Fight the Horror

I'm not gonna lie, I was really hoping this would be something good. As a fan of Dead by Daylight dying for a new horror mutiplayer experience on par with Soul at Stake (a game I loved but is now essentially unplayable in North America since migrating the servers specifically for China). While I respect what the developers are trying to do, this is just not a good game. In fact, it was a massive let down. https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z69uPIEl6c It seems like the whole goal is to go around and explore areas for specific items or trinkets you need to kind of offer up as a sacrifice to cleanse the city you are roaming around. You are pitted against a small group of enemies (I encountered three) including a man/woman spider-like creature that looked like something you might find on the Unity asset store that may or may not attack you. If it doesn't, it will attack the wall, a random table, or the air behind them. That creature in particular will lurch forward and knock you down, and unless you luck out you WILL die since it attacks faster than you can stand back up. Basically, the enemy A.I. is broken. When you die, you turn into a free-floating spirit who can either weep or spawn a gambling chip by spamming the Y button on the controller. I won't lie, I have no idea what you are supposed to do at this point, and it's not mentioned in the tutorial. All I know is a random wraith took me away and gave me a second chance out of nowhere. You have a limited inventory as well, so chances are you will run out of room looking for the things you need to cleanse the city and go back to base before you find a synthesizing workbench or place to sacrifice the objects within the twenty-four hours you are given to do it. And this leaves the city which, well, looks like it wants to be classic Devil May Cry for a modern gamer, but it just looks like a ton of assets hatily thrown together to resemble one. In the playthrough video above you can see me happening upon a random wooden cabinet in an alleyway for no reason whatsoever, which can't even be opened. I also wound up opening things without even facing them, just having been in their general direction. You can even get tripped upon and have to jump over the tiniest of humps, like I did during a run in the tutorial (see video below) when trying to go up a flight of stairs and clear the top of it to go forward. As for the controls, it at least handles ok. It wants to be Dark Souls (in fact you can tell the developers trying to recreate that experience) but ends up more like a less tankier original Resident Evil 2 special edition with analog controls. And of course there's a stamina meter. Why wouldn't there be one that drains when you attack, jump, or that everso tiresome act of just standing around blocking by crossing your arms? And finally don't bother with your keyboard as the whole game is set up to use the controller, and the mouse sensitivity is almost impossible to reel in, even when lowering the dpi on your mouse physically. https://youtu.be/hP8nH9vEpVI As someone who loved the PlayStation 2 era of gaming, even PlayStation 1 [note I was born in '85 and gaming since the NES], this game was very appealing. Looking inspired by some of the most enjoyable horror games of the time in a multiplayer setting was something like a dream come true. However, this title has potential, but it handles like you pay $20 US ($14.99 release date price) for an early beta/early access release. Fight the Horror feels rough and unfinished. Most of what exists would be laughable if you weren't too busy trying to wrap your head around how poorly executed all but some the controls are. Maybe if 4DMACAU puts a good deal more work into it this will be something moderately enjoyable, but for now just stay far, far away rom this one.