Prodeus is a retro-styled FPS game was released digitally on September 2022, and later physically in April 2023. It was released on PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC, which was developed by Bounding Box Software and published by Humble Games.
Back in the days of 90's era when FPS became one of the landmark of video game genres thanks to various of classics like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom are credited for pioneering the genres, while later ones like Quake, Unreal, Goldeneye 007, and Halo had took the FPS genres into a next level gaming with the 3D route and multiplayer matches that became very popular among with the FPS communities.
As in todays generation, it spawned with many successful FPS like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Apex Legends, and Overwatch had the most played online multiplayer titles which these became a key thing for many professional gamers and fan communities does participate competitions like esports events stuff where you need to compete against the remaining opponent in able to reach a high-tier to become a no.1 champion, so that was totally cool video game tournaments going on.
Going back to the classic stuff that's where I grew up playing the most like Doom for example: what makes it so interesting with this game are the fan communities related stuff like WADs and mods which can be found and downloaded on the fan-sites and forums.
This will give you access to play custom levels, adding enhanced in-game engine, and lot of cool stuff that you never seen it anything so awesome which is why I've discovered Brutal Doom, created by SgtMarkIV, which is a gorefested form of original classic Doom featuring body dismemberment where you can rip and tear them apart in pieces, blood-splattered everywhere, enhanced combat system with new weapons and glory kill animations, re-creating in-game graphics, and so many brutal stuff which many calling it the greatest video game mods ever created.
The gory elements from Brutal Doom was later featured for Id Software's successful reboot titles like Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal which garnered critical acclaim reception by many critics and fans hailed these games for recapturing the spirit of the classic Doom games and FPS of 90's era.
Okay enough with the history for now because I am here to review the game, so I've seen several of indie game developers had began to experiment their own FPS title that was inspired by classic 90's FPS games.
Stuff like Project Warlock, Amid Evil, Ion Fury, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin, Dusk, and Graven, but there's one of the game that caught my interest was Prodeus which is a FPS game that combines the mixture of classic and modern Doom titles that I really wanted to play one of these on my PS4 console, so I have finally did played the game and does it captures the faithfulness of the Doom-Style shooters? well it's basically a Doom eternal in retro-style form, yes I'm not kidding and that's a good thing.
It's one of the indie FPS game that trying to recapture the style of both retro and modern shooters which I finding it quite an experimental idea because I'd like to see if these experiments went really well executed with this game or is it not the right game that we'd expecting, so I will cover the goods and bads to see if this FPS game are worth your time to play it on both PCs and console platforms.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
To tell you the truth, the game does not have introductory opening scene nor the main plot of the game itself, so you're basically taking an role of a corrupted agent of Prodeus went on his way to battle against his creator and every opponent, so that all it is which is kinda bit disappointing for those who wanted to know what are the main plot summary of the whole part of the game, and also we do not know what the protagonist looked like in the game, except his face on the HUD screen.
Unlike Doom franchise which we learned all about the space marine known as Doomguy or Doom Slayer went on the mission in planet Mars or some takes place in hell to fight out against hordes of demons and the undead in order to save planet Earth from an apocalyptic invasion, so these small story from the classic Doom games was present in the manuals rather than the games, while the reboot had actual small opening cutscene which came really useful for the series itself, and also we considered the appearances of Doomguy or Doom Slayer as the main badass silent protagonist that we love from the Doom franchise, so this is how you introduce the game to the audience.
Prodeus in other hand did not had an opening scene and protagonist's appearance which is kinda rather odd for not knowing what it's all about.
Despite the lack of both opening scene and small plot, the presentation settings in entire maps are actually pretty good which brings closer to Doom franchise in terms of level environments and enemy's design just really nails the appeals.
Stuff like the levels such as Research are more of hellish looking facility rooms with lava pits, Fuel is basically an space station with big corridors and some computer stuffs going on, Hazard had a large portion of green acids from the outside, Atonement grant you into a portal of floating rocks and blue planet, Trench has futuristic looking landmarks everywhere, and Frost has cold looking surfaces settings all over places.
I really liked how they made these level concepts are so close to the classic Doom games with similar looking scenery and environments had a great mixture of sci-fi facility themes and dark medieval style of atmospheres is what I liked about the game.
The game also had a awesome numbers of enemies such as Fiend is basically an imp throws the fireball projectile, Zombie that welds with shotgun, Bloater can spit out a lava projectile, Lunger is a two-horned creature can run up into you and bite you in pieces, Void Reaper is a giant bug that can float around and spits out skull fish at you, Cryomancer is a icy prodeans can unleash a homing icy projectile across the ground, and of course Slayer comes with extended arm bones shoots a wall of fire.
These monsters are certainly a cool looking creatures which I find them quite an hard horrifying son of b***h but also an amazing enemies in any of FPS games.
Overall, an lack of both opening scene and small plot are sure disappointing, but also shares with good level settings and awesome enemy's concepts.
Gameplay
You will have the overworld level map, similar to Nintendo's Super Mario World, where you get to select any of levels you want to choose, but you can also re-visit the previous level for later to achieve the 100% completion including kills, secrets, and deaths.
Like from Doom series, you take control of the player in first-person perspective as your main goal is to reach at the finishing exit, so in order to do that you must explore throughout the levels to fight out remaining enemies, collecting keys to unlock doors, and solving some small puzzles to enter into the new area.
Pushing the left stick to move player around, while the right stick uses for aim turning. Pressing the cross button to make player jump, pressing the right trigger button to fire weapon, while pressing the left trigger does a alternative action like targeting aim or secondary weapon attack.
To keep you in mind, the game does have an configuration options which I had to re-configure the controls to match my playstyle rather than using the default, so I've replaced the use button with the circle instead of square to open doors or activate switches, the reload button are mapped with square instead of circle to replenish the weapon bullets, the sprint button used for running is much easier to hold on the left shoulder button rather than the left thumbstick button is due to lacking the toggle option, the dash button allows you to dash forward through the platforming obstacles is on the right shoulder button instead of the right thumbstick button, the weapon cycle menu button lets you select any available weapon to use which is now triangle instead of left or right shoulder button, or you can also quickly change the weapon by hitting with the d-pad button as well, and finally I've removed the automap button from the triangle button which you can access the map inventory through the pause menu instead, so this will help you navigate through the levels such as your pinpoint, items, and etc.
You will gain a new weapons and abilities by purchasing through the shop, if you collected enough gold ores which can be found hidden in any of each levels.
Stuff like Shredders which is the sub-machine guns, Minigun which fires a barrage of bullets, Super Shotgun which fires a four barrelled shells, Rocket Launcher shoots out a rocket which will explode while secondary will manually detonate the rocket, Grenade Launcher shoots out grenade which will bounce off surfaces and explode while secondary uses as sticky grenades which sticking to whatever it hit, Plasma Rifle fires out rapid projectiles while secondary will shoot a homing beacon cause all further projectiles to home in on the beacon's position, and Chaos Caster shoots out a firey blob of substance in a constant spew while secondary can be charged up to fire a ball of the substance.
You will also gain abilities such as double jump and dash which allows you to jump higher and being able to reach through into a long platforming distance.
So far, the combat system in the game are incredibly fun to use especially on most of the boomer shooters always gives us a really cool weapons with unique mods just works really great in this game.
Having a Minigun just shreds the f**k out with packs of heavy bullets, the Rocket Launcher uses to detonate a rocket deals with wide-range of exploding damage, Grenade Launcher just sticks the grenade into the enemies till it blown off in pieces, and Chaos Caster just melts everyone to death is what I've liked about having a weapon that gives an advantage to damage whatever the big and small enemies you shooting at them in each levels.
I also like exploring around the areas to find the hidden secrets, collecting keys to unlock doors, solving puzzles segments like activating stuff to open up a new areas, doing a platforming start from low to high or high to low platforms, and of course killing many enemies as possible in order to get a 100% completion or high-scores in each levels which is why it makes me keep playing the game all day and night.
While the single-player campaign offers many great action-packed levels, I also find the community map are actually cool too because its a level editing stuff where you get to play any of custom fan-made map, so stuff like they made a levels based off a classic FPS games like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, and you name it.
You can also participate the level editor software tool on PCs which allows users to create and share your own kinds of levels or campaigns.
These are the main highlight part of the game that people can able to enjoy playing the custom maps on their PCs and consoles.
I also heard many positive things about the online multiplayer where you can team up or go head to head with the variety of multiplayer modes, so stuff like 4-player co-op campaign, 16-player competitive matches such as free for all or team deathmatch, and capture the flag is what made the arena FPS so recognisable back in the 90's era.
It's kinda bummer that they didn't include the offline split-screen mode for both PCs and consoles because I'm used too playing the old-fashioned way like I wanted to play with my siblings or cousins in the local couch multiplayer being in the same room, as well as having to blast against bunch of A.Is bots which is my huge reason to prefer playing the game offline, so don't get me wrong it's just my silly opinion because I'm pretty sure they will consider adding the offline split-screen mode if they had a enough time to do it in the future.
Overall, it has incredible combat gameplay, great action-packed campaign, fun online multiplayer, and cool community maps.
Graphics
The graphics are looking pretty solid which they combined a mixture of retro-pixeled and modern style visuals.
The environments are all in 3D with heavy-looking textures, bold surfaces areas, and sharp mapping system are sure looked quite amazing entirely, and I also liked the draw-distance size of the levels that are huge and wide-open just adds the appealing.
I also liked the use of dynamic lighting system that are glowing and shady just looked so good in the levels, and the special effects are quite as bold on surfaces like green acids, hot lavas, and icey water in some levels.
The visuals does gives you an option to change settings like from 360p to native resolution, so I've preferred set to native because this will make the visuals look crisp and detailed where as the 360p are more of the old-school looking which is fine for big time retro fans who much preferred it for nostalgic reasons.
Same goes with the sprite animations which gives you an option to change it to 2D sprite design like from Doom or go on full 3D like Quake.
You can customise your HUD settings for suitable screen layouts like your health and ammunition screen, and of course the field of view.
You got to love the gory system in this game where you blow these enemies in pieces with many particles stuff and remaining body dismemberment gibs scattered on the floors, and blood splattered everywhere is just looks so incredibly hardcore.
I had to admit the PCs, PS5, and XSX/S had better use of frame-rates and performances all the way, where as the PS4, XBONE, and Switch does share a decent things in single-player campaign with no problem, but except you may encounter with bit of slow downs in some community maps which may be not as smoother compared with PCs, PS5 and XSX/S counterpart works just better overall.
Overall, it has amazing environmental design, old-school visual style, and gruesome gore system.
Music and Sounds
The soundtrack is just as f***ing epic like any of FPS titles, as it featuring a mix of heavy metal and industrial music similar to Doom Eternal which you may know it was composed by Andrew Hulshult was behind his works on creating soundtrack for Brutal Doom, Dusk, Amid Evil, and of course the DLCs campaign expansion for Doom Eternal.
These soundtrack starts off bit settled synth when no ones around in the level yet until the kickass music starts kicking in with shredded riffs and chaotic drums when the enemies showed up for action just adds the game's badassery that makes you want to give them a good beating the shit out.
The MIDIs soundtrack was handled by James Paddock which you may know he has composed for several of Doom WADs stuff such as SIGIL, Plutonia 2, Speed of Doom, and among any others, so he also did a cracking job of creating a MIDI style soundtrack which does reminds me of the old days of PC gaming that uses the MIDI sound driver for Win 95 or 98.
The use of the sound effects are just pretty awesome with booming gun noises, explosive environmental sounds, and the monsters just growling and hissing all over the places are just as spectacular for its overall sound design.
Overall, it has epic full-metal soundtrack and spectacular sound environments.
Special Features
I did mentioned the community workshop are also quite top-notch where you can able to create and share levels with the level editing tools for PCs, where as you can also play the custom level on both PCs and consoles which adds the best part of the game.
For those who owns the physical PS4 copy will have a free upgradable PS5 version are sure the nice bonus for PS4 owners may consider upgrading the game to the PS5 console.
Overall, an splendid editions including community workshop and free upgradable PS5 version.
Advantages
Good level settings
Incredible combat gameplay
Great action-packed campaign
Cool community maps
Fun online multiplayer
Solid visual design
Epic full-metal soundtrack
Disadvantages
No opening cutscene and protagonist appearance
Missing offline split-screen modes
Final Verdict
Presentation 5/10 - an lack of both opening scene and small plot are sure disappointing, but also shares with good level settings and awesome enemy's concepts.
Gameplay 8/10 - incredible combat gameplay, great action-packed campaign, fun online multiplayer, and cool community maps.
Graphics 8/10 - amazing environmental design, old-school visual style, and gruesome gore system.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - epic full-metal soundtrack and spectacular sound environments.
Special Features 8/10 - has community workshop and free upgradable PS5 version included on PS4 physical copy.
Overall 8/10 - Like any of great indie boomer shooters like Ion Fury and Project Warlock as an example, Prodeus does a job well done for its retro-inspired visual artform, the mix-style of classic and modern combat gameplay, over-the-top gorefest system, and shares with intense single-player action, fun arena-style online matches, and cool community workshop is what made the game quite solid to play.
I am happy with the results turned out to be a quite success even though it didn't have a split-screen modes which should have been included in the game, so I am hoping that they will consider adding the offline multiplayer mode and hopefully they will look into making another new campaign in near future.
You can get it physically for PS4, PS5, and Switch for £25 or more, while the digital releases on all platforms are slight bit cheaper for £20. You can also get it on the Xbox Game Pass subscription as well that made the game worth to play it on Xbox console platforms.
That being said, this is definite a must play for the hardcore retro-FPS veterans out there, so get your pair of arsenals geared up and ready to kick some ass for action-packed gorefest shooter.
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