Prodeus

An incredibly violent "Boomer Shooter", not in the same vein as DOOM, but more that it quite literally just *is* DOOM. Prodeus is a testament to the passion of a lot of DOOM fans/community members, and yet it's hard to describe Prodeus as being much more than... legally distinct, modern DOOM. Visually it reminds me of DOOM 64 mixed with DOOM 2016's general vibe, and it basically plays as gloriously gory as Brutal DOOM. There's a lot to love with this game, particularly in all the things that set it apart from DOOM. The arsenal is absolutely nuts, the gore is off-the-charts, the level design is far more advanced. I especially love, LOVE that the sniper-like weapon (hey, unique to Prodeus), gives off a crack of thunder after each shot taken... It's frankly beautiful. Yet despite all this, I'm left wanting from this project. I find this game sort of over-rated, partly because it feels a little derivative (yeah, I know, hot take, when so many "Boomer Shooters" pull from much the same well as Prodeus). The other reason is because it doesn't really reach its full potential as its own thing. The story is somehow more absent and unimportant than the original DOOM's narrative, most of the enemies are almost mechanically identical to DOOM's, the arsenal is more or less an impressive modernization of DOOM's weapons, and the environments are... you guessed it, extremely similar to DOOM's, albeit far nicer to look at and less abstract. The environments are also extremely limited, outdoor areas or tech bases, and don't really go anywhere else. The "Prodean realm" or whatever was more abstract and alien, but I don't remember much about it (it's been awhile), and there are 2 snow-themed maps, 1 "Chaos realm" map (hell, it's hell), and a Chaos boss map. The campaign ends there, rather abruptly, and with little to actually cap things off on the narrative side of things. It gave me the impression of development having had much more ambitious plans that had to be cut. Prodeus may be a labor of love but something felt more than a little desperate in the game's final levels. It felt as though the game's introduction had just ended, but the possibilities to go somewhere and do something really new or fresh never got to present themselves. If they had, I might be writing a very different review. What you're left with is a series of levels to replay and collectibles to find like it's a Mario game, complete with an over-world Map screen. The collectibles act as currency in the "shop level", and this is another major issue I had with the game. Returning some years after having played the game to completion (or so I thought, keep reading), I returned to Prodeus only to find I'd forgotten there were upgrades and weapons I had yet to buy AFTER having completed the entire campaign. These provided quite a few additions to the gameplay experience. While I praise other games, like Dread Templar, for giving me an excuse to replay levels, search for secrets, and indulge in growing my arsenal, I feel more sour towards how Prodeus handled things. You see, I played a decent chunk of the game prior to 1.0, when the shop wasn't in effect and weapons were unlocked organically, so the experience of finding and using them felt purposeful, and made their discovery and subsequent use extremely satisfying. But post-1.0, that experience is ruined by locking part of the game away on a separate map for purchasing upgrades, made dependent on secret hunting, and up to me when and what I buy. As previously mentioned, Dread Templar also encouraged secret hunting to purchase upgrades and discover perks, but the weapons themselves weren't locked in a display case complete with price tag, awaiting my return with a completed grocery list of collectibles in tow. That goes double for movement upgrades. I want them to be part of the experience, or optional to a "character build" system, neither of which Prodeus does. Reward me with fun new options for going out of my way for secrets, don't bar me from the full experience. Another of my initial major issues (which has been fixed) was that a "respawn" mechanic was core to the game's experience. You find a respawn point, activate it, and you'll respawn at that area if you die. The only issue with that is it trivialized combat encounters, the core gameplay, entirely. You could die over and over again with no penalty. Any enemies killed prior to death stayed dead. You could not lose. At all. Over a YEAR after 1.0 release, well after I was done with it, did they finally fix this horrible idea, with the addition of traditional saves. For all of my complaints, which I consider just, I still think Prodeus is one super slick game, and one of the best of the bunch. For my money, Prodeus is a thrill of a time, but leaves me wishing it could have done something else, and gone a bit further. If you've never experienced Brutal DOOM or you don't play a million Boomer Shooters already, you might just fall in love with this one. Unfortunately, Prodeus is like your Uncle who's an Elvis impersonator. He's undoubtedly a cool guy, everyone says so, and Elvis is "the king" for a reason, but he doesn't really ever seem to drop the act. It's hard to see where the impression ends and the real thing begins. The Elder Veil DLC looks like such a departure, and almost more ambitious than the original experience, that I'd almost consider it a sequel just by trailers alone. Let's just hope it makes up for the base game's very few disappointments.

Prodeus is a ferocious and lovingly crafted throwback to the golden age of first-person shooters, a game that revels in the speed, excess, and sheer kinetic chaos of its forebears while elevating them with modern technology. Developed by Bounding Box Software Inc. and published by Humble Games, it embraces the philosophy that shooters should be fast, loud, unforgiving, and endlessly replayable. The premise is intentionally thin — you awaken in a corrupted world overflowing with demonic constructs and twisted machinery — but the game never pretends that story is its core focus. Instead, it channels every ounce of its energy into delivering a pure, adrenaline-fueled blast of retro-styled violence, where the “why” fades into the background and the “how fast can I blow this room apart?” becomes the central question. The presentation of Prodeus captures this vision from the first trigger pull. The aesthetic blends chunky, retro pixelation with modern rendering, particle effects, dynamic lighting, and smooth animations. Enemies explode into fountains of voxel-styled gore, corridors flash with neon energy, and arenas erupt into storms of projectiles and debris. It is both nostalgic and contemporary, striking a balance that gives Prodeus a distinctive style: not a recreation of the ’90s, but an evolution of it. The player can even toggle between more pixelated, retro-looking visuals or a cleaner modern style, allowing each run to feel tailored to your taste. Combined with a relentless metal soundtrack that adapts to the combat, the game’s audiovisual identity forms a raw, pounding rhythm that pushes you forward. The gameplay itself is a masterclass in momentum. Movement is fluid and responsive: you sprint, slide, jump, and strafe at high speed, weaving through waves of enemies while juggling ammunition, armor, and health pickups. Weapons are the heart of the experience, each one hitting with a satisfying punch. The shotgun obliterates foes in close quarters, the rocket launcher turns whole clusters into raining pixelated gore, and plasma rifles melt through swarms with bright, feverish intensity. Every shot feels deliberate, every weapon feels powerful, and the alternate fire modes give each tool just enough nuance to allow different approaches without bogging down the pace. Prodeus understands that in a good shooter, weapons must feel like extensions of the player — dangerous, responsive, and fun — and it executes this philosophy exceptionally well. The level design reinforces the game’s forward momentum. Maps are labyrinthine but never tedious, filled with secrets, optional paths, hidden rooms, and old-school colored key hunts. Some levels play like sprawling arenas full of verticality and complex geometry; others are tighter, more atmospheric corridors that build tension before erupting into chaos. Enemy encounters are dynamic and aggressive, often throwing you into sudden ambushes or locking down areas until every demon has been pulverized. Even in its quieter moments, Prodeus maintains a sense of danger, nudging you to stay alert and keep moving. Its levels feel handcrafted, polished, and intentionally paced — a rarity in a genre often reliant on procedural generation. Beyond the campaign, Prodeus extends its shelf life through community involvement. The built-in level editor — the same toolset the developers use — allows players to create, upload, and share custom maps with ease. This gives the game a near-limitless supply of new content, from short challenge arenas to massive adventure-style campaigns. The inclusion of multiplayer modes, such as co-op and classic deathmatch styles, further widens the game's appeal. The ability to tear through demon hordes with friends or compete in frantic arena matches adds layers of replayability and keeps the community vibrant long after finishing the main storyline. Despite its many strengths, Prodeus does have limitations. Its narrative is barely present and will disappoint anyone looking for cohesive lore or character-driven progression. Even though the visuals are stunning, the loops of combat can become repetitive over very long sessions, especially for players who are not naturally drawn to high-intensity shooters. Enemy variety, while solid, leans heavily on certain archetypes, resulting in waves that can sometimes blur together. These are not fatal flaws, but they highlight how tightly the game is focused on combat above all else — and if that singular focus doesn’t resonate with a player, the experience may lose some of its shine. However, for the audience it is aimed at, Prodeus delivers nearly everything one could want from a modern retro shooter. It’s a game about speed, mastery, tension, and cathartic destruction — a distillation of what made classic shooters unforgettable, enhanced with modern fidelity and convenience. It asks little more than for you to move fast, shoot straight, and enjoy the carnage. For fans of DOOM, Quake, and the broader "boomer shooter" revival, Prodeus stands out as one of the most polished, exhilarating, and creatively expressive entries in recent years. It is brutal, beautiful in its own stylized way, and unapologetically committed to its vision — a triumphant fusion of old and new that earns its place among the genre’s finest. Rating: 9/10

Okayish retro FPS but the art direction in this game is actually acting against you all the time. Other than that, it's ok, the overworld and the route choices felt pretty inconsequential in the first few levels and simply make the game last that little bit more, forcing you to go back to the shop and actually purchasing the upgrades there, when it could be something that you can enter after every few levels, for instance. Also, I lost all my progress so I had to play this game again from the very beginning (a couple of years went by before I decided to come back to it). I don't think It's a bad game but it is not great either. I'd mention it but I don't think I'd recommend it.

It's a love letter to DOOM and Quake, if you liked those you will love this game, yadda yadda yadda. OK, now the rest of this review is written specifically for anyone that wishes DOOM 2016's Snapmap wasn't so disappointing. If you loved Snapmap - and by "loved" I mean "enjoyed making & sharing maps [i]despite[/i] how slow and janky it was, and [i]despite[/i] how getting more than 20 people to play the thing was a struggle, and [i]despite[/i] the engine's frustrating limitations RE: navmesh, mob limits, set pieces, and so on... If you still loved Snapmap and wish it didn't go anywhere, then [b][i]you NEED to own Prodeus[/i][/b]. Prodeus doesn't replicate Snapmap's node-based programming exactly, however it's close enough that you'll gather most of your missing knowledge from a handful of YouTube tutorials & joining the community Discord. Unlike Snapmap, Prodeus' map building features are well-documented & can be relied upon to do what they were designed to do. Yes, there are performance issues if you don't manage your build. However, rather than the engine giving you a bunch of arbitrary hard limits & immutably baked-in resources, it gives you best-practice tips and leaves you to it. You might just find a workaround that fits what you're trying to do. On that note, the level builder doesn't make you rely on pre-fabs. Just about everything can be built from scratch using simple 3D modeling tools, and in places where the auto-calculated navmesh doesn't have your back, [i]you can manually add some[/i]. Furthermore, your builds can be [i]animated[/i], using simple "mover" nodes that parent to one another, allowing for some really complex and animated free-builds. Imagine if the infamous "Psychotron" Snapmap was fully animated, instead of using Tiger-handheld style "blink from frame to frame" techniques! No more slow loading times! Community maps and campaigns load quick. In fact the entire game moves through my computer like greased lightning. But here's the kicker: I'd argue there were two things that made the act of playing Snapmaps so exhausting. The first is that they gave an achievement for making & publishing a map; this led to an abundance of "for the cheevo" maps consisting of two rooms, 1 exit, and 0 enemies/fun. The second was an abundance of pre-fabs & random-build tools that attracted lever-pulling oddballs, flooding the library with bland uninspired dreck (what I used to call "Slapmaps" due to being slapped together). Prodeus avoids both of these pitfalls. The engine self-selects people who really enjoy making stuff and are willing to put in some effort, and as such my experience with playing community maps has always been good. Now, I shouldn't have to mention that any game which leans on user-generated content is basically [i]asking[/i] for buggy & unpredictable results outside of their control. It's just as true here as it is in every other UGC experience. However when I account for that, I have to say that every bug and softlock in Prodeus community maps I've encountered was because someone was trying something ambitious. It wasn't creators missing basic stuff or baked-in bugs that the devs never ironed out. And so I have to say the biggest strength of Prodeus' community creations is that it's backed by truly passionate creators who may fly too close to the sun from time to time, but at least it wasn't because their pre-fab wings developed a sudden & undocumented love of solar energy, as it were. Again, the game itself is terrific. Truly marries the movement & catharsis of DOOM 2016/Eternal with the aesthetics & performance of original-recipe DOOM games and Quake. If all you get out of it is the main campaign, then you'll still be satisfied. But if you aren't at least playing the community creations, then you're missing out on a LOT of great stuff. OK, maybe the last level of the main campaign is a little bad. It LOOKS great, but it's a glorified wave-based arena. I can tell they were going for "Icon Of Sin" but it comes across more as a phoned-in end cap. I mark this down to the last level having to necessarily be compared to all the other levels that came before it, which are top-notch and fun to explore. All of this to say, Prodeus is a must-have across the board.

Uno dei migliori "boomer shooters" per diverse ragioni. Abbastanza impegnativo, molto appagante, grafica che mischia il classico motore grafico "alla Doom" con effetti moderni donando al tutto un tocco di spettacolarità ed atmosfera non banale. A chiudere il pacchetto un ottimo editor di livelli e migliaia di campagne e mappe create dalla community. Uno dei migliori FPS retrò moderni. Voto 8.5

Плюсы: Классные пушки, очень хорошая механика, невероятно атмосферная музыка, отдельно хочу выделить крутейший пиксельный дым/пар! Минусы: Сюжет, его тут нет, если он и есть, то я вообще ничего не понял. Ещё не понравилось что сделали цветные ключи как в DOOM. Итог: Не забывайте ребят, это не ААА проект, это игра инди-студии, и на игру собрали с помощью кикстартера (для всех донатеров сделали отдельный уровень славы), и плюс игра создавалась как ретро-шутер старой школы, это вопрос почему тут так всё однообразно. И с такими данными игра просто потрясающая! Отличная атмосфера, она не супер короткая, но и не затянута. Стрельба очень удобная и пушки крутейшие. В общем всем настоятельно рекомендую, как по мне, это очень недооценённая игра, сделанная с любовью! Прохождение игры: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkEgOOoQUMxpF-9V-tZT6AEa6nLOmVi3H

This is a instant classic. Just that simple, one of the best boomer shooters ever made. 5/5

As someone who played the original Doom when it came out, this is like a highly-evolved version on modern technology. Does it have a good plot? I have no idea, there isn't much of it. Is it fun? Definitely. And oddly, there is an incentive to replay levels to get bonuses you couldn't get to on the previous play. So in short, it's a fun no-brainer shoot-em-up with decently challenging enemies and levels.