Chambers is a new retro-style boomer shooter with RPG elements thrown in and set in the wild west. It is due for release on Steam early access on the 12th May 2025 and has been developed by Mr. Pink and JFJ, with publishing duties being handled by HyperTrain Digital. The team has kindly sent over a review code so we can load our revolvers, mount our horse and yee-haw into the sunset…or we could just play it and let you know our thoughts.
Just before we get into describing Chambers, it’s worth pointing out that with this early access release, early access really means early. Chambers requires quite a lot of development to give a real indication as to whether it’s good or not. There were quite a few issues in the gameplay that left us scratching our heads and wondering if the game was supposed to be like this or if there are plans to make significant improvements.
Firstly, controlling your character is a little wobbly at times. The game is meant to be rough around the edges and play like a FPS from the 90s, and for the most part, it succeeds. But during our test of this one, we got stuck in doorways, our horse started to fly around the map and other glitchy things happened. The best way to describe the controls is to compare them to Roblox. Anyone who has played that kids’ game will know the controls are just wild, as if it takes on a life of its own at any given moment, and Chambers felt a bit like that.
Now, Chambers is purposefully trying to be a bit rough, a bit silly, and a bit out there. But after a few introductory levels that show you loading guns, killing enemies, jumping around and riding a horse, the player is just dumped in an open world without much indication as to what to do next or where to go. So, we just ambled around enjoying the great-looking 90s graphics and the cowboy whistling music.
Everything seemed fine as we explored, chatted to a few locals, but nothing indicated what to do next. Then out of nowhere, we were in a gun fight and were killed. Once you wake up, you’re stuck in some strange prison that requires some basic lockpicking gameplay. We wondered if this was part of the story, or another tutorial but nothing was indicating what the purpose of getting captured was for.
As soon as we busted out of the cage, we kept getting killed by the guards, and this cycle just repeated over and over. It wasn’t clear what we were meant to do, as being in jail meant we had no guns to fight back. And this is where Chambers needs some work, it needs to be clearer in what the gameplay mechanics are at each section, as we just felt lost in the game. It feels like a good, tongue-in-cheek comedy game, but it isn’t clear what the objectives are, and we became frustrated with it. It may be that this is the point, and we simply missed some critical information about the gameplay.
Chambers feels like Hunter S. Thompson took a load of acid and headed out into the wild west, and we think this is the atmosphere the game is going for. It would just benefit from a better tutorial right at the start as to what the player is meant to be doing. Chambers seems fun, and hopefully, the experienced boomer shooter community can provide feedback to the developers on where to improve things.
To give some positives, the gunfights are great, and there seem to be lots of different things to do, if you can work out how. Also, the comedy shines through and has a real Duke Nukem feel to it. A fun part is how all the characters talk like they belong in the world of Banjo-Kazooie; it’s very silly in a good way. But as it stands, we can’t recommend this one, sadly.
