As somebody who is usually quite critical of boomer shooters, Prodeus pretty much fits with how I want these kind of games to be; hard hitting, highly dynamic and varied shooters with a strong audiovisual character. But despite its unique qualities, Prodeus' fundamentals are a bit too reliant on its influences, to the point of limiting its potential.

First things first, this game simply looks amazing. The mix of classic Doom faux-3D style sprites and id Tech 4-esque 3D graphics never feels anything less than pleasing. It's very cool that they allow you to customize some aspects of the art style, like having 3D models or 2D sprites for the enemies. I also love the gore-y details, like blood and viscera dripping from splatters on the ceiling.

The dark, somewhat edgy atmosphere of the levels are supported quite well by the ambient soundtrack. The only part of the audiovisual experience that I don't enjoy is the metal soundtrack, which usually pops up in the more elaborate enemy encounters. These tracks are just not interesting enough.

The gameplay is as you would expect from a game like this. Run and dodge projectiles, avoid getting too close to melee enemies, pick the right weapon for the job, and try to maintain your accuracy as you move around. Prodeus particularly draws inspiration from Doom 2016, and it's very visible. Its enemy types, weapons, level design philosophy, and so on. It's not a bad thing to copy one of the most popular and influential shooter in modern times, but I really wished Prodeus had more original ideas to spice up its fundamentals. Sometimes it can feel like a merely neat-er version of Doom 2016, rather than being a new game.

I do appreciate how tight the main campaign is compared to its contemporaries. The individual levels feel more than distinct enough from each other, and it never feels like the game is just repeating the same tricks. For the most part, the pace and length of these levels are also very digestible, and most of them never overstays their welcome. It's also quite short, maybe no longer than 8 hours. Not to mention the absolute lack of intrusive non-fundamental elements, like story or lore.

I think a lot of boomer shooters overrate how good their gameplay loop really is, and end up boring me with just a bunch of uninspiring enemy encounters that feel endless. There's also a lot of them that design their exploration to be a bit too cryptic, and it would ruin the pace of the levels. Prodeus never does any of this, and it's nice to finally find a boomer shooter that fits me like a glove.

I still have to complain about the campaign's lackluster ending, but that's probably the only thing that's definitely bad about it. The quality of the levels themselves are not exactly mindblowing, but none of them are obviously bad. It's a consistently fun campaign overall.

As it stands, Prodeus' highly focused execution of its ideas are more than strong enough to carry itself above most of its peers. It's not original enough to set its own legacy, but it does solidfy the strength of its influences.

I cannot tell you what Prodeus is about or any plot details; the game is narratively spartan. But goddamn does it feel amazing to play. There were certain shootouts where the entire room, from floor to ceiling, turned red (or blue) with blood. This game has some of the most satisfying gore, it is perfectly thick and red and leaves trails in the environments; tasteful as fuck. Despite certain guns being numerically better than others and the sheer quantity of them, I still used almost the entire arsenal in each level. Each gun is useful in a very specific case and the developers do a good job at varying enemy placement and environment layouts to ensure that there each gun is given its time to shine. Furthermore, the sounds of each gun are titanic. Certain guns boom, others whoosh or thock. When shooting different guns in quick succession, the guns create an unmistakable rhythm of death.

Prodeus is a very light game: pop in, play a couple levels, quit. It really does not have enough material, story or variety beyond its (admittedly rad) visual gimmick to sate the price tag, but if you see it in a bundle, it is worth giving a shot.

Prodeus is a smooth game in terms of combat and everything but there are a lot of problems with the game as well.

The respawn option is crap. you restart and you go back to your "nexus" point or your checkpoint with full health and all the monsters you killed are still dead. The only way to circumvent this, is to do a full restart which will restart you from the very beginning.

The monsters are basically straight-up rips of Doom monsters. The lack of variation makes the game seem generic.

I like the implementation of the leaderboards and the map creation and this game is by no means terrible, It's a decent game.

It's not super memorable, but a good way to pass the time.