Prodeus

[h1] ПОЧТИ ИДЕАЛЬНО [/h1] [h2]СЮЖЕТ[/h2] Подача буквально через 10 капсул с данными по 3 предложения в каждой, которые не шибко много и расскажут. [h2]МУЗЫКА/ЗВУКИ[/h2] За саундтрек отвечал Andrew Hulshult. Его композиции вы могли услышать в Amid Evil, Dusk и конечно Doom Eternal Ancient Gods DLC. Вроде звучит достаточно бодро, но сравнивая с Amid Evil и Dusk ощущение, что потеряли идею или часть глубины. Для тех, кому хочется слегка другого, то есть возможность переключения на midi саунд, но композиций в нём меньше. Оружие имеет характерный звук, который ни с чем не спутаешь, что говорит и о его характере. [h2]ГРАФИКА/ЭФФЕКТЫ[/h2] Игра в общих аспектах внешнего вида выглядит супер, даже почти не к чему подкопаться. К слову, если модели врагов не нравятся, то можно заменить их на полноценные 3d. Настроек в игре много и можно полноценно доработать под себя. Эффектов местами слишком много. Фонтаны крови с отлетающими частями тел создают кашу, если находится слишком близко, хотя даже издалека закрывают обзор. Выстрелы крупных врагов перекрывают либо линию огня, либо четверть экрана. Плазма своими снарядами вообще не даёт понять убит ли враг или нет. Револьвер альтернативным режимом тоже перекрывает обзор. Моделей врагов мало, и многие вспомнятся, поскольку слишком сильно копируют Doom. Вторая фракция — перекрашенная первая, но в синий цвет. У каждой есть по 1-2 уникальному юниту. [h2]ГЕЙМПЛЕЙ[/h2] Выглядит как Doom, враги как из Doom, геймплей пореактивнее, ближе к Doom 2016. Что ещё можно сказать? [b]Карта[/b] Перемещение по уровням осуществляется через глобальную карту. Лишь игроку выбирать, в какой уровень зайти пораньше, но на чрезмерное разветвление не рассчитывайте. Выбор всегда стоит между локацией 1 и 2. Помимо стандартных уровней, есть так называемые карты испытания. Понятия не понимаю, зачем они были придуманы? Нужно пройти за 1 минуту локацию, стреляя по целям при помощи выданного оружия, для получения 3 слитков руды. А потом ещё раз для сбора секретных. Весело — я не могу. Спасибо, но можно удалить? Не ведитесь на кнопку «Сыграть ещё раз». Вот вы прошли уровень, убили всех врагов, не умерли, собрали все секреты, но пропустили, например, руду. После нажатия на кнопку вы играете уровень полностью с 0, потеряв весь прогресс. Почему это так работает? Поэтому сначала выходите на глобальную карту, а потом запускаете уровень ещё раз. [b]Оружие[/b] По поводу выдаваемого арсенала у меня достаточно смешанные чувства, поскольку часть оружия закрыта за поиском и сбором руды. Сильнее всего это заметно в начале. Выбирая между супер дробовиком и плазмой, берите плазму. Пушки делятся на 5 категорий по типу патронов: пули, картечь, ракеты, плазма и хаос. В каждой категории будет по 3 вида оружия, кроме плазмы — она одна, и та покупается в магазе. Да, гранатомёт тоже стреляет ракетами. ХЫ! [b]Каждая пушка[/b] [list] [*] Пистолет — стартовая и достаточно полезная пушка. Альтернативный режим стреляет с отсечкой по три, но зачем? [*] Парные автоматы — как возьмёте, так выкинете. Точность никакущая, как и урон. [*] Пулемёт — хорош на ближней дистанции и слегка дальше, поскольку пули начинают лететь во все стороны. Променял его на плазму, как только, так сразу. [*] Дробовик — мощный, и пользовался им добрую половину игры. Альтернативный режим уменьшает разброс и поджигает врага, но заряжается очень долго. [*] Супер дробовик — не двустволка, а четверостволка. Урон, по ощущениям, в 2 раза больше обычного дробовика. На близкой дистанции убивает почти любого врага. Альтернативный режим выпускает сразу все 4 пули, что истребляет почти всё. [*] Автоматический дробовик — стреляет быстро, но после четвернушки уже не распробовал. Лучше обычного благодаря увеличенной скорострельности. Альтернативная атака спускает несколько рикошетящих патронов, также может подсвечивать врагов за углами. [*] Гранатомёт — помойка. Впервые кто-то смог сделать настолько плохой вылет снаряда, что хрен поймёшь, по какой траектории он летит, чтобы банку закинуть в секретку. Альтернативный режим — бомба-липучка. И нахрена? [*] Ракетница — мощная, и прошёл с ней всю игру. Альтернативная атака взрывает выпущенную ракету по кнопке и взрывается в большем радиусе. [*] Ракетница «Рой» — одна ракета считается как 2 выстрела по 5 маленьких ракет. Обычной стрельбой не пользовался. Альтернативный режим — захват 5 целей при наличии в прицеле. Удобнее работать по толпе в таком режиме. [*] Плазмаган — вообще лучшая пушка. Прошёл с ним всю игру от начала до конца. Заполучив его, больше никогда не пользовался автоматикой. Пули слегка магнитятся на врага. Альтернативный режим — ставится метка, и все снаряды летят в неё и находящихся рядом врагов. ЕДИНСТВЕННОЕ ПЛАЗМЕННОЕ ОРУЖИЕ В ИГРЕ! [*] Рельсотрон — основная атака — цепная молния, что бьёт по нескольким врагам. Ей почти не пользовался. Альтернативная — мощный заряжающийся выстрел. Считайте, снайперка, но без ХП-прицела. [*] Хаос кастер - поплевался лишь в сюжетные ледышки и больше никогда не доставал. [*] Мамонт — револьвер, по мощности не уступающий заряженным атакам рельсы. Обычные выстрелы пробивают врагов насквозь. [/list] [b]Магазин[/b] Не ожидали увидеть магазин? Я тоже. На уровнях разбросаны слитки с рудой, которые желательно искать везде, где только можно, поскольку улучшения и часть оружия приобретаются только за них. Улучшения показались очень важными для удобства геймплея. Засунуть оружие сюда - так себе идея. [b]Контрольные точки/респы[/b] Поздравляю с открытием спорной механики. Каждая смерть не будет вас отбрасывать на КТ с воскрешением врагов, а просто воскрешает игрока с 100 хп и, мол, иди стреляй дальше. В некоторых местах так закидывает на возвышенности, где вы спокойно расстреливаете врага. Проблема в том, что штрафуют только на очки и не более. У меня такая механика убивает интерес, можно было сделать ручные сохранения за ресурсы или ещё как-то. Как по мне, с таким подходом игрок ничего не приобретает и ничему не учится. Триггеры появления врагов раскиданы странно, что при детальном исследовании можно зацепить более ранний спавн. Забавно обузить появление врагов через двойной прыжок и рывок, находясь на высоте, где это возможно. [h2]ИТОГИ[/h2] Покупал за 223р со скидкой 56%, при полной стоимости в 465р. Полное прохождение на очень высоком - высоком уровне сложности заняло 11,5ч. Почему играл на 2-х уровнях ложности? Ближе к концу первого региона игра начала сильно утомлять одинаковыми врагами и боями. Для завершения игры пришлось брать 3-4 перерыва, прежде чем садился снова. За 4 уровня до конца в первой локации. На второй локе делал 2 перерыва, поскольку уровни там ещё длиннее и строение некоторых мне не нравится. Последнюю зону доиграл через усталость. [b]ПОЧЕМУ МНЕ НЕ ЗАШЛА ИГРА[/b] [list] [*] Слишком затянули Лишние миссии, повторяющие карты и сбор руды + секретки для прокачки. В среднем уровень закрывался за 30 минут. [*] Контрольные точки Умирай без штрафа и без воскрешения врагов. Такой подход у меня наглухо выбивал интерес. Чаще всего смерть настигала в открытых пространствах. [*] Оружие Вроде 13 видов оружия, а используемыми всегда лишь 4. [*] Бестиарий врагов Скопировали многих врагов из Doom. А вы точно вдохновлялись? Продеусы — просто перекрашенные демоны в синий. Пул получился маленьким, а бедными зомби, сражающиеся в ближнем бою, будут бросаться до самого конца игры. [*] Магазин Открывает почти базовые возможности и порядочный арсенал оружия. Без двойного прыжка вообще в приличное количество секретов не залезешь. [*] Ранения Врагам можно отрывать конечности, но это никак не сказывается на их передвижении. [/list] Если на всё описанное не имеет никакого для вас значения, то смело берите на скидке и наслаждайтесь. [h2] Обзор написан после полного прохождения игры. Спасибо читающим, лайкающим и ставящим награды. [/h2]

Yes, but. And quite a huge but. The game's fun. The levels flow really well and blasting things apart feels impactful; the aesthetic's really nice, too. These things are good enough to get you going, and maybe even carry you all the way through the game. That was the case for me, which is why I recommend Prodeus. Still, the game has issues that might ruin the experience for you, so let's go over those real quick. [h1]The Checkpoint System[/h1] Prodeus' approach to saving is very unusual. And I personally wasn't bothered that much, I can see it bothering many people. Why? You can't quicksave. You can't save mid-level at all, in fact. But once you die, you simply respawn at the latest checkpoint with the state of the world being exactly as it was when you died - except your health is refilled. This is a lot less sh*tty than it seems, though. For one, the game keeps track of how many times you died in a level, and gives you a special badge if you manage to beat it without dying. So you're still motivated to try playing well and not dying, but should you get stuck in a tough spot, you can always claw your way out. And the levels aren't exactly short, but lack of mid-level saving wasn't an issue for me. If anything, it enforced a certain pace of play: do one, two, maybe three levels at a time. And if you absolutely have to quit mid-level, getting back to where you were really doesn't take long. [h1]Difficulty[/h1] I played most of the game on Very Hard. I don't consider myself Skillmeister 69000, so I pick a difficulty level that feels like it pushes back without being frustrating, and that was what some trial and error got me. I can't be entirely sure but I think all that changes is that you get less health pickups and there are more enemies. I beat most levels while dying exactly once (always my mistake), but towards the end I started suddenly dying a lot more so I switched the difficulty to Hard, and it was fine. That said, the difficulty felt weird. Not sure how to frame this. Sometimes it was too easy, but then I'd eventually start getting really hurt from all the fighting and few health pickups... I don't know, that's not a good state of mind to have when playing a boomer shooter. And this isn't DOOM 2016 or Roboquest, you can't heal with aggressive play. You have to avoid getting hit and scavenge pickups. Meh. [h1]Enemy variety[/h1] There really aren't that many enemies, either. Some of them you'll recognise from any Doom, but there's some originals, too. Unfortunately, in total there's... 11 enemies? Including bosses? Well, eventually you'll find that there's also another faction to fight. More enemy types? No, not really. Most of the second faction's enemies are literally the first faction's enemies but with a different colour, a bit more powerful and sometimes with extra attacks/abilities. There are two enemy types unique to the second faction. So, depending on whether you consider these "clones" the same enemies or not, you have in total either 13 or 17, give or take. For what it's worth, this is somehow enough. All mobs fill a combat role and there's plenty of interesting combat situations that are crafted from this admittedly limited roster. So the game flows well, all things considered. [h1]The Pacing and the... Plot?[/h1] "Story in a game is like story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but its not that important" is what John Carmack said early during Doom's development in early 1990s. I disagree, but there is some truth to it; and Prodeus takes this approach wholesale. Yes, there is a plot of sorts, but it might as well have been the lore of some kindergarteners' play session. "Demon Guys! Energy Guys! Chaos! Order! Pew pew asteroids kingdoms DEMON INVASION LASERS YEEEEEEEE". There you go. Enjoy it for what it is. The story gets no resolution, because the game seemingly ends mid-way. The conclusion is supposed to be delivered in the DLC; but since the DLC is not out yet, I can only review what I have. It feels like there was supposed to be more story, because the levels do have an environmental narrative of sorts, but it doesn't really go anywhere and the pacing of the game suffers for it. But if you treat Prodeus' story like Carmack did - an excuse to see some visceral high-impact action - then it stops being a problem. Chill out, grab a cold one, paint the walls (insert colour of the faction's soldiers' blood here). [h1]It ok tho[/h1] So if these things don't bother you, there's fun to be had here. The secrets are done in an interesting way: you collect pieces of ore - and finding secrets nets you more - which allows you to buy exclusive upgrades. Such as the Super Shotgun, or - get this - [i]double jump![/i] And [i]dash![/i] Having increased mobility hidden behind obstacles that require said mobility to beat is a bit annoying, but once you get these upgrades you're golden and they're very fun to use. The shotguns are fun, too. Super Shotgun isn't just a double-the-fun version of the regular shotgun. The Super has four bullets in the chamber and requires no pumping or reloading between shots - and of course you can shoot all of them at once - but its spread and the falloff rate are insane. You'll very quickly realise this weapon is intended for almost point-blank range. While the regular shotgun is reliable in mid range, and its charged shot is actually almost sniper level - can't say I've seen this before, but I welcome this variation. Most weapons have decent utility. Your regular pistol is accurate at pretty long ranges, so you'll end up using it for most of the game to pick off these annoying imps. The pulse rifle has a gimmicky fire mode that allows it to shoot around walls. The railgun - when not sniping - can be used to spread chain lightning of sorts. And ammo is rarely a problem, as long as you actually switch your weapons instead of trying to kill everything with the damn shotgun. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] So, I had fun. Still, the achievement stats show that almost half of the players drop the game very quickly, and only 30% beat 10 levels. Half of those - 15% - see the end. Not going to lie, those aren't great numbers, especially for a game this pricey. I think I got it at 30% sale and the money's a bit tough for me at the moment, so I feel a little ripped off. Whatever, though. I'm always looking for fun boomer shooters and this one definitely was fun. Not top of the shelf fun, but fun enough to recommend to my fellow affectionados. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42922988/]Curator page[/url]

+ Great gameplay and level design + Superb music + Incredible visuals. Like, I don't see them mentioned much, maybe because they're not super high res photorealism, but obviously a lot of care and effort has gone into getting them just right. + Satisfying weapons - Weird checkpoint system where you can keep respawning until you win by attrition - Having to check everywhere for secrets to buy upgrades

odd mixture of a very forgiving system of endless respawns and absurd difficulty spikes towards the final third of the game (played on highest difficulty because im a cool hardcore gamer) maps are the usual suspects with a fitting soundtrack / sound design and an okay enemy variety

Prodeus is a flavorless experience which is sadly more forgetful than bad. The enemy design and variety is limited; there aren't many enemy types and they rarely change the way a level should be approached. While there are some examples of smart level design, most of the levels feel and look the same. Prodeus has a fantastic level editor and there are some great maps made by the community, but they are still limited by the enemy variety. The strange checkpoint system, which respawns you with no penalty and with all previously killed enemies still dead, makes no sense for game of this genre. There are no stakes unless they are self-imposed, and this turns a game that should be mindless yet adrenaline pumping into braindead. It's all so disappointing since Prodeus is very well made, with snappy animations and textures, and some great sound design that makes the arsenal very punchy and satisfying to use.

I really wanted to like Prodeus, but, in the end, I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed. The main problem I have with Prodeus is it's feels very derivative, which says a lot, especially in the boomer shooter genre, that's basically built on the attempts to return to the past. While the changes to the formula game introduces are more of a miss than a hit most of the time. The story is practically non-existent. There are blurbs before each mission about what is supposed to happen in-between, but the game still feels like a loose connection of maps stringed together. There a couple of cool transitions at the end of the campaign, but that's it. The most I could understand is that the main enemies of the game are forces of Chaos and fighting against them are forces of the Order known as titular Prodeus. Our unfortunate marine somehow becomes the vessel of Prodeus and beats Chaos back and out of their dimension, but I don't really get why forces of Prodeus are still attacking him. Om top of that the game really ends on a very interesting point, but ends up teasing with a cliffhanger instead. I get minimalistic approach with the stories and that boomer shooters don't really put a lot of thought into them, but sometimes strong lore or character can elevate the game above it's peers, and, unfortunately, I don't think Prodeus gets a point on this one. The presentation of Prodeus is interesting, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was playing one of those Doom mods, that are trying to shove newer game into the original. The games style really reminded me Doom 3 especially, with it's industrial space station design, while later levels in different dimensions reminded me of Quake. The interesting thing is done to the weapon, item and enemy sprites. In fact they are not sprites at all, but 3D models that are put through the filter that makes them look like sprites. There is a option in settings menu that allows to switch enemy sprites into 3D models, and they are not very good. I ended up leaving them as those pseudo sprites, but it wasn't that much of an improvement either. The "sprites" are way too pixelated and look smudgy, instead of being sharp and crispy, like there is a lot of post-processing going on. The soundtrack is not bad, but definitely sounds like generic metal that most of the time and fades into the background. The biggest positive I can give the game's presentation is the gore. The enemies have location damage and always explode into blood and gibs, making combat feel satisfying and crunchy. Speaking of combat, I think it's heavily carried by the aformentioned gore. It's fun painting all of the levels with monsters blood, but outside of that I feel like the game wouldn't be able to satisfy me outside of that. The game by default gives limited selection of weapons, with pistol, pump shotgun, akimbo sub-machine guns, minigun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher and a railgun of sorts. There are 5 different ammo types and each weapon class feeds from one of them. Additional weapons should be quired from the games shop, that can be accessed in the game map between missions. Here's the thing, unless you are an avid secret hunter or don't mind backtracking through old levels, you won't see some of the more powerful weapons oif the game. It's mostly fine, you can go through the game without them with no issue, but even a basic plasma gun is locked in the shop and the game very generously gives out plasma ammo. On top of that, the weapon balance feels really weird. The only bullet type weapon I used frequently was the basic pistol, which is actually really good and killing trash mobs and fairly accurate even on long ranges. Minigun is way too slow with it's spin-up and shooting it slows you down to a crawl, while submachines guns have way too much recoil on the akimbo shooting and chew through ammo way too fast, making them less effective than using other options. Also side-tangent, but they also really pissed me off with the fact that you can shoot from one submachine gun, but you somehow empty the clip from both of them and have to reload both of them everytime? That just seems lazy. Speaking of reloading, you have to reload most weapons in the game, I can't really figure out why it was made that way. The game is pretty fast, and in the later levels there can be lots of enemies on the screen, so why making the reloading in the first place? There is also sprint in the game. I instantly enabled "Always sprint" option in the settings, so I don't even know how slow the player moves without it, but what is the point of having sprint in the first place? There is no downside running on max speed all the time. The reason modern shooters adapted sprint function is in service of realism and adherence to modern military tactics, you have to move quickly from cover to cover, but can't use your weapon and limited stamina makes it that you have to think when and how to sprint. Here sprint is infinite and you can shoot while sprinting, again, what's the point? And on top of that you have the game's checkpoint system. During levels you will encounter so called Nexus points. During the tutorial the game clearly shows the character's reconstruction on one of those. At first I thought that was just diegetic explanation of the checkpoint system, kind of like Soulslike bonfires and it's analogues. Except Nexus points literally just respawn you instantly in the last location, while all of the enemies you kill stay dead. There is literally zero punishment for poor gameplay, if you died, no worries, you can respawn in the same arena in a slightly different position. In the late 2000- early 2010s, there was an attempt to cash-in on nostalgia by bringing back some of the old-school arcade style FPS. We didn't have the "boomer shooter" moniker that we have now, but those games heavily marketed themselves as "return to the old-school hardcore FPS", and had stupid quotes like "real men don't use cover". Basically equivalent of those ♥♥♥♥♥♥ truck commercials. But when ypu played those games, the gameplay was barely different from other games of the time. You still ahd sprinting, reloading, sometimes even regenerating health just like COD and Halo, and the levels were extremely linear, with no real reason for exploration. Bulletstorm, Duke Nukem Forever, Serious Sam 3, some other crappy slop for boomers. Prodeus reminded me bad parts of those games with it's design. On top of that, it really doesn't have anything unique going for it. Which is shame, because developers seem like they enjoyed working on this game and put a lot work into the community support with official mapping tools and ability to browse and play fan-made maps. i hope future games will be an improvement on all of the good parts that Prodeus has, while improving the bad parts. But Prodeus left somewhat dissapointed.

Шикарная игра! Прошёл с удовольствием которое иногда не испытываешь от более дорогих игр! Не люблю пиксель-арт но тут он переработан и смотрится совершенно по другому,не так как в старых играх. Атмосфера и лор игры навевают ностальгию по старым шедеврам. Всё как мы любим - мясо,кровища,много трупов и секретики на каждом уровне. Реиграбельность конечно у игры невысокая но денег она своих стоит однозначно. Рекомендую всем любителям шутеров!

8/10 - solid enjoyable indie sci-fi old school boomer shooter with over the top wet kool-aid fountains of gore, fast/smooth/frenetic action, punchy gunplay, 90s style forgettable story (didn't pay attention...just shoot demons), solid level design, and an excellent metal Mick Gordon-like soundtrack. Heavily inspired by Doom 2016, Doom 1+2, Quake 1, and Quake 2 while also sprinkling in a few Tron/Blade Runner-like environments. Big smile on my face wielding the Terminator 2 minigun for the first time, hearing the sound effects of a Quake 2-style railgun, and feeling impressed by the Quake 1-ish castle level. This is the type of game you play for an hour to decompress after work with a beer in hand. There's nothing life changing, thought provoking, or profound about Prodeus but it accomplishes exactly what you want out of a retro boomer shooter: dive in, shoot, turn brain off, and be transported back to the 90s. However, Prodeus lacks quick save/load which is inconvenient when going for 100% in a level (sometimes you will miss a secret/collectible and access gets blocked off), has an unconventional "continue-point" system instead of checkpoint system that doesn't penalize dying unless you care about leaderboard points, and mimics the Doom enemies too much (Imp, Cacodemon, shotgunners, Lost Souls, etc). "You can copy my homework but change the answers a bit so the teacher doesn't notice." For achievement hunters, this is about a 4/10 difficulty and will take 15-20 hours for 100% depending upon the difficulty you choose.

Игра хорошо выглядит и прекрасно играется. И все было бы отлично, если бы не одно но. В этой игре, фактически, нельзя умереть. Вы бесконечно возрождаетесь без возрождения противников. Ретро-шутер, в котором нельзя проиграть - что может быть абсурднее, не правда ли? Разработчик уже несколько лет как обещает классическую систему сохранений и загрузок, но воз и ныне там. Увы, ведь игра и правда могла бы быть очень хороша.