Prodeus first playthrough, part 1 (the first region)
2I'm extremely late getting to this, as it was gifted to me in 2021 and I'm only finally getting to it now. (To be fair, it only fully released in September 2022.)
Prodeus combines modern engines and game mechanics with retro aesthetics: gameplay feels very Doom-2016-or-Eternal-inspired, but is rendered by default with spritework more akin to 90s Doom. There is also an option to use 3D models for enemies, which I experimented with very briefly. The soundtrack is serious business, with MIDI work by Jimmy and full audio soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult. Also, Markie apparently contributed some sound effects, and I gotta say, the gunplay does sound great. There was clearly plenty of priority put on making the combat feel satisfyingly punchy.
I came into this unsure of whether I'd have problems parsing or tolerating its visuals, and it's certainly not without fault - menus have annoying flickering/distortion effects that can't be turned off, the plasma rifle's firing animation is kind of in-your-face, and splatter from some weapons makes it so you pretty much can't see anything anymore. But for the most part, I was able to enjoy the game regardless.
Where I didn't enjoy the game was its feeble attempt at exploration and backtracking. You will find secrets that you absolutely cannot reach at first - and upon finding the shop, you will see that double-jump and dash abilities are gated, just like everything else (i.e. weapons), behind ore fragments that are basically rewards for exploration. But you likely won't be able to reach some of these rewards the first time... and then there's very little compelling reason to come back, because in order to revisit a level to collect what you've missed, you also need to finish the level again, which just feels like a blatant waste of the player's time. I suppose I do seem to recall Doom 2016 doing the same thing, except that didn't lock all progression behind the same currency, which puts weapons and movement tech directly in competition with each other.
Not only is the backtracking flawed, but because the movement tech is collectible-gated, it is ultimately optional. This of course means levels are designed to be traversible without them, but an additional knock-on effect is that having them can actually make levels more confusing, because you can end up accidentally sequence-breaking and then being unsure of which direction is actually forwards.
On top of all this, there was one particular time where I decided to at least temporarily backtrack into a level anyway, and lo and behold I found... a secret exit! Which was great because it meant I could keep new stuff I found without having to replay most of the level... but where did that secret exit lead to? Absolutely freakin' nowhere! Why does it exist then?! Apparently these went somewhere unique in an earlier build and then those destinations were scrapped but the extra exits were kept? Almost makes the game seem... unfinished, or at least an extremely mixed bag.
Regardless, this is at least enjoyable as a linear romp. I suppose it's nice that it does allow revisits for people who really want to find everything and don't mind having to completely replay every level to do it. IMO the locking of progression required for 100% within the shop in a way that inevitably requires replaying some levels doesn't feel great though.