Be a '70s-inspired superpowered stealth machine in The Chameleon this July

News
By published

Impersonate enemy guards, slow down time, and punch everything while solving a troubling mystery.

You wake up in a mysterious underground facility. You have no memory of who you are or how you got there. All that's clear is that you've got a moustache and a Hawaiian shirt, there are robots trying to find and kill you, and it's the 1970s. What do you do?

Well, in The Chameleon, a retro stealth exploration game from Merlino Games, I'll tell you what you do: You kick ass and take names using the superpowers you collect as you investigate the facility. (Though the robots probably don't have names, seeing as how they're robots. So, just kick ass.)

As you can see in the release date trailer above, you can stealthily transform into an identical copy of your robot adversaries, and then punch them into oblivion while they're busy ignoring you. You can also use a dash-like ability to zip past them, then turn around and punch them. Or you can slow down time and skirt around them. Then punch them. Whoever you are, you've got one hell of a right hook.

Unravelling the mystery of the secret installation called "The LRS" is the goal of The Chameleon. Why are you here, what is this facility for, and what strange experiments led to the current situation? And why do you look so much like Magnum, P.I.? You'll be able to unravel it in a few hours of playtime, according to the developer, but it's gonna take a whole lot of sneaking and exploring, and even more punching.

I love the throwback look of the game, a combination of pixelated graphics blended with modern volumetric lighting and effects. It'll also feature a dozen '70s inspired music tracks to groove to while you're blending in with, and punching the hell out of, those evil robots. The Chameleon releases on July 13, and you'll find it on Steam and The Epic Game Store. 

Christopher Livingston
Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.