Prodeus

"GOG Galaxy and a ProNet account are required in order to get access to community content, multiplayer, leaderboards, and cross platform saves..." And if I just want to play the basic single player campaign? I still need a "ProNet account" since the game will not load a local save unless it is uploaded to their server. Tsk-tsk! Congrats, Bounding Box: you got a couple $ from me to buy one product and then lost yourselves a customer. Forever.

MP only with a ProNet account. A game that heavily inspired by the old Doom games should provide LAN and direct IP connection. No thanks, I'll rather play the many Doom ports then.

Prodeus is a kickstarter project that (at the writing of this review) has now entered early access. Its design philosophy is heavily inspired by Doom, with intricate and layered level design that promotes exploration, a beautiful and detailed pixel aesthetic, fantastic sounds & music, and lots of gore. Enemies all look, move, and sound great. My only real design critique has to do with the player's weapons. Fists feel hilariously bad, dealing damage to enemies that seems to be on-par with wet tissue paper. The shotgun's alt-fire seems to deal remarkably little damage, considering it's slower rate of fire and charge up time. The pistol's alt-fire is ok, but the damage could use some help. As it stands, its damage is also lower than the regular fire.The dual-SMGs are fine conceptually, if a bit bland in their execution. Their time to kll / accuracy seems pretty poor, when the pistol achieves comparable results for far less ammo expenditure. Conceptually it should be like performing like the shotgun, without the pauses between shooting, in return for much higher ammo expenditure. That would help differentiate it from the shotgun, and help give both a more distinct role. I can't comment on the rest of the weapons, for reasons I'm about to get into. My machine is on the lower end of specs, but well within the minimum to recommended spec range. My performance with the game (as of November 2020) has been very poor. I have already communicated the details of the technical issues to the developers, and they have responded quickly, promising revisions and improvements with coming updates. When it comes to overall development, they have been very transparent and reliable so far during the game's development process, so I'm optimistic that they will deliver. These are the only real problems I have with the game. I can recommend it to just about anyone. Maybe hold off if your machine is on the lower end.

This game is fantastic! It nails the old-school DOOM and QUAKE better than anything else I've played in a number of years. It's a total gore-fest and each kill is as satisfying as the hype-train has implied. The retro-styled graphics really bring an additional charm to what is already an exciting romp through Hell. If you're still playing DOOM, you need to give this game a try. I don't usually buy games that are still in early access, but I'm glad I did this time.