Project Eve was given a big trailer for the wider gaming audience in Sony's Playstation Showcase 2021. This Korean action game from SHIFT UP Corporation looks promising, fusing visceral sci-fi motifs with Bayonetta's frenetic action and Dark Souls' more deliberate combat focus. The imagery of a lone, and possibly cybernetic, girl named Eve with a drone companion jumping through an abandoned city to defeat a possibly extraterrestrial threat matches NieR: Automata's vibes, and the combat looks like a send-up to the all-time greats of action gaming. Even without a release date in sight, people are already looking forward to seeing more of this surprising game.
One of the more memorable parts of Project Eve's trailer was the way the game looked. While the visuals of a ruined Earth evoke memories of NieR: Automata, the game has a look all its own. Lighting, in general, appears brighter, and there was a lot more emphasis on reflecting that light. It seems that Project Eve is aiming to look its best on the PS5's hardware, and that goes double for when some contrast to that light shows up. While the two human-seeming characters were rendered in a soft and colorful way, the fleshy enemy monsters were grotesque. It feels like Project Eve is looking toward the stand-out action-horror games of the last two console generations for inspiration, and it's more memorable for it.
Project Eve's NA:tives Look Like Dead Space's Necromorphs
The NA:tive enemies in Project Eve should make any seasoned horror fans think of Dead Space and its Necromorphs. Taking inspiration, even if it's coincidental, from one of the best horror enemy designs to come out of games in the past two decades is certainly a wise decision. It gives Project Eve an immediately memorable flavor, even if that means some of its more and less monstrous elements have to clash. Eve's opponents are mostly fleshy monstrosities that bear little resemblance to humanity, though there does seem to be an element of recycling corpses and biomass.
The NA:tives also operate like Necromorphs to some degree. Some of the smallest ones are just squidlike creatures that Eve can bat around with her sword, but once one finds a corpse, it suddenly becomes a serious threat capable of wielding basic weapons. This mirrors the small infector Necromorphs that can manually infect corpses the Marker's signal and Necromorph disease haven't reached yet.
The NA:tives take plenty of other battle-ready shapes, with larger ones showing a trend of growing organic chainsaws in place of their heads. This once again parallels how Necromorphs grow their own biological weaponry. It remains to be seen just how much like Dead Space's iconic foes the NA:tives truly are, but the similarities that the infested space station from the trailer has to larger Necromorphs don't bode well.
Dark Souls and Project Eve Also Share Enemy Attributes
This is not all there is to Project Eve's enemy designs. They are mostly Necromorph-like, but there are moments where other qualities shine through. There is a feeling of something formerly majestic being corrupted with some enemies. No game franchise is quite as talented at precisely targeting the feeling of decaying glory than FromSoftware's magnum opus Dark Souls. The lands in the Souls trilogy are all wasting away, but traces of their former glory still shine through, even if that glory now feels sad and artificial.
Elements of Project Eve that specifically recall Dark Souls are subtle but undeniably present. One of the most notable is the boss creature that still has a statue-like head in the middle of a circular chainsaw on its neck. This recalls other Dark Souls monsters like the Gaping Dragon and Quelagg, creatures that are close to normal but also far divorced from reality.
The vaguely angelic subsumed space station also carries the spirit of the angels found in Dark Souls 3's DLC, which are similarly disgusting and unnatural. There also seems to be a subtle lean toward having a mixture of bestial and humanoid bosses in Project Eve, something Dark Souls prides itself on. It remains to be seen how much the NA:tives will stay from their revealed meaty forms, but there is a good chance there is more to be seen.
Project Eve Has Its Own Approach to Building Enemies
Even though it can be said that Project Eve leverages a lot of inspirations when building itself up, it would be reductive to accuse it of being nothing more than a mass of cobbled-together homages. Far too many games stop at having basic bestial monsters or zombies, but Eve makes its foes instantly memorable with the chainsaw aesthetic. Works like Evil Dead's Army of Darkness and Chainsaw Man have proven how exciting the tactical addition of a chainsaw to a character design can be.
Video games are no stranger to the satisfying strength of the chainsaw. Developer Platinum Games, one of the clear inspirations for Project EVE, has worked chainsaw weapons into many of its games, not the least of which include the grisly Madworld and Anarchy Reigns. Even the canceled Kickstarter fighting game The Chainsaw Incident was based around a plague of chainsaws sweeping the land, a story conceit that could have parallels to the NA:tives' invasion of Project Eve's Earth. It's a dangerous yet alluring approach, much like chainsaws themselves.
Mere monsters aren't all Project Eve has up its sleeve. As the stinger to its trailer, a NA:tive is shown that looks very similar to Eve herself but clad in bulky armor. Said armor comes with a surprise, as when its visor flips down a holographic skull is displayed, making the girl look somewhat like the Kojima Productions mascot Ludens. It isn't clear if this is the only action-staple rival character, but it inspires confidence for any other seemingly human characters showing up, and provides a nice break from the torrent of flesh beasts. Project Eve's strong art direction and enemy design compliment its slick combat well, and more impressive looks at them are sure to come as its development progresses.
Project Eve is currently in development for PS5.