Check out our video review:
“Boomer shooter” is a term people have been using as of late to describe shooters intentionally designed to look and feel like they came out of the 90s. The market seems to be saturated with them now but I’m not complaining because the ones I’ve played so far are pretty damn good. Prodeus is one and I played it when it was in early access. I enjoyed what I played at the time and felt it showed potential. From what I understand, two of the people responsible for Prodeus met while working together at Raven Software. Developed by Bounding Box Software and published by Humble Games, Prodeus was released for PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2022. For this review, I played the PC version. According to the game’s Steam page, Prodeus is a first-person shooter of old, re-imagined using modern rendering techniques and technology.
Prodeus comes with a campaign called “The Kingdom Between” and I’m going to quote the in-game description because I honestly can’t tell you much about what the hell was going on in the story. The war between dimensions is at a tipping point. As Prodeus seeks flesh and bone for perfect order, the forces of Chaos ravage this mortal plane. The weak cannot escape their fate. The story is primarily conveyed through text. Each map comes with information you can read and their are some what I’ll call lore entries you can find in the maps. One thing I like about Prodeus is that the gameplay is front and center and the story never ever gets in the way. There’s no traditional cut scenes and no narrative devices to pull you out of the experience. The campaign does convey a cool grim and dark world and the tone and atmosphere remain consistent throughout.
Okay, so let’s get the “boomer shooter” stuff out of the way first. Prodeus is designed to play like a shooter from the 90’s. Like Doom and Quake, for example. If you’re familiar with classic shooters, a lot of what’s here should be familiar. The run and gun gameplay, key hunting, secrets, plenty of enemies to shoot – it’s all here. The action is fast-paced, it can get hectic, and you’ll need to move and strafe to avoid attacks and stay alive during battles. But not everything is retro. Prodeus includes a good mix of classic and more modern conventions and mechanics. You can aim up and down, some weapons let you aim down sights, and the maps feature Nexus Points which are checkpoints. The campaign features a world map where you can navigate to the different maps or levels and replay any already completed maps. The first part of the campaign requires you to find Runes to unlock more maps and you can find Ore Fragments that can be spent at shops on weapons and upgrades including a double jump, dash, and bandolier. In addition to the standard maps are trials where you must shoot targets using specific weapons and if you meet the time requirements, you’ll earn bonus Ore Fragments.
I think Prodeus’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before, it doesn’t try to break new ground. I’m well aware it’s designed to be a “shooter of old” and that’s exactly how it feels. It feels like a love letter to the classics. In my opinion, what it does do it does very well. Prodeus features some of the best gunplay I’ve seen in a boomer shooter. The weapons look cool, have excellent audiovisual feedback when fired, muzzle flashes and explosions look good, and you can paint the environments in the blood of your foes. Seriously, a battle typically results in the area being soaked in blood. There’s a chunkiness to the combat, shots will result in blood gushing and spraying, body parts can be blown off, and enemies can explode into a shower of blood and gibs. It’s quite satisfying to say the least. Furthermore, your weapons will get blood on them during battles which I thought was a nice little detail.
For the most part, Prodeus is a solid title and while I don’t have many issues with it, I do have some. Most of the foes you face are Chaos foes. They come in different types, wield different weapons, some fly, and some unleash projectiles. In fact, many foes more or less behave like enemies from classic Doom. You will fight several bosses throughout the campaign and just like many classic shooters, they will appear among standard foes in later maps after you defeat them for the first time. Then there’s the Prodeus or Prodean units. These I don’t much care for. Several are just variants of Chaos foes and they take more damage to kill. Basically, they’re spongier and they are more prevalent towards the end of the campaign. You will see Chaos and Prodean foes fighting each other from time to time and that’s always cool to see. My other issue with the campaign is that the ending is very anticlimactic. The final map is like a small box with a boss and continuously spawning foes.
One aspect of the game the developers didn’t seem to borrow from the classics is the more maze-like level design. The maps here are big and many are intricate but I found that it’s pretty obvious where you need to go and what you need to interact with is always clear. The maps are definitely not super linear but I never got lost or stuck and you can reference the automap at any time to see exactly where you’re located. You will have to find keys to gain access to certain areas and the maps feature a nice mix of narrow and open spaces and I found that there was always plenty of room to maneuver during battles. Maps do contain secret areas which typically house resources like health, armor, and ammo and sometimes Ore Fragments. The secrets and Ore Fragments are the reasons to explore and some of the fragments are really well hidden and will require some upgrades to access. Not only that, you are scored at the end of each map based on your performance and the game comes with numerous difficulty levels. So with secrets and Ore Fragments to find, multiple difficulty levels, and the scoring system, the campaign gives you plenty of reasons to return.
As indicated earlier, Prodeus is a very fast-paced shooter. Things do get more challenging as you progress and the campaign features a decent variety of maps. In fact, you’ll travel to different dimensions with their own themes. You’ll frequently see enemies spawn in as you run through areas, you’ll have to evade sniper fire in certain maps, and ammo seems to be around every corner. Every weapon proves to be useful in my experience. That’s not to say I frequently switched to the pistol after I got the better stuff but the Pistol is still great against lower-tier threats. Much of the challenge comes from being outnumbered because I found that most foes don’t pose much of a threat on their own. Some weapons are better for certain threats and situations and you’ll always want to be on the move during battles. If you’ve played classic shooters, you should be familiar with the dance. Run, strafe, jump, dash around the mobs of foes surrounding you and shoot everything.
Prodeus does come with a multiplayer component and supports cooperative play. Unfortunately, the multiplayer seems to be mostly dead in my experience. I found one co-op session. However, the campaign and multiplayer is not all the game offers. Prodeus does come with a level editor and in-game browser that lets you browse and download custom maps and campaigns and from what I saw, there’s quite a bit of stuff out there.
Prodeus does look great in my opinion. It does aim for a retro aesthetic like many boomer shooters do but the presentation is packed with details. The texture work, lighting, and weapon and enemy models look great and the action is accompanied by great visual effects. Enemies growl and make all kinds of noises, blowing enemies to bits is accompanied by satisfying squishy sounds, most weapons sound powerful when fired, and the action is backed by good music. More intense stuff kicks in when the action gets going and in between is a lot of moody and ominous tunes. On the technical side, the game ran great and I did not encounter any major issues.
I had a great time with Prodeus. While it doesn’t do anything I haven’t experienced before, what it does do is a lot of fun. It’s a brutally violent fast-paced shooter that contains all the important staples of the classics. In the end, it’s fun. In fact, the gunplay is some of the best I’ve seen within the boomer shooter genre. The weapons are cool and fun to use and battles can result in the areas getting drenched in blood. I never got tired of seeing blood gush and enemies explode. That along with the fast-paced run and gun gameplay and level design are what kept me going. It’s the kind of game that would stay in my mind after I stopped playing. Like it was calling me back. Because I simply loved the dance. Run, strafe, jump, and shoot, painting the environments in blood. And I appreciate that the maps are not super maze-like but have well hidden secrets and encourage exploration. Furthermore, the gameplay is always front and center. The story is there if you want it but nothing ever pulls you out of the gameplay so you can jump in at any time and immediately start running and gunning. The end of the campaign is a bit anticlimactic which is my biggest complaint. But, ultimately, Prodeus is a blast.
I would absolutely recommend Prodeus. I’ve seen many players compare it to Doom and while it does share similarities with both classic Doom and the more recent titles, I say it feels more like Brutal Doom. So if you enjoy Brutal Doom and/or classic shooters, I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy Prodeus. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, doesn’t break new ground, but what it does do it does well. Definitely check it out.