Video Game / Chaos Break

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Chaos Break (alternatively titled Chaos Break -Episode from Chaos Heat) is a 2000 Third-Person Shooter developed by Taito, and a sequel to Chaos Heat - albeit one with an entirely different gameplay format, where instead of a straightforward arcade-style shoot-em-up, the sequel is Survival Horror-themed. Think Resident Evil, with mutants...

Two years after the chaos mutation outbreak in Tokyo, Team DEF received reports of another incident in Fluxus Biomateril Industries Lab 7, a research facility on an uninhabited island where illicit experiments of mutant lifeforms are being conducted. With all traces of contact from the facility's personnel missing, two returning members of Team DEF - Rick and Mitsuki - are dispatched to investigate.

In the bowels of Lab 7, when an ambush from a giant sand worm monster causes the player-controlled hero to be separated from his/her squad, it's up to the player to fight their way out.

Rick and Mitsuki, reporting for duty!

• Actionized Sequel: Inverted - Break has far less action compared to Heat. It's a straight-up Survival Horror in vein of the early Resident Evil games instead of an arcade actioner where you spend the whole game slaughtering legions of monsters.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Besides dealing with the mutation strain, Team DEF also needs to take on Lab 7's robotic security who inevitably malfunctioned during the outbreak, with their mechs killing everything in sight, mutants and humans alike.
• Body Horror: The fate of unfortunate scientists assimilated with the parasites, where more than half of their bodies sprouts fleshy lumps, tentacles, giant claws and tumor-like growths, with their faces replaced by a cranium-shaped tumor before they're animated into mindlessly attacking everything in sight. They spew plenty of green stuff when shot at for good measure.
• Cutting Off the Branches: From what the game's very plot implies, the previous game's Bad Ending where Rick or Mitsuki gets infected by the chaos spawn was non-canon; the sequel follows the Golden Ending where the mutation is successfully contained by the heroes instead.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to Heat whose focus is on kicking ass, Break on the other hand is a Survival Horror game with scarier enemies, creepier environments, and your selected commando is actually required to flee from monstrous abominations time-to-time.
• Eat the Camera: The opening FMV ends with one of the rampaging Sand Worm monsters spawned by the mutation lunging at, and eating the camera. Which segues into the opening titles and "Press Start" screen.
• Face Hugger: The infected's lowest-level species resembles the classic facehugger, having a spider-like frontal body with a long tail and attacking by leaping and clinging on the player. Though it lacks acidic blood and can be stomped to death after shooting it a few times.
• Final Girl: In Lab 7's basement, you come across Rachel, the last surviving scientist working for Fluxus Biomateril Industries, with every single one of her colleagues either infected by parasites and turned into rampaging monsters, or killed in the outbreak. She can't move from where she is due to suffering some injuries, plus there are dangerous creatures in every corner; you'll need to get her an antidote and obtain clues from her on how to locate an exit, complete with a requisite Escort Mission.
• Foreboding Carcass: Right at the opening stage's first area, the player hero and a couple of redshirts comes across a dead researcher infected by the mutation. Then the Sand Worm monster suddenly pops up and devours one of the redshirts in a cutscene, and all hell breaks loose.
  "Looks like first-stage parasitic infestation..."
• Giant Mook: The giant infected are humans with parasites attached on their upper bodies and due to being the earliest hosts, the parasites are now literally larger than their hosts, easily reaching the ceiling when upright and towering over Rick and Mitsuki (despite their lower legs retaining human size). Expectedly they can tank a lot of damage before going down.
• Grid Puzzle: At one point you need to solve a sudoku puzzle (with six digits instead of nine) in a scientist's notebook to decipher a secret code. The game was released in 2000 by the way, before the puzzle gameplay unexpectedly gained popularity in the late 2000s.
• Multiple Endings: The game somehow has no less than four:
  • To achieve the Golden Ending, you'll need to successfully escort Rachel,her colleague Sean, and your surviving DEF squad-mate, all within 2 hours of gameplay. The mutation outbreak has been successfully contained, cue a cutscene of the survivors flying away happily in an evac chopper.
  • Letting Rachel's colleague Sean die or spend more than 2 hours to finish the game gets you an ambiguous ending; you managed to board an evac chopper and leave the place, only for the Sand Worm monster that repeatedly harassed you throughout to suddenly burst out the facility and attempt chomping you down. It missed, but then you realize the monsters are still on the loose.
  • If Rachel dies, the game automatically concludes with the Bad Ending. Everyone reaches the evac chopper, only for the Sand Worm monster to suddenly catch up and destroy the vehicle, presumably killing everyone.
  • To a the really, really, really, awful ending that borders on Shoot the Shaggy Dog, let Rachel and Sean die. The player hero escapes the facility unscathed, but turns out to be infected by the parasites and they're shot dead by their own squadmates upon touchdown.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: At least one-third of the assets from Break is recycled from Heat, only with gameplay format flipped around. Rick, Mitsuki, and their redshirt squad uses the same character models from the previous game, as does most of the mutation-spawned monstrosities.
• Sand Worm: The largest mutation spawned by the parasite is a giant tunneling worm-like creature, who had a habit of bursting from below the ground to chomp on unfortunate victims. It shows up early in the game and chases the player deeper into the lab facility's bowels, and periodically reappears throughout several stages trying to eat the player.
• Spider Tank: The facility's robot security consists of mobile turrets on four spider-like legs that walks around the place while firing away at the player.
• Stationary Boss: The giant mutant fought outside the sewer stage is a giant body growing from the ground, so naturally it's incapable of moving. Unfortunately it blocks the only exit and needs to be killed; it attacks either by lunging with it's oversized claws or summon dropping boulders that you need to run and dodge Crosshair Aware-style.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Vogt, the third DEF Squad member from the previous game isn't playable in this sequel. In fact Vogt's not even mentioned by either Rick or Mitsuki, let alone appearing in person.