catbarf on 11/11/2020 at 16:22

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(https://store.steampowered.com/app/964800/Prodeus/)

[video=youtube;AUN7t2RyMSs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUN7t2RyMSs[/video]

I remember seeing previews of this a while back and on a whim decided to pick it up. Overall it feels like a modern take on the original Doom, with some design elements from Quake mixed in.

I've played the first five levels, and so far have been really impressed. Weapons feel and sound great, enemies are readily identifiable and have distinct attack patterns, and the level design is clean and intuitive despite some complex geometry and backtracking. The enemy design in particular reminds me a lot of Doom 64's darker take on the franchise.

It also has, as you can see in the trailer, an interesting visual style. Everything is rendered in 3D, but then a filter rasterizes the weapons and enemies into animated sprites. I thought they actually were just sprites until I noticed that they were being illuminated by dynamic lighting. The effect can be turned off, or an additional filter that gives the game a 360p look can be enabled.

Anyways. Game is cool. It's just hit Early Access but so far feels like a finished title. The built-in map editor suggests community content is an emphasis, so I'm interested to see what comes out of that.