KickStarter Prodeus - retro FPS by ex-Raven devs

[Sore Loser]

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[Curratum]

The reason for the vita chambers in the game is very simple - they wanted to make the game as casual as humanly possible and relieve perceived "frustrations" of casual players.

This is a game that my kid can quite literally complete on the maximum difficulty because of that design. He'll just respawn 30 times each level, at no penalty, and eventually finish the whole game.

This game is also releasing on all consoles, including Switch. So this might be your explanation for this specific retarded design choice. Shame to see Dragonfly's amazing mapping and level design somewhat squandered by the stubborn and mildly retarded team lead.

And instead of people telling ME to lower the difficulty (which I already did once from the max and was fine with it), they should perhaps consider that this difficulty structuring is in place to ensure that literally everyone can "beat" the game on any difficulty they choose, regardless of their ability.

 

[Ivan]

CODEX DAD

 

[Ivan]

Holy shit, "Altitude" is the most badass map I've played in Prodeus. It's part of the "fan map" campaign. Better than anything in the Campaign.

4/4: Altitude
3/4: Internal Disruption

 

[Darth Roxor]

I just played through Altitude, and I thought it sucked. No idea what you find so good about it.

I strongly disliked the linearity and the fact that 3/4 of it are imp shooting galleries. Also fell to my death twice from all the stupid chasms while doing whatever shit because I stopped paying attention for a moment. Also some of the later monster placements I thought were really bad, particularly all the pinkies just jumping at you from around corners or the cacodemon mass-spawns where you have nowhere to run - the shittiest one of these was probably when you go up an elevator with the only way being forward, and in front of you spawn two cacodemons and a pain elemental.

No idea why this map is rated so high. Probably because it's "flashy" with the dropship flying around.

 

[Darth Roxor]

After the slightly disappointing final level in the regular campaign, one of my thoughts was "well at least it wasn't the Icon of Sin".

and then the user map Anguish Protocol ends exactly with that

 

[Curratum]

I'm not even mad about Icon of Sin, it was a Sandy Petersen level and all of Sandy Petersen's levels were wack as all fuck.

 

[Sore Loser]

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[Ivan]

strong Doom Hunter vibes


so ready for Certain Doom

 

[Curratum]

Sascha Dikiciyan / Sonic Mayhem did that sound better than anyone else and it sounded so much more lively and dynamic than this looping, barely modulating nu-Doom electrometal.

 

[Ivan]

I'd be interested in hearing, please share.

 

[Multidirectional]

I'd be interested in hearing, please share.

You didn't hear Quake 2 soundtrack?

 

[Curratum]

I'd be interested in hearing, please share.

This is much more my speed and I find it more intricate than the hyperproduced djent that is in nuDoom and Prodeus.

 

[udm]

Sonic Mayhem is the shit. Back when I was still lifting, I would jam to a number of tracks from Quake 2. That stuff really gets your blood going.

 

[Dr1f7]

those tracks are goofy af lmao
bummed that nobody ever plays the co-op in this game. map queue is empty then when i try hosting a co-op map nobody ever joins. I had high hopes that this could be a great mp game with all the custom map potential.
oh well at least sven co-op is still popping off with a few hundred players and dedicated servers

 

[Ash]

Wrong/Missing Quake 2 picks!

Complex 13



Quad Machine (you had this one, kudos)



Stealth Frag



Are the best picks

strong Doom Hunter vibes


so ready for Certain Doom

This is awful....WTF.

 

[luj1]

I'd be interested in hearing, please share.

You didn't hear Quake 2 soundtrack?

This one is a masterpiece in my opinion

 

[Lyric Suite]

Quake 2's soundtrack is better than the whole game lmao.

I played Quake 2 more than once and i legit think it's because of the sound track more than anything else.

 

[luj1]

Quake 2 levels are excellent

 

[Curratum]

Quake 2 is neither here nor there. It's nowhere NEAR as bad as a lot of people meme it to be, but it's also not something that is on the same level as Doom and Quake 1.

Overall, I like it. Some of the hubs go on for too long and get tedious, but overall it's a nice solid shooter, much better than 90% of non-idsoft games.

 

[luj1]

Darth Roxor Do explain why you think they aren't. Quake II levels follow the same mapping philosophy as Quake levels. They were made by the same mappers such as American McGee. It becomes obvious once you play them. Quake II may have its own problems, but level design is not one of them.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Granted, the last time I played Q2 was fairly long ago, but I don't think there is a single level that I'd remember or with which I'd be otherwise very impressed, and that is not a hallmark of 'excellent design'.

 

[Ash]

Quake 2 does have acceptable, good engaging level design, but it's markedly a step down from the usual idsoft at the time. This is among the first 3D games that placed emphasis on realism and believable consistency, which forces abstract gamey goodness to take a back seat. But it still struck a good balance compared to a lot of games since.

What do I mean?

-Quite a lot of the level design is flat plane, hallways made for places of work, industrial efficiency, productivity.
-With the hub/level continuity design, the desire to be consistent and believable is even more obvious.
-Even for challenges, this rule is rarely broken. Like, there's a quad damage that you get by jumping on crane arms in a manufacturing workshop, and it is all constructed in a way that makes realistic sense. Quake 1/Doom on the other hand would construct the challenge with absolute priority given to the challenge, making no concessions for the believability factor.
-It all blurs into one as a result, with less variety, instead of super memorable levels in Q1 like Ziggurat Vertigo (low g level), Wind tunnels, Door to cthon, The Installation etc.

But still, again they struck an OK balance compared to later games; the levels are still to some degree abstract and gameplay-focused, and there are some memorable bits, but it could have been better. As did the Build Engine games strike a good balance. In fact build engine games were king of mixing reality and game. Along with late 90s Looking Glass style games of course.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Couple of good ones that were on the PSX version:




And another of the better ones from the main game:

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ayy moar:





I gotta go to bed but now suddenly i have the urge to go work out instead lul.