"GWIHP - Prodeus"

Posted: 23 January, 2021

I'm genuinely happy that the term retro-shooter is a thing. Many people joke about the descent of the FPS, from mazey lock and key puzzlers (Doom), to linear, fair-ground rides, focused on whisking you from one set piece to another (CoD). Both have their place, and their audience, but personally I'm the kinda guy that likes to run 90 mph, rocket jump, and frag. I was kinda surprised to end up with the best of both worlds, over Xmas: Doom Eternal and Prodeus.

Doom Eternal's a far better game than its reboot, and I could talk at length about it, but Prodeus was the one that stuck with me...

For my money, Retro-shooters often miss the point, reaching for rouge-like procedural changes (bland) and focusing on the aesthetic, rather than the weapons and level design. Nothing has hit the spot. Too much "indie", not enough ID.

Prodeus? It absolutely knows where it's coming from, and where it's going to. Which, tbf, isn't all that far. It's resolutely, unashamedly, Doom in a Quake engine. Its two main developers have genre experience, and it shows; it's built on a custom engine, centred around a bespoke map editor and mod-tools, which were handed to the community at launch.

It's a super bright way to build-out the game, and it matches the ID ethos perfectly.

Not only that, but they also have excellent design chops. The initial batch of weapons look, sound and feel great. The first 4 ... 5 maps, are some of the best mazey level designs that I've played in the last 10 years. Arcane Dimensions level of lols.

The early access crowd are loving it. There are some excellent third-party maps available, already, and it's far from v1.0. I'm really enjoying watching this grow.

They're not getting much press atm, which surprises me, but if you like a bit of Doom (or Quake) then honestly, this is worth the money.

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