Prodeus

What would happen if you took Doom (1993) and Doom (2016) and fused them together with cosmic radiation? Prodeus might be as close as we ever get to an answer. The game casts you as a nameless warrior and drops you into a war between Order and Chaos. You’ll blast enemies across a range of faux lo-res environments, from decaying power plants and cities to frozen wastelands and orbital satellites.

Though the baddies you face primarily take their inspiration from Doom, other influences have also crept into the mix. Fireball chucking Xenomorphs appear in spades, and later you’ll encounter enemies that would fit in among the ranks of StarCraft’s Protoss. Why are all these mutants and monsters going berserk on you and each other? I never quite figured that part out, but the visceral action and joy of watching rival factions mow each other down more than made up for the lack of story.

Why sit back and watch enemies tear each other to shreds, though, when you could join the fun yourself? The action in Prodeus moves fast; the weapons look and feel great, and each has a secondary firing option to boot. The Shredders – dual SMGs – let you fire one with reasonable precision or unload both at once to pulverize aliens that get up in your face. Shotguns, meanwhile, come in multiple flavors – my preference is the Super Shotgun, which can fire four shells at once to drop nearly any monster, big or small. There are also rockets, grenades, energy weapons, and last but not least the Chaos Caster. The Caster’s primary firing mode is a lightning attack that leaps between nearby enemies, while its secondary fire option turns it into a sniper rifle.

Yes, I said sniper rifle. But make no mistake: You’ll never find yourself hunkering down in a foxhole and waiting for enemies to pop out of cover. Prodeus plays hard and fast, the level design always funneling you forward. There are few puzzles or mysteries to ponder over, unless you want to uncover all of the secrets.

Unfortunately, many secrets are only reachable with extra abilities – abilities you only unlock late in the campaign. Realizing that I wouldn’t be able to find all the hidden collectibles in a level on my first visit completely disincentivized me from hunting for them. There was nothing more depressing than spotting a precious chunk of ore only to realize that I wouldn’t be able to grab it without a double jump.

I do have a few other nitpicks. The controls on console are a bit wonky, even after tweaking. The game was clearly built for keyboard and mouse first. Also, the difficulty balance feels just a bit off. Using the respawn points makes the game too easy, but disabling them makes the later levels overly punishing. I wish there was a compromise between the two options.

All in all, though, Prodeus is a spectacular throwback FPS. It takes the frantic action of newer shooters and effortlessly blends it with the nostalgia of the 90s classics you know and love. Every aspect from the gameplay to the soundtrack oozes with style. The dissonant synthesized drone of the stage select music will stick in my memory for months if not years to come.