quick note, i got this from @duhnuhnuh 's list of free steam keys. very nice of em. the only requirement was a review, which i already do. go look through it if theres anything you want. i see classic doom's still not taken, which i'd totally recommend.

peakdeus or poodeus?

i cant tell! seriously, this game is such whiplash for me. on one hand, its got the worst unlock system ive played in any shooter, has some of the same aesthetic problems as doom 2016, and also shares a lot of gripes that i have with doom 64. on the other, when the game fully leans into its strengths, and you get in a good groove, it rocks.

so first off, lets talk about the shitty shop system. try saying that 10x fast. in keeping with the classic doom tradition, theres a heavy emphasis on exploration of levels to find secrets and stuff. this means that the game's currency, ore, is scattered around levels and you have to find them to unlock certain guns and abilities. by itself, this wouldnt be a big issue. my issue comes from the fact of just how much ore you need to collect for these upgrades. for the SSG and energy gun, you need 15 ore each. if youre someone who likes exploring everything, you can probably get these within the first 5 or so levels. but for me, i prefer linearity in my shooters. so it took me about 75% of the first map to unlock. when i say first map i dont mean first level, theres a kinda dnd system where you have a mini guy that moves around a map to access levels. theres like 4 of these total in the game, 3 of which are relatively short. so when it takes me that long to unlock an energy gun/SSG that kinda pissed me off. whatever, ill just grind out the ore to get what im really after: the dash and double jump. after using a guide replaying many early levels to find all ore, i was able to get the SSG. great, just gotta replay like 5 more levels or so and ill have enough for the dash/double jump. except, thats not the case. those things cost more than the ssg/energy gun. this peeved me off. i decided fuck it, ill play the entire game like 2016 instead. because i didnt want to waste another hour replaying levels for vital tools of your moveset which should have been unlocked through gameplay.

note: the next paragraph had to be rewritten cuz i lost about 30 minutes of work on it. i don't like this draft as much as the initial but what can you do?

hell, even if they didnt, at least make them the first thing you can buy from the shop. when casually looking for ore, it took me about 12/22 levels to unlock the dash. that's way too long in a boomer shooter that clearly takes more from eternal/dusk than it does 2016 in its design. the level design in this game is weird tho. nothing in the game requires you to use the double jump or dash, but it's clearly begging you to use them. this puts it in a weird limbo, where the game ends up feeling incredibly easy, since most encounters are designed around only sprinting and shooting, but made significantly more fun when using the dash and djump. about 90% of levels i beat with 10 deaths or less, and about 50% of levels i beat with 5 deaths or less. i played on hard. the games also easy bc of the way respawning works. in most shooters, when you die the enemies of that encounter reset. the nexus points in prodeus make it so that if you kill it once, it stays dead. this whole system makes the game braindead and i wish encounters could simply reset with you. again though, this decision might have been made bc of how its the game's design doesnt rely on shop unlocks, so if someone collected zero ore, then it might be pretty difficult for them to get through encounters without the enemies staying dead. yet another reason the fucking dash and djump should have been unlocked in levels. the djump i had only unlocked before the penultimate level this leads to another thing. my muscle memory to use both the dash and djump was never developed due to the game not requiring you to use them, and also being incredibly short. by the time i was finally getting into a groove i was already basically done. this shit sucks, bc the game would probably be A LOT more fun if levels were fully designed around djump and dash. but idk, bc of the easy gameplay it leaves it feeling not satisfying.

there is one level that denies this philosophy, though. the "final boss". the final boss is just a huge gauntlet that kinda randomly ends and supposedly the story will get finished in the dlc. hopefully with a real boss too. anyway, the gauntlet requires you to move like there's no tomorrow, and is the only relatively challenging fight in the game due to no access to the nexus points. this fight is where the game shares a huge amount of dna with doom 64. in doom 64 the final fight is complete ass and i only beat it bc of spamming BFG shots at the end. here, the enemies are a bit more bearable once you get used to them, but even with the djump finally unlocked it was a bit of a struggle to find my footing in that fight, constant projectiles and hard to see whats what.





as for the gunplay, it feels incredible even with all these setbacks. not only do the guns feel powerful, which ill talk about later, but when you get into the groove with enemies its awesome fun. however, it does fall into that trap that many shooters experience. rocket spam, and no gameplay reasons to have most weapons. in the later half of the game, theres plenty of rocket spam, which if you know me youll know i hate in shooters, why make all these fucking weapons at all if in late game you just end up spamming rockets and shotgun? not every weapon needs a "set" purpose like in eternal, but at least something like ULTRAKILL where every weapon and every alt type of weapon has a fun use. like with ULTRAKILL its so fun to keep swapping and killing everything in crazy ways. in eternal you need to swap to stay alive. but in prodeus, i hardly see a use at all for the pistol past even the first level. i dont see a difference between using the energy blaster and the machine guns. i think the MGs are hitscan, but you rarely end up out of ammo to swap through everything. except a few cases where your ammo supply is bone dry and its incredibly hard to kill things. why do the fists exist? honestly they shoulda just made the pistol the default weapon with infinite ammo. i just dont see why half the weapons in the game exist. rocket spam does exist for a reason tho, and thats just cuz it still is fun as fuck to jump around the map shooting rockets, even if not the most engaging.

as for the ost, it really surprised me,seeing how im not the hugest hulshult fan(or so i thought, being how i didnt remember most tracks from his eternal dlc work or dusk). in reality, i found his work on prodeus insanely good. i think he just put a poor taste in my mouth with dusk bc that was mostly atmospheric stuff which i dont care for. i love reflections of violence off dusk. hes great here and i think its primarily because of the dynamic(? dunno if thats how to correctly describe it) ost in prodeus. you got your BORING atmospheric ambient tracks but they seamlessly transition into crazy good heavy metal tracks during fights. some favorites include cables and chaos, spent fuel, and dark matter. i definitely wanna give his doom eternal stuff another shot when i happen to replay it, whenever that is.

lets talk about the aesthetic. i mentioned in my first paragraph how it shared some problems with doom 2016's aesthetic. the aesthetic in that game is mostly just orange and brown, which leads most things looking samey. the same is true for prodeus, but the game has an ace up it's sleeve, the sprite work and sounds. the level of artistry to make every sprite at every angle is insane, i honestly think it cancels out how everything in this game is either red, blue, or black. like seriously the aesthetic rocks, cuz the sprites make it unique and stand out. thats not to mention the gore and blood effects which further make it stand out. in doom 2016 and esp eternal the gore was relatively cartoony and over the top, but in prodeus it's dripping with this edginess that isnt present in the doom games. it looks insanely good while you melt down rows of enemies with the machine guns... and dear god do they got the sound design on point, too. the reload noises for each weapons is great, and you feel the impact they bring. the energy gun, too. impact of every weapon is nice and meaty, the only one i didnt initially like was the SSG sfx, but it definitely grew on me.

i feel im going in circles now so i hope you can now see why im at an impasse with this game. i had a lotta fun at points, but at the same time, there's a lot holding it back from its true potential. i think im gonna give it an 8 for now, but could very well change.

wata
6,5/10 - Length
6,5/10 - Enjoyment
9,5/10 - Perfomance/Bugs
5,5/10 - Story/Experience
7,0/10 - Gameplay

Score = 7,0/10