E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy

E.Y.E. is an indie RPG coming from France set in the distant future. Its most notable quality is being full of WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT. It has a very steep learning curve and an incredibly complex... everything.

But once you start understanding how everything works, it's fucking amazing. I've been spending my time cloaked to get past enemies, and then using my hacking skills to possess them and kill them off. There are a few other play styles too, and they're all a little flawed in some respects, but damn, the gunplay is fantastic and the RPG mechanics are the deepest and most brilliant I've ever seen in a game.

The most brilliant RPG mechanics? Really? Upgrading for money is brilliant?
I've spent some time with standard dual pistols (that look like pistols from Gungrave) and got loads of $ => got loads of upgrades. Leveling up is very standard for my taste.
The hacking skills (destroy, posses) is cool, very cool but a bit tricky to do if your hacking Lv is low.
Psi powers are OK, my favorite is Multi Copy. Though the amount of powers and their wild variety ( from mind control to the flaming dragon) makes me wonder.
Shooting is very average. If you know your way with headshots, you will have no problems with this game (I suck at shooting, so I mostly relly on high HP and boomstick in enemiy's face). Rifles and 2 pistols are nice, but I don't like how automatic guns work. Too unnatural. The resurrection system sucks. No save, so if you messed up by shooting someone (like shooting your ally in the back in the middle of a gunfight) you'll have to restart the game.
The plot is so twisted that I'm going to bet all my money that it was Twisty McTwist who wrote it. Who are you? Who in all hells are these guys? Why am I wearing some kind of BDSM suit? Why do I always wake up with some dead body? Plus lame tutorial and you get pretty much the biggest WTF in the gaming world.

One of the most Indy protects I've seen. Indy in every aspect.
Someone will love it, someone will hate it.
Me? I love the idea of Psi and Tech united. But gameplay is too imbalanced and I HATE reaspawning enemies.
Long story short. This game is like a big cock. It's big, yeah, but there might be not enough juice to make it hard.

P.S. I sense disturbance in the force. The Deus Ex brutal fans will rage the flames against this game.

The RPG mechanics are great because they're all about building a specific class. In pseudo-RPGs like Oblivion you can end up becoming a sort of mage-warrior-tank-rogue-zombie-doctor-lawyer hybrid and beat the shit out of everything, and even then there's no alternative to combat. In EYE, you actually build your character in a class of your choice, and you can play most of the game as that character.

EYE definitely makes being a soldier easier than being a stealth-hacker like the one I chose to be, but once you get the hang of things, you can play the game any way you want. There are multiple routes that fit various playstyles, and even some side-quests that appeal to not being a soldier. The only exception is when a lot of meta-streumonic enemies show up. It tends to turn into much more of an FPS than an RPG, but the shooting's still fucking good.

Also, Deus Ex was a piece of shit.

Also, you don't have to restart the game. In the character menu, there's a "mission" tab. This contains a "restart mission" button.

This is of course a flaw that they should have made clearer, but you really do need to study the menus and read lots of stuff before you can get the hang of the game.

As I said, hacking and mind fucking is awesome. I usually have two approaches. Direct one ( I mean really direst...with shotgun), or sniping approach. I'm usually not into hacking and other sabotaging.
The game is really nice bad you can still find many flaws here and there. And respawning...And no fool proof system. There is just something...I can't explain it...Something that bothers me in this game.
But I DO LIKE the plot. I'm in. I got it. I just forgot to visit the archive))). And I love madness effect.
Maybe I just aproached this game as another run'n'gun game... I 'll give it another, more inspective, try.

sexbad wrote:

Also, Deus Ex was a piece of shit.

Wait ... what ?

Either you're trolling or looking at it through the modern eye. A lot of what it does seems pretty normal by today's standard, but at the time it was pretty groundbreaking.

I must’ve missed that part.
Deus Ex was one of the first games that gave players a chance to develop and a chance to decide in FPS/RPG game based in near future. If it wasn't for Deus Ex, E.Y.E wouldn't exist, simple as that.
Deus Ex was an inspiration for many games and many gameplay features.
I'm Commander Shepard and Deus Ex is my favorite game in past decade.

Deus Ex had an amazingly complex RPG mechanic, but that's it. The gunplay was shit, the stealth was shit, and the hacking was shit. You could build your character to complete the game in any of those three ways (and even a little more), but the gameplay itself was shit.

I've been playing more of EYE, and it seems to begin shooting itself in the foot at around the fifth mission.

Up until now, I've been a stealthy-hacky kind of guy, and it has served me very well. Then I encountered missions where the main enemies are the meta-streumonics, enemies that belong in games like Serious Sam or Doom more than this. You can't hack them, and since their numbers are so great, cloaking and sneaking past them is an adventure in trial and error. With my only weapons being made for picking dudes off at a distance, the larger enemies absolutely decimated me.

So then I made a new character. He carries akimbo pistols, a double barrel shotgun, and a minigun. I'm having lots of fun playing through the same missions again, leaving holes in everything that moves. It's not perverse fun, though. I wanted this game so I could try being slow and methodical, killing things off while relaxing in my easy chair half a kilometer away. As a no-guts-no-glory heavy weapons guy, the fun isn't much more than you'd get out of your regular swarm shooter. It's great, but not... fucking great.

These mata-something...they are real combo breakers.
Shooting is fun but that's it.

So, I poked around some options and found "enemy respawn rate". Set it to invasion and you’ll have pretty intense action with loads of enemies. With these settings I can truly say that E.Y.E. is awesome.

I used that to lower the number of enemies so hacking would be more accessible, and it was awesome.

Also, I realized that I could use combat drones to do my work for me, thus making some levels easier than I had imagined they'd be.

I'm loving this game again.

That's what is really great about this game. Those who want brutal action and those who want some stealth can use one option and all will be satisfied.
P.S. My epic fail. I agreed to join the army of The Immortal King.

I agreed to kill twenty-seven people for him.

Just finished it.
Now that's what I call proper mindfucking.
Next run will be for other ending.
This game is good. Has it's flaws but I really hope that the developers will continue on perfecting the game.