
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
Y esta pedazo de banda sonora?? Y este gameplay que le da mil patadas a los contra que es mega rejugable y lleno de opciones y alternativas? y esas decisiones morales ante los soldados? encima en español y conservando el toque de humor!!! ¿¿pero que juegazo es este que no se le menciona?? y si no llega a ser por los recomendados de valve me lo hubiera perdido En fin a que esperas insesato y compralo, yo ahora mismo lo estoy jugando en legion go 2 y me va perfecto y llevo poco tiempo pero es el tipico juego que dices voy ha jugar media horita antes de dormir y acaba pasando una 1h. Tanto me ha gustado el juego del estudio que me he comprado otro suyo que tambien estaba en español y tambien me resulta bastante divertido https://store.steampowered.com/app/339090/Pig_Eat_Ball/
Can you handle, The POWAH, of THE CHAINSTAFF?!?!?!?!?!?! I love the crud outta this game. It's tough but it's like contra with infinite retries, and I got through it on normal mode eventually. I 100%ed my first run and am doing an evil run on new game +. For my second new game + I'll try it on Hard. We'll see how that goes. But yeah it's a 9/10, the only flaw is that you don't get a radar for the Chainstaff segments and it can be hard to find where the progression-gating Parasites are too. You might also have to memorize the bosses' attacks and figure out how to damage them but once you do all it is, is an endurance test. Other than that, if you're a metroidvania and 2D platformer fanatic, this is a MUST PLAY.
Tremendous game. Well done. Music, graphics, gameplay challenging but not too challenging. Story is good, controls took a minute to get used to but once I did it's all good. Highly recommend.
ChainStaff comes out swinging with a rare but awesome combo: it’s simultaneously badass, AND bursting with creativity. The level of detail and craft in the art alone is worth a purchase. But there’s a clear vision in the way it creates unique scenarios to show off its titular weapon, particularly in the wild boss fights. Add in a rockin' soundtrack, a consistently campy sense of humor, and a variety of playstyle options, and you have a real winner. It also runs great on the Steam Deck. Highly recommended!
Кучу интересных механик портит абсолютно неинтуитивное и раздутое управление, когда для выполнения простого действия в условиях постоянных жёстких таймингов требуется сыграть небольшую симфонию на контроллере. У игры в целом очень высокий порог вхождения и сломанная кривая сложности, где в начале уделяют пару минут на обучение, а уже минут через пять требуют одновременно использовать все показанные механики, коих немало.
It's a run-and-gun 2D platformer with wild, colorful art like Heavy Metal with a bit of Cronenberg and an array of movement and combat mechanics all tied to one concept. If you're looking for something new, strange and fun, you've found it.
ChainStaff looks great, plays well, and the soundtrack is straight aces. It's brutally tough, you will die a lot, but there's plenty of checkpoints so it's not TOO punishing. I made things harder on myself by refusing to upgrade health for a long time on my first playthrough. Save some soldiers and upgrade the shield or snack on some hearts for a health upgrade and it goes much smoother. The Bosses are a highlight, where they require you to learn their patterns and use the ChainStaff in clever ways to avoid damage. Pretty much every boss has a cool way to use the ChainStaff on them ranging from just blocking bullets to impaling them with their own attack.
The environment and creatures have a very extravagant design, reminding me a lot of speculative evolution. The boss fights feel very fleshy, when taking the big guys apart!
Incredible run and game type game with many great features: - Really enjoyable gameplay - Great music - Pleasing surrealist aesthetics - Relaxing meaty sounds all over the place. - Each level has multiple paths to complete - Different cool collectibles and upgrades - Really interesting mechanics and enemies not seen before in any other game in the genre If you really enjoyed Serious Sam Double D XXL (which was also developed by Mommy's Best Games) or other similar type games, you'll really enjoy this one.
武器になり、盾になり、移動手段にもなる「チェインスタッフ」を操って地球を侵食したエイリアン軍団と戦うのが面白かった。ヘヴィメタルなサウンドとビジュアルもいい。巨大なボスとの戦いではチェインスタッフの機能をフルに生かして独自のギミックに立ち向かうのも魅力の一つ。 日本語訳もついているが、こなれていないのと一部の文字(ステージセレクトでの)が見れなくなっているのが惜しい。
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Trends
Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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