at all, but... Not for a linear shooter, really. Like I tried "Hell Is Us" demo recently, which does not guide you, and it was fine - it made sense there, because you are supposed to investigate stuff, you are supposed to explore the world, and feel "the pressure of survival".
Chaser is a shooter, though, so this does not fit. Maybe it's good at shooting, though? Not really. Bots are stupid and the difficulty comes mainly from there being a lot of bots, them spawning sometimes randomly (and sometimes seemingly infinitely), as well as damage being a bit inconsistent. At least it felt that way to me, even when doing headshots. Maybe it's because of lack of "impact"? Or maybe because I am no longer used to playing with the mouse? I did not have any issues with Tribes: Vengeance, though, and that one was fun (until it became unplayable for me).
Interesting thing, though: this is one of the games, that I played as a kid, and did not complete for some reason (similar to Legacy of Kain: Defiance). Looking back on the times, I am not even sure why I liked it back in the day. Because of Mars, perhaps? Because of plot which kind of takes inspiration from Total Recall movie? It's not as good, and stiff voice acting definitely does not help. Maybe I just had lower standards then.
Overall, if you have some nostalgia - maybe it's ok to try this one out, but otherwise I do not think it's worth it in modern days.
