
ChainStaff is a brutal action-platformer with a transforming spear and grappling hook, blazing weapon upgrades, and a rocking soundtrack. Aliens have attached to your head! Swing, shoot, and spear your way through mutating hordes and bone-shaking boss fights, and get this thing off your head!
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
About
Note: No Gen AI was used.
Our planet is under attack from the Star Spores, and they've warped life on Earth into ferocious uber-bugs.
Even worse, a nasty alien has made its new home directly attached to your head.
But it's not all bad news - your new best friend has provided both the strength to fight back against the mutated horde, and control over a weapon that can tip the balance of the battle in humanity's favor: the ChainStaff.
As you traverse the surreal landscape, you'll encounter your fellow soldiers, stranded in harsh environments. Do you rescue your comrades, or listen to the alien voice in your head and harvest them for upgrades?
If you can persevere and defeat the Star Spores, perhaps you can save everyone…including yourself.


Hurl it as a spear and slice aliens in half. Throw it to the ground as a shield to stop incoming attacks. Grapple and swing on just about anything. The transforming ChainStaff does all this and more, and all with one button, it’s all up to you.

Pounded to mush, stabbed through the heart, sheared in two. Prepare to meet your doom in a myriad of disgusting ways. All deaths are avoidable, but some dangers may require special strategies.
The game features around 6 to 8 hours of gameplay on the first playthrough.

The creatures of Earth have been mutated by aliens: you’ll come across dozens of unusual creatures, and once you get past those, you’ll have to fight against screen-filling monstrosities.

Stranded soldiers dot the landscape of ChainStaff. You have to choose whether to rescue them or devour their organs; each option has unique benefits and will lead to different endings.

Mist trails around rocky crags.
Wind blows over icy, moon-lit hills.
Water streams down mossy cliffs.
Fully hand-drawn art immerses you in a living world inspired by album covers of the 70s and 80s.

Scorching riffs and peals of thunder. Pumping beats drive you ever forward.
Rock out to the classic metal soundtrack by the award-winning composer Deon van Heerden of Broforce and Warhammer 40k: Shootas Blood & Teef soundtrack fame. There’s some lighter interludes with 70s synth, catchy melodies, and even some cowbell. Now it’s back to the heavy tracks, where it’s time to bang your head while smashing skulls.
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese +1 more
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 40 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 40 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
[quote] A review copy was provided by the developer. [/quote] 🔶 [b] Mommy’s Best Games, well know for the great 2D spin-off of Serious Sam (Serious Sam Double D), maked there biggest game both in term of content and gameplay, Chainstaff.[/b] 🔶 Great graphics, each level have his own atmosphere and differents enemies. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3718638674 After a unsuccessful mission, you get fusionned with a alien and get access to new unknown power ... Both taking the classic gameplay from old run n gun, with the alien exclusive weapon, the chainstaff, allow you to be used as a grappin, or charged for heavy damage aliens enemies. During exploration, you will see survivors soldats, that up to you to save them for unlocking new human technologie (new secondary weapon, more shield), or kill them for more aliens power (more power, more aliens hearts that give you shield + temporary more damage when you are heavealy damaged …) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3718638043 Explore these 9 aliens levels for upgrading your chainstaff, finding new soldats, and kill boss at the end of each level for unlocking new locations. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3718636565 Some cinematics will change according to the number of soldats you have saved / killed … Game take around 6 hours to complete, good content for the price asked, along with multiples difficulty setting and differents endings. Overall, A great run n gun, and clearly the biggest and greatest games from Mommy’s Best Games, full recommended if you like old style run n gun. 💚💚💚 - Great graphics, each levels have his own atmospheres and level design - Great boss fight and many differents types of enemies. - Some level exploration for getting survivors and Chainstaff upgrade. - Many short cinematics that will change according your good / evil alignement. ❌❌❌ - Can’t switch difficulty during a game - Need multiples playthrough for the steam 100% achievements. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote]
It's one thing seeing ChainStaff's environments, enemies and bosses in screenshots, but it's another witnessing it all in motion alongside dynamic metal music and extra crunchy sound effects. At times it made me think of Rayman Legends' visuals, only channelling the incredible artwork of Roger Dean. This is all while you're running, gunning, jumping, swinging, and a whole lot of other things thanks to the versatility of the titular chainstaff itself. You'll be holding enemies up in the air, jacking their jaws open, suspending yourself above deadly drops and blocking assorted acidic and flaming gobs. There's so much creativity in the design here, it made me wish the levels and bosses had leaned into the chainstaff's unique functions even more and not fallen back on to quite so much blasting! There's a bit in one level where these spawners dump loads of creatures on you so I just threw my chainstaff behind me, blocked them in and fought on. Just a really cool emergent moment. Here's the clip: https://youtu.be/pVhM657OAEI The levels themselves can be refreshingly vertical with a few branching routes, and I just loved the variety, colour palettes, textures, moods and the Shadow of the Beast-esque background parallax. There's clearly a lot of affection for the natural world in ChainStaff too, as twisted and gigantic as a lot of it is, because you'll fight everything from peacock jumping spiders and protozoa to butterflies and a tongue-eating louse (thanks game! I'd buried that nightmare!). Some of the bosses and big enemies are very creative and fun to fight, one of the most memorable for me was a kind of spider crab thing where you use your chainstaff to hold its legs up to stop it stomping around. My biggest frustrations with ChainStaff stemmed from some odd or missed checkpoint triggers and the chainstaff and grappling hook being on the same button, which often resulted in me grappling when I wanted to throw mid-air, flinging me into enemies and other hazards. You can only throw the staff mid-air if you charge on the ground [i]then[/i] jump, or when you're dangling from a grappling hook. It's very satisfying when it all clicks together but it's not quite as smooth as I would have liked at times. The structure of the game, while non-linear, is pretty straightforward and predictable so after 8 hours or so I was glad to wrap it up. https://youtu.be/sTV_CRybnTs But if you're wanting a good run and gun action game, you'll struggle to find one as cool and unique as this.
Do you remember Liquid Television? This is like that
Absolutely fantastic. From the cutscenes to the enthralling bosses and enemy variety this game is bringing me so much joy. If you are a fan of Turrican, Troma and Mutant Crawl Classic this is a 100% recommended
I'm only a couple of hours in, but loving the game so far! The action platforming and shooting feels great, and the utilizing the Chainstaff's abilities for platforming, as well as charging it and throwing as a spear are both very satisfying mechanics. Once you get the hang of the movement, it's fun to explore and search for the hidden soldiers and upgrades. The enemies, levels, and bosses have unique designs that keep you engaged and challenged! Also the music is amazing and provides the perfect background for tearing through some aliens.
riffs and gore! That chainstaff ripping apart enemies is quite satisfying
Mommy's Best Games does it again! Nathan has a real ear for unique and fun indie games. I have been following ever since getting a review key for Pig Eat Ball which was a game I absolutely fell in love with, and Chainstaff does for action run and gun platformers what that game did for maze puzzle games and does a lot of interesting mechanics that I can't recall having seen in other games, at least in this particular way. The chainstaff is a really cool weapon that can also be used for other purposes like swinging, shield, platform, wedging, etc. It takes some getting used to the mechanics but feels really good when you get it. Also a killer art style that reminds me of the classic Heavy Metal magazines and a headbanging soundtrack. This is a must play!
"It is a very good action-platformer, with the titular ChainStaff being very versatile. Well worth the money, and there is a NG+ for those wanting a challenge. The OST is also very great (and metal). Ran very well without any bugs. A definite must play for any fan of the genre.
Really fun to play, cool visuals and incredible music to boot. I say go for it, you wont regret it
Juegazo papa! una joyita del Run and Gun! no tiene desperdicio
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Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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