My thoughts on Chimera:
Maps/Graphics: Great! Colormaps are of typical Badlands quality (excellent), and the scripting is good. A little slow-paced in most parts, however.
Voices/Sounds: Eh... Recording quality is fine, and general audio effects are fine, but the voices all sound too similar (except for Kyrilla), have no emotion behind them, accent all the wrong words giving a poor conveyance of intention and meaning, and the pauses between speeches on the map seem two times too long, as if the characters were trying to think of what to say.
Plot & Story: Bleh! Puke all over the continent! BIG SPOILERS AHEAD! . . . Ok, here's my thoughs as I go through the game.
The Healer - "Cool, so these are the Untamed Lands. Wolves keep their distance, nice in-game plot element. Nifty, tiny spiders - but hey, their flavor text is unchanged! And... what are Changelings doing this far from the Ermine? There's Fenris and his wolf buddy Dream Runner. Lets get the adventure going"
The Warrior - "Nice 'journal entry', very unique. Ok, the Wasps are acting up and bugging the wolves, so we're going hunting - with fir'Bolg? What are they doing in the Untamed Lands? Hrm, maybe this is their ancestral home, before they moved to the Ermine. New flavor texts, good. A Hive Mind behind the Wasps, that's nice. Wolves have names now, that's cool too - but their flavor is still unchanged!"
The Mage - "Alright, we're going to the tomb of Kyrand - I wonder if he's related to Kyrilla? We've got a militia with us too - but hey, their flavors are unchanged too! Dwarves are coming from Bighton - where's Bighton? A Dwarven city in the Untamed Lands? And what happened to Dream Runner? Undead!? Whose undead? Maybe Kyrillas? I thought she used Skeletons? And where's the new flavors, these aren't the Watcher's or Soulblighter's thrall. Whatever. Alrighty, the tomb. Looks like the Great Library - same model. There's Kyrilla. What's this flavor about? She uses illusions, eh? Revenge for what? The plot thickens. She doesn't want us to steal Kyrand's amulet - we're getting an amulet? What for? Oh well, here come the hordes... and they're dead... and I win? That was anticlimactic."
The Archer - "Ok, so now we're going to find ne'Ric, who's got a thing with killing wasps. What's with the wasps anyway? Kyrilla's doing, I guess. Fetch? What, just hiring their services out to whatever sorceress asks? Huh. Swamp, Wights, wasps, and there's ne'Ric! Ok, so he has some past of missing a shot, but he did good this time. And Kyrilla's pissed again, or so she says."
The Messenger - "Some Baron is requesting our aid - from who? We're in a graveyard - why? And we're going north to Fosgarch? Isn't that near the graveyard in Willow Creek? Hrm... did we start just south of Forest Heart, go through it, and wind up north of it? A map would be handy right about now. And these Ghosts - again, no new flavors! These aren't Cath Bruig ghosts!"
The Baron - "Don't they know that name's taken? And how are we on a beach now - did we go south again? Or southwest? Oh, and we've been tricked, I'm really surprised. NOT. Kill the bad guys, and Kyrilla says she's gonna get us again. Stop threatening to kill me and kill me already!"
The Chimera - "Oh, so Kyrilla is using some dark lord for power. That's a little more interesting. And I was right, Kyrand's her daddy. So THAT's what this is all about? Some little girl upset that we couldn't save her daddy? Oh, how weak of a plot can you get! Now, what river exactly is this fortress on? The Wild River? Did we go north again? I could really use a map. So lets go kill poor little crazy Kyrilla. There's the Skeletons - really feature players, aren't they? Yeah right. Kill kill, hack hack, boom boom. There's Kyrilla with some Brigands (with unchanged flavors, again!). And Four Bear gives her the amulet. Why didn't he just do that four levels ago!? Now what, we're going to kill the demon guy, Cartuke? Why? Oh! So THAT's the real plot. (I'm not gonna spoil this part, even for those who read this far). Ok, that makes more sense. But they completely misused the word 'chimera' - it means 'hybrid', not 'illusion'! Idiots."
The Fiend - "Alright, nifty little Kyrilla with here magic teleporting. This is fun, I've always wanted a teleporting unit. I wonder how they did it? Anyway, lets find Cartuke's portal. Run around, kill stuff... there it is! Kill stuff. Kill more stuff. And more stuff. Hello!? I'm standing in the portal, when's Cartuke coming? Ack! There he is kill! Kill kill kill kill! Wait a sec, read the flavor text... ooh, waiting between the stars? Now why does that sound familiar? Could this have anything to do with Fenris "toting a grenade launcher and killing aliens"? I wonder. Ok, resume playing. Cartuke's almost dead. Almost dead. Almost. Damn. Dwarves, kill him! Quickly! Ack! Damn lighning! Ok, here comes Fenris, hack hack hack hack hack... get him Kyrilla! Die! Die! WHAT!? Stoning lightning!? No!!! There's still ne'Ric, I hope he can do it... BOOM! YEAH!! WOOHOO!!! Ok Four Bear go heal Fenris and Kyrilla. No? No can heal? Well damn, that bites. And "it is over". Really climactic ending - NOT!"
Overall, I'd give it a 3-something out of 5, maybe almost four. But I don't think it's worthy of of the Bungie name.
