E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy is the first game to come out of independent French developer Streum On Studio, and it attempts to break into the industry with a FPS/RPG cyberpunk adventure—which it accomplishes with moderate success. It’s one of the few games that, despite poor design choices and underdeveloped mechanisms, still manages to leave a positive impression.
The largest disappointment of E.Y.E. is its narrative. It takes an intriguing setting and style and turns it into a convoluted mess that inevitably leaves the player skipping over dialogue. This is unfortunate because if you decide to just power through these dialogue trees, you could miss dialogue sections which dictate what your objectives will be—potentially leaving you stuck on a mission which doesn’t fit your skill choices. Even worse than the story is the writing, ranging from unclear language to childish quips such as “Sup dude!”. It makes the already confusing story hard to understand and, in the case of the poor uses of slang, can destroy immersion. There may be a good story somewhere in E.Y.E., it just can’t be found under a pile of poor dialogue and confusing plot.
But since you can just skim over the dialogue and ignore the plot, the game’s enjoyment rests solely on how it plays. Being a Source engine game, you can expect the same responsiveness in mouse movement as Team Fortress 2 or Counter Strike:Source. The gunplay feels particularly lethal, letting the player take down opposition a long distances with only a few bursts from an assault rifle. A lot of this lethality comes from the instant-kill headshots which never cease to feel satisfying. The swordplay can feel a bit less lethal as it can take a few swings to take down an enemy and a absence of “weight” makes each kill feel more like a chore.
E.Y.E. is more than just an FPS though—there’s a whole RPG element which makes you choose from a choice of attributes which ultimately dictates your play style. You level up just as any other RPG, with points earned by downing enemies to be put into attributes such as hacking or strength. You are part robot as well though, so providing you have made enough money, you can purchase upgrades of certain parts of your body—dubbed cybertech upgrades—to drastically increase the corresponding attributes. The final RPG element is research which is similar to the cybertech upgrades, only you don’t know what reward you will get at the end of the research. The time research takes to complete is based on the amount of money you invest, though it never seemed like there was a big enough downside to putting in the least amount of cash possible. All these elements come together for a constant impression of getting exponentially stronger the longer you play the game.
It’s not easy to learn all of E.Y.E.’s mechanics, however. Upon starting the game, you are greeted with an unfamiliar interface, some confusing controls, and twenty three video tutorials to try to teach you these mechanics. Apart from not teaching the user at all, this is the worst way for a player to learn a game’s mechanics, and you will honestly make more enjoyable progress by just tinkering with the interface and trying to make it do what you want.
Each level you play in is an open world where you are given tasks, sometimes multiple, for you to approach in any way you see fit. Missions can vary from hacking a security panel to assassinating a specific target. What each mission eventually comes down to is getting to a waypoint on the map and killing anything in your path. While it may start to feel repetitive, the constant feeling of becoming stronger should maintain your interest.
If you’re looking for more gameplay outside of the campaign, there is also a very enjoyable co-op mode for up to 4 players. The game doesn’t actually have any limit to how many players can be playing in the same game, but the developers recommend no more than 4 players playing at once due to balance and performance issues. You can play either the campaign missions as they were in single player, or you can take those same levels and generate some random objectives. If you manage to get 3 friends to play with you and you turn the difficulty up, you may find yourself having more fun than you did in the singleplayer. The need for teamwork and different character builds adds a cool dynamic that makes every player feel useful.
When it comes to E.Y.E.’s visuals, it’s a mixed bag. Tech-wise, it’s not that impressive, boasting standard graphics that you could see in any Half-Life 2 game before it. Where E.Y.E. shines though is in the world and art style. There are some truly breathtaking environments that, with the inclusion of some nice atmospheric effects, really immerse you into the world. But you aren’t just playing in the same breathtaking environment for the entire game, each level has a unique style and unique looking enemies to complement it. In one mission you’ll be cutting up enemies in an industrial area, and in another you’ll be taking out clans in an Asian slum.
This is a game plagued by design faults and poor execution, but the vision of the developer peeks through those obstructions. This is a fantastic game if you are tired of the same FPS that you have been playing for the past 3 years but if you expect the same level of polish that you’d get from a triple-A game, you’re going to be disappointed. It’s this kind of game which is perfect for a distraction while you wait for the sequel to your favorite shooter coming out in the holiday season, and you may be surprised to find yourself losing hours trying to get that next cybertech upgrade.
E.Y.E is $19.99 on Steam. You can also get a four-pack for a discount.
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