First played it during patch 1.12 after getting it on sale. It was bad, I was killed through walls after somehow pissing off some cops on the floor below me. Couldn't enjoy the full experience due to a weaker GPU too, so shelved it. Early 2025 I built a couple new computers with various bargain bin RTX 4070 variants in them, downloaded the offline version 2.21 of the game for one of them and played on a huge TV with someone else for 60+ hrs. Couple bugs here and there, mostly minor visual stuff and 2 hard crashes in that time, so not flawless. But... I can't think of any other modern video game that comes close to Cyberpunk 2077 at this point. It has some issues with too many game systems layered on top of each other and not being equally relevant, but it makes a good effort. It might have less stuff to do than other open world games, but none of it is simply copy-pasted - each activity has some unique voice lines and bits of optional lore. It's actually good now. I had a good time. The last couple games released this past decade where I could say the same were some mid-end AA games.
This is a very tough game to review, because the content of the characters and story is going to be conflicting. While not explicitly a fetish game, and certainly too difficult to effectively play one-handed, it does have some bits and pieces with somewhat icky associations. The worst one I have seen so far is some kind of transparent bottle-lizard thing that requires you to consume and expel slime enemies into it to weight it down enough to push a button. If it was just a glass bottle or other container it would be fine. The actual size changing mechanic is very, very well done. There are multiple ways to affect it with different enemy types and environmental hazards which fill the bar, which can give you a boost to combat strength at the expense of agility and changing vulnerability to different types of attacks. Common enemies can be defeated and eaten along with food items to fill the bar, which can both fuel magic attacks and be digested over time to regain health. Slime can fill the bar but deprives you of magic attacks and can't be used for healing, however can instead be spit out as their own projectiles and make you glow in the dark. If you have neither food nor slime to consume, you can suck in air to gain size and power, but it depletes over time and won't help you with certain puzzles. Juggling the size, speed and power is engaging and works very well, and it makes for a challenging game. However, it does have a few problems with weird hitboxes, blind falls and some cheap traps. Covering the bottom of some areas with thorns when you have no way of looking down gets old fast. The graphics are adequate. The cartoony illustrations and style mostly works, though the actual pixel art isn't very advanced. Turning anti-aliasing on looks very ugly, and it has few other options. Soundtrack is alright, but not stellar. I have had the game freeze once forcing an ALT+F4 shutdown. Otherwise seems to run fine. Decent indie game, if you can -stomach- it.
The patch and DLC fixes a lot of its issues. Single player campaign and career mode can both be a bit of a slog. Basic gameplay is pretty good and meaty, game balance is reasonably good in terms of what weapons do what. Most 'mech chassis have strengths and weaknesses, but drop weight limitations means early on you mostly want 'mechs that are very ton-to-gun efficient. AI is improved, but still unpredictable and stupid. Examples; Enemy Griffin has long-range weapons and does poorly up close. Even Veteran and Elite AI run into your face and hopelessly sputter away, doing practically nothing to you. Enemy Charger has short-range weapons and can do nothing at range. Because it is in some form of "defensive mode" it refuses to leave the boundaries of its designated spot, and is thus easy to pick off at range. This becomes more frustrating when you realize it applies to your team as well. Campaign is a joke with a pathetic excuse for a narrative. Career mode is a bit better and recommended over the former, in part due to skipping the poor story. Co-op and crossplatform play works surprisingly well and is probably the best part of the entire game, Recommended if you have friends with lots of time to waste. Graphics are ok. Not really outstanding, but serviceable. Has most of the options you'd expect, and supports ultrawide. Sounds are pretty good, and improved with the re-release. Music is... fine, it's generic and some people hate it, in my opinion it is okay if you just turn it down a little bit. Various forms of controller support are not well-supported, including joysticks. M+KB works fine for me. Some QOL fixes to AI and UI would go a long way. Overall very barebones, but a lot better than it was at launch. I think it's more of a 3.5/5 but will charitably give it a 4/5 rating for the things it does right, in particular the co-op features and crossplatform.
Prodeus has a lot of good things going for it, it plays well, looks good, is responsive and has a reasonable amount of options - with more to come, hopefully. The Early Access-release is missing a few things, the campaign is incomplete and there is no multiplayer still, which the developers have stated is in the works. The most immediate "issue" is how similar it is to the Doom-series in terms of enemies, levels and many weapons. If you're fine with that it's very good, but it doesn't have much of its own flavor, and some of the weapons and alternate fire modes are a bit similar or weak, particularly the Shredders vs the Chaingun and the Shotgun alt-fire. There's nothing new here, and while it does an adequate job across the board it lacks the attitude that was a big part of real retro shooters from the 90s. There's no outspoken player character like in Duke Nukem, or even much expression in the portrait like Doom and Quake. That said, I feel it does a better job at being cohesive than many other "boomer shooter" throwback games. It takes something that works, and iterates on it a little bit without straying too far. I feel it takes a lot of queues from Doom 2016 as well in terms of atmosphere, particularly the first few levels and the accompanying music, with later levels being much more distinct to Prodeus. A couple things that retro gamers might be apprehensive about is the reloading of some weapons and the checkpoint system. The former is a bit weird if you come straight from Doom and Quake, but makes sense in the context of Prodeus when you start getting more weapons to cycle between during encounters and reload during breaks in the action. The checkpoint system meanwhile does not reset enemies, meaning you won't be bashing your head against the wall if an encounter is particularly difficult or cheap - but most levels aren't that long, and you want to aim for zero deaths on the score screen. It's adequate. Overall, it's pretty fun.
