naiski
Nov 26, 2014
I don't usually write reviews but I just had to write one for this game. EYE is a very unique animal and never before have I seen a game that got so much right and so much wrong at the same time.Streum On Studios took a lot of big risks with this game. It's one of those works that disregards almost all contemporary standards and just goes its own way without thinking twice or looking back. There is an incredible amount of diverse abilities and mechanics in this game and although a lot of them have been seen before a lot of them are also completely new and absolutely brilliant.I'm a big fan of the whole dropped-in-with-no-explanation sublime sort of effect EYE goes for and the puzzling open ended cyclic story with important choices that greatly influence the plot really appeals to me, too. The setting is very interesting, the lore is quite deep for so short a game, and the levels are beautiful and awe inspiring -- perfectly encapsulating that "cyberpunk" atmosphere the game is known for.That being said, none of what I mentioned above really plays out like I described it. On paper, it sounds like the game of the decade. In reality, when you actually boot up and play the game, you'll find that what I mentioned above is more or less true but at the same time completely falls short of your expectations. That's what's precisely wrong with this game -- execution. Anyone who wants to get into game design should play this game. It's a perfect example of how to get so much right -- how to come up with such brilliant ideas -- and execute them terribly. The abilities I mentioned are completely unbalanced, the complex atmosphere I described is so extreme that you won't have the UI completely figured out until halfway into the game, you'll probably have no idea what's going on in the story until near the end of your first play through, and the dialogue translations are all around pretty terrible.Allow me to give an example that really defines where EYE fell short:The hacking system in EYE is one of the most innovative and interesting mechanics I've ever experienced in a game. You can hack anything within a relatively short range of your character, including turrets, ATM machines, doors, computers, defense systems, and almost every enemy in the game. The process of hacking a target is a little mini-game where you balance attack/defense/hp statistics against the target and attempt to deplete your target's HP. Everything -- even ATM machines -- fight back when you attempt to hack them and if your HP is depleted before your targets the result can be anything from kicking you out of the system to making your head explode.Let's assume you're sneaking through a locked-down sector of a city filled with federal troops and see a group of three feds around the next corner. You open up the hack menu, choose one of them as a target, and you have the option to either hack them in a number of different ways. You choose to "posses" the target and initiate the hacking sequence. After about 30 seconds you successfully hack the target and take control of their brain, switching to their view. You influence them to turn towards their buddies, raise their weapon, and fire, killing them. All the while the target screaming and shaking in opposition, trying to fight against your presence in their mind.It sounds like an incredible mechanic and it's easy to think how fun and satisfying it could be in a number of scenarios. Doubtlessly the whole idea is simply brilliant and unlike anything I've ever seen before. However, in reality, it's completely impractical.In the time it took to hack your target you could have put a bullet in each of their heads and have been halfway down the block with more experience from all three of the kills to boot. Not only that, but while you're hacking you're completely exposed and almost certain to die if an enemy walks around the corner and sees you. Any sufficiently powerful enemy worthy enough to hack onto your side has such overblown hacking statistics that you'll never be able to crack them unless you've dumped near all of your stats (acquired via experience that hacking gives you very little of) into hacking.Just like that this amazing mechanic is made completely obsolete, completely overshadowed by objectively better decisions. It's required at two or three points in the game to complete an objective and beyond that rarely ever useful at all.None the less, the game is certainly worth a play. I gave it a 7 because despite all its flaws the good parts of EYE are so good that, at least for me, they allowed me to keep playing and complete all endings for the game. Playing this game is a real trip. Sometimes you'll want to make sweet sweet love to it and other times you'll want to bash its head in with a blunt object. It's a worthwhile experience for anyone to try this game and at the time of this review it's on sale on steam for something ridiculous like 90 cents.
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