Since Exodus From the Earth is on sale once again, I guess it would only help people's decision out if I posted this. The moment that you start playing, the first thing you'll notice is how bland the graphics are and how bad the voice acting is. To it's credit, however, it came out almost six years ago, but the voice acting goes unexcused. So it's only right to give it the benefit of the doubt and ignore first impressions. Unfortunately, that's the least of the game's problems.

What I noticed throughout is how odd the audio is. For some reason, there's this small static that occurs and it's more noticeable when you're wearing headsets. After a while, I got over it, but then comes another problem. Pressing the "Esc" key to go to the menu will play another song. Unfortunately, this song will interrupt the game's current music and continue to play after exiting back. Which is a shame, cause it can ruin the environment of your current mission when you want a break. Not to mention it can get tiring to listen to a bland voice making a "dramatic" speech. As well as having that speech play over soldiers shooting at you.

The gameplay is generic. It's the typical First-Person Shooter genre you would expect, but I have some issues. In many instances, the enemies have abnormally accurate weapons. I understand that this story takes place in the future, but even on easy mode, I still have to be careful, or I lose a chunk of my health quickly. Exodus also enjoys recycling levels. You'll eventually ask yourself "Wasn't I here before?" And even realize that they recycled a crate depot three times (And you will notice it, as it is just a complex maze.) To add on to that, the four last levels on the preview screenshots do not exist in this game so there goes the defense of variety. At least there's vehicle driving, but poor controls somewhat cripple it and only two locations of the game have this. Be warned that you can stuck in several areas, as well. That includes the vehicles and the straight-forward shooting.

The game also has stealth sections. I wouldn't mind and probably have enjoyed it, but because of how poorly programmed it is, scientists will spot you, even when they're a floor above you. You can't stop them, either. Once they try to sound the alarm, killing that man would only grab the guards' attention, anyway. You can always restart through save files to see if you can get through a level without getting caught, but I've tried so many times, that I stopped caring and progressed through brute force. Alerting the guards will welcome you with poor A.I. that won't go through doors to attack you and will even refuse to move at all, so you at least have that advantage.

The story is difficult to follow. And I say this, because the voice acting is so bad and the game is written like a poorly translated script. From what I understand, that is the case as it was made in Russia, but that's still no excuse. Of course, there are even PDAs found throughout the game. Some are translated fine, some have awful typos, and then there are ones that appear to be typed as a joke. Almost like "0mg u guiz g2g 2 dis party in teh office!11!" Very amusing, but the script is still a damn mess. And what do you come to realize the story was all about, once you understand it? A generic plot, really.

To Exodus from the Earth's credit, there's some unique puzzles and challenges that aren't too punishing, such as the last level, that can be fun, but they're not too frequent, either. If you want to try it out of curiosity of a obscure game, go right ahead. But overall, this game had way too many poor design choices and terrible programming mistakes. It's lengthy and difficult, I'll give it that. But it will only make you wish you were playing a better First-Person Shooter.

Why is there no option to rate the game as "just about average" instead of just "Recommended" and "Not recommended" ? because this game is just that. I can't say it's horribly bad, but i also can't say it's great either.

First i had to combat errors even before i actually started shooting things:
http://rejzor.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/how-to-fix-exodus-from-the-earth-game-steam/

...because the game refused to run. After i fixed it, i had to manually assign the UAC to the game EXE so i could even use settings. And then i could actually play the game.

Graphics are decent, sound is ok, gameplay is decently long, a lot of levels are quite nice actually (especially the first part of the AX planet). Weapons, while there is sort of a selection of them, some are mostly useless. Basically you just rely on a rifle with basic zoom and you aim for the head. All other weapons are either too clumsy or infective to even bother with them. Enemies are not the brightest out there, but sometimes they make surprising moves and they are often crazy accurate across wast distances.

The main problem with the game is that you're basically fighting like 5 enemy types through the entire game. And most of those are just generic humans. Next problem is the way game feeds the story to you. It tries to do the conspiracy and evil corporations thing, but just doesn't manage to give you the right feel of it. You know, the Deus Ex sort of feel for the story, conspiracy, twists and stuff. Here, you sort of just tag along the story, because you just have to progress further and that's it.

Anyway, the game is ok, if you like old school shooter where you have to tackle basic problems like flipping switches and stuff, look for access cards and shoot bad guys. It's not excellent, but it's ok enough if you don't have anything else to play.

Btw, the last 4 screenshots in the store page don't exist in-game. I've just finished the game and i've never seen those maps/buildings.

I enjoy old school FPS, but this game was very frustrating. The recoil is ridiculous, enemies spawn out of nowhere and shoot you from across the map, and it's often confusing as to where to go or what to do. Getting through the game requires constant use of quick-save/quick-load, because you'll constantly die. The only things it has going for it are decent graphics, level design, and game length, but they don't compensate for the awful gameplay. Alpha Prime, Chaser, and Red Faction are better old school FPS.

game is pretty liner and has some fun gun fights, few cool weapons and over all a fun game. But the ending sucked!!
story line was acually ok but the ending just plain sucked. did i mention the ending sucked?

This review is based on at least 10 minutes of gameplay, most of which was the intro part twice asI had to restart due to a buggy game.

Sound: Had to mute it due to the constant static.

Graphics: It looks like an early Source engine game with the contrast & HDR set to over 9000.

Cut-Scenes: Half Life style slow entrance to the facility that cant be skipped.. ever.

Gameplay: Half Life but clumsy. Everything has invisible barriers around it, sometimes 10ft around things.

Summary: Its Half Life but with a dull lead character (Yes Gordon the mute has more charisma), garish & shiny graphics, awful voice acting, glichy sound, messy controls, a dreary mundane sounding story and a ton of other bad stuff. Play Half Life instead. 3 out of 10.