Chasm: The Rift

Chasm: The Rift is a first-person shooter set across various locations spanning different epochs and worlds, including modern military bases, ancient Egyptian tombs, medieval castles, and alien landscapes. Each time period and world comprises several levels. Players take on the role of an elite soldier tasked with single-handedly combating evil forces infiltrating through time portals from the past and future. The primary objective is to locate and destroy these portals.

The player's arsenal in Chasm: The Rift includes several weapons. The primary weapon is a rifle with unlimited ammunition, suitable for long-range combat. More powerful options include a shotgun and a Volcano machine gun, which require ammunition. The game also features futuristic energy weapons such as the BladeGun, which launches discs, and the ArrowGun, which fires energy bolts.

Chasm: The Rift originated from the efforts of two Kyiv Polytechnic Institute students, Yaroslav Kravchenko and Oleg Slyusar, who were inspired by Doom. Seeking to create their own first-person shooter, they began developing a project initially called Tron: The Hammer of War. The scope expanded when Igor Karev and Denis Vereshchagin joined the team, transforming it into a potential commercial venture. Global Ukraine company provided early support, while the developers utilized the Internet to attract investments.

During development, the game underwent substantial revisions, including changes to its title, script, and graphics. The developers used online platforms to promote the game, attracting interest from American companies. Megamedia Corporation, which had previously collaborated with Ukrainian studio Meridian-93, eventually became the game's publisher.

Critics generally praised Chasm: The Rift for its detailed monsters with dismemberment mechanics, well-designed weapons, and technical features such as rain effects and destructible environments. However, they also noted that the game fell short of contemporaries like Quake due to its overly simplistic level design, which featured an abundance of narrow corridors that restricted player movement. The multiplayer mode faced criticism for its inconveniences and inability to compete with more prominent titles of the era.

EXE magazine praised Chasm: The Rift, but noted its lack of 3D accelerator support. The reviewer highlighted the game's monster design and animation, localized damage system, "well-developed" enemy AI, "interesting" door and switch mechanics, and "excellent" weapon animations as strengths. However, the main criticism was directed at the game's "entirely flat", Doom-style levels, which the reviewer felt undermined many of Chasm: The Rift's technological achievements and would be immediately noticeable to experienced players. Nevertheless, the reviewer noted that the game's shortcomings were understandable and justified, and that the overall product was cohesive.