Man, does this game bring back memories! And it's a new game! It definitely plays like it's a successor to Doom and for that very reason, I love every bit of it. I've not been experiencing any slow downs when playing. The game is blazingly fast on my PC, running full screen on my 2K ultra-wide monitor. I love the pseudo-retro look, old-school game play, coupled with some new technology. Prodeus is pure joy and mayhem all mixed into one! If I had to find one con, it's that I hate having to go through a zillion screens to exit a game. Games like this I play when I'm short on time and just want to slay a few demons before getting back to work. Having to exit this, that, and the other just to leave the game? It's an irritant. But it's a minor one. So, not too big a deal.
I purchased the game and was sucked in. I loved the idea of an alternate universe where Tesla was more than able to pursue his dreams, no matter where or what they led to. The game also has some very nice graphics. However, game-play falls way short ... to the point that I ended up uninstalling the game despite not completing it. As an example of where I felt game-play fell short - there is a room you need to get to by crawling, on your belly, though a vent you can barely fit into. No worries. Except it takes forever. I wanted to pull my hair out. When would this end?!? Finally, you get into the connecting room, find what you're there for, and, guess what? You are forced to CRAWL BACK THROUGH AGAIN! I wanted to put a weight on the W button and go make a coffee or something while my character kept crawling. Ugh! The second thing that got to me was encountering an area you could not go into because there were sparking electrical wires. Seemed like an obvious puzzle. I followed the wires to their origin, saw they went into a room with a generator, and so I tried to open the door. Guess what? The door does not open. Do you know why? Not because you needed to find a key or key card or some such, but because the game simply wasn't ready for you to open that door. Once you've experienced some other stuff in the game (clues you find), when you come back, the door is now, not only unlocked, but mysteriously opened for you. None of these things are really terrible, but they are examples of things that could have been handled in a much better way that would have made sense. There were other, little things, too, that made the game more "blah" than "ah!". And that's too bad because this actually could have been a great game, in my opinion.
I've played a lot of computer games in my time, but I have to say that System Shock 2 is probably the best of them all. As can be seen here on GOG, after almost 1500 reviews, the game has a solid 5 star rating. This game features it all: a great story, solid game play, fast paced action, interesting puzzles. Games of today would do well to emulate this one!
