It is a common criticism of Chasm the Rift that shooting feels bland, with enemies being unreactive bullet sponges. It's a fair criticism, however, sometimes something exciting happens: enemies lose their limbs! Suddenly, enemies do react at being shot. And it feels good. It feels good to shoot off the firing arm of a grunt and see him giving a desperate chase to kick your butt! But why does it happen so inconsistently?

Is dismemberment random? Are there weird hitboxes? Is the game broken?

Fear not: dismemberment is not random, hitboxes fit visuals, and the game works as intended. There are nuances to dismemberment and knowing those nuances will allow you to dismember foes consistently. The nuances are concerned with the weapon used, the enemy it is used against, and the enemy's state. Let's walk through it step-by-step.

There are weapons which do not dismember, weapons which do, but are not optimal for it, and there are perfect dismemberment weapons.

■ Do Not Dismember: Rifle (key "1", the first gun) and Volcano (key "3", the chaingun).

Exception: Rifle can dismember Jokers.

■ Dismember, but are Not Optimal: Grenader (key "6"), Land Mines (key "7"), Mega Destroyer (key "8") and BladeGun (key "4").

■ Dismemberment Weapons: Super Shotgun ("key "2") and Laser Crossbow (key "5")

Super Shotgun:



Laser Crossbow:



As you may see, two weapons are designed for dismemberment. Which one to use depends on the type of enemy you are facing.

Some enemies cannot be dismembered, some can, but only with Laser Crossbow, and some can be dismembered with both Laser Crossbow and Super Shotgun. Luckily, such enemies can be easily distinguished by looks:


■ Cannot be Dismembered - Non-humanoids and Bosses.

Enemies which do not resemble human beings cannot be dismembered.




■ Can be Dismembered Only with Laser Crossbow - Large humanoids.

Enemies which resemble humans, but are very large:



Exception:

This guy. He cannot be dismembered.




■Can be Dismembered with Laser Crossbow and Super Shotgun - normal-sized humanoids.

Enemies which resemble humans and are of normal size:




Exception:

This guy. Although he looks large, he is small compared to the other type of alien you will meet in the associated chapter. You can dismember him with Super Shotgun:





You have the right guns, you know against whom to use them. You are set, right? Well, no. It is also important to know WHEN to shoot.

There are roughly three main states of animation for every enemy: idle (enemy does nothing), chase (enemy saw the player and chases him), and attack (enemy attacks). There is also stagger.

It is NOT POSSIBLE to dismember enemies WHILE THEY ATTACK, IDLE, or are STAGGERED. You can dismember enemies ONLY IN THE CHASE state. As soon as an enemy starts to play its attack animation, dismemberment is impossible. If an enemy idles, it is impossible to dismember it. Only when it chases you can blow off its limbs.

You can see for yourself:

Attack:



Chase:


Beware that staggered enemies will retaliate without a window to dismember them (Stagger animation is immediately followed by an attack animation, so you can't stop them from dealing damage to you). If you dismember a non-attacking hand first, enemies will use an attack animation straight after.

Well, now you are armed with knowledge. If you utilize it, you will understand why there are people who love this game despite it being "a clunky old shooter".


If you want, you can check out some ideas regarding tactics which use dismemberment in the next section.

Dismemberment does not only look and feel cool, it is also very useful. It stuns your enemies, deals them enormous damage and severely impairs their attacking capabilities. It is something that should be utilized, especially on the Hard difficulty.

This section will outline a few tactical ways of using dismemberment. These are not meant to be extensive, but rather they should spark your imagination and add more depth to the game.

■ Pick-a-boo - when an enemy sees you for the first time and you are close enough for its attack, the enemy will attack. As you know, shooting back won't stagger nor kill it (this damn unresponsive bullet sponge...). Good chance you will take damage. Instead, you may take cover from its attack, wait for half a second, so it moves (and does not attack you twice in a row) and then blast its arm off!



■ Cat and mice - enemies are most vulnerable when they chase you. So it just makes sense to incentivize them to do so! The oldest trick in a book: run away, turn around and ambush!



■ Saving Private Ammo - Laser Crossbow is a weapon with unique dismemberment features and limited ammo. Every Laser Bolt counts, so it makes sense to switch to another weapon after dismembering the attacking hand of a big foe.




Hope now your imagination is buzzing with all kinds of awesome tricks. Don't forget to give them funny names, so you have something to scream out while performing them! Makes it double fun.

Special thanks to:

CacoDOOM from Steam comment section, for pointing out that you can dismember Jokers using Rifle. Without you, this guide would have been incomplete!