The Chameleon

The Chameleon is a pretty enjoyable short third-person stealth game in which we play the role of an experiment that's trying to escape a facility - very reminiscent to John Carpenter's The Thing! Really love the graphics here, there's something just so pleasant about that low poly PSX look, very easy on the eyes. And the game takes this a step further by incorporating gorgeous lighting, and shaders that really make the colours pop, particularly the neon sections. There's a few abilities to pick up throughout the game that grant the player with some pretty fun upgrades like dashing, shapeshifting, and becoming a full fledged punching machine. Honestly, for the price it's a no brainer. I had a lot of fun with this one, even if it did only take 88 minutes!

這個遊戲有點粗糙。 一款以70年代為背景的科幻隱形遊戲，主角是“Magnum P.I.式角色”。 +積極的 -這是一款簡單的隱形遊戲，但有幾種方法可以應對敵人和關卡導航； -氣氛； -遊戲迴圈很有趣； -有一種能量陞級系統，可以推動你探索層次； -能够改變自己，永不衰老； -那一拳也令人滿意； -如果你不小心，這很簡單，但同時也很有挑戰性； -如果你喜歡20世紀90年代末的風格，可以選擇圖形； -這裡和那裡有些曲折； -如果你有一雙好眼睛，有幾個秘密； -遊戲所提供的價格很好。 -負面評估 -這個故事就像一部70年代的《Grindhouse》科幻電影，假設我想更多地瞭解那個宇宙和角色，因為它感覺錯過了什麼； -它很短，很短，我花了2個小時才完成比賽，但至少價格是公平的； -幾乎沒有理由重播遊戲，除非你是一名成就獵人，你喜歡零死亡/100%的挑戰或進行速度奔跑； -有時能量不能正確充電，需要很長時間（可能是bug？） 畢竟，我認為這是一個不錯的小遊戲，但並不完美。 我期待著看到這位開發人員的未來項目。 這是一個堅實的7/10

Якщо ви пам'ятаєте гру Prototype, то це її коротка, візуально і сюжетно урізана версія. Також механіка "перевдягання" само собою навіває думки про серію Hitman, а зовнішність гг чомусь нагадує Томмі Версетті. Сюжет наче є, але розкривається через записки і є надбудовою на механіки гри. Опція піксельованої графіки в налаштуваннях значно підвищує продуктивність на слабких системах. Рекомендасьон. 8/10

I really enjoyed my time with this game. Reminds me of a broke man's hitman game but it does have its own spin to it, where you can stealthily, transform into the enemy and kill them. You also get other abilities to help you traverse through the map. There is a story there but it's mostly to set up the gameplay. I think most players will enjoy what this game has to offer. Plays great on steam deck

'[i]A stealth game with a good excuse the AI are bad because all the enemies are dumb security robots'.[/i] If you like any of the Hitman games, you may get a kick out of playing this one as the stealth mechanics are kind of similar in concept as you play as a mysterious character with the ability to disguise themselves as other robots making other robots not recognise you and be aware of your presence whatsoever, even when your teabagging and running around like a maniac looking for switches or something. The only problem here is that disguising yourself uses up your energy you start with a limited amount, but you can find purple energy, which increases your energy capacity, so you can stay disguised a lot longer and allow you to use more of the abilities you unlock throughout the game. You're probably wondering how this character is about to shapeshift and probably other questions you may ask yourself as you progress through this game. You will get your answer, and it will be a simple explanation, but it works and makes this title the more satisfying to play while you are discovering secrets and putting the pieces together. By 92% into the game, you get a funny 180 of the revelation once you find out the truth, that would get a small chuckle out of you. So, if you're interested in a long game of hide and seek, pick this one up. Before I end this, the last thing I must say is the enemies don't respawn after you take them down, so it makes this game a pretty chill experience if you have the patience to manage your energy resources and hide in plain sight them without getting spotted.

The Chameleon is a low-poly Playstation 1 styled action-stealth simulator developed by Mexican game developer Antonio Freyre (under Merlino Games) as a sort of homage to the old stealth games that Antonio used to play as a child. In a PC Gamer interview with the man himself, he would go onto state this: "I finish a stealth game and think it's time to make something else, but then I play my favorite games and I think 'but what if…" he says. "It's a 'just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in' type thing. The other reason is that I have not been fully satisfied with the stealth games I've made. I like them and I am proud, but they can still be much better. It's a very difficult genre to nail and I love a good challenge.” With The Chameleon being his first title, he would slowly go on to learn the basics of game design through Youtube tutorials and build the game piece by piece, adding himself into the game while chasing the feeling of one of his favorite games: Metal Gear Solid. As for me, I first heard about this game from two sources: Twitter, being one as I follow a bunch of indie game developers on there (only real thing it’s good for now to be honest) and my buddy Bad Ghosts, who also bought me the game for my birthday in 2023! I had promised him I would give it a shot and I didn’t last year, so I figured I’d pop it in and give my thoughts for this year! For Plot, Graphics and more: https://www.backloggd.com/u/gamemast15r/review/2357708/ The gameplay for The Chameleon is at barebones a stealth game, and one inspired by Metal Gear Solid of all things. Sneaking past guards, trying to stay out of sight, and a crouching system that feels explicitly like the sneaking system from The Phantom Pain; I can at least tell you that the game itself feels good to navigate through. You can sneak around, acquire abilities to shapeshift into a guard in order to sneak past or slow down time and even do a quick dash while also punching enemies to knock them out if they’re nearby. I like this loop, but it does have a bit of a downside with the fact that your abilities are basically on a timer. See all of these abilities use up energy, with a punch using up ALL of your energy in one go, requiring you to wait for a while to get it all back up. This can be a bit agonizing but understandable I guess considering how not only is the game a stealth game, but if you were able to punch a whole bunch of people and then go through then it would disincentivize actually sneaking. For some people it’s understandable, but the truth is that punching out guards not only feels great but also permanently gets rid of a guard. On top of that, there’s no permadeath or anything if you get knocked out and no guards respawn so essentially you can get trapped in a loop of running, having a guard ride your ass, turn around and quickly punch him quickly and run away while praying you don’t run into more guards. Luckily as I said if you die then your progress is still saved and you just respawn at the nearest point but getting back to your spot can be annoying, especially considering the warehouse area can be a maze at certain points. Using the dash ability also feels kind of useless sometimes because when I use it, your character slows down a bit before running again and then the guard catches up anyways (at least when I was controller) so other than one puzzle I kind of wonder what the purpose of it really is? Later however punching isn’t even an option due to the introduction of enemies that if you attempt to punch them you will die immediately due to them being covered in electricity. About 80-95 percent of the game through, there’s a good chance you’ll get the ability to [spoiler]go full “Lunite” mode, which allows infinite energy with I believe no chance to die though at the cost of not being able to shapeshift anymore for stealth. I know you can apparently just choose to finish the game in stealth mode, but I lament the feeling of not being able to punch out more rooms of dudes before getting to the extraction point as by then it just kinda feels like I did everything without being able to enjoy the powers for a longer period of time.[/spoiler] Basically, I wish there was more content in between; also the guards sometimes follow you TO the spawn point (at least once you get past the warehouse and before the final labs) after they knock you out which is rather frustrating if they spot you at the beginning. I guess to sum up any negative thoughts: I wish there was a bit more content to explore the powers and I wish you would lose the guards a bit better then them riding up your ass the entire time. Otherwise I actually really like how the game felt, between the Metal Gear V feeling controls to how most of the special abilities work most of the time, I feel like the game is for the most part pretty snappy and responsive. Actually getting the guards to spot you can be a mixed bag, sometimes they’ll spot you from a distance yet sometimes you’ll sneak right in front of them and they don’t seem to see you at all but I wasn’t surprisingly bothered by that much? I don’t know, I’m sure my rambling isn’t giving the game a good case, but these issues are really tame compared to the feeling of the base game and how forgiving the game actually feels mixed in with the overall aesthetic. I personally felt like the game was enjoyable and a lot of fun going through it and is a nice glimpse of mechanics that I wish could be expanded in the near future (and probably have been) by Merlino. The Chameleon, while barebones in its deep mechanics, was a solid time in my eighty or so minutes I had played. While sometimes the A.I. felt a bit frustrating and it didn’t feel like there was enough to truly “explore” my powers in a satisfying way, I can say that The Chameleon is both a nice little demo into what could be a fleshed out “full game” and a satisfying experience on it’s own. The storytelling is small yet concise with some interesting (yet maybe predictable) twists, the gameplay pops out as something unique compared to it’s indie counterparts, the aesthetics and sound design are dripping with personality, and finally the game is just fun. If you’re looking for a small forty minute to an hour twenty minutes worth of gameplay for the really cheap price of 3.99 base price, then The Chameleon is worth your time and money due to it’s unique presence and feeling, especially for someone like me who plays a lot of smaller indie games. As for what happened after The Chameleon, he would continue to drop smaller indie titles with an emphasis on chasing his love of Metal Gear Solid. Titles like “Undetected” would later be picked up by a bigger publisher while other titles like No Sun to Worship would channel Splinter Cell, It Comes in Waves would be a minimalist open world game, Under a Star Long Cold would be a game about beating a timer and currently No Time to Surrender which seems to be a sequel to No Sun to Worship and pushed Antonio to form Merlino Games into a full studio. There’s also “Luckily, My Arm is a Shotgun” but it looks to be more of a top down “wholesome” shooter and most of these games seem to be made in a couple of months. Regardless it’s fascinating and I hope to give the next couple of games a try at some point soon, whenever that may be. Links: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034999131 https://x.com/merlino_games https://bsky.app/profile/merlinogames.bsky.social https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Antonio%20Freyre https://www.youtube.com/@Merlino_Games/videos https://www.merlinogames.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo7MJ1m-0RI (Soundtrack) https://www.pcgamer.com/this-solo-developer-cant-stop-making-his-own-riffs-on-famous-stealth-games-and-his-next-looks-like-the-best-one-yet/ https://www.merlinogames.com/the-chameleon https://www.bobbybobbybobby.com/blogs/research/antonio-freyre-on-the-art-of-stealth-game-design

よかったです。

Tremendo! Aunque todavía me quedan por jugar un par de juegos del desarrollador, este es a la fecha el que mas me gustó. Algo corto como suelen ser sus juegos, entre una y dos horas depende que tanto te pierdas. La historia tiene un buen final, algo que siempre importa en juegos cortos, la jugabilidad se siente bien, con todo el manejo de los poderes pero siempre limitados por la barra de energía, como para que no se puede hacer abuso de los mismos, coronando con unos gráficos muy lindos que quedan rebien. Recomendadisimo.

The Chameleon developed by Antonio Freyre and published by Merlino Games is a compact stealth experience that leans heavily into experimentation, blending classic sneaking mechanics with a set of unconventional abilities and a deliberately abstract presentation. Rather than building itself around a traditional narrative structure, the game drops players into a mysterious facility with minimal context, encouraging them to piece together meaning through exploration and observation. This approach gives the experience an intentionally disorienting tone, where atmosphere and player interpretation take precedence over explicit storytelling. The gameplay centers on stealth, but it quickly becomes clear that The Chameleon is not interested in adhering strictly to genre conventions. Players are equipped with a range of abilities that expand the possibilities of movement and interaction, including disguising themselves as enemies, performing rapid dashes, manipulating time, and engaging in exaggerated, almost surreal combat actions. These mechanics create a flexible toolkit that allows for multiple approaches to each situation. While it is entirely possible to play cautiously and avoid detection, the game also supports more aggressive or experimental playstyles, blurring the line between stealth and action in a way that feels intentional rather than unfocused. Level design complements this philosophy by offering spaces that are relatively small but open enough to encourage creativity. Encounters are less about solving tightly scripted puzzles and more about understanding how to use your abilities effectively within a given environment. The disguise mechanic, in particular, stands out as one of the more interesting elements, rewarding careful observation and timing as players blend in with enemy patrols. However, the systems themselves do not evolve significantly over the course of the game, which means that once the core mechanics are understood, the challenge shifts toward execution rather than discovery. For players familiar with more complex stealth titles, this can make the experience feel somewhat limited in depth. Visually, the game distinguishes itself through a stylized, low-fidelity aesthetic that recalls early 3D-era graphics. The use of chunky models and pixelated textures is clearly intentional, giving the game a retro-inspired identity that aligns well with its minimalist design. This visual approach, combined with sparse audio and a subdued color palette, reinforces the sense of isolation and unease that defines the experience. The world feels intentionally stripped down, allowing the player to focus on movement, positioning, and timing without unnecessary distractions. The most noticeable limitation of The Chameleon is its brevity. The game is relatively short, and while its concise length helps maintain pacing and prevents repetition from becoming overwhelming, it also limits how far its ideas can develop. The mechanics, while creative, are not explored in great depth, and the narrative remains intentionally vague throughout. This can be either a strength or a weakness depending on player expectations—those who appreciate abstract storytelling and focused design will likely find it effective, while others may come away wanting more substance or clarity. Despite these constraints, the game carries a strong sense of identity. It feels like a deliberate exploration of stealth mechanics through a minimalist lens, prioritizing creativity and atmosphere over scale and complexity. There are moments where its systems click in satisfying ways, particularly when players begin to experiment with combining abilities or approaching situations from unexpected angles. Even when it shows its rough edges, there is a clear sense of intent behind its design choices. In the end, The Chameleon stands as a small but distinctive entry in the stealth genre, offering a blend of experimental mechanics and stylized presentation that makes it memorable despite its limitations. It may not deliver the depth or longevity of larger titles, but it succeeds in carving out its own niche as a focused, atmospheric experience that rewards curiosity and adaptability. Rating: 7/10

The Chameleon is actually pretty good. Would be great if the save system worked consistently. Play it in the knowledge that it saves whenever you find a map, and it's generally fine. It's basically a third-person stealth game - you essentially make no noise when crouching, so sneak up on guards this way. You acquire abilities as you explore the base, such as the chameleon, which lets you transform into a guard as long as you have energy. This was very fun to use. These powers make the game a mini-immersive sim, allowing for lots of different strategies. In my playthrough, I had to use all powers at least once, as the level design isn't the most open I've seen. The last level turned into something of a fetch quest, making the game a little longer than it needed to be. But fans of Thief and Deus Ex will find something to enjoy here, definitely.