Project Remedium Preview

Enter a world where science fiction meets medical fact. Step into the mechanical shoes of Nano+, a nanobot injected into a dying human body. In Project Remedium you fight infection, illness, and corrupted bots while learning about the human immune system. It's a perfect blend of education and eradication.

Project Remedium Preview

INTRODUCTION

Project Remedium is the beautiful brain child of Atomic Jelly. It takes you into the microscopic depths of the human body to join in the eternal conflict of the immune system versus infection.  This is a story-driven first person shooter that offers an incredible amount of exploration and customization. Use veins as pathways to various internal organs, shoot your way through the waves of medifiends and freegobblers, and heal damaged organs. There is very little time to breathe when adventure through this seemingly alien world. 

While not officially released, Project Remedium is a beautifully polished game that I will likely be spending endless hours on. The projected release date is some time this month, but there has been no confirmation. Keep your eyes peeled for the official notice on Steam!

STORY

With a nearly limitless world, you occasionally forget the heartrending tale of why you're eliminating infections in the first place. Prior to the tutorial you're put through the emotional ringer as you watch an adolescent girl fall to the ground and gradually worsen until she's put in a Star Wars-esque tank (think Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back) and has nanobots injected into her in hopes that they might combat the disease.

The initial batch of bots failed and were either corrupted by various infestations in the body or destroyed. Now it's your turn as Nano+ to skirmish with a variety of germs that plague the girl. With the guidance of your mentor, SuperVisette, a well-versed nanobot from the eldest generation (she's seen it all), you'll attempt to reactivate and repair the various structures built by previous nanobots to repair the body.

Keeping the background story in mind keeps you emotionally rooted to the game, even while eradicating hideous infections.

Project Remedium Preview - travelling via blood stream

GAMEPLAY

At it's core Project Remedium is a point and shoot, defeat the endless hordes type game. You dual wield highly technological weapons throughout the adventure. The medical laser, equipped in your left hand, is used for destruction while, the medical sprayer, held in the right hand, is used for healing and ridding the body of pathogens. Each weapon has four variations you can equip with the number pad as needed. Be cautious where you fire though because the shots that miss your targets damage the organs further.

Each alterations has a different function. While you might use the shotgun setting to clear waves, you hardly want to risk damaging the organ beyond repair by using it on a single target. And while the the sustained fire of your medical sprayer might melt the enemy's health bar, it also drains your energy rapidly, which will likely leave you in a tight spot if you're not careful. Something Project Remedium brings to the table that a vast majority of first-person shooters do not is the capability to quickly change your weapons without having to sift through your inventory or create a semi-permanent load out.

Weapon modifications are hardly all this game has to offer as it also provides a skill tree for you to upgrade your effectiveness as a healer/fighter. The tree includes talents like "Battle-Ready" and "Wheeler Healer". One allows you to enhance your weapon damage while the other aids you in healing the body for each successful quest completion. They also provide the capability to craft a variety of substances to help improve your overall capabilities. Both of these mechanics make Project Remedium feel more like a role-playing game and less of a first-person shooter.

But wait, there's more! You're also kindly gifted with a grapnel to make your venture through the assortment of organs you're expected to repair. It certainly makes exploring random organ tunnels and fleeing from overwhelming odds easier. And plus, it makes you feel like Spider-Man!

While trekking through the vast landscape that is the human body you occasionally come across severed nanobot heads that ask you questions about human physiology. It's an interesting reprieve from the constant swarms of diseases. I never though a first-person shooter would be teaching me about biology.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO

As you enter the world of Project Remedium you're immediately rewarded with an incredibly stunning 3-dimensional world. It's apparent that the creative team at Atomic Jelly spent a lot of time and effort studying the microscopic world of the human body. When trekking through the landscapes, it almost feels like being on an alien planet. Part of the game experience is taking extended walks and aimlessly wandering through various parts of the organs to sight-see. Stop and smell the immunoglobulins.

The terrain is hardly the only graphical attraction in the game. Illnesses are shown part medically, part metaphorically which helps to improve the overall story and gameplay. Atomic Jelly created horrific iterations of various viruses and diseases. These help the game go from being another Fantastic Voyage type adventure to a stress-filled horror/thriller, a la Dead Space. I often found myself fleeing from the array of monstrosities, screaming like a small child, not only due to their difficulty but also their heinous appearances.

Project Remedium Preview - fighting with infections
And while the insides of a human body are typically thought of as mostly fleshy and pink, Project Remedium takes the initiative to inject bold colors throughout the scenery. A splash of neon green in the liver's mining tunnels (yes, mining tunnels in the liver) a magenta infection make an otherwise dull backdrop vibrant and exciting.

Tying a nice syncopated rhythm ribbon on the package is the music of  Project Remedium. It keeps you moving with amazing synth tracks that play mainly during combat. The beats match the intensity of the skirmishes flawlessly. Even when getting close to death, I was convinced to stay in combat for the soundtrack alone. It felt like I was traversing the caverns of a foreign planet set in the 1970s'.

Project Remedium Preview - going microscopic

CONCLUSION

Project Remedium is an innovative first-person shooter in a genre saturated with Nazi zombies and multi-player ranking systems. It's refreshing to once again have a rich single player mode with interesting enemies and a satisfying story. What starts as a depressing tale about a dying girl evolves into a beautifully vast world where danger lurks around every organ. This is shaping up to be one of the best games of 2017 and it hasn't even been officially released yet. Project Remedium the type of game that spans multiple genres and has a draw for a tremendous audience. From RPG lovers to the Call of Duty types this game has something for everyone.

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