Total Chaos

About Total Chaos

Total Chaos began as a total-conversion mod for Doom 2, built in GZDoom by New Zealand developer Sam Prebble. Prebble, who later made Turbo Overkill, rebuilt it as a full game in Unreal Engine 5 under his studio Trigger Happy Interactive, with Apogee Entertainment publishing. It came out in November 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and on Nintendo Switch 2 on April 29, 2026. Akira Yamaoka, composer of Silent Hill, wrote its theme and end-credits track.

A sudden storm wrecks you on the shore of Fort Oasis, an island town once home to a coal-mining community, now deserted and decaying along its cliffs. Cryptic radio transmissions from someone who sounds like a friend draw you inland, through flooded streets, graveyards, mines and tunnels. Your character sees and hears things that are not there, and corridors can shift into something else without warning. Fragments of remembered conversations slowly fill in a troubled past.

The game is split into nine semi-open levels, each a maze of corridors with puzzles in the Resident Evil style: find fuses to power doors, bolt-cutters to open padlocked gates and similar items. You scavenge scraps and craft weapons at workbenches, such as a sledgehammer, a scissor axe or a nail bat, and later find a few firearms. Supplies are fairly generous; what limits you is a weight-based inventory, so you often leave things behind. There are also health, hunger and bleeding meters to watch.

Fights are close and brutal against skinless, disfigured creatures. Critics praised the atmosphere and level design and found the melee combat light and clunky. TheXboxHub needed about 15 hours to finish it. A later update added New Game+, which remixes level layouts, adds a new final chapter with an alternate ending and a persistent hunter that follows you.

It suits players who want a long, bleak first-person survival horror with crafting and puzzles, in the vein of Silent Hill and Cry of Fear. The game deals with mental health struggles and self-harm.

How to play Total Chaos

1. Explore Fort Oasis in first person and follow the voice on your walkie-talkie.
2. Scavenge scraps and parts, and craft weapons and tools at workbenches.
3. Manage your inventory; it is limited by weight, not slots.
4. Find key items such as fuses and bolt-cutters to open the way through each level.
5. Fight the creatures with what you have, or avoid them, and keep an eye on health, hunger and bleeding.
6. Read notes and listen to what you remember to piece together the story.

Tips

• Craft and upgrade weapons before you need them; a weak weapon in a fight is deadly.
• Watch your carry weight and leave behind what you do not need; supplies turn up often.
• Save ammunition for the tougher creatures and use melee on the rest.
• Take your time navigating; the levels are mazes and easy to get lost in.

Questions