Prodeus | Review

Initial Release Date: 2020

Engine: Unity

Developer: Bounding Box Software Inc.

Composer: Andrew Hulshult

Mode: Multiplayer and Single Player

Platforms: Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Publishers: Bounding Box Software Inc., Humble Bundle, Humble Games

Introduction: Boomer Shooter. Retro Shooter. Indie Shooter. DOOM Shooter. Many people are describing Bounding Box Software’s Prodeus by many different names. You only need to call it one thing. A great first person shooter. That’s what it is and I’ll tell you why. So keep reading.

I’m 46 years old now. I get the boomer shooter lingo. Prodeus’s essence is made of old school shooters like DOOM, Unreal etc. It’s essence is it’s own however. It’s retro and new at the same-time doing something not many shooters have done in the past that I have played.

With it’s ability to change how the game looks and plays by giving you various game settings and options. Prodeus is indeed retro with a twist.

Presentation: This entire review of Prodeus is based solely off it’s single player story campaign. There are multiplayer components intertwined as well. Map, level creators for the PC version. Console players can play said user created maps just not design them if I am correct.

I played through Prodeus’s single player campaign in performance mode via Xbox Series X on Gamepass. As for bugs or glitches I didn’t really notice any. Complaints I do have only have to do with getting trapped in maps while fighting hordes. As for technical gripes I really don’t have any. Oh wait. Two times I noticed some slow down during extreme on screen chaos.

The campaign’s presentation was better than I thought it be. I was going in with an attitude of “okay crowdfunded DOOM indie on gamepass let’s see”. What I got was a six hour fully fledged first person shooter campaign akin to greats such as DOOM 2016.

Story: Prodeus’s story is metal-esque. You have a war between the Prodeans and Chaos (two races of demons) at war. You play the no name protagonist (I don’t want to call him Slayer). You have to close the portals of these demonic terrors from traveling to your planet.

You close hell portals from your own planet into space even. How cool is that? Eventually, Hero travels to the home worlds of the Prodeans and Chaos Demons themselves to chew bubblegum and kick ass and I’m all outta bubblegum! Sorry for the They Live flashback. Hero ends up closing the realms of evil. End of story.

There were a few beacons in Prodeus’s campaign where you can read about what happened to the settlers on the planet etc. Collectibles helped what little the story had and made it alittle more fleshed out.

Gameplay: Fast, frantic, intense, brutal, gory, challenging and fun are a few words that describes Prodeus’s gameplay. Prodeus has a campaign mission design like that of the old Super Mario games world maps that’s just great. The world map hub lets you choose how to play the campaign.

You can choose which main mission to play. There are shops where you can buy the Super Shotgun and abilities like double jump. There is also a weapon tutorial area in the shop area as well. Weapons are all satisfying to use from the Super Shotgun to the Plasma Rifle.

Each gun was distinct in it’s feel, purpose and appearance. Each weapon had a secondary fire mode or a useful ability assigned to it. Getting back to the World Map. There are challenges and side missions you the player can play to collect more resources that are used to level up the hero and gain better weapons.

Campaign is filled with variety, focus, purpose and choice. But most importantly, it’s fun! Creatures range from the easy killable zombies to the more annoying to kill Sniper Zombies. You have Pro Chaos Demons which been infected by the Proteans.

Enemies are different meaning some weapons are better against specific monsters. Some monsters like Prodean Cryomancer and Chaos Hunter have specific weak points to target to kill them. Enemies in Prodeus have range and offer challenging gameplay sequences later on in the campaign.

Do not be fooled by how easy the campaign starts. I played it on Normal by the way. My only gripe tied to the gameplay are some parts of the maps. I got trapped many times because I backpeddle straff putting myself into a killable corner. Guess that’s more my fault lol.

Visuals/Graphics: I really enjoyed Prodeus’s retro-tech look visually. I normally shy away from games with pixel art. Hey, I have issues with playing games that look like they did when I was a kid. I need to see a shrink.

Anyways, Prodeus has options to use 3D models on creatures or pixels. I tested both. I tested some of the other visual options in-game as well. I enjoyed combining different looks and playing this game. So kudos to the designers for the various graphical options in-game. That was a smart move in my opinion.

Sound/Music: Music was good but did repeat on occasion. I loved how some metal tracks picked up as the combat started getting intense. Regular sound design was so and so not much there. If you like metal, ripping & tearing throwing up the bullhorns you’ll dig Prodeus’s music.

Final Verdict: If you want to view gameplay of Prodeus visit Prodeus Video Gallery Playlist. Thank you for reading – Jason