![]() It takes you through a variety of locales, most interestingly a huge acid processing plant, a space station and a sprint across a row of platforms on the surface of the ocean, often accompanied by pounding rain. Rebuilt as a cyborg killing machine called The Vessel, you decide to interrupt an on-going war between the forces of “Chaos” and “Prodeus” by jumping into the middle of it and slaughtering them all with heavy weaponry. ![]() You are an unnamed person who crash lands in an alien dimension and is killed by a security system when it detects an “Organic”. As you might imagine from a game with that description, its story is really just an excuse to shoot things. It’s touted as an old-school FPS that takes advantage of modern graphical technology, and it clearly has one old-school FPS in particular on its mind, but more on that in a minute. Anyway it turned out to be on Gamepass, so I thought I’d check it out. “James,” you cry, “surely that’s PowerWash Simulator?” Oh my sweet summer child, they mean wet with blood! Gallons of the stuff, give them all that they can drink and it will never be enough. The keycard hunts from DOOM have been transformed into natural breadcrumb progression without sacrificing any of the sophistication that made those levels so great.ProDeus caught my eye when I saw it referred to as “The wettest FPS”. It’s hard to put into words, but while playing it feels like magic. The masterful combination of geometry, lighting, and enemy and item placements come together to expertly pace the action while simultaneously moving things forward. ![]() They elegantly guide the player like the banks of a river from locale to locale, looping back on themselves effortlessly. Not once during my time in these labyrinthian levels did I feel lost or confused. The train leads me back to the start of the level, and with a new keycard, I open the way to the exit. Next, I fight my way through a narrow train, using the high-powered railgun that was beaming down on me moments ago to slaughter lines of enemies. I fight through the trainyard, up the tower, and dispatch the gunmen. The cliff opens onto a trail-yard where the snipers’ tower is a mere stone’s throw away. ![]() I do wish the team had strayed just a little further from their influence, but they come together to make such interesting fights that it’s easy to see why innovation may have proven unnecessary. There are pinky equivalents, cacodemon equivalents, imp equivalents, pain elemental equivalents, and archvile equivalents. Enemy designs might be my one gripe with Prodeus, because while varied, they lack surprise. Things start slow, with some standard fireball-shooting demons and zombies that lurch about, but more interesting and challenging foes are sprinkled in throughout the campaign. ![]() Prodeus towers above that experience with more satisfying weapons (including one of the best chain guns I’ve seen in a shooter), great level design, and some eye-popping art. I play a Frankenstein’s monster version of classic DOOM, loaded up with all sorts of mods that make it punchier, grosser, and smoother. There’s no denying that Prodeus leans hard on the likes of DOOM for inspiration, but is so well-designed and fun to play that I can hardly criticize it for that. ![]()
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