E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy is an indie FPS which utilizes the Source engine. It can be played in both single-player and co-op with your character(s) being able to cross seamlessly between the two modes. The gameplay is largely the same in either mode.
Loading up E.Y.E. for the first time can be extremely overwhelming. Right from the get-go, players are asked to pick three mutation genes which will determine the starting stats of their characters. The number of combinations between these genes is alarming (there’s about 10 genes or so and if you wanted to, you could pick the same gene three times) and together they influence a dozen stats. Figuring I’d try the medic-with-a-sword route, I tried to arrange it so my medicine and strength stats were slightly higher than my other stats, but I also tried to give as many of the other stats a slight boost as well so I could be a well-rounded character. Potential crisis averted.
Apparently horrible fire demons and evil women with awful fashion tastes hang out together in this universe.
Upon loading up the campaign, however, I realized that my difficulties had only begun. Most of the games we play today have often painfully slow tutorials (press “space” to jump? Really?) to guide you through the general gameplay and UI. E.Y.E., on the other hand, does not take this approach. Its “tutorial” consists of a menu with 23 extremely short videos that only begin to scratch the surface of most of the topics listed there. Some of these are useful when first playing the game (like how to get to the menu, and even navigate it a little). Some of them fall woefully short (the “hacking” video told me how to get into the hacking interface, but not how the hacking minigame actually worked). E.Y.E. is very much a learn-as-you-go experience. Sometimes it can be extremely rewarding. Other times it can be extremely frustrating. Usually it’s frustrating for a period of time until you figure out whatever was stumping you, and then you feel a sense of accomplishment (or sometimes just annoyance). It certainly takes me back to a time about 10 years ago in PC games where things just weren’t explained a lot of the time. I realize I don’t really miss those days.