E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy

Playtime: 54.3 Hours

I've finished all three of the main paths, and the epilogue/true ending. I think I've also finished most of the research, attained a pretty high level, and finished a significant number of the cyber upgrades. Some of the research was cheated because it requires extremely long real-world wait times. I gave up doing it the legit route after running the game in the background for probably ~10 real world hours and only managing to do a tiny bit of research in that time. Also, some of the research materials are STUPID rare, like 0.01% drop rates or something. I'm not grinding for that. I did "legitimately" grind for most of my levels and money though, so my legit power level wouldn't be very different from what I actually have. I think I'm quite done with this game forever, even though I eventually came to love my time with the game.

E.Y.E is a very unique game in how strange it is, because I don't think it really tries to be the incomprehensible mess it turned out to be. I'm completely torn between absolutely loving the game and hating it with every fiber of my being; sometimes, I think back on it as a waste of time, but other times I feel like it gave me a breath of fresh air that I needed. It's a game originally written in French but probably mostly machine-translated to English, so it's almost impossible to properly understand any of the dialogue in the game. This might be at least somewhat intentional, because apparently this game barely makes sense in the original French version as well, and the in-game voiced dialogue is in a completely nonsensical language, as admitted by the developers. This game wears the Warhammer inspiration proudly on its chest, all the way down to armor designs and extremely elaborate naming schemes (I don't know much else about WH40K).

The story is kind of a mixed bag - again, because it's difficult to make any sense of it to begin with. Basically, what I've gathered is that the player character continues to hallucinate waking up in front of a strange portal with some missing memories, only remembering something about his mentor being killed. Returning to the temple, he meets two factions in conflict - the Culter Dei and the Jian Shang Di, both part of the E.Y.E organization, who are elite soldiers under orders from the Secreta Secretorum - with the ultimate goal to topple the Federation. Over the course of several following missions, he is under command from Commander Riminah and his Mentor (no other name), who each advise him to not trust the other. Near the end of the game, a choice is available to side with Rimanah, the Mentor, or to defect to the Federation. The end result is still the same - a showdown with Rimanah or the Mentor, before returning to the strange portal from the beginning of the game with a special "Gate" power. Playing through the ENTIRE game 3 times for each path will eventually grant you all 3 powers, which then unlocks a secret path in the first dungeon of the game, leading to a secret level on Mars and the True Ending, where you meet Circe - your purported wife, who tells you the secret of the world: the player is Rimanah. Apparently, Rimanah got his squad and Mentor killed in a mission on Mars, which made him feel so guilty as to be trapped within the Cycles of Guilt, hallucinating warped versions of these encounters repeatedly in his head. You're clued in on this a little bit; at some point, some of the temple soldiers start commenting how you keep going into Rimanah's office (which is actually empty, he does not exist - nor does the Mentor), and talking to yourself as if you're simulating a conversation. Now that you know the truth, you can accept your fate and stay in the True Ending area (which has no interaction, so there's no mechanical reason for being there), or reject reality and go back into the cursed world, continuing the loops again with no end. It's quite a crazy tale, and very interesting - I just wish more of this could have been gleaned directly from the game without requiring people on forums and in discussions to interpret its meaning.

I'd really like to say the the gameplay is really where the game shines... but it kind of doesn't. Some things are awesome, like the weapons - the fuller-auto SMG, portable nuke launcher, railgun, and explosive sword are just some of the great weapons in this game. However, enemy designs and placement within the maps, as well as the infinite spawns, sort of kill off the fun after a few too many hours of spamming headshots on random grunts. There are some really annoying enemies, like the cyberdemons who can nuke you right back from across the huge maps, or the helicopters that do strafing runs with missiles all throughout your entire vicinity - these also make some of the weapons annoying to play with in the later missions of the game. Sometimes, the missions also get in the way of fun - I can only run around killing piles of dudes so many times before it starts boring me, especially when I'm just trying to do a fetch quest. Even if the actual shooting mechanics are satisfying.

I think the other mechanics and stats in this game make it significantly more interesting to me. The hacking mechanic in this game is pretty cool, even though it's relatively simple - it's nice to have a hacking mechanic that can result in you being counter-hacked, rather than just having to wait to attempt again. The entire Psi power system is also really cool, and one of the key factors in differentiating this game and making its gameplay truly memorable. The early game is boring precisely because you don't have any powers unlocked - but as you learn more, they give you super speed, super jump, armor, cloak, teleport, and a trio of extremely powerful "Gate" powers that act as secret superweapons, rewarded every time you beat one path of the game. These can instantly disable an enemy's AI permanently, give you health vampirism on a selected target, and instagib any enemy in the game (for a health cost), and alongside the other Psi powers end up being the most fun part of the game - running at supersonic speed and instagibbing people before teleporting away. Psi powers can be further enhanced by upgrading your character's Psi implants - this is where the "cyberlegs" memes of this game come from, because Cybernetic leg upgrades are absurdly powerful for some reason. To become the optimal soldier, you need to skip everything except for leg day. Once your character is powered up sufficiently, E.Y.E turns from a boring slugfest into an incredibly fun, broken, and nonsensical game - which is why a frequent opinion of the game is that it's horrible for 20-30 hours before it becomes incredibly fun and janky. That's my experience with the gameplay loop, anyway.

From a technical standpoint, there really isn't anything special or even particularly good about this game. Visuals are just about at the level of something that you could expect from a Source game of its era; Streum-On isn't a big studio so there isn't anything fancy. Aesthetically, there's a little bit of cohesion with a generally cyberpunk-ish theme and moderately futuristic weapons, holograms, etc. However, the world is very monotone, with lots of rusted and old metal structures, crumbling concrete buildings, and dark, empty rooms. It doesn't feel lived in, or even constructed for any real purpose - it's clear the shape of the level was prioritized before any consideration of purpose was added - but even the basic structure is often left unfinished. Architecture is completely inconsistent, with some incredibly cramped levels reminiscent of Hong Kong, and others with huge towers and streets with nothing on them. Character/faction aesthetics are similarly inconsistent, clearly taking inspiration from tons of different sources while retaining a general cyberpunk theme - Culter Dei are based on Medieval Europe, Jian Shang Di from China, the Federation just look like common bandits, and the Metastreumonic forces mostly look like asset pack aliens. That said, I don't hate the end result of these disparate elements - but I think that says more about my poor taste than the game's good design. As for audio, sounds are generally OK, not particularly good. Voice acting is loud, boots and Psi powers are incredibly loud for some reason, and guns sound fine. As far as I know, there's no music; if there is, then I probably had the game muted the entire time I was playing it, which doesn't really bother me. (On further research, looks like the music triggers just don't work most of the time.)

I've mentioned Xenoblade 2 syndrome before, which I just use to describe a game for which each individual aspect is mediocre (or pretty awful, for this game), but the overall experience is far better than would be expected given the quality of the components. This might be the most extreme example for any game I've ever played; I don't have much good to say about anything in E.Y.E (other than the Psi powers maybe), yet I still genuinely love it with all my heart. I'm incredibly glad that I didn't completely write it off back in 2012 when I first tried it, and finally took some time 10 years later to give it another go. A quote from the game may sum up how nonsesical my opinion of this game is: "It's true that I killed my Mentor... and yet, I am not his murderer". Or maybe this one: "My legs are OK. You gain some Brouzouf."