There is no other game quite like this, for good or for ill. It's a first person shooter/RPG/exploration-kinda-open-world-sort-of-simlife-sorta-thing.

I bought this thing like 12 years back, never reviewed it then because I didn't do reviews then. But here I am, reviewing it now, playing it now. YES, you should get it, but there's a list of caveats that will probably take up the length of this review to explain.

But let's get this out of the way: It's been my favourite game on my Steam background since such a thing was even possible, and likely to stay there until EYE 2 comes along. I've played quite a few other games quite a bit more, yes, but kind of in the same way that you only need a little parmesan cheese. I've played it through like four or five times, and I mean properly played it through with the super-secret ending.

Your character starts with some serious amnesia. You don't know why you're where you are, who these weirdo guys are, or anything. The game kinds of expects it. Go talk to people who may give you some background in the game world, who may explain how things work, or what you were supposed to do, and you may also get mocked by some because they think you're a malingering idiot. Maybe you are, maybe they're just hatin'.

You're going to be asked to make decisions without fully understanding the consequences of those decisions. You can get a faint idea by roaming around and looking for clues, which will help fill in some of your knowledge gaps, but not all. Some people find this really aggravating. Not everything, even after the very end, is truly ever explained, so if you're unwilling to draw your own conclusions you may feel unsatisfied if you need every plot bit covered.

The game itself is seriously ambitious. You're sent off to do missions on several large, sprawling maps with guys that respawn. Most of them want you dead. You can deal with them in quite a few ways, from the classic "just ♥♥♥♥♥♥' shoot 'em" to hacking their brains and turning them against their allies, luring them into turret traps, sneaking around them and going 3D in the geometry with cyber legs, stealth, etc., or crack-happy psychic attacks.

And with that kind of freedom comes a degree of jank. This company's resume, before this game, was a single deathmatch mod. Keeping that in mind, the coding is amazing. And on an absolute scale, it's still pretty good, but weirdnesses result. The game does kind of crumble around the edges a bit if you play to extremely high levels. The coders are French, the translation to English is a bit rough. I've seen a lot worse, mind you.

The theme is a bit of a melange, frankly. The world for EYE came to be from a long-running RPG campaign the coders were in, which felt like it cribbed liberally from Warhammer 40k, but added a bunch of other elements. You can see it in the world: There's a Necromunda underhive-themed area, the house from Blade Runner, critters that are totally Aliens except not, an entity that's totally not the Cyberdemon from OG Doom. It's fine! The game's weird, the illogic of all this makes sense in its own way, if you want to put in a bit of effort into making it make sense.

The game hasn't really aged that well. I mean, directX 9.0 only, Source engine, no borderless full screen. Confusing, layers-deep UI which gribbles if you alt-tab. But even with that, there's an artistry to a lot of the game.

The final thing you need to know is it does coop pretty cleanly. Play it with somebody who shares your same level of curiosity/patience/willingness-to-explore/blood-thirst, that's my suggestion. This thing isn't going to be for everybody, and if it cheeses you off, you can at least make fun of it with your buddy. If it grips you, you can hope to be gripped alongside somebody else and spend long hours trying to decipher exactly what the heck is going on.

There is no other game quite like this, for good or for ill. It's a first person shooter/RPG/exploration-kinda-open-world-sort-of-simlife-sorta-thing. I bought this thing like 12 years back, never reviewed it then because I didn't do reviews then. But here I am, reviewing it now, playing it now. YES, you should get it, but there's a list of caveats that will probably take up the length of this review to explain. But let's get this out of the way: It's been my favourite game on my Steam background since such a thing was even possible, and likely to stay there until EYE 2 comes along. I've played quite a few other games quite a bit more, yes, but kind of in the same way that you only need a little parmesan cheese. I've played it through like four or five times, and I mean properly played it through with the super-secret ending. Your character starts with some serious amnesia. You don't know why you're where you are, who these weirdo guys are, or anything. The game kinds of expects it. Go talk to people who may give you some background in the game world, who may explain how things work, or what you were supposed to do, and you may also get mocked by some because they think you're a malingering idiot. Maybe you are, maybe they're just hatin'. You're going to be asked to make decisions without fully understanding the consequences of those decisions. You can get a faint idea by roaming around and looking for clues, which will help fill in some of your knowledge gaps, but not all. Some people find this really aggravating. Not everything, even after the very end, is truly ever explained, so if you're unwilling to draw your own conclusions you may feel unsatisfied if you need every plot bit covered. The game itself is seriously ambitious. You're sent off to do missions on several large, sprawling maps with guys that respawn. Most of them want you dead. You can deal with them in quite a few ways, from the classic "just fuckin' shoot 'em" to hacking their brains and turning them against their allies, luring them into turret traps, sneaking around them and going 3D in the geometry with cyber legs, stealth, etc., or crack-happy psychic attacks. And with that kind of freedom comes a degree of jank. This company's resume, before this game, was a single deathmatch mod. Keeping that in mind, the coding is amazing. And on an absolute scale, it's still pretty good, but weirdnesses result. The game does kind of crumble around the edges a bit if you play to extremely high levels. The coders are French, the translation to English is a bit rough. I've seen a lot worse, mind you. The theme is a bit of a melange, frankly. The world for EYE came to be from a long-running RPG campaign the coders were in, which felt like it cribbed liberally from Warhammer 40k, but added a bunch of other elements. You can see it in the world: There's a Necromunda underhive-themed area, the house from Blade Runner, critters that are totally Aliens except not, an entity that's totally not the Cyberdemon from OG Doom. It's fine! The game's weird, the illogic of all this makes sense in its own way, if you want to put in a bit of effort into making it make sense. The game hasn't really aged that well. I mean, directX 9.0 only, Source engine, no borderless full screen. Confusing, layers-deep UI which gribbles if you alt-tab. But even with that, there's an artistry to a lot of the game. The final thing you need to know is it does coop pretty cleanly. Play it with somebody who shares your same level of curiosity/patience/willingness-to-explore/blood-thirst, that's my suggestion. This thing isn't going to be for everybody, and if it cheeses you off, you can at least make fun of it with your buddy. If it grips you, you can hope to be gripped alongside somebody else and spend long hours trying to decipher exactly what the heck is going on.