Project Eve, the gameplay analysis shown at the Playstation Showcase
Project Eve
Outside of Japan, whose most important video games now almost always arrive on our shores, a good part of Asian gaming is still a decent mystery for the Western market. These are huge and often self-sufficient markets that don't expand overseas because they don't need it. Yet over the years they have evolved in an impressive way, especially from a technical point of view. We have seen it recently with various titles of Chinese origin - Black Myth Wu Kong above all - yet it is absolutely not the case to forget Korea, especially if we consider that titles with a technical sector have been coming out there for years. absolutely crazy, and the software houses' abilities in using some of the most used engines (Unreal in particular) seem to improve exponentially from year to year.The title we are talking about today is not a surprise there. Dokev, or a late arrival like that of Lost Ark: it is an action already known for some time called Project Eve, developed by SHIFTUP. And if it is true that the software house behind the project is not particularly long-lived (it was founded by a concept artist known in our country for his work on Black Desert Online named Hyung-Tae Kim), it is still impossible not to talk about it given the remarkable trailer shown during the Playstation Showcase and the impressive strides made compared to past builds.
Let's try to analyze the Project Eve gameplay shown at the Playstation Showcase.
Narrative: fighting for a destroyed world
Project Eve: the protagonist The premise of Project Eve is banal, but still functional to justify a series of non-stop battles. You play Eve, in fact, a human who survived and sent back to earth from a space colony to fight the invaders who forced humanity to flee (monstrous beings called NA: tives). It is difficult to expect who knows what narrative in an all-beat and spectacular action like this, but it is impossible to draw sensible conclusions now, considering the almost non-existent history of the house working on the title. If it were already a game capable of entertaining with good writing and a few twists we would be more than satisfied.Having said that, from what we have seen the title seems to be quite linear and structured like many modern action: basic exploratory phases, arenas, and interactive cutscenes with more or less exaggerated QTEs. So on the nose the basic skeleton is very inspired by Bayonetta and other Platinum games, and one of the scenes in the trailer - an escape phase in a tunnel to say the least excessive - only validates our first impression. Once the special effects and exaggerations have been overcome, however, we find ourselves in front of a combat system that seems to want to detach itself a lot from what was created by the team of Kamiya and company (or even by Capcom in many of its best titles). Project Eve, in fact, seems to want to aim for a strange mix between complex mechanics and staid rhythm, a sort of hybrid between the complexity of a stylish action and the reasoned repositioning of a soulslike. Curious idea, but not without potential
Gameplay: first slow, then very strong
Project Eve: a spectacular parade during a fight Let's go into more detail, also because it is necessary to analyze the things a little deeper. The battles of Project Eve do not seem to want to be chaotic battles against large groups of enemies, and the monstrosities that you encounter seem to have rather predictable attack patterns, albeit dangerous and fairly fast. The player is then offered various defensive mechanics, including a parry complete with the ability to perform a perfect guard (which seems to repel attacks by offering useful safe time windows to continue the offensive), and a dodge which, if used just before the impact, slows down time (almost identical to the Witch Time seen in the Bayonetta series, so to speak).Such valid defense tools are usually used to better support a very tactical "hit and run" combat system based on the observation of the enemy, however in this title also the offensive mechanics seem rather elaborate and full of possibilities, with complex combinations and even special powers (which could also be partly related to the drone that follows Eve everywhere). To balance everything so that the rather slow pace of the game is supported in the best possible way, it will be necessary to manage with dignity the reactions of the opponents to attacks (the ideal would be to avoid monsters absolutely impassive to the blows, but still equipped with precise thresholds of resistance), without overdoing the offensive possibilities, or you risk an overly facilitated experience. Seeing how the developers will be able to get around these obstacles while maintaining a minimum of uniqueness will undoubtedly be interesting in the finished game.
Project Eve: what remains of the old world Finally, if from a graphic point of view we do not have the slightest criticism to be to do - the particle effects are remarkable, the animations smooth and of high quality and the general detail undoubtedly remarkable - we cannot say the same of the art direction, which has left us cold. The game world is a fairly typical post-apocalyptic sci-fi, and even the enemies are mutants not all that inspired, although curiously they are monsters first modeled by hand and then translated in 3D. It must be said that we have seen relatively little of the game, and there is probably plenty of time to unveil more original settings or give a greater stylistic identity to the work, so it's too early to bandage your head.
Technically remarkable, Project Eve is undoubtedly a very ambitious action, but the choice of the developers to merge two styles of combat systems at the antipodes is certainly not easy to manage. If the mechanics are well calculated, in any case, we could find ourselves in front of a considerable surprise, as well as a title capable of showing the potential of the Korean development ecosystem also in our part. We are curious, there is no doubt.
