An FPS/RPG by Streum On Studio, with a distinct everything but the kitchen sink sci-fi flavor. Taking notes from nearly every work of Cyberpunk literature and incorporating classic brutal roleplaying techniques. You play as a member of the armed faction (the titular E.Y.E.) of a secret order of demon-hunters named Secreta Secretorum who recently was afflicted with Laser-Guided Amnesia and must remember why he was sent on the mission that gave him his amnesia. Along the way you uncover more and more about the incredibly complex backstory and the internal struggle of E.Y.E.Development started in 2006; this is Streum's first video game (their previous work being a board game). It was developed on the Source engine and is now on sale via Steam.
The All-Seeing A.I.: Played straight with the metastreunomic force creatures. If you're not invisible, they know where you are, and they will never stop hunting you down. Possibly justified since they are a manifestation of the destroyed natural world of the very planet you're standing on.
It used to be that the AI for all factions had an uncanny way of knowing EXACTLY where you were if you weren't completely invisible, however thanks to a recent patch they behave more realistically and no longer randomly charge into your hiding places or turn around to see you trying to sneak by as soon as you enter an area.
Alternate Timeline: If you die in combat it costs you a regeneration, and you spring back to life basically on the spot. You only have a limited number of these per mission, and since unless you're playing as a tanking character in heavy armor you're going to die a lot, they are valuable. When you run out of regenerations or otherwise die in a fairly 'permanent' way (such as falling into an area you're not supposed to be, hence cannot be revived in), your character will find himself in the dream hub area that you arrive in upon loading your character, and is informed that the "death" that just occurred was just a premonition of a future in which he failed, allowing you to continue from the start of the mission with all your regenerations restored.
Anachronism Stew: An incredibly strange variant. The game's style is an anachronism of a plethora of sci-fi classics, from the Matrix (referenced by name even), War Hammer 40000, Fallout, Ghost in the Shell, and a backstory Lost would be proud of.
The weapons take this further, advanced firearms coexist side-by-side with battleaxes and katanas.
And finally we have armor, with Badass Longcoats, military-inspired bulletproof armor, and cyberpunk jumpsuits alongside armor reminiscent of medieval knights and Japanese samurai.
The best way of putting it is Hardcore Cyberpunk, which is what this setting/genre is called.
An Axe to Grind: Of the Battle-Axe variety; characters specializing in melee can easily one hit kill most enemies with it.
Black and Gray Morality: You are a member of EYE which is dedicated primarily to protecting humanity from the metastreumonic force and is divided into two subgroups, the Culters and the Jians. You also have the Federation which is supposedly a totalitarian government. EYE fights them not so much to liberate the masses, but to make a grab for power for itself. Then you start finding out that the monsters of the metastreumonic force are a manifestation of the natural environments across countless planets that have been destroyed by Humanity, and some Humans are even siding with the monsters. The only obviously evil side is the one you're told you're part of, which are a group of fanatical Culters who seem primarily concerned with eliminating every single Jian. Outside of them it's pretty open to debate on who's the real "good" team.
"Blind Idiot" Translation: While its not too bad compared to other examples, there are some examples of sloppy translation, most notably in one of the penultimate missions. See Guide Dang It below.
BFG:The Heavy Weapons department, particularly the Excidium which seems to be a massive semi-automatic cannon that awards an achievement for blowing oneself up with it's splash damage.
Boring Yet Practical: The S6000 assault rifle and the silenced B.O.S.C.O. sniper rifle. These are bog-standard bullet weapons, but they both have plenty of ammunition (100 rounds per mag for the S6000, and 25 for the BOSCO) and have reasonable accuracy and stopping power for their purposes.
Cluster F-Bomb: The player character is very fond of the word in dialogue choices.
Coop Multiplayer: The game has full online cooperative support for the entire singleplayer and all its side missions. If you're crazy enough, you could have a 32 player coop game running.
Corrupt Cop: Corrupt Federals, Secreta members, Culters, Jians, and on and on.
Cyborg: Players are encouraged to augment themselves with appropriate cybernetic components. A hacker might replace parts of his brain with a computer, a swordsman might install a large artificial adrenalin gland near their heart, et cetera.
Dead All Along: Mentor and Rimanah at least, possibly others too. Who knows, maybe EYE does not really exist, and you are just a brain in a jar somewhere...
Gas Mask Mooks: The majority of the Federal Police and Federal Special Forces
Genius Bruiser: The protagonist can be this, quoting Sun Tzu and the like.
Glass Cannon: You can summon a number of Polyclones relevant to your PSI-force. They usually die in 3 shots or less, but they are as competent as the AI and can even lob grenades so long as you order them to "Go Hunt!".
Goomba Stomp: You can do this if you can jump high enough, and it does damage your enemies.
Guide Dang It: The penultimate level, if you choose to spare your Mentor; he sends you to find someone called Akmal. This is undoubtedly one of the most annoying levels of the game, and it gives you no hints on how to complete it; you have to solve it by Trying Everything. The level is made even worse by the translations of dubious quality - the game mentions that you need to destroy a "switch" - said switch is a rusty metal plate in some dark corner of the level. What it doesn't mention is that you need to shoot it twice to actually ignite the gas.
On the upside, it also doubles as a Breather Level after the long slog on Mars, with no combat whatsoever.
Guns Are Worthless: Mostly Averted. Most Mooks can be dropped in a couple of well placed shots, but a character possessing high endurance and wearing heavy armor will take next to nil damage from low-caliber weapons.
Hacking Minigame: A unique example; all hacking attempts are subdivided into what you want to do (Possess, Hack, Destroy, or Steal) at which point a battle minigame is played out where both the player and the object being attacked attempt to gain the stat advantage and reduce their opponents health to 0.
Hand Cannon: Nothing but in the pistol department. You start off with a .50 cal and you can also use dual .45s if that's more your style. Later on you unlock a 222 cal revolver, but the king is the 444 cal Bear Killer revolver. It's so damn powerful that you can shoot down gunships with a few well placed shots. If that isn't horrifying enough it can be dual wielded with a sword.
Heroic BSOD: Gameplay variant. Constantly fighting while damaged or consistently taking damage, especially while suffering an injury (broken bone or laceration) will cause excess stress. Too much and the player character falls into a psychosis, ranging from hallucinating enemies and paranoia, or even the controls locking up and the character freezing in terror. An ability can be used to apply "maintenance" to yourself, and get your mind back in the game.
Inter Service Rivalry: Figuring out the relationship between the Federals, the Secreta, the Culters, the Jian, etc. is a very messy process. For instance, the Culters and the Jian (both of whom are supposed to serve E.Y.E) fight each other but they hate the Federals even more. And all humans are united in their hate of the Metastreumonic Force, which is what E.Y.E was originally founded to fight.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Notable in that it is very laser-guided: the protagonist remembers practically everything except for plot-relevant information.
Lost Technology: Technology from the "Dark Ages". Some weapons are relics from it, and some technology, like the "Medkit" healing system.
Mind Screw: The entire game gets progressively weirder the closer you get to the end until it culminates in you waking up in the base and finding out that neither your master nor Rimanah have actually been around, others are having dreams just like yours, and at the end you step into a portal where the Mysterious person tells you some cryptic things along with Rimanah and the Mentor before sending you back to the start of the game. You have no way of knowing what events, if any, actually happened.
Gets even crazier if you side with Rimanah. Apparently he's had you brainwashed and now you see all your friends in the order as enemies and vice versa. Huan, that guy who has been mocking you like a schoolyard bully from the beginning, was apparently your best friend. Your impossible-to-please mentor? Apparently he's more like a level-headed father figure.
If only it just stopped there. Your Recurring Dreams are sometimes triggered by your death and you are told you only saw a glimpse of the future. All of your resurrection charges are replenished afterward. Or maybe in reality your mind was wiped once more; plugged into another body and shipped out on the same mission. Just how many other operatives has Rimanah been doing this to? And the worst part about this, you start realizing that your character was not all too sane to begin with, or just about anybody you meet for that matter.
Psychic Powers: Either they are recruited into two government different government special forces or E.Y.E. Rogue psychers are actively hunted down.
Real Is Brown: Everything is covered with at least 3 layers of grime, in keeping with the cyberpunk setting.
Recurring Dreams: "It is true that I killed my mentor... and yet, I am not his murderer."
Respawn On The Spot: Resurrectors automatically respawn the player where he died. There's a limited amount of resurrector uses, and they are shared between players in coop mode. Running out of resurrectors or falling into a bottomless pit results in the player being transported back to the dream world.
Scars Are Forever: If your karmic scale is off balance, every time your character dies they'll run the risk of suffering an irreversible stat penalty regardless if they used a resurrector or not.
However, a late game research tree removes penalties. If your stats have reached the point that it costs double (or even triple) to increase each level up, this can increase them at the cost of at least 110,000 credits.
Stealth-Based Mission: You can play most missions in the game like this, only taking out key targets and avoiding the Mooks.
However, the enemies have shockingly good eyesight and will open fire if they have a clear line of sight to you. A popular play style has become throwing stealth out the window entirely and instead relying on heavy armor and miniguns.
One of the achievements asks you to "kill a Deus Ex".
The Syndicate: Several, with enough power to contest control of a likely galaxy-spanning empire (background data puts over 1200 worlds in control of the Federation); the main character is a member.
Too Dumb to Live: Several times you'll have the option to negotiate with a hostile NPC, usually an officer or commander. You can threaten them to do what you ask or die, and they will frequently refuse to believe you can kill them, even if you cut through their entire force to get to them in the first place.
Dutch, in the fourth area. If a monster gets behind him, he'll let it scratch his back with their foot long claws unless you kill them.
In addition, EYE agents don't seem to receive sensitivity classes. Its not so much knowing what will tick off a person so much as finding a path through the dialogue tree that does not reduce yourself to declaring to his face that you want to rape his dog, shoot him in the face and use his mother for pipe tobacco. You are just generally not a very nice person, Mr. 100 Karma.
Useless Useful Stealth: Though it is possible to be used effectively, Steath drains your energy stores and you must periodically take cover and let it recharge. Though you can easily get around while invisible, enemy NPCs have a habit of accidentally stumbling into your out of the way hiding place with machine guns ready whenever you stop to recharge. In addition most attempts of just sneaking past people are made impossible due to the insane sight range of your foes.
Was Once a Man: The creatures of the Metastreumonic Force are speculated to be this. The Synicles are speculated to be the opposite: creatures taking the form of human women.
Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy: Practically every heavily-populated area. This game is distinguished by showing just how many strip clubs, brothels, etc. would exist in such places.
You All Look Familiar: To an extent, there are a decent variety of enemy NPCs, but over the course of the game you'll see them often enough for this to take place; it doesn't help that they respawn in some areas.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Overlaps with Videogame Cruelty Potential in that after you possess someone and make them kill their comrades, you still have to dispatch them yourself because they remain hostile when you break the possession. Rimanah also essentially does this to you if you side with him.
"It's true that I read the trope page... and yet, I am not its reader!"
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