This Game Is a 'Portal' Rip-Off, and Owns It

Did you catch the PlayStation 4 announcement of ChromaGun at this year's E3? I didn't. But I did spy Waypoint contributor Chris Scullion's useful list of stuff you might've missed from last week's mega-expo and its many related trailer drops, and this was a part of it. And, it's something that I think everyone should see.

And that's not because it's a Portal-series rip-off, which it most definitely is. So what, we've had our share. It's set in a series of test rooms! It features an experimental gun! There's a healthy dollop of snark atop the package! And so on.

What I really like here, though, is just how utterly transparent developers Pixel Maniacs are being about it. I mean, watch the trailer above. It couldn't be more on the nose while also having its tongue so firmly in its cheek—it's a wonder the narrator can speak at all.

I don't want to spoil anything, and it's not like the humor here will have you rolling on the floor or anything, though I certainly chuckled. But you should watch it. There's a terrifically sardonic slant to this chap's ever-so self-aware patter, however styled out it is, and that's a wonderfully refreshing thing to come across in a field where everyone has the most original ideas, all the time. Because of course they do. (They don't.)

ChromaGun's release date for PS4 remains TBC, despite this new E3-timed trailer. It's available on Steam right now, though, where it has a "very positive" user rating. And sure, it looks pretty fun—and that Pixel Maniacs are clearly having a laugh or two with its marketing makes me like it all the more.

"We are not affiliated with [bleep] Science, but we'd totally like to be." Yep.