Official E.Y.E Website [http://eye.streumon-studio.com/]
This game has caught my E.Y.E on steam about three days ago. A RPG/FPS mix akin to Deus Ex from the indie developers Streum On Studio (previously known for oh wait... debut release! Well, there was the Syndicate Black Ops mod for half-life, I guess), a small french developer team.
It's been released on 29.07 - currently at ?17.99 as release week deal on steam.
Overview: E.Y.E has a heavy cyberpunk setting - Technoblades, High-tech guns, Implants, Hacking, Psy-powers and the like. Stages are diverse - a worn-down industrial district, blade-runner-ish city, run-down shopping mall, deserted research facility (alien-style), eastern-looking temple, even the surface of Mars.
The story is a pretty confusing mess (but in a good way, at least for me), difficult to put in a nutshell. You're part of an organization called E.Y.E, composed of two rivaling factions, who are in turn fighting against the "Federation" (picture Templars + Samurai vs. British Space Nazis, if You will - that was my initial impression). At least that's the frame You are set out with - the game itself focuses more on the internal conflict between Your Mentor and Your Commander, with hints at a more complex plot behind it. Dark, gloomy, bizarre atmosphere.
Graphics are obviously very dated. The game utilizes valve's Source Engine and tries to cover up its shortcomings with lighting and fog effects. It does create nice atmosphere (Federation soldiers viewed through the distortion of a scope, for example, make for a really nice in-game effect, even though it's objectively speaking just a blurry mess), but don't expect any wonders - good graphics cost thousands to millions of $, and this IS just a small indie team. If You're ut off by this sort of thing, well, not a game for You. Check the trailers first.
Music and sound - nothing to write home about. Music is unintrusive, sounds are just okay. It gets the job done. No voice acting for the dialogue, very few spoken lines - spoken in a made-up language, apparently. Good for the atmosphere, for sure.
Gameplay. Okay, firt off, the game has a very steep learning curve. There's a multitude of stats right of the bat. You get Your standard HP and energy bar plus a sanity bar, then You have stats like strength, agility, hacking, psy, etc - oddly enough, no intelligence, apparently, we don't need that
There's implants and psy powers (which act pretty much the same, though - implants are activated abilities like cloak or cyber vision, psy powers more like one-time effects, both consume energy), further purchasable and upgradeable cyberplants improving certain stats and character aspects, then there's hacking (bankomats, doors, computers, turrets, but also people's cyberbrains - posess that sniper and make him shoot his teammates), research, maintenance... yes, obviously, a lot of stuff, it can be quite overwhelming at the start. The tutorial level does a halfway decent job at explaining some basics, and there is an integrated tutorial menu with videos to show some more, though I personally didn't find it very helpful.
You earn cash per kill, hacked bankomat or completed (sub-)mission, and experience for some missions and also per hit (not per kill). Some issues with that, as summoned clones and hacked turrets/people don't give You any exp or money atm, but that can be worked around. 3 stat points per level up, stats cost 1 point to raise up to around 60, then 2, then 3, etc. A level cap does not appear to be present, some people report having lvl 120 chars and still gaining exp, albeit only slowly so. A limited (through carry space) number of weapons and ammo can be equipped at armories (at least one on each level). New weapons have an initial unlocking cost (sometimes needing research), but then can be gotten at the armory for free along with the ammo. 3 different armor types (light, heavy, medium) affecting encumberance and fall damage - nice touch there, at light armor, You can survive quite some falls, while heavy armor makes You die from fall damage pretty easily. Weapons are relatively diverse, if not very numerous - 4 pistols (including guns akimbo), 4 melee weapons (single and twin katanas, dynamo-blade causing small AoE, huge hammer), 3 assault rifles, 3 sniper rifles, 2 smgs, 3 shotguns, 3 heavy weapons. Drones, sentries and grenades are also availble.
Gameplay itself is similar to Deus Ex: Mostly nonlinear mission progression, with different ways to achieve the same goal - usually chosen between hack, bribe, sabotage and kill. Side quests in campaign missions availble, as well as outside of them - You can re-visit levels with different, random objectives (mostly kill this, sabotage that, protect something else, etc). There's some depth added with the mental ballance system and maintenance, but only in the beginning - on later levels, You hardly ever panic or get paranoia attacks, and even then, it's just a matter of pressing an additional button and waiting a few seconds when it happens. You start the campaign with 8 resurrectors - "lives", if You will - which will bring You up and running should You die (and You probably will, at first), like respawn. Be wary, though, that there are some ways to achieve instant braindeath (as in, no chance to resurrect). Also, on every death, there is a chance of suffering a permanent wound, which will reduce Your stats. Those wounds are curable later in the game through specific research, but when I say later, I do mean LATER - I played through the campaign once and still didn't manage to get it. Not everyone's cup of tea. Speaking of campaigns, the end is very... well... don't want to spoil it, but it's unconventional, AND there are multiple slightly different campaign progressions (and endings) availble.
There's multiplayer coop, but I can't comment on that one, I haven't tried it.
Atm, the game still has a LOT of bugs, make no mistake. There are bugged quests (one especially annoying one causes instant braindeath during progression, though it's in such a perfect moment that it can almost count as an awesome easter egg), research sometimes won't work, sometimes will work with no cost, there are numerous exploits You can accidentally stumble into (+20 levels on mars, and I didn't even mean to, just tried to shoot down a heli), the AI is buggy and not very sophisticated in the first place (often instant recognition on line of sight, but don't take notice if You miss them and shoot at their feet with a silenced sniper rifle, for example, or allow You to cloak away in plain sight), enemy respawns can be ridiculous even when set to "normal" sometimes (I kid You not, I once killed a wave, turned around to hack something, got shot in the back, turned around again and bam - 4 new enemies coming from a dead end). Yes, the game has issues. A patch is on its way, but, again, it's only a small indie team, it takes time.
Even despite its issues, I still recommend this game. Definitely worth those 19.99?/$/whatever, and it's really encouraging to see new developers tackle such an ambituous project. So hats off to them... even if they are bloody french
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Edit: Meh, and no, it's not really a review, not nearly in-depth enough for that I've got it, I love it, I wanna spread the word and see if other people like it as much as I do =]
~Sylv
This game has caught my E.Y.E on steam about three days ago. A RPG/FPS mix akin to Deus Ex from the indie developers Streum On Studio (previously known for oh wait... debut release! Well, there was the Syndicate Black Ops mod for half-life, I guess), a small french developer team.
It's been released on 29.07 - currently at ?17.99 as release week deal on steam.
Overview: E.Y.E has a heavy cyberpunk setting - Technoblades, High-tech guns, Implants, Hacking, Psy-powers and the like. Stages are diverse - a worn-down industrial district, blade-runner-ish city, run-down shopping mall, deserted research facility (alien-style), eastern-looking temple, even the surface of Mars.
The story is a pretty confusing mess (but in a good way, at least for me), difficult to put in a nutshell. You're part of an organization called E.Y.E, composed of two rivaling factions, who are in turn fighting against the "Federation" (picture Templars + Samurai vs. British Space Nazis, if You will - that was my initial impression). At least that's the frame You are set out with - the game itself focuses more on the internal conflict between Your Mentor and Your Commander, with hints at a more complex plot behind it. Dark, gloomy, bizarre atmosphere.
Graphics are obviously very dated. The game utilizes valve's Source Engine and tries to cover up its shortcomings with lighting and fog effects. It does create nice atmosphere (Federation soldiers viewed through the distortion of a scope, for example, make for a really nice in-game effect, even though it's objectively speaking just a blurry mess), but don't expect any wonders - good graphics cost thousands to millions of $, and this IS just a small indie team. If You're ut off by this sort of thing, well, not a game for You. Check the trailers first.
Music and sound - nothing to write home about. Music is unintrusive, sounds are just okay. It gets the job done. No voice acting for the dialogue, very few spoken lines - spoken in a made-up language, apparently. Good for the atmosphere, for sure.
Gameplay. Okay, firt off, the game has a very steep learning curve. There's a multitude of stats right of the bat. You get Your standard HP and energy bar plus a sanity bar, then You have stats like strength, agility, hacking, psy, etc - oddly enough, no intelligence, apparently, we don't need that
There's implants and psy powers (which act pretty much the same, though - implants are activated abilities like cloak or cyber vision, psy powers more like one-time effects, both consume energy), further purchasable and upgradeable cyberplants improving certain stats and character aspects, then there's hacking (bankomats, doors, computers, turrets, but also people's cyberbrains - posess that sniper and make him shoot his teammates), research, maintenance... yes, obviously, a lot of stuff, it can be quite overwhelming at the start. The tutorial level does a halfway decent job at explaining some basics, and there is an integrated tutorial menu with videos to show some more, though I personally didn't find it very helpful. You earn cash per kill, hacked bankomat or completed (sub-)mission, and experience for some missions and also per hit (not per kill). Some issues with that, as summoned clones and hacked turrets/people don't give You any exp or money atm, but that can be worked around. 3 stat points per level up, stats cost 1 point to raise up to around 60, then 2, then 3, etc. A level cap does not appear to be present, some people report having lvl 120 chars and still gaining exp, albeit only slowly so. A limited (through carry space) number of weapons and ammo can be equipped at armories (at least one on each level). New weapons have an initial unlocking cost (sometimes needing research), but then can be gotten at the armory for free along with the ammo. 3 different armor types (light, heavy, medium) affecting encumberance and fall damage - nice touch there, at light armor, You can survive quite some falls, while heavy armor makes You die from fall damage pretty easily. Weapons are relatively diverse, if not very numerous - 4 pistols (including guns akimbo), 4 melee weapons (single and twin katanas, dynamo-blade causing small AoE, huge hammer), 3 assault rifles, 3 sniper rifles, 2 smgs, 3 shotguns, 3 heavy weapons. Drones, sentries and grenades are also availble.
Gameplay itself is similar to Deus Ex: Mostly nonlinear mission progression, with different ways to achieve the same goal - usually chosen between hack, bribe, sabotage and kill. Side quests in campaign missions availble, as well as outside of them - You can re-visit levels with different, random objectives (mostly kill this, sabotage that, protect something else, etc). There's some depth added with the mental ballance system and maintenance, but only in the beginning - on later levels, You hardly ever panic or get paranoia attacks, and even then, it's just a matter of pressing an additional button and waiting a few seconds when it happens. You start the campaign with 8 resurrectors - "lives", if You will - which will bring You up and running should You die (and You probably will, at first), like respawn. Be wary, though, that there are some ways to achieve instant braindeath (as in, no chance to resurrect). Also, on every death, there is a chance of suffering a permanent wound, which will reduce Your stats. Those wounds are curable later in the game through specific research, but when I say later, I do mean LATER - I played through the campaign once and still didn't manage to get it. Not everyone's cup of tea. Speaking of campaigns, the end is very... well... don't want to spoil it, but it's unconventional, AND there are multiple slightly different campaign progressions (and endings) availble.
There's multiplayer coop, but I can't comment on that one, I haven't tried it.
Atm, the game still has a LOT of bugs, make no mistake. There are bugged quests (one especially annoying one causes instant braindeath during progression, though it's in such a perfect moment that it can almost count as an awesome easter egg), research sometimes won't work, sometimes will work with no cost, there are numerous exploits You can accidentally stumble into (+20 levels on mars, and I didn't even mean to, just tried to shoot down a heli), the AI is buggy and not very sophisticated in the first place (often instant recognition on line of sight, but don't take notice if You miss them and shoot at their feet with a silenced sniper rifle, for example, or allow You to cloak away in plain sight), enemy respawns can be ridiculous even when set to "normal" sometimes (I kid You not, I once killed a wave, turned around to hack something, got shot in the back, turned around again and bam - 4 new enemies coming from a dead end). Yes, the game has issues. A patch is on its way, but, again, it's only a small indie team, it takes time.
Even despite its issues, I still recommend this game. Definitely worth those 19.99?/$/whatever, and it's really encouraging to see new developers tackle such an ambituous project. So hats off to them... even if they are bloody french
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Minimum:
Supported OS: Windows® 7 32/64-bit / Vista 32/64 / XP
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz, Athlon 64 3000+ or better
Memory: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible video card with 128 MB, Shader model 2.0. ATI X800, NVidia 6600 or better
Hard Drive: At least 6 GB of free space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Recommended:
Supported OS: Windows® 7 32/64-bit / Vista 32/64 / XP
Processor: Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
Memory: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible video card with Shader model 3.0. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better
Hard Drive: At least 6 GB of free space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Supported OS: Windows® 7 32/64-bit / Vista 32/64 / XP
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz, Athlon 64 3000+ or better
Memory: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible video card with 128 MB, Shader model 2.0. ATI X800, NVidia 6600 or better
Hard Drive: At least 6 GB of free space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Recommended:
Supported OS: Windows® 7 32/64-bit / Vista 32/64 / XP
Processor: Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
Memory: 1 GB for XP / 2GB for Vista
Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible video card with Shader model 3.0. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better
Hard Drive: At least 6 GB of free space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Edit: Meh, and no, it's not really a review, not nearly in-depth enough for that
I've got it, I love it, I wanna spread the word and see if other people like it as much as I do =]~Sylv
