The Chaos Engine

The Chaos Engine

Skip · Shooter · 2013

Steam Deck Verified

The verdict

SKIP IT.

It scores 20, under the fair line, at $9.99.

Length
4h
Value
$2.50/hr
Reviews
69% of 455 positive
Reviews or length hold it below the tiers even at a deep discount.
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.

Buy now or wait

Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 11 days ago.

Next sale
Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4

Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.

What drives the score

How to read this

Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work

Holding it back
Value$2.50/hr
Price per hour of game. It moves the score inside the ceiling reviews set
Reviews69% positive
Gates the score. Weak reviews cap it, and nothing reaches BANGER without strong ones
For context
MonetizationNot known
No monetization record for this game, so nothing is assumed either way
Refunds1 of 91 reviews
Steam-purchase reviews sampled whose writer refunded the game. Nothing is docked
AI contentNone disclosed
From the developer's own Steam disclosure. No disclosure is not proof of none, so it does not move the score

About the game

Prepare for the dark world of The Chaos Engine, a steampunk Victorian age in which one or two players must fight the hostile creations of the Chaos Engine across four dynamic landscapes and take part in the ultimate battle.Choose from six hard-nailed mercenaries each with their own unique weapons and skills.
Description from the Steam store page.
Minimum specs

Minimum on the Steam store: 1 GB of memory, GeForce 6200 or ATI Radeon X300, 399 MB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.

The value story

Across all 54 discounts in the 13 years tracked, the median cut is 80 percent, about 9 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 11 days ago.

It is less well reviewed than 75 percent of its genre. Among the games that feel like it, Jamestown ($9.99, scores 78) beats it on value, while it beats METAL SLUG XX ($19.99, scores 0).

More about The Chaos Engine

Critics scored it 40. Players sit 29 points higher at 69 percent, which usually means a game that plays better than it reviews.

Inside the two-hour refund window, 66 percent of the 140 reviews written there were positive, against 69 percent overall, and those are 51 percent of everything written about it.

At 4 hours it is a handheld-sized game, and Valve rates it Deck Verified.

The drop-off

64% start to 1% rarest
050100rarestfirst achievement

No achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements

What players say

Challenging and fun, just like the good ol' days 😆 Take it slow and enjoy every level. It'll def take you a few tries to get through. Worth the price.
PigpenRecommendedafter 1.2hJul 2026Read on Steam
2 more reviews
Its always been one of my fav games on the amiga the only thing missing is the final boss music but apart from that its just as fun as the original game
NeonRecommendedafter 7.8hMay 2026Read on Steam
I love the Chaos Engine. Intense action, a thumping 90s soundtrack, a unique design aesthetic and voice clips that will go with me to my grave. The only thing wrong with it is that I find the difficulty curve outpaces player progression by world 3, and it becomes crushingly hard well before the end. I'd love to see a remake someday, with twin stick aiming and a save function rather than level codes. Like a lot of...
KayevceeRecommendedafter 4.6hApr 2026Read on Steam

Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.

Cite this score

BANG Score badge
The Chaos Engine scores 20/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/242530/the-chaos-engine
Embed the live badge

Reviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 29, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.

Critics vs players+29
Critics40
Players69
Player favorite. The critics underrated it.
Metacritic critics · 455 Steam player reviews

Tags

Steam user tags as SteamSpy recorded them

Details

DeveloperAbstraction Games
PublisherRebellion
GenreShooter
Released2013
Players150Kowners, SteamSpy estimate
Achievements34